Cisco Announces Internet of Things Innovation Grand Challenge

KUALA LUMPUR– May 27, 2014 – To further demonstrate its ongoing commitment to drive Internet of Things innovations, Cisco announced the Internet of Things Innovation Grand Challenge for startup businesses. This global open competition aims to recognise, promote and accelerate the adoption of breakthrough technologies and products created by startup businesses that will contribute to the growth and evolution of the Internet of Things.

Through the Internet of Things Innovation Grand Challenge, Cisco seeks to inspire and support the next generation of entrepreneurs and startups that are developing technologies in areas of applications, analytics, management and connectivity. Submissions will be accepted beginning April 21 through July 1 at www.cisco.com/go/iotchallenge with the winners of the competition selected during 2014 Internet of Things World Forum in Chicago.

Similar to the Internet of Things Security Grand Challenge that was recently announced by Cisco, three winners of the Internet of Things Grand Challenge for Startups will share US $250,000 in prize money that can be used to jumpstart new and existing businesses that contribute to the Internet of Things industry.

In addition to the cash prizes, Cisco will also provide winners with mentoring, training and access to business expertise from Cisco and other supporting organisations. The winners will also be provided with the opportunity to develop, test and pilot new technologies, plus potential investment and partnering opportunities in the future.

Internet of Thing World Forum 2014
Cisco also announced the 2014 return of the Internet of Things World Forum, a global event that will once again unite thought leaders, business leaders and practitioners in business, industry, government and academia to accelerate the development of the rapidly emerging Internet of Things market. The 2014 Internet of Things World Forum will be taking place in Chicago, October 14-16, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

At the 2014 Internet of Things World Forum, attendees will once again see examples firsthand of how the Internet of Things is changing industries worldwide, and hear directly from those who are changing it. Attendees will also hear predictions about how the Internet of Things will affect the global economy, and how it has the potential to address many of the challenges the various markets currently face.

According to Cisco research, over 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020, creating vast opportunities for the Internet of Things to transform businesses and industries by re-inventing business processes, operational efficiencies and customer service innovations. These opportunities exist in markets such as manufacturing, transportation, oil and gas, utilities, healthcare, sports and entertainment, government, education and retail.

The Internet of Things is the technology foundation of the Internet of Everything, defined as the networked connection of people, process, data and things. Cisco estimates the potential impact from this increased connectivity created by the Internet of Everything to reach up to US $19 trillion “value at stake” for businesses and governments over the next nine years.

2014 Internet of Things World Forum Sponsors
The second annual Internet of Things World Forum will take place October 14-16 in Chicago, Illinois. The event will once again bring together global leaders, professionals and innovators representing markets such as manufacturing, transportation, oil and gas, utilities, healthcare, sports and entertainment, government, education and retail.

Sponsors of the 2014 Internet of Things World Forum currently include the following companies, with many more sponsors to be named in the months ahead:

Diamond Level: Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric
Platinum Level: Zebra Technologies Corporation
Titanium Level: Panduit Corp., Siemens AG, TTTech Computertechnik AG
Silver Level: Itron

Internet of Things World Forum Steering Committee Event
The Internet of Things World Forum is guided by a steering committee representing thought leaders from businesses, universities, cities, and governments. This steering committee is united by the goal of shaping the Internet of Things World Forum’s agenda to address top market opportunities and challenges that will influence global, political and environmental issues.

During an event on April 9 and 10, the steering committee will finalize the objectives and success criteria for this year’s Internet of Things World Forum, addressing topics that aim to improve the lives of citizens in broad areas such as health, education, innovation, transportation, job creation and security.

Addressing the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on Malaysia

MIMOS launches first Internet of Things Technical Working Group Workshop towards developing National IoT Blueprint

Kuala Lumpur, May 14: MIMOS today launched the first national Internet of Things Technical Working Group (IoT TWG) Workshop to kick start the development of the National IoT Blueprint, which will play a key role in shaping Malaysia’s ICT landscape and take advantage of the numerous opportunities offered by IoT technologies.

The two-day Workshop, which brings together the cream of the cream from the technology community, academia and government agencies nationwide, will share knowledge and discuss ideas on means to best address the importance and impact the IoT will have on the country’s economic and social progress and explore collaboration in IoT research, development and commercialisation.

Launched under the patronage of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Professor Emeritus Dato’ Sri Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid, the opening of the workshop was also attended by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation’s Deputy Secretary General (Science), Dr Zulkifli Mohamed Hashim.

“The IoT will inspire new working practices and business processes, spark a new wave of innovation, allow us to penetrate new markets and industries and encourage greater investments in technology,” said Dr Zulkifli. “With the right direction and policies, the National IoT Blueprint will bring about tremendous economic benefits to the country.”

The Internet of Things encompasses the integration of enabling technologies – devices, embedded software, connectivity/communications and information services, among others. It is expected to transform daily life via the application of smart appliances, homes, offices, vehicles, streets and cities.

Dr Zakri said the Blueprint would realise the Science to Action (S2A) initiative launched last year by Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak. The initiative aims to intensify the application of science and technology for industrial development and the wellbeing of Malaysians through three key components: Science to Industry, Science to Wellbeing and Science to Governance.

“The Internet of Things will also act as Science to Action enablers,” he said. “In Science to Industry, for example, it will realise opportunities in the digital age which in turn can lead to a Gross National Income of RM1.7 billion and the creation of 14,720 new jobs by 2020.”

Dr Zakri said the Blueprint would also complement national transformative initiatives as Digital Malaysia, the Government Transformation Programme and the Economic Transformation Programme.

“The Internet of Things will change the digital market and create greater economic value for all organisations and for Malaysia’s economy” he said, adding that the Blueprint would be presented to the government in October.

MIMOS President and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdullah said the Internet of Things was a logical progression for the national R&D centre in ICT after having ‘introduced’ the Internet to Malaysia in 1992.

“MIMOS has been undertaking applied research in ICT towards raising national competitiveness and to position Malaysia as an innovation-led economy since our inception in 1985,” he said. “It is therefore fitting that we spearhead the IoT initiative with the support from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.”

Agencies and companies taking part in the Workshop include the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), National Heart Institute, Cisco Systems, Celcom Axiata Berhad, Intel, Oracle Corporation and Microsoft.

Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast Projects Nearly 11-Fold Increase in Global Mobile Data Traffic from 2013 to 2018

By 2018, Nearly 5 billion Mobile Users and More Than 10 billion Mobile Devices/Connections With Faster Network Speeds & More Smart Devices Drive Mobile Video to 69 per cent of Mobile Data Traffic

Kuala Lumpur – April 28, 2014 – According to the Cisco® Visual Networking Index™ Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2013 to 2018, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase nearly 11-fold over the next four years and reach an annual run rate of 190 exabytes by 2018. The projected increase in mobile traffic is partly due to continued strong growth in the number of mobile Internet connections, such as personal devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, which will exceed 10 billion by 2018 and be 1.4 times greater than the world’s population (the United Nations estimates 7.6 billion people by 2018).

*An exabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quintillion bytes or one billion gigabytes.

The Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast’s annual run rate of 190 exabytes of mobile data traffic for 2018 is equivalent to:
190 times more than all Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, fixed and mobile, generated in 2000; or
42 trillion images (e.g., multimedia message service or Instagram)—15 daily images per person on earth for a year; or
4 trillion video clips (e.g., YouTube)—more than one daily video clip per person on earth for a year.

The incremental amount of traffic being added to the mobile Internet just between 2017 and 2018 is 5.1 exabytes per month, which is more than three times the estimated size of the entire mobile Internet in 2013 (1.5 exabytes per month).

In emerging Asia-Pacific countries, mobile data is set to grow at a much faster rate than the rest of the world. The Asia-Pacific region is projected to have a strong growth of 67 percent by 2018, a 13-fold increase from current figures. Likewise, for mobile data traffic generation, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to generate the most traffic at 6.72 exabytes per month.

Key Global Mobile Data Traffic Drivers
From 2013 to 2018, Cisco anticipates that global mobile traffic growth will outpace global fixed traffic growth by a factor of three. The following trends are driving mobile data traffic growth:
More mobile users: By 2018, there will be 4.9 billion mobile users, up from 4.1 billion in 2013.
More mobile connections: By 2018, there will be more than 10 billion mobile-ready devices/connections—including eight billion personal mobile devices and two billion M2M connections, up from seven billion total mobile-ready devices and M2M connections in 2013.
Faster mobile speeds: Average global mobile network speeds will nearly double from 1.4 Mbps in 2013 to 2.5 Mbps by 2018.
More mobile video: By 2018, mobile video will represent 69 percent of global mobile data traffic, up from 53 percent in 2013.

Global Shift to Smarter Devices
Globally, 54 percent of mobile connections will be “smart” connections by 2018, up from 21 percent in 2013. Smart devices and connections have advanced computing/multi-media capabilities and a minimum of 3G connectivity.

Smartphones, laptops, and tablets will drive about 94 percent of global mobile data traffic by 2018. M2M traffic will represent five percent of 2018 global mobile data traffic while basic handsets will account for 1 percent of global mobile data traffic by 2018. Other portables will account for 0.1 percent.
Mobile cloud traffic will grow 12-fold from 2013 to 2018, a 64 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Impact of Machine-to-Machine Connections (and Wearable Devices)
M2M refers to applications that enable wireless and wired systems to communicate with similar devices to support global positioning satellite (GPS) navigation systems, asset tracking, utility meters, security and surveillance video. A new “wearable devices” sub-segment has been added to the M2M connections category to help project the growth trajectory of the Internet of Everything (IoE). Wearable devices include things that are worn by people such as smart watches, smart glasses, health and fitness trackers, wearable scanners with capability to connect and communicate to the network either directly via embedded cellular connectivity or through another device such as a smartphone via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

In 2013, M2M connections represented nearly five percent of mobile-connected devices in use and generated more than one percent of total mobile data traffic
By 2018, M2M connections will represent nearly 20 percent of mobile-connected devices in use and generate almost six percent of total mobile data traffic.
In 2013, there were 21.7 million global wearable devices. By 2018, there will be 176.9 million global wearable devices or a 52 percent CAGR.

Impact of Faster Global Mobile Network Connection Speeds
The average mobile connection is expected to nearly double from 2013 to 2018. Mobile connection speeds are a key factor in supporting/accommodating mobile data traffic growth.

(Kbps)	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	CAGR
Average Mobile Connection Speed	1,387	1,676	1,908	2,147	2,396	2,509	13 %
Average Smartphone Connection Speed	3,983	4,864	5,504	6,132	6,756	7,044	12 %

Source: Results from Cisco Global Internet Speed Test (GIST) (part of the Cisco VNI program) and other independent speed tests. The Cisco GIST application has more than one million global users. These projections include cellular connection speeds only (not Wi-Fi) and are based on extrapolations from historical mobile network connection speed data.

4G Mobile Adoption and Traffic Growth
Many global service providers are deploying 4G technologies to address consumer and business users’ strong demand for wireless services and content. In many emerging markets, service providers are creating new mobile infrastructures with 4G solutions. In some mature markets, service providers are supplementing or replacing legacy 2G or 3G solutions with 4G technologies.
By 2018, 4G connections will support 15 percent of all connections, up from 2.9 percent in 2013.
By 2018, 4G connections will support 51 percent, or 8 exabytes per month, of total mobile data traffic, up from 30 percent, or 448 petabytes per month, in 2013.
4G traffic will grow 18-fold from 2013 to 2018, a 78 percent CAGR.

Wi-Fi Offload Traffic Surpasses Cellular Traffic
“Offload” refers to traffic from dual mode devices and supports cell and Wi-Fi connectivity, (excluding laptops) over Wi-Fi and small cell networks. Offloading occurs at the user or device level when one switches from a cell connection to Wi-Fi and small cell access. The Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2013-2018) mobile offload projections include traffic from public hotspots and residential Wi-Fi networks.
More mobile data traffic will be offloaded onto Wi-Fi from mobile-connected devices (17.3 exabytes per month) than will remain on mobile networks by 2018 (15.9 exabytes per month).
By 2018, 52 percent of global mobile traffic will be offloaded onto Wi-Fi/small cell networks, up from 45 percent in 2013.

Global Mobile Application Analysis: Video Remains on Top
Mobile video traffic will increase 14-fold from 2013 to 2018 and will have the highest growth rate of any mobile application category.
By 2018, mobile video will be 69 percent of global mobile traffic, up from 53 percent in 2013.
By 2018, web and other data applications will be 17 percent of global mobile traffic, down from 28 percent in 2013.
By 2018, streaming audio will be 11 percent of global mobile traffic, down from 14 percent in 2013.
By 2018, file sharing will be three percent of global mobile traffic, down from four percent in 2013.

Key Regional Growth Projections
In terms of mobile data traffic growth rates over the forecast period, the Middle East and Africa region is projected to have the highest regional growth rate. Below is how each of the regions ranks in terms of growth rate by 2018:
1.   The Middle East and Africa will have a 70 percent CAGR and 14-fold growth;
2.   Central and Eastern Europe will have a 68 percent CAGR and 13-fold growth;
3.   Asia-Pacific will have a 67 percent CAGR and 13-fold growth;
4.   Latin America will have a 66 percent CAGR and 13-fold growth;
5.   North America will have a 50 percent CAGR and eight-fold growth; and
6.   Western Europe will have a 50 percent CAGR and seven-fold growth.

Below is how each of the regions ranks in terms of anticipated mobile data traffic generation by 2018:
Asia-Pacific: 6.72 exabytes per month;
North America: 2.95 exabytes per month;
Western Europe: 1.9 exabytes per month;
Central and Eastern Europe: 1.64 exabytes per month;
The Middle East and Africa: 1.49 exabytes per month; and
Latin America: 1.16 exabytes per month.

Getronics Achieves Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Advanced Certification

MALAYSIA, Kuala Lumpur, 4 April 2014 - Getronics announced today that it has achieved the Cisco®Cloud and Managed Services Advanced Certification. This certification recognises Getronics as having the capabilities to sell and deliver cloud and managed services to help accelerate time to market and time to revenue.

The certification also rewards partners for their expertise and investments in creating, selling and delivering cloud and managed services with financial incentives and go-to-market benefits in all countries of legal presence.

Jason Flanagan, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific and Japan at Getronics comments, “Getronics continues to invest in its portfolio, delivering unrivalled service and innovation to our customer base. We demonstrated deep expertise in implementing Cisco technologies in order to achieve the cloud and managed service programme accreditation, and look forward to delivering cutting edge solutions and first-class service to our shared customer base.

“Getronics customers and prospects now have the additional confidence that the solutions provided by us are endorsed by Cisco. Our online implementation has gone beyond the Cisco CMSP requirements and we have implemented all Cisco recommended best practices. The business process automation component of our solution is the key element of the application, providing process visibility and control, and this puts Getronics in a leading position in the market.”

The Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Advanced Certification is part of the Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Program, focused on helping partners such as Getronics to envision, build, market, and sell cloud and managed services with business acceleration tools and services, sales training and the Cisco Cloud Marketplace to address the varied needs of its customers. For existing Getronics’ customers such as Alpha LSG, the accredited Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform delivers a reduction in IT complexity, faster deployment of new products and services and reduced license spend. Customers also benefit from increased innovation with new Getronics’ services being incorporated onto the platform.

As a Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Advanced Certified Partner, Getronics  will offer at least one Cisco Powered service (either a managed or a cloud service with the Cisco Powered services designation), built on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, and provide basic management capabilities that support Cisco technologies.

In addition, Getronics has achieved Cisco Powered services designations in Cisco Powered Cloud (IaaS).

Cisco Powered services allow customers to connect with confidence to achieve faster time to value by minimising technology lifecycle complexity to reduce cost and risk.  Customers also experience assured performance through superior service, security, and 24/7 support from Cisco and its certified partners while taking advantage of continuous innovation based on open standards and Cisco’s extensive R&D investment.

Cisco Annual Security Report Documents Unprecedented Growth of Advanced Attacks and Malicious Traffic

Threats Take Advantage of Expanding Attack Surface with New Techniques

Kuala Lumpur, March 26, 2014 – The Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report, released recently reveals that threats designed to take advantage of users’ trust in systems, applications and personal networks have reached startling levels. According to the report, a worldwide shortage of nearly a million skilled security professionals is impacting organizations’ abilities to monitor and secure networks, while overall vulnerabilities and threats reached their highest levels since 2000.

The report’s findings offer a vivid picture of rapidly evolving security challenges facing businesses, IT departments and individuals. Attacker methods include socially engineered theft of passwords and credentials, hide-in-plain-sight infiltrations, and exploitation of the trust required for economic transactions, government services and social interactions.

Report Highlights
Increased sophistication and proliferation of the threat landscape. Simple attacks that caused containable damage have given way to organized cybercrime operations that are sophisticated, well-funded, and capable of significant economic and reputational damage to public and private sector victims.
Increased complexity of threats and solutions due to rapid growth in intelligent mobile device adoption and cloud computing provide a greater attack surface than ever before. New classes of devices and new infrastructure architectures offer attackers opportunities to exploit unanticipated weaknesses and inadequately defended assets.

Cybercriminals have learned that harnessing the power of Internet infrastructure yields far more benefits than simply gaining access to individual computers or devices. These infrastructure-scale attacks seek to gain access to strategically positioned web hosting servers, name servers and data centers—with the goal of proliferating attacks across legions of individual assets served by these resources. By targeting Internet infrastructure, attackers undermine trust in everything connected to or enabled by it.

Key Findings
Overall vulnerabilities and threats reached the highest level since initial tracking began in May 2000. As of Oct. 2013, cumulative annual alert totals increased 14 percent year-over-year from 2012.

The report indicates a shortage of more than a million security professionals across the globe in 2014. The sophistication of the technology and tactics used by online criminals—and their nonstop attempts to breach networks and steal data—have outpaced the ability of IT and security professionals to address these threats. Most organizations do not have the people or the systems to continuously monitor extended networks and detect infiltrations, and then apply protections, in a timely and effective manner.

One-hundred percent of a sample of 30 of the world’s largest multinational company networks generated visitor traffic to Web sites that host malware. Ninety-six percent of networks reviewed communicated traffic to hijacked servers. Similarly, 92 percent transmitted traffic to Web pages without content, which typically host malicious activity.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks—which disrupt traffic to and from targeted websites and can paralyze ISPs—have increased in both volume and severity. Some DDoS attacks seek to conceal other nefarious activity, such as wire fraud before, during or after a noisy and distracting DDoS campaign.

Multipurpose Trojans counted as the most frequently encountered web-delivered malware, at 27 percent of total encounters in 2013. Malicious scripts, such as exploits and iframes, formed the second most frequently encountered category at 23 percent. Data theft Trojans such as password stealers and backdoors made up 22 percent of total web malware encounters. The steady decline in unique malware hosts and IP addresses—down 30 percent between Jan. 2013 and Sept. 2013—suggests that malware is being concentrated in fewer hosts and fewer IP addresses.

Java continues to be the most frequently exploited programming language targeted by online criminals. Data from Sourcefire, now a part of Cisco, shows that Java exploits make up the vast majority (91 percent) of Indicators of Compromise (IOCs).

Ninety-nine percent of all mobile malware targeted Android devices. At 43.8 percent, Andr/Qdplugin-A was the most frequently encountered mobile malware, typically via repackaged copies of legitimate apps distributed via non-official marketplaces.

Specific business sectors, such as the pharmaceutical and chemical industry and the electronics manufacturing industry, have historically had high malware encounter rates. In 2012 and 2013, there was remarkable growth in malware encounters for the agriculture and mining industry—formerly a relatively low-risk sector. Malware encounters also continued to rise in the energy, oil and gas sectors.

Albert Chai, Country Manager, Cisco in Malaysia:
“Network security is gradually becoming a primary concern to businesses in Malaysia. In our push to connect the unconnected, the risk of cyber threats incidents becomes more prevalent. According to CyberSecurity Malaysia, from 2012 to 2013, reported cyber threat incidents increased from 9,986 cases to 10,636 cases. Amongst the reported incidents are denial of service, fraud, intrusions and malicious codes.

As people, process, data, and things get increasingly connected in everyday lives through the emergence of the Internet of Everything (IoE), the threat landscape evolves and new attack vectors emerge. The integration of ASEAN countries through the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015 will also pose a new set of challenges to network security concerns as countries move towards forming a regional information infrastructure. With the ever changing nature of network infrastructure and cybercriminal continuously innovating faster than the industry, as highlighted in the Cisco Annual Security Report, new approaches towards network security is required. Technologies to safeguard against threats must continue to evolve at the same pace as the evolution of network infrastructure and become as prevalent as the attacks they are combating.”

Cisco Security Introduces Open Source Application Detection and Control

OpenAppID Language Enables Rapid Community Development of Application Controls

Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 28, 2014 – Harnessing the power of open source and community, Cisco today announced that the company is delivering the ability to create and integrate new open source application identification capabilities into its Snort  engine through the release of OpenAppID. Open source application detection and control allows users to create, share and implement custom application detection so that they can address new app-based threats as quickly as possible.

Open source application detection and control is enabled by Cisco’s new OpenAppID application-focused detection language. OpenAppID provides application visibility, accelerates development of application detectors, and controls and empowers the community to share detectors for greater protection. As new applications are developed and introduced into corporate environments at an unprecedented rate, this new language provides users with increased flexibility to control new or custom apps on the network. OpenAppID is especially important for organizations utilizing custom-built or specialized applications and those in highly regulated industries that require the highest levels of identification and control.

OpenAppID will accelerate and expand the breadth of application detection, by facilitating open community sharing and enhancement of new application detectors. It also supports the following critical capabilities:

• Application Detection/Reporting   OpenAppID enables Snort users to utilize the new OpenAppID detectors to detect and identify applications, and to report on application use.
• Application Context associated with network intrusion events   By providing application-layer context with security-related events, OpenAppID helps to enhance analysis and speed remediation.
• Actionable Application Detection and Control   OpenAppID enables Snort to block or alert on detection of certain applications. This helps to reduce risks by managing total threat surface.

Martin Roesch, creator of Snort and Vice President and Chief Architect, Cisco Security Business Group, said, “Open source is very important because it creates real collaboration and trust between vendors and the experts that are tasked with addressing advanced and aggressive threats. By open sourcing application visibility and control, Cisco is empowering the community to create technically superior solutions to address their most complex and unique security challenges.”

As part of this announcement, Cisco is delivering a special release of the Snort engine that includes the new OpenAppID preprocessor. This enables the Snort community to begin working with OpenAppID to build application detectors. Included with a future general release of Snort, the OpenAppID-enabled preprocessor supports:

• Detection of applications on the network
• Reporting on the usage statistics of apps (traffic)
• Blocking of applications by policy
• Extensions to the Snort rule language to enable application specification
• Reporting of an “App Name” along with IPS events

In addition, a library of more than 1,000 OpenAppID detectors will be available at no charge through the Snort community at http://www.snort.org. Any community member may contribute additional detectors, including end user organizations with custom applications that are not commercially available.

Cisco's commitment to open source security projects, including Snort and ClamAV, provides users and developers the ability to engage and strengthen their solutions, while demonstrating technical excellence and providing rapid threat protection. The acquisition of Sourcefire has strengthened Cisco's extensive contributions to the open source software development community.

Cisco Adds Advanced Malware Protection to Web and Email Security Appliances and Cloud Web Security

Sourcefire Integration Empowers “AMP Everywhere” for the Extended Network

Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 25, 2014 – Cisco today announced that it has added its Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), originally developed by Sourcefire, into its Content Security Portfolio of products, including Web and Email Security Appliances and Cloud Web Security Service. The integration provides customers worldwide with comprehensive malware-defeating capabilities, including detection and blocking, continuous analysis and retrospective remediation of advanced threats. This enhanced offering represents one of the initial technology integration efforts between Cisco and Sourcefire, and extends the option of advanced malware protection for more than 60 million enterprise and commercial users currently protected with Cisco Content Security solutions.

Advanced Malware Protection utilizes the vast cloud security intelligence networks of both Cisco and Sourcefire (now part of Cisco). Like the attacks it is designed to protect against, AMP evolves to provide continuous monitoring and analysis across the extended network and throughout the full attack continuum – before, during and after an attack. By combining Sourcefire’s deep knowledge of advanced threats and analytics expertise with Cisco’s industry leading Email and Web Security solutions, customers benefit from unmatched visibility and control combined with the most cost-effective, seamless approach to addressing advanced malware problems.

Cisco has also added Cognitive Threat Analytics, acquired last year via Cognitive Security, as an option for Cisco® Cloud Web Security customers. Cognitive Threat Analytics is a highly intuitive, self-taught system that uses behavioral modeling and anomaly detection to identify malicious activity and reduce time to discovery of threats operating inside the network.

The addition of advanced malware technologies to Cisco Web and Email Security solutions, and Cognitive Threat Analytics to Cisco’s Cloud Web Security, have expanded Cisco’s ability to provide more threat-centric security solutions for its customers by expanding attack vector coverage by providing advanced malware protection “everywhere” a threat can manifest itself. With this integration, Cisco addresses the broadest range of attack vectors across the extended network.

Christopher Young, senior vice president, Cisco Security Business Group, said: “Today’s advanced threats that can attack hosts through a combination of different vectors require a continuous security response versus point in time solutions. Web and Email gateways do a large amount of heavy lifting in the threat defense ecosystem, blocking the delivery of malicious content. By bringing together AMP and threat analytics with our Web, Cloud Web and Email Security gateways, we provide our customers with the best advanced malware protection from the cloud to the network to the endpoint.”

思科增加先進惡意軟件防護予网络，電子郵件及云端科技安全設備

Sourcefire的整合为擴展網絡提供先進惡意軟件防護【Advanced Malware Protection， AMP】

吉隆坡，2014年2月25日 - 思科【Cisco】今天宣布纳入最初是由Sourcefire公司開發的先進的惡意軟件防護（AMP）为其内容安全產品系列，包括网络，電子郵件安全設備和雲端网络科技安全服務組合。

此集成為全球客戶提供全面的惡意軟件防护功能，包括檢測和攔截，不斷的分析和先進的网络威脅追溯整治。這整合为思科和Sourcefire公司之間的初始科技集成的努力之一，将先進惡意軟件保護带给目前超過6000萬的的思科內容安全解決方案企業和商業用戶为一選項。

先進惡意軟件保護【AMP】利用思科和Sourcefire公司（現為思科的一部分）的廣闊雲安全情報網絡。AMP的發展提供持續的監測， 網絡分析和安全連續攻擊。通過結合Sourcefire公司对先進威脅分析能力的專業知識与深入了解， 與思科業界領先的電子郵件和网络安全解決方案，客戶受益於無與倫比的可視性和控制來解決先進的惡意軟件問題。

思科安全业务集团高级副总裁Christopher Young 表示“今日先進的网络威脅可以通過不同的載體組合攻擊主機， 网络和電子郵件安全是阻斷惡意內容的主要傳送的網關。通過匯集AMP和威脅的分析能力與我們的網絡，雲端科技和電子郵件安全網關，我們為客戶提供從雲端到网络电段最佳的先進惡意軟件保護。”

Cisco Adds Advanced Malware Protection to Web and Email Security Appliances and Cloud Web Security

Sourcefire Integration Empowers “AMP Everywhere” for the Extended Network

Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 25, 2014 – Cisco today announced that it has added its Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), originally developed by Sourcefire, into its Content Security Portfolio of products, including Web and Email Security Appliances and Cloud Web Security Service. The integration provides customers worldwide with comprehensive malware-defeating capabilities, including detection and blocking, continuous analysis and retrospective remediation of advanced threats. This enhanced offering represents one of the initial technology integration efforts between Cisco and Sourcefire, and extends the option of advanced malware protection for more than 60 million enterprise and commercial users currently protected with Cisco Content Security solutions.

Advanced Malware Protection utilizes the vast cloud security intelligence networks of both Cisco and Sourcefire (now part of Cisco). Like the attacks it is designed to protect against, AMP evolves to provide continuous monitoring and analysis across the extended network and throughout the full attack continuum – before, during and after an attack. By combining Sourcefire’s deep knowledge of advanced threats and analytics expertise with Cisco’s industry leading Email and Web Security solutions, customers benefit from unmatched visibility and control combined with the most cost-effective, seamless approach to addressing advanced malware problems.

Cisco has also added Cognitive Threat Analytics, acquired last year via Cognitive Security, as an option for Cisco® Cloud Web Security customers. Cognitive Threat Analytics is a highly intuitive, self-taught system that uses behavioral modeling and anomaly detection to identify malicious activity and reduce time to discovery of threats operating inside the network.

The addition of advanced malware technologies to Cisco Web and Email Security solutions, and Cognitive Threat Analytics to Cisco’s Cloud Web Security, have expanded Cisco’s ability to provide more threat-centric security solutions for its customers by expanding attack vector coverage by providing advanced malware protection “everywhere” a threat can manifest itself. With this integration, Cisco addresses the broadest range of attack vectors across the extended network.

Christopher Young, senior vice president, Cisco Security Business Group, said: “Today’s advanced threats that can attack hosts through a combination of different vectors require a continuous security response versus point in time solutions. Web and Email gateways do a large amount of heavy lifting in the threat defense ecosystem, blocking the delivery of malicious content. By bringing together AMP and threat analytics with our Web, Cloud Web and Email Security gateways, we provide our customers with the best advanced malware protection from the cloud to the network to the endpoint.”

Cisco Commits to Addressing IT Skills Gap in Malaysia with the Internet of Everything Webinar Program

Kuala Lumpur – February 10, 2014 – Cisco will invest in the development of 400,000 networking professionals over the next five years, to help address the IT skills shortage in Asia Pacific. Cisco made this commitment at the launch of the Internet of Everything webinar series designed to inspire the next generation of IT talent to pursue careers in the industry.

This is in addition to Cisco’s current engagement in developing highly skilled talent in Malaysia through the Cisco Networking Academy program. @CiscoNetAcad has trained more than 410,000 students with 239 instructors across 56 academies since its inception in Malaysia. There are more than 10,000 students currently enrolled in academies across Malaysia, of which 39% of them women.

Highlights:
• The skills gap was outlined in the IDC study The Evolution of the Networking Skills Gap in Asia/Pacific.
• The IDC study, which was commissioned by Cisco, states that by 2016, there will be a skills gap of over 400,000 networking professionals across the region, which will represent a segment of the two million unfilled ICT-related jobs globally within ten years . Without investment in skills, technology progress will not translate into productivity growth, and Asia Pacific will not be able to compete in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy.
• Over the next 10 months, the webinar series, which is available to all Networking Academy students, will cover various aspects of the Internet of Everything and the career opportunities it offers. The series will be a combination of both in-person and virtual utilizing Cisco's collaboration technologies such as Cisco TelePresence, Cisco WebEx and Cisco TV.
• Based on Cisco's projection of 10 billion "connections" today to 50 billion by 2020, knowledge-based jobs will become more pervasive in an Internet of Everything-driven world. As the Internet of Everything drives the transformation alongside next-generation and tech-savvy workers, job creation techniques will evolve.
• According to a recent study published by the World Bank, the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector is rapidly growing, with an addressable market of $800 billion globally.
• Recognizing this projection, Cisco is committed to meeting the critical demand for high-skill workers through strategic programs and collaborations for current and future generations.
• To support talent enablement in key areas and reduce this growing skills gap, Learning@Cisco, along with its partners, will deliver a new portfolio, consisting of IoT curricula, assessments and an upcoming Cisco Specialist Certification to advance skills development in industrial networking. This training and certification initiative, introduced at the Internet of Things World Forum, will help meet the growing need for specialized talent that can provide Internet Protocol (IP) networking expertise, with a focus in automation, manufacturing and energy and future expansion to include equally transformative industries.

Cisco Appoints Albert Chai as Country Manager for Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – January 23, 2014 – Cisco has appointed Albert Chai as the managing director for Malaysia, reporting to Irving Tan, vice president for ASEAN at Cisco. Albert brings 18 years of experience in the technology industry across the Asia Pacific region.

“Albert’s expertise across a range of markets and technologies as well as his leadership skills and customer-centric approach in Malaysia validates my commitment to grow and develop local talent and provide opportunities for development within the Cisco ASEAN organization,” said Irving Tan, vice president for Cisco in ASEAN.

Albert joined Cisco in July 2009 and since then; he has led the regional remit for enterprise, public sector and service provider segments. Prior Cisco, he was the Vice President of Sales for South East Asia at Acision, a messaging and mobile internet solutions provider and before that, the Country Director of Logica, Indonesia.

“I’m excited by the opportunity to drive value for businesses in Malaysia through our partner ecosystem while developing the economy and social innovation. The breath of Cisco technologies, solutions and architectures and our industry expertise drives our ability to transform Malaysian lives in business, government services and education,” said Albert.

Albert holds a First Class Honours Degree in Electronic & Electrical Engineering from University College London (UCL), United Kingdom.

TM & LEVEL 3 TO ENHANCE REGIONAL INTERNET ACCESS AND CONTENT DELIVERY

TM’s customers to benefit from efficient, reliable and secured surfing experience with locally cached contents …

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Malaysia’s leading integrated communications service provider, has signed an agreement with Level 3 Communications, an American based company that provides global communications services to enterprise, government and carrier customers.

The collaboration will provide Internet localisation services, which will enable TM to locally cache high demand contents on its network which will further enhance Internet connectivity, network efficiency, reliability and security. TM’s Enterprise and Consumers customers will get to enjoy high-demand, bandwidth-intensive content such as high-definition video, readily accessible online contents by Level 3’s Internet Localisation service that further improves Internet connectivity and network efficiency. Level 3’s Internet Localisation service combines the company’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) with deep edge caching and high-speed IP to efficiently route traffic to TM’s network.

Rozaimy Rahman, Executive Vice President, Global & Wholesale, TM (right) exchanging documents with Gary Breauninger, Group Vice President of Wholesale Sales, Level 3 (left), signifying the collaboration between both companies for Internet localisation services.

Besides enriching TM’s network routes, this latest effort is also in line with TM’s aspiration of becoming an Information Exchange and the region’s hub for data communications.

"Malaysia is a growing market and our customers are increasingly demanding for high-performing Internet services to support both business and personal needs. As such, working with Level 3 will definitely help to enhance TM’s customers’ surfing experience and also a cost saving prospect in reducing TM’s usage of international capacity,” said Rozaimy Rahman, Executive Vice President, Global & Wholesale, TM.

Also commenting on the collaboration, Gary Breauninger, Level 3’s Group Vice President of Wholesale Sales, said, "The rapidly increasing consumption of high-bandwidth content is changing the Internet landscape and altering the way communications providers configure and manage their network infrastructure. By leveraging the global reach of the Level 3 network to deliver content closer to high-demand population centers, we are able to dramatically improve content access and provide a richer Internet experience.”

According to an industry research conducted by Cisco, 90 percent of global consumer Internet traffic will be driven by video by 2015 (VNI Forecast Highlights Tool, 2010-2015). Traditional Internet architectures may restrict the ability of the industry to deliver on this growing demand for high-quality digital content, resulting in service degradation and poor viewing quality as content has to travel over a longer distance on remote networks.

Level 3’s caching servers are hosted at TM’s World Class Data Centre, managed by its ICT/BPO arm and subsidiary VADS Berhad (VADS). To date, VADS has a total of 15 Data Centres, locally and internationally.

In terms of content localisation, TM has been partnering with several other CDN providers and content owners which include Google and Facebook, to have their caching servers to be located on TM’s network.

This latest collaboration with Level 3 is yet another initiative of TM’s continuous efforts in enhancing data communications in the region while at the same time providing Malaysia with better regional reach and seamless interconnections for faster and a more resilient Internet connection. Ultimately, Malaysian Internet users can enjoy an enhanced surfing experience, true to TM’s aspirations of delivering enhanced integrated digital lifestyle to Malaysians.

For further information on TM, visit www.tm.com.my.

Network Optimization in the Cloud Era Necessary 80% of Newly Installed Wireless Networks Obsolete by 2015, says Gartner

Kuala Lumpur, November 29, 2013 - According to leading technology research company, Gartner, by 2015, 80 percent of newly installed wireless networks will be obsolete because of lack of proper planning, and could impact the implementation of enterprise mobility.

With the use of multiple devices at the workplace to access cloud services, web-based applications and real-time applications, the number of network connections per employee increases, thus straining the network at its capacity.

Therefore, enterprise IT needs a flexible, scalable and application-aware network to maintain the performance of the datacenter network as the end-user expects seamless connectivity between Wireless Local Area Network (WLANs) and mobile cellular networks.

Mark Micallef, Area Vice President of Citrix ASEAN, shares his insights on key considerations for businesses seeking to optimize their network’s performance.

Leverage the application
The application delivery controller (ADC) has become a strategic control point in many datacenters as the result of its ability to guarantee application availability, performance and security, and server infrastructure offload, while reducing datacenter total cost of ownership (TCO).

Often, the capacity of the ADC is pushed to its limit when an application operates at multiple gigabits/sec or when the user population for a critical application is doubled or tripled. This should be avoided and enterprises should utilize a software-based architecture that fully leverages multiple applications – physical or virtual. This way, even as the ADC expands to meet future growth, there is a single, consistent policy management view for the entire cluster so that all aspects of ADC administration remain constant.

Explore and maximize possibilities
A recent collaboration between Citrix and Cisco allows the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) to become the control and automation framework with Citrix NetScaler® providing several of the application services.

Citrix NetScaler® is the industry’s most advanced cloud networking platform. It has been positioned in the Gartner’s Leaders Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers Magic Quadrant for seven consecutive years for its ability to solve complex application deployment challenges.

APIC enables a policy-driven service insertion solution that automates the routing network traffic to the right services, based on application policies. The automated addition, removal, and reordering of services allow applications to change quickly, without the need to rewire, reconfigure or relocate resources and services.

Citrix NetScaler works in the APIC environment in an integrated manner, providing Layer 4-7 services, such as load balancing, application acceleration, optimization and application security. This application-centric approach is a key enabler of a truly agile, flexible and resourceful data center.

The integration between Citrix NetScaler and Cisco APIC unifies both the management and flow of data through hardware and software in the datacenter, providing the following game changer benefits:

1. A central point of control – one place in the network to control all functions that the network delivers so that application teams can focus on application policies, and the network can manage their provisioning and deployment.
2. Scalable and Elastic – by decoupling service nodes from service policy, elastic scale, with both physical and virtual ADC appliances, is enabled.
3. Investment Protection – the integration is designed to be fully compatible with existing NetScaler deployments and deployment models.
4. Open – committed to standardizing important innovations, Cisco and Citrix are driving the definition of the Network Service Header (NSH) protocol that supports the fluid movement of both service functions and application workloads within the fabric.

Looking ahead
Today, the complexity and inflexibility of massive IT infrastructures are slowing business down. IT professionals typically work in separate, inefficient siloes because current technology does not support a shared architectural model. In addition, there is no way to gain a single view of all the technology components that impact application performance.

CIOs are striving to break down these siloes and unify all components of IT, such as networking, storage, applications and security, to manage them as a single, dynamic entity without compromise.

This is where ACI can help. Coupling innovations in software, hardware and systems with a dynamic, application-aware network policy model, built around open APIs, will help to reduce application deployment from months to minutes.

This unified, integrated approach represents the next evolution in ADC technology, fundamentally changing and uniquely enabling a tight integration with the Cisco network infrastructure that is unmatched by any other ADC on the market.

Ovum Comment: Cisco acquires its spin-in Insieme

OVUM COMMENT

David Krozier, Principal Analyst, Network Infrastructure, Telecoms, Ovum

“Cisco acquires its spin-in Insieme”

“Today Cisco announced it would acquire its spin-in Insieme, and provided new detail on the Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI) for data centers that Insieme introduced in June 2013.  Cisco continues to promote the role of hardware in delivering future high performance networks and took great pains to distance itself from pure software based overlay virtualized networks (like the Nicira technology VMware acquired, Junipers Contrail, and Alcatel-Lucent’s Nuage) in the data center.

Insieme’s ACI solution consists of:

    The 100 Gbps ready Nexus 9000 Series switches that run under a new optimized version of NX-OS and can support up to 1.92 Tbps of bandwidth capacity per slot.  The 8-slot Nexus 9508 is available now, and other switches in the family will follow.

    The Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) supports a common policy framework that Cisco will extend to bring compute, storage, and network infrastructure under a common pane of glass for management and control. APIC uses a common application network profile similar to the service profile in Cisco’s UCS that will allow applications to be placed where they need to be instead of being tied to an IP address. APIC and the optimized NX-OS will be available in April 2014.

Ovum notes that while the 9000 Series switches can operate standalone, the features provided by the APIC controller require Cisco hardware.  While this may raise the hackles of those who believe future networks should be based on generic hardware platforms, this approach is unlikely to match the performance capabilities of ACI.”

Cisco Empowers Current and Next Generation of Global IoT Scientists, Engineers and Innovators

Malaysia and Barcelona leads the way as first partners of Cisco’s Global STEM Alliance

BARCELONA, SPAIN - INTERNET OF THINGS WORLD FORUM, Nov. 4, 2013 – Cisco recently announced a global commitment to educate and empower current and future generations of Internet of Things (IoT) entrepreneurs, scientists and innovators through its Global STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Alliance.

The Alliance, formed in partnership with the New York Academy of Sciences will feature Malaysia and Barcelona as the first alliance partners that will bring curriculum resources, intergenerational mentorship and access to cutting-edge science and technology research to students of institute of higher learning in both countries. Beyond this, the curriculum resources will soon be made available to students around the world.

Wim Elfrink, Executive Vice President, Industry Solutions and Chief Globalization Officer of Cisco Systems.

The Global STEM Alliance was formed in recognition of the need to empower and educate the next generation of the IoT workforce while also enhancing the skills of current members of the workforce. An enhanced focus STEM skills is increasingly relevant for graduates to transition into careers in the information technology industry. According to a recent study published by the World Bank, the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector is rapidly growing, with an addressable market of $800 billion globally.

Additionally, it is estimated that over the next 10 years there will be two million unfilled ICT-related jobs globally, correlating with a projected talent gap of 8.2 percent by 2022. To address this gap, education and training institutions will need to increase the number of technical graduates significantly - 222,000 more each year between 2014 and 2022. Recognizing this projection, Cisco is committed to meeting the critical demand for high-skill workers through strategic programs and collaborations for current and future generations.

Speaking during the announcement, Wim Elfrink, Executive Vice President, Industry Solutions and Chief Globalization Officer of Cisco Systems said, “The Internet of Things is a reality today and will only continue to create unprecedented opportunities. Empowering and preparing the next generation workforce to take part in this global opportunity is a critical piece of fueling IoT innovation.”

Prof. Tan Sri Sharifah Hapsah, vice chancellor, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), the first institute of higher learning to represent Malaysia at the Alliance added “Nothing is more fascinating than to watch students from schools, their teachers and young scientists engage energetically with the best scientific minds in learning how to be successful in the sciences.

The Nobelist Mindset programme that UKM developed with the New York Academy of Sciences helps them appreciate creativity, determination and ability to see connections between ideas as key elements in learning STEM. We are pleased to join the Alliance together with the New York Academy of Sciences and Cisco in sharing how we develop this learning community with the world."

The recent announcement reinforces Cisco's investment in education, revealing a new portfolio consisting of IoT curricula, assessments and an upcoming Cisco® Specialist Certification to advance skills development in industrial networking. In collaboration with major industry leaders, this education portfolio will help meet the growing need for specialized talent that can provide Internet Protocol (IP) networking expertise, with a focus in automation, manufacturing and energy,
and future expansion to include equally transformative industries. Through this certification program, Cisco and new industry partners will join forces to help to reskill a significant number of individuals in these areas.

Key Highlights:
• Learning@Cisco, along with its partners, will be delivering IoT education courses and certifications that map to new and evolving career opportunities across multiple industries. These world-class programs will help lay a framework for individuals to achieve rewarding careers in IT and industry automation. STEM education collaborations will provide fundamental skills needed to support a sustainable workforce globally.

• The Global STEM Alliance will allow for the seamless integration of technology and content—effectively linking the New York Academy of Sciences' successful local programs to locations around the world through in-person and online platforms. This partnership will enable sharing of knowledge resources to every corner of the world—humanizing science, through the use of technology, by connecting science-interested people of all ages across geographic boundaries.

• The Cisco Networking Academy program will help individuals prepare for globally recognized certifications and entry-level ICT careers in virtually every type of industry. Students develop foundational skills in ICT while acquiring vital 21st-century career skills such as problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking. Courses are offered in multiple languages through a blended learning model that combines classroom instruction with online curricula, interactive tools, hands-on activities, and online assessments. The Networking Academy, in collaboration with education institutions, currently reaches over one million students in 165 countries.

Cisco Malaysia’s Budget 2013 Commentary

Irving Tan, Vice President for ASEAN, Cisco 

The budget announcement today was a key step in transforming Malaysia into a developed economy and necessary to spur the country’s growth. I was particularly pleased to see Prime Minister Najib Razak highlight the second phase of high-speed broadband project.

Malaysia’s High Speed Broadband infrastructure and the focus on increasing accessibility in Sabah, Sarawak and rural areas will be the critical step in taking traditional businesses into future as they increase their service offerings and addressable markets; online and offline.

Connected the unconnected and the provision of a high speed broadband is the foundation for increasing productivity, efficiency and competitive advantage for business, and even government agencies as they engage with citizens.

In addition, the announcement of the RM120 million allocation for an integrated package to increase innovation and productivity of SMEs is a complements the National Broadband Initiative as it spurs entrepreneurship. Organizations and businesses can capitalize on technology solutions, like cloud and telepresence to make more effective decisions and go-to-market faster. Productivity. Efficiency. Profitability. Success.

The allocation of funds for tertiary education excellence and the strengthening of skills training for graduates will allow Malaysia to develop the talent pool that will embrace the new world of connectivity and drive human capital development, economic empowerment and community enablement across industries and communities.

Connecting people, processes and things – that is what the future is about. We are excited to see the implementation of the Mobile Community Transformation Centre (Mobile CTC) and the enhancement of public transportation services for a seamless network between urban and rural areas. Imagine this becoming a connected transportation initiative where Wi-Fi and cloud can provide an incredible amount of data which the transportation authority can use to manage traffic and schedules, and offer new services using Malaysia-developed applications (thanks to the entrepreneurs who took advantage of the integrated package for SME’s)

Tomorrow starts here for Malaysia.

Cisco Global Cloud Index Projects Cloud Traffic to Dominate Data Centers

Cloud Traffic Will Represent More Than Two-Thirds of Global Data Center Traffic by 2017 and Will Grow More than Fourfold From 2012 to 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 25 October 2013 –In the third annual Cisco® Global Cloud Index (2012 – 2017) issued recently, Cisco forecasts that global cloud traffic, the fastest growing component of data center traffic, is expected to grow 4.5-fold – a 35 percent combined annual growth rate (CAGR) – from 1.2 zettabytes of annual traffic in 2012 to 5.3 zettabytes by 2017. Overall global data center traffic will grow threefold and reach a total of 7.7 zettabytes annually by 2017.

What is a zettabyte?
• 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
• 1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
• 1024 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
• 1024 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
• 1024 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
• 1024 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
• 1024 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
• 1024 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte

A zettabyte is one billion terabytes. For context, 7.7 zettabytes is equivalent to:

• 107 trillion hours of streaming music –about 1.5 years of continuous music streaming for the world's population in 2017.
• 19 trillion hours of business web conferencing –about 14 hours of daily web conferencing for the world's workforce in 2017.
• 8 trillion hours of online high-definition (HD) video streaming –about 2.5 hours of daily streamed HD video for the world's population in 2017.

Approximately 17 percent of data center traffic will be fueled by end users accessing clouds for web surfing, video streaming, collaboration and connected devices, all of which contribute to the Internet of Everything, which is the networked connection of people, data, process and things.

Key Findings:
• In Asia Pacific, data center traffic will reach 228 Exabytes per month in 2017 (in 2012 it was 64 Exabytes per month).
o Of this, business data center traffic will reach 577 Exabytes per year (48 Exabytes per month) in 2017
o Consumer cloud traffic will reach 1.5 Zettabytes per year (124 Exabytes per month) in 2017
o Dramatic increase in business cloud use: business cloud traffic is predicted to reach 385 Exabytes per year (32 Exabytes per month) in 2017. In 2012, the business cloud traffic was 83 Exabytes per year (6.9 Exabytes per month) in 2012.
• Cloud traffic growth by region: The Middle East and Africa will have the highest cloud traffic growth rate from 2012 to 2017
From a regional perspective, the Cisco Global Cloud Index predicts that through 2017, the Middle East and Africa will have the highest cloud traffic growth rate (57 percent CAGR), followed by Asia Pacific (43 percent CAGR) and Central and Eastern Europe (36 percent CAGR).

Irving Tan, Vice President for ASEAN at Cisco said, “In Malaysia, the proliferation of networked devices like tablets and smartphones as well as the business take-up of cloud computing has resulted in an exponential rise in data volume and traffic.

According to Forrester, cloud investment in Malaysia is expected to reach RM2.8 billion by 2020[1], while 34 % of organisations in Malaysia stated that cloud computing is their number one priority in the current fiscal year with one-third of organisations in Malaysia already using some form of cloud computing[2]. This, complemented by government support and initiatives such as the MSC Malaysia Cloud Computing Initiative, is set to fuel continuous growth in cloud adoption by enterprises and SMEs alike.

Amidst the positive trends, they signal an immediate need for business leaders to take a few steps ahead and invest in an intelligent network strategy from planning and building to managing their cloud environment. This is to ensure that their infrastructure and data centers are able to cope with the escalating traffic and help their organizations improve productivity, profitability and competitive.”

Overview:
• The Cisco Global Cloud Index (2012–2017) was developed to estimate global for data center and cloud-based Internet Protocol (IP) traffic growth and trends. The Cisco Global Cloud Index serves as a complementary resource to existing network traffic studies, providing new insights and visibility into emerging trends affecting data centers and cloud architectures. The forecast becomes increasingly important as the network and data center become more intrinsically linked in offering cloud services.
• The Cisco Global Cloud Index includes a "workload transition" forecast, which shows the workload shift from moving from traditional data centers to more virtualized cloud servers.
• The forecast also includes a supplement on Cloud Readiness Regional Details, which examines the fixed and mobile network abilities of each global region (from nearly 150 countries) to support business and consumer cloud-computing applications and services.
• The Cisco Global Cloud Index is generated by modeling and analysis of various primary and secondary sources, including 40 terabytes of monthly traffic sampled from a variety of global data centers over the past year, results from more than 90 million network tests, and third-party market research reports.
• For the period 2012–2017, Cisco forecasts that 7 percent of data center traffic will be generated between data centers, primarily driven by data replication and software/system updates. An additional 76 percent of data center traffic will stay within the data center and will be largely generated by storage, production and development data in a virtualized environment.

Key Highlights/Findings:

• Global data center traffic growth will increase threefold by 2017 - Cisco forecasts that global data center traffic will triple from 2.6 zettabytes in 2012 to 7.7 zettabytes annually in 2017, representing a 25 percent CAGR.
• Global cloud traffic will grow faster than overall global data center traffic - The transition to cloud services is driving global cloud traffic at a growth rate greater than global data center traffic. Global data center traffic will grow threefold (a 25 percent CAGR) from 2012 to 2017, while global cloud traffic will grow 4.5-fold (a 35 percent CAGR) over the same period.
• Global cloud traffic will account for more than two-thirds of total global data center traffic - Globally, cloud traffic will grow from 46 percent of total data center traffic (98 exabytes per month or 1.2 zettabytes annually) of total data center traffic in 2012 to 69 percent of total data center traffic (443 exabytes per month or 5.3 zettabytes annually) of total data center traffic by 2017.
• Cloud traffic growth by region: The Middle East and Africa will have the highest cloud traffic growth rate from 2012 to 2017 - The Cisco Global Cloud Index now includes regional forecast data for cloud traffic growth.
• In 2012, North America generated the most cloud traffic (469 exabytes annually), followed by Asia Pacific (319 exabytes annually) and Western Europe (225 exabytes annually).
• By 2017, North America will generate the most cloud traffic (1.886 zettabytes annually), followed by Asia Pacific (1.876 zettabytes annually) and Western Europe (770 exabytes annually).
• Workload transitions: From 2012 to 2017, data center workloads will grow 2.3-fold; cloud workloads will grow 3.7-fold - In 2012, 39 percent of workloads were processed in the cloud, with 61 percent being handled in a traditional data center.
• 2014 will be the first year when the majority of workloads shift to the cloud; 51 percent of all workloads will be processed in the cloud versus 49 percent in the traditional IT space.
• By 2017, nearly two-thirds or 63 percent of workloads will be processed by cloud data centers; 37 percent will be processed by traditional data centers.
• The ratio of workloads to nonvirtualized cloud servers will grow from 6.5 in 2012 to 16.7 by 2017. Comparatively, the ratio of workloads to nonvirtualized traditional data center servers will grow from 1.7 in 2012 to 2.3 by 2017.
• Workload growth by region: By 2017, North America will have processed the most cloud workloads, followed by Asia Pacific - The Cisco Global Cloud Index now includes regional forecast data for workload growth.
• In 2012, North America had the most cloud workloads (15.2 million or 47 percent of global cloud workloads), followed by Asia Pacific, which had 6.8 million or 21 percent of global workloads in 2012.
• By 2017, North America will process the most cloud workloads (48.2 million or 41 percent of global cloud workloads), followed by Asia Pacific, which will have 36.5 million or 31 percent of global workloads by 2017.
• From 2012 to 2017, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to have the highest cloud workload growth rate (45 percent CAGR), followed by Asia Pacific (40 percent CAGR) and Central and Eastern Europe (31 percent CAGR).
• Globally, except in the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific, traditional data center workloads (rather than cloud workloads) will grow at a low-single-digit CAGR from 2012 to 2017.

Cloud Readiness:
To assess cloud readiness, various fixed and mobile network attributes were analyzed. Average and median upload and download speeds and latencies were analyzed (median values were added this year to understand the variability of end-user cloud readiness within each country). Network performance characteristics are provided across each geographic region: Asia Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, North America and Western Europe. For this study, the following sample application categories were applied:

• Basic Cloud Apps / Network Requirements
Download Speed: Up to 750 kbps; Upload Speed: Up to 250 kbps; Latency: Above 160 ms

Sample consumer basic services: text communications (email, instant messaging), web browsing, personal content locker (non-multimedia), e-banking, single player gaming, social networking (text only), basic video/ music streaming

Sample business basic services: text communications (email, instant messaging), VoIP, web conferencing

• Intermediate Cloud Apps / Network Requirements
Download Speed: 751–2,500 kbps; Upload Speed: 251–1,000 kbps; Latency: 159–100 ms

Sample consumer intermediate services: smart home, personal content locker (multimedia), online shopping, multi-player gaming, social networking (multi-media/ interactive), HD video/ music streaming, IM video chat

Sample business intermediate services: ERP/CRM, IP audio conferencing, video conferencing

• Advanced Cloud Apps / Network Requirements
Download Speed: >2,500 kbps; Upload Speed: Higher than 1,000 kbps; Latency: <100 ms

Sample consumer advanced services: connected education, connected medicine, HD video chat, Super HD video streaming, 3D video streaming

Sample business advanced services: virtual office, HD audio conferencing, HD video conferencing,

All regions' current average fixed network performance characteristics can support an intermediate level of cloud services today.

• The fixed networks of Asia Pacific, North America, Central Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Latin America can support advanced cloud applications.
• All regions' current average mobile network performance characteristics can support some level of cloud services today.
• The mobile networks of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America can support basic cloud applications.
• The average performance of the mobile networks of Central and Eastern Europe, North America and Western Europe can support intermediate cloud applications.
• Most regions have some outlier countries with fixed and mobile network performance results that are higher than their region's average cloud readiness metrics. For example, the mobile networks of individual countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia Pacific, and United Arab Emirates in the Middle East and Africa can support advanced cloud applications

*Concurrent use of multiple applications requires even higher network performance capabilities than the requirements for individual application support shown above. Concurrent application requirements are covered in the Cisco Global Cloud Index Forecast and Methodology, 2012 – 2017...

Cisco Completes Acquisition of Sourcefire

Oct. 8, 2013 – Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced it has completed the acquisition of Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE), a leader in intelligent cybersecurity solutions. With the close of this acquisition, Cisco will provide one of the industry’s most comprehensive advanced threat protection portfolios, as well as a broad set of enforcement and remediation options that are integrated, pervasive, continuous and open.

The increased scrutiny on security is being driven by the evolving trends of mobility, cloud computing, and advanced targeted attacks. More than the attacks themselves, a major consideration is the change in what defines a network, which goes beyond traditional firewalls and includes data centers, endpoints, virtual and mobile to make up the extended network. A threat-centric security model lets defenders address the full attack continuum, across all attack vectors, and respond at any time, all the time.

 “To truly protect against all possible attack vectors, our focus is to examine the nature of modern networked environments and devices and to defend them by deeply understanding and analyzing the mindset of the attackers,” said Christopher Young, senior vice president, Cisco Security Group. “Cisco’s portfolio of integrated solutions support this focus by delivering unmatched visibility and continuous advanced threat protection, allowing customers to act smarter and more quickly -- before, during, and after an attack.”

Cisco and Sourcefire customers will benefit from Cisco’s commitment to drive forward both the ASA and FirePOWER™ platforms. Cisco is also committed to open source innovation and will continue to support Snort®, ClamAV® and other open source projects.

With the completion of the transaction, Sourcefire employees join the Cisco Security Group led by Young. Additionally, Martin Roesch, founder and chief technology officer of Sourcefire, becomes vice president and chief architect for Cisco’s Security Group reporting directly to Young.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco is paying $76 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Sourcefire and assuming outstanding equity awards for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.7 billion, including retention-based incentives. Cisco expects the acquisition to be slightly dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2014 due to normal purchase accounting adjustments and integration costs.  All shares of Sourcefire are expected to be delisted from the NASDAQ stock market by the close of business today.

DKSH and Cisco Transform Customer Service Experience in Malaysia

DKSH deploys Cisco Unified Contact Center Express improve agent productivity at DKSH

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 30 September 2013 – DKSH Malaysia, the leading Market Expansion Services provider in the country, has implemented Cisco® Unified Contact Center Express solutions to enhance the customer service experience for their Business Unit Healthcare. The solution will streamline contact center management and processes for agents at DKSH engaging with their pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer health customers.

A recent Benchmark Portal Study  demonstrated a positive relationship between the implementation of advanced technology in contact centers and increased caller satisfaction. For example, advanced call handling techniques reduce average queue time by anywhere from 12 to 43 per cent. Contact centers in the Benchmark Portal study improved first call resolution rates by 4 to 13 per cent compared to centers that do not have these technologies.

Using Cisco Unified Contact Center Express provides DKSH with improved customer experience with comprehensive contact management and sophisticated call routing capabilities. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express also includes an embedded reporting solution that offers a comprehensive view of contact center statistics at a glance.

Easy to deploy and use, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express delivers a highly secure, virtual, and sophisticated customer interaction management solution for up to 400 agents. It provides state-of-the-art built-in interactive voice response capability, and proactive customer service for an enhanced customer experience with integrated outbound call management capabilities. Multichannel features include handling voice, email, web-chat and social media inquiries.

The technology implementation aims to improve agent productivity and business results with real-time monitoring of distribution and reporting; first call resolution with the aid of chat features for expert technical advice; and reducing dropped calls.

Brocade and Aruba Collaborate to Eliminate Cisco Campus Lock-In

Relationship Focused On Delivering Effortless and Secure Network Mobility through Open Standards and Application of SDN

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 25, 2013 - Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) and Aruba Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), today announced a strategic relationship to deliver an open-standards based unified campus network to support secure mobility, the proliferation of mobile devices within campus environments, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives and emerging technologies, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN). The resulting integrated wired and wireless solution provides a best-of-breed approach that enables customers to eliminate vendor lock-in and reduce total cost of ownership by nearly half as compared to equivalent offerings.

Through this relationship, Brocade and Aruba will jointly develop and bring to market solutions across multiple industries, including U.S. federal government. With integrated solutions already deployed worldwide, Brocade and Aruba will collaborate on R&D to bring tighter integration for a simplified and agile wired and wireless campus network.

“Campus networks are buckling under the proliferation of today’s mobile initiatives, which makes this space ripe for disruption and ready for the application of intelligent solutions,” said Lloyd Carney, Chief Executive Officer, Brocade. “We view the campus network as the on-ramp to the virtualized data center and look forward to collaborating with Aruba to apply our cloud and SDN technologies to create a more unified and simplified solution.”

The shift to enterprise mobility breaks legacy three-tier network architectures with an overlay wireless tier. As a result, IT departments are struggling to provide differentiated experiences and security for an ever increasingly mobile user community and its growing number of devices and applications. To address these customer pain points, Brocade and Aruba are pairing the scalable and simplified network operation of Brocade® HyperEdge™ architecture with the rich context of user, device, application and location information inherent in the Aruba Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE) architecture to deliver secure mobile user experiences for customers. The result is a simplified, mobility-centric campus network solution that operates with context-based access and policy management for every user, regardless of how they connect.

“We believe customers have two choices to consider as they contend with the remarkable changes brought on by the growth of mobile devices and the BYOD trend,” said Dominic Orr, Chief Executive Officer, Aruba Networks. “The legacy, port-based route brings more complexity, lock-in and expense, whereas the mobility-centric approach from Aruba and Brocade is based on open standards and delivers the freedom of choice and lower costs.”

Brocade and Aruba will also embark on a broader technology initiative to apply SDN principles to campus networks. Utilizing open standards to replace legacy multi-tier network architectures, Brocade and Aruba engineers will work to develop a campus network virtualization solution designed to bring unprecedented performance and operational efficiencies, including:

Automated IT operations with zero-touch network expansion
Enriched peer-to-peer application experiences, such as Microsoft Lync and Apple AirPlay
Reduced acquisition costs compared to premiums associated with Cisco lock-in

“Over the past five years, Layer 3 Communications has deployed integrated wired and wireless solutions from Brocade and Aruba across numerous customer accounts, all of whom have benefited greatly from the increased automation and simplified network architectures,” said Rodney Turner, President and Chief Executive Officer, Layer 3 Communications. “The best-of-breed solutions from Brocade and Aruba enable our customers to appropriately unite the campus edge network with the core data center for an end-to-end solution and at a fraction of the acquisition and operating costs of other solutions.”

Brocade and Aruba are committed to helping current and prospective customers reach a desired end-state. Brocade will support customers and partners through this transition away from its current OEM products and to the strategic integrated solutions with Aruba.