In today’s hyperconnected world where seamless customer experience is the key to success, your network can often become the differentiator that helps you succeed. This is true not just for large enterprises, but also for small and medium businesses.
Through Cisco’s small and medium business portfolio, we have been bringing the latest technology to our SMB customers and helping them create secure, reliable networks that can be effortlessly setup, monitored and managed; all at prices that fit small business budgets.
The new Cisco Catalyst 1200 and 1300 series switches are the latest additions to our small and medium business portfolio of access switches with Linux-based OS that combine powerful network performance, simplified management, and reliability with a comprehensive suite of network features that enable the digital transformation of growing businesses and branch offices.
Cisco Catalyst 1200 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 1300 Series Switches
These switches have been designed to help customers focus on growing their business rather than spending their time managing IT, by offering the following benefits:
Simplicity – Simple management with web-based configuration, Cisco Business Mobile App and Cisco Business Dashboard. Auto discovery for easy integration with Collab and Wi-Fi products.
Flexibility – Ultimate business flexibility with Gigabit, Multigigabit and 10G connectivity, Gigabit or 10G uplinks, and PoE+ support up to 740W.
Security – Advanced security protocols providing a solid security foundation, ensuring privacy and business continuity.
Cisco Catalyst 1200 Series Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 1200 Series Switches are purpose-built for growing businesses, combining robust performance & reliability with ease of setup, monitoring & management. These switches provide comprehensive security capabilities, Layer 3 static routing features, & multiple PoE+ options to choose from.
Cisco Catalyst 1300 Series Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 1300 Series Switches are fixed, managed, enterprise-class Layer 3 switches designed for small and medium-sized business and branch offices. They offer advanced security features, front-panel stacking capabilities, gigabit, multi-gigabit and 10 gig-ethernet options, and Layer 3 RIP routing, with a POE+ budget up to 740W.
Which one do you need?
The following table compares the prominent features of Catalyst 1200 and 1300 series switches:
With the Cisco Catalyst 1200 and 1300 Series switches, there are no licenses to purchase, and software updates are available at no additional cost. The switches offer a limited lifetime warranty with one-year free phone support.
Customers who wish to deploy themselves can purchase the new Cisco Catalyst 1200 and 1300 series switches through eComm partners such as Amazon.com or other e-tailers. Cisco partners can contact their distributor of choice.
A new year is a great time to reflect on the past 12 months and create goals for the year ahead. This is especially important for small businesses, which have been so dramatically affected by the pandemic. As with many disruptive events, the pandemic has provided many lessons for small businesses to pull from.
We’ve narrowed it down to five resolutions small businesses should consider as you take on 2022.
1. Accelerate Innovation Whenever Possible
As COVID upended operations and sent companies of all sizes and all industries into chaos, it also revealed that innovation doesn’t always require a big budget, massive resources, or years to implement.
Small businesses had to embrace and accelerate innovation in order to survive. Many of us thought remote work and digital transformation were still a few years away and would come on gradually, but COVID quickly proved that notion wrong. We also learned that companies could pivot to remote workforces and online business models almost instantaneously. All it took was a crisis to show many small businesses that they are indeed capable of innovating quickly and cost-effectively.
As you journey into 2022, don’t overlook additional opportunities to accelerate innovation within your organization.
2. Embrace Change – Even in Your Technology
It can be hard to make meaningful change (hello, New Year’s resolutions), especially when that comes with a price tag. For small businesses, one of the priciest changes is most often with their technology solutions. Why fix something that’s not really broken?
With cloud-based services, managed networks, WiFi access, video conferencing, virtual desktops and more, small businesses discovered the benefits of new technology in the past 18 months. Benefits like keeping employees productive, collaborating, secure, and engaged — while also supporting a strong customer experience. These services even proved to be manageable in-house, reducing the need for external IT.
In 2022, keep an eye out for ways to further embrace change. This can be as simple as adopting a new conferencing solution or an end-to-end security platform.
3. Focus on the (Hybrid) Future
It’s important to remember that the work model changes imposed on us all over the last year and a half are likely here to stay. That means we still have some growing to do to transition from a fully remote to a hybrid work environment.
You might still have on-premises tech that was used to support your predominantly in-person workplace, plus whatever new technology your team embraced as you went remote. Video calls, remote file access and offsite employees are here to stay, which means your IT needs to work in a whole new way. It’s worth evaluating your current set up so you can efficiently and securely accommodate this new working model in 2022 and beyond.
4. Make the Move to Cloud-based Solutions
Pre-pandemic, the shift to cloud-based solutions was progressing slowly, with most small businesses still employing on-premises IT – servers, networks, desktop computers, and more. Cloud-based IT took off over the past year when businesses learned they could seamlessly move their technology, critical applications, and data off-premises and into the cloud.
This enabled employers to grant remote workers access to virtual desktops and applications from anywhere, with all the data and tools they need to remain productive and engaged. It also allowed businesses to reduce IT requirements, as well as costs (and headaches) in the process.
In 2022, cloud-delivered solutions and software-as-a-service (SaaS) will continue to deliver high value and enable small businesses to accelerate innovation and scale as needed. It’s like getting two resolutions in one.
5. Repeat: Security, security, SECURITY!
Pre-COVID, many small businesses may have felt a false sense of security, thinking themselves too small for hackers to hassle with. But the truth is – hackers don’t care how small your business is, they care about how weak your security is. So if you thought you were flying under their radar, think again.
Cybersecurity attacks can be devastating, and hackers seized the opportunity when businesses had employees began working from different locations and sometimes on personal devices. The good news is that, with cloud-based solutions, it’s now easier and more affordable than ever to safeguard your data, devices, and business from attacks like these.
If you only resolve to do one thing as a small business in 2022, we highly encourage you to rethink your cybersecurity solutions. A powerful, yet simple, security approach can help protect your entire business – from your email to your network to your endpoints.
New Year, New Technology
With the new year in full swing, now is a good time to evaluate your current technology and see what, if anything, needs to be adjusted. Some questions to ask yourself:
◉ Are my technology environment and equipment ready to meet the moment and react to future crises?
◉ Do we have a flexible infrastructure than can easily adapt to change?
◉ Will our network bandwidth scale to meet the demands of an office full of people and days when most are working from home?
◉ Are we adequately protecting our people and their data?
◉ Will we continue collaborating through video conferencing or offering services and products online?
For some additional insights on these questions, check out recent episodes of the Cisco Designed “Small Business, Big Solutions” podcast to take a deeper dive into these topics and more.
Remote work is nothing new. In fact, it might be one of the most dominant phrases in 2020’s word cloud. The good news is that with the right technology in place, remote work can deliver benefits across your organization.
Cloud-delivered solutions enable remote workers to remain productive, efficient, and secure – even from the couch. All while helping drive down costs. And with the tips below, you can get even more out of your remote work experience.
Secure your remote workspaces
The three most important words in real estate are location, location, location. In remote work, they’re security, security, security.
The FBI has seen a 300 percent – yes 300 percent – increase in cybercrime since the start of COVID-19. With multiple sites to protect, and employees using home networks and personal devices, remote work opens you up to increased risk. You need to give your remote employees and your business the confidence to collaborate safely with security solutions that:
◉ Offer built-in encryption
◉ Ensure secure endpoint access for any device in your network
◉ Protect sensitive data with robust identity verification for users and devices
◉ Allow employees to communicate and share files securely
◉ Defend against threats with cloud-delivered security
Keep collaboration simple
Login issues, dropped connections, poor audio quality, and other issues like blurry video can affect your team’s ability to work together. Give your employees access to reliable, high-quality voice, video, and messaging in a single solution. Choose collaboration technology that allows employees to:
◉ Seamlessly communicate and collaborate across devices
◉ Share messages and files quickly 1:1 or with a whole team
◉ Quickly find conversations and documents
◉ Brainstorm using a digital whiteboard
◉ Integrate with the apps they use every day
◉ Record meetings and get automatic transcripts
Reduce IT complexity
IT should work for you, not vice versa. Make sure your collaboration technology helps you maximize your time while minimizing your IT hassles. To that end, look for simplified solutions that:
◉ Effortlessly integrate virtual meetings, calling, WiFi, and security
◉ Can easily be deployed and managed by employees who might not have IT skills
◉ Scale with you as your business needs change
Cisco Designed Secure Remote Work
Fortunately, you don’t have to look far to find the right work from anywhere technology. At Cisco, our small business portfolio includes the collaboration and security solutions you need to simplify, secure, and support your remote work environments. With Cisco Designed Secure Remote Work, you get everything your business needs to deliver an exceptional remote work experience.
◉ Cisco Webex®: Make it easy for your remote teams to meet, securely share messages and files, search for information, private message, group chat, brainstorm, and work together efficiently.
◉ Cisco Secure Access by Duo: Protect your remote workers’ sensitive data with robust two-factor security that verifies the identity of users, devices, and applications attempting to access your data.
◉ Cisco UmbrellaTM: Protect remote users wherever they’re working with flexible, fast, and effective front-line security by blocking malicious destinations before a connection is established.
◉ Cisco Cloud Mailbox Defense: Scan all your email, internal and external, without difficult technical challenges or interrupting the regular delivery of messages from the cloud while detecting and blocking threats.
For every small business, it’s essential to keep people healthy and safe. Like the old saying goes, safety first. And now with COVID-19, monitoring workplace hazards is an even higher priority. No matter how small your business might be, as an employer, you need to keep your workers and customers safe without disrupting the flow of business.
Using a combination of smart cameras and sensors, and collaboration tools, you can monitor your workplace and support social distancing and density limit policies. And apps for smartphones and wearables can help with employee health monitoring and contact tracing.
Beyond the technology, you need to take a three-pronged approach to help make sure everyone stays safe during the pandemic and beyond. You need to develop policies to prevent hazards, ensure that your safety procedures are implemented, and respond when emergencies arise.
Fortunately, easy to use technology can help in each of these areas.
1. Develop safety policies and procedures to prevent hazards
Effective workplace hazard monitoring goes hand-in-hand with well-designed safety policies. The US Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has issued some general guidelines on preparing workplaces for COVID-19. OSHA recommends that all employers create an infectious disease preparedness and response plan for addressing the coronavirus as well as other potential health hazards. Similar codes exist around the globe. A well-designed plan should consider how workers might be exposed to COVID-19 through other workers, customers, and contacts outside the workplace. It should also factor in workers’ individual risk factors, such as age or pre-existing health conditions.
General preventive measures that OSHA advises employers to implement include:
◉ Exploring policies that can promote social distancing, such as telecommuting or flexible work hours
◉ Providing personal protective equipment, such as masks or goggles, as well as training for using such equipment
◉ Promoting hand washing
◉ Providing hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol when hand-washing facilities aren’t available
◉ Encouraging workers to follow respiratory etiquette practices such as covering coughs and sneezes
◉ Advising sick workers to stay home
◉ Disinfecting surfaces and equipment regularly
◉ Discouraging workers from using other workers’ desks, phones, and equipment when possible
In addition to preventive policies, OSHA advises employers to develop policies and procedures for prompt identification and isolation of potentially infected workers. Such procedures can range from providing a separate room for workers exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms to instructing sick workers to stay home.
Technology can play a major role in helping employers implement these guidelines. For example, by using smart cameras in conjunction with analytics, you can gain a better understanding of how people move around your space so you can redesign workflows. Collaboration tools help simplify remote work and make it easier to manage staggered shifts where some people are in the office and some are not. Remote collaboration tools should include robust security features and be connected using network switches and routers that are user-friendly, flexible, and secure.
2. Monitor your workplace with smart cameras
Smart video cameras can be a valuable tool for monitoring the workplace to promote safety measures against COVID-19. Today’s cameras can be used for far more than simply physical security. They form part of a wireless ecosystem that small businesses can use for a wide range of applications. For example, Cisco Meraki MV smart cameras are used in retail environments for counting customers and analyzing floor traffic patterns to help optimize in-store marketing. That same technology can be deployed to collect information that supports workplace safety policies.
For example, let’s say your facility has a social distancing policy that requires workers to stay at least six feet apart. Just because people know the policy exists doesn’t necessarily mean it will be followed. Surveillance cameras can provide transparency and accountability and help you identify the areas of your facility that are most prone to social distancing issues. Armed with this information, you can take steps to remedy problems in those parts of your premises.
Ideally, a strategic plan for monitoring your small business with surveillance cameras should follow a three-step procedure:
◉ Install a smart camera surveillance system that can show you where people are, where they go, and what they’re doing.
◉ Connect your smart surveillance system to a cloud network that lets you review and analyze footage through a central dashboard
◉ Assess the footage and access the video analytics for object detection and motion heatmaps to support safer workplace policies and procedures
Cutting-edge smart cameras such as Cisco Meraki MV can pick up more information that just images. The built-in intelligence includes motion heatmaps that display relative movement over time so you can see traffic patterns and object detection that shows you where people are, so you can see where they’re congregating and where they linger.
For purposes of preventing COVID-19, you can track where workers and customers are congregating on your premises and whether there are any motion patterns that conflict with your social distancing policies. You can then review these movement patterns and determine whether measures such as installing barriers or rerouting traffic might help promote safer social distancing.
Workplace monitoring also can help you monitor worker behavior. For example, you can make sure hand washing and sanitizing procedures are being followed. Healthcare providers have long been aware that simply having hand hygiene policies does not guarantee their enforcement. On average, healthcare providers wash their hands less than half as often as they should, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A study by the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center found that healthcare workers are twice as likely to comply with hand washing policies when they know they are being monitored. Now some hospitals are installing digital sensors and apps to monitor how frequently workers wash their hands. The MV campers let you view video quickly with motion recap, which summarizes activity into a single image, so you don’t have to scroll through a lot of irrelevant video to get answers.
Smart surveillance cameras can also help promote policies requiring workers to wear masks. When workers know they’re being monitored, they’re more likely to comply with mask mandates. Cameras can help reduce the need for unpleasant confrontations and heavy-handed measures. Surveillance cameras can be particularly useful for monitoring parts of your facility where workers are most likely to neglect social distancing and mask-wearing policies, such as break rooms.
3. Identify and resolve issues
In addition to preventive measures, a viable COVID-19 workplace safety policy must include procedures for identifying and addressing situations where workers are displaying coronavirus symptoms or are already infected. This is another area where using the right technology tools can help you implement safety policies.
Some employers have adopted temperature checks and other diagnostic screening procedures as a way to identify workers with coronavirus symptoms. One way to protect screeners is by using telehealth technology to support social distancing during screening. By pairing smartphones with smart thermometers, you can take your temperature with your iPhone or Android device. Using this type of technology can allow workers to provide temperature readings to employers from a socially safe distance.
Stay safe and wash your hands
The Cisco Designed portfolio includes technology that is curated specifically for small businesses. We can help you set up tools for safe distancing and real-time monitoring.
Digital disruption is affecting every market sector and every industry, every organisation and every user. Yet, innovating often seems slow and complex, and changes are awkwardly interdependent. This make it difficult to communicate in a clear way ‘what’ needs to be done, and even more so to explain ‘why’ and ‘how’. Cisco’s Business Architecture Center of Excellence (BA CoE) was set up to solve exactly this problem: How can Cisco help you, our customers, deliver business impact at speed, through agile and interactive collaboration with both business & IT. Interested? Read on.
Last week at Gartner’s IT Xpo in Barcelona, the focus of Cisco’s booth (see picture below) laid squarely on innovation and how we can accelerate our customers’ business transformation. This was a timely opportunity for me to recap how Business Architects work with our customers, in close collaboration with our partners, our professional services (Customer eXperience, CX), and other innovation-focused groups within Cisco.
Cisco Booth at Gartner IT Xpo: Leading with Innovation
On the left of the booth, experts from Cisco IT shared their experiences – both positive and negative – of running Enterprise IT. They outlined to attendees how Cisco gradually transformed its internal IT operating model to focus on business innovation, improve service quality, increase employee satisfaction, and all this while lowering costs. On the right, Cisco’s Co-Innovation Centers (CIC) team showcased how Cisco works with a varied partner ecosystem to co-create new solutions answering today’s business and societal problems. Examples presented ranged from a system that connects the unconnected in rural areas, to partnerships that increase road safety, and to solutions that improve connectivity on trains.
And in the center, Cisco’s Business Architecture Center of Excellence (BA CoE) tied everything together by detailing the 6 steps we take with our customers to deliver innovation at speed:
1. We create a CxO-level 1-page strategy that connects technology investments with the company’s mission, bringing together a unified digital agenda in a visual way;
2. We harness vertical trends and spell out the business drivers in terms that both Business and IT understand and can act upon;
3. We bridge the gap between Business & IT and gradually transform the IT department into the driver of Digital Transformation;
4. We co-create innovative solutions to answer the most pressing business challenges, leveraging the power of Design Thinking and our partner ecosystem;
5. Through a set of IT “Strategic Plays”, we build the multi-domain architecture that will accelerate business innovation — and we justify the Return on Investment (“IT as a Business”);
6. We continuously orchestrate a healthy Customer eXperience (CX) for our customers, focused on delivering ongoing, mutual business success.
So why are we doing this again? Because driving digital transformation in today’s complex, multi-faceted environment is not evident. Powered by a community of 200 Business Architects (BAs) active throughout the globe, Cisco can help you, our customers, innovate in unique and compelling way:
◉ Practice over theory: for many consultants, conceiving a digital strategy becomes an objective in itself. But really, it’s only paper until the business and the users feel the benefits in their day-to-day interactions. So Cisco Business Architects avoid wasting your precious time and resources on theoretical reports – and instead, we implement real solutions, with visible and tangible impact to your key stakeholders.
◉ Agile and Visual: we proceed quickly and through continuous iterations. The first one is usually completed within 1 or 2 weeks. Fail fast: if you don’t like it, we rapidly change course until we get it right. Communication is key, so we facilitate collaborative workshops powered by Design Thinking and we share the business outcomes through powerful infographics.
◉ Share and Partner: We leverage best practices from our customers all over the world, from multiple sectors, as well as from Cisco’s own internal transformation. We openly share our lessons learned and the solutions we created. We engage our ecosystem of partners to bring you the industry expertise you need, with the impeccable execution you expect.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the 6 phases of a typical BA-led engagement, summarized in the figure below.
Deliver Business Impact at Speed, with Cisco Business Architecture
1. Create the big picture
Cisco Business Architects create a CxO-level, one-page strategy called “Digital Journey Dashboard” (DJD). The DJD is a large infographic that depicts the way your organisation’s strategic business drivers (the ‘why’) connect to your next-gen IT operating model (the ‘how’) and to the multi-domain architecture that will accelerate your business innovation (the ‘what’). It balances the long-term, structural transformation initiatives (the ‘marathon’) with “Business Innovation Sprints” focused on delivering tangible & visible value to the business.
The DJD helps the CIO explain and communicate the digital journey in a manner that is accessible, actionable and easy to understand by business stakeholders, but also by the people in the IT department. It connects future technology investments with the company’s mission and visualizes the unified plan that will deliver business impact at speed.
The power of storytelling and visualization to drive digital transformation
Working in close partnership with our Customer eXperience Centers (CXC), the Business Architects use the DJD to frame the overall, long-term partnership between you and Cisco: rather than pitching our products, we start from your business objectives and derive which challenges we need to focus on first. Only then do we bring into action our technology solutions, our rich partner ecosystem, and our professional services (Customer eXperience, CX).
Build a one-page Strategy to chart your journey to Digital (click to download pdf)
2. Spell out the business drivers
Cisco Business Architects are skilled and tooled to harness the trends specific to your industry/market and spell out the key objectives related to your business drivers, for example:
◉ Customer Experience: How can we deliver an end-to-end, engaging, personalised, omni-channel experience to our customers?
◉ Workforce Experience: How can we evolve the day-to-day working experience of our employees, driving productivity & empowering a forward-looking culture?
◉ Digital First and Data Insights: How can we make better decisions, increase relevancy, availability and speed with advanced analytics and AI?
◉ Co-innovation and Partnerships: How can we run Joint Living Labs with trusted partners to deliver business innovation at speed?
◉ Risk, Security and Compliance: How can we protect and secure our assets to avoid penalties/fines/brand damage, balancing risk with innovation & value to our customers?
◉ Culture of Partnership & Change: How can IT improve trust and open dialog with the business to accelerate impact to market with high quality?
Using powerful Design Thinking tools and engaging with both Business & IT, we crystalize the initiatives that will realize these objectives and express them in terms that everyone understands and can act upon:
Customer Workshop involving Business & IT stakeholders, powered by Design Thinking
Working in close collaboration with Cisco’s Industry Solutions Group (ISG), Business Architects explore the use cases and solutions that are making a difference in your sector. Most often, these solutions require the involvement of specialized partners, able to cater for the unique challenges and opportunities in front of you.
3. Bridge the gap between business and IT
Cisco Business Architects understand the pivotal role played by the CIO and the IT department, repositioning IT from a mere ‘cost center’ to a leader of Digital Transformation. Nearly always, this requires a profound, ongoing evolution of the IT Operating Model, to bridge the gap between Business and IT. But you might wonder how exactly Cisco can provide credible recommendations in this area, since you would usually engage with Cisco on technology-related topics. Enter Cisco IT – yes, that’s our own internal IT department.
For a long time, Cisco has viewed IT as a critical enabler of our business strategy – in fact, we view our IT capabilities as a key competitive differentiator in our ability to deliver the best products, services and solutions to our customers. And in order to quickly adapt to changing business environments and address emerging opportunities and markets, we continuously evolve and fine-tune our IT Operating model.
Why does it matter to you? Because our experts from Cisco IT openly share our lessons learned, covering a whole span of topics, including:
◉ Strategy and Governance: How to be clear and transparent about what the IT department must do, who should do it, when/how, and above all, why?
◉ People, Culture & Communication: How to ensure that IT personnel is embracing and driving the change required by the new digital agenda?
◉ Architecture & IT Service Management: How to architect a service-oriented model, present all IT services through a portal, and automate their delivery to the user?
◉ Service Delivery & Agile Project Management: How can agile principles accelerate speed of innovation and project time-to-market?
◉ Sourcing and Financial Models: How to optimize IT budget and resources through modern consumption and procurement models?
◉ Future Skills and Roles: How to develop skills of the future so that IT can proactively meet the new business requirements?
Cisco IT can help you benchmark where your IT Department stands today in each of these areas (“AS-IS” State), define where your IT capabilities ought to be to meet and exceed the expectations of the business and users (“TO-BE” State) – and of course, help you get from AS-IS to TO-BE.
Cisco IT as Customer Zero
Leveraging the lessons learned from Cisco IT’s own transformation over the last decade, you can avoid the pitfalls we encountered and accelerate your transformation projects. Discover how on our “Cisco on Cisco” portal.
4. Solve business-critical challenges, using Design Thinking
In a 1.5-day collaborative workshop powered by Design Thinking techniques, Cisco Business Architects can help you harmonize the viewpoints of the business executives and IT leaders inside your organization. We call this a “Business Innovation Sprint” (BIS):
Defining “Business Innovation Sprint”
I underlined the word “prescriptive”, because it’s the secret to success of BIS. There are literally hundreds of Design Thinking tools available — and selecting which ones are right for you can be daunting. Following dozens of customer engagements, Cisco Business Architect have made this selection and developed a framework and a process proven to accelerate the speed at which our customers innovate. Effectively, we lower barrier to entry to Design Thinking by providing tested workshop agendas, trainings, tools, templates, etc.
Business Innovation Sprint in action, powered by Design Thinking
Phrasing the Challenge Statement is a critical input to a Business Innovation Sprint. The right BIS Challenge Statement usually aligns to one of these four customer imperatives:
Here are some examples of past challenges we have worked out with customers:
1. “Reimagine your applications” (with a Retail customer) – “How might we… improve our customers’ experience by combining online & offline across the journey, and increase revenue and profitability per customer?”
2. “Secure your data” (with a Financial Services customer) – “How might we… remain compliant while removing friction and delays caused by security procedures?”
3. “Transform your infrastructure” (with a Manufacturing customer) – “How might we… redesign the process of adding a new OT machine in our network in order to reduce provisioning time from 6 months to 1 week?”
4. “Empower your teams” (with a Government customer) – “How might we… rethink the way our internal teams collaborate in order to improve employee happiness, team productivity and cross-functional collaboration?”
The Business Innovation Sprint allows us to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) — and because your key stakeholders were involved from the start, we are sure to address their needs and expectations. Cisco Business Architects can then engage one of Cisco’s Co-Innovation Centers (CIC) and/or our regional/global partners to bring the MVP to life, i.e. in production.
5. Build the multi-domain architecture to accelerate innovation
It’s plain and simple: silos kill innovation. Unfortunately, more often than not, technology investments are made case by case – in silo – without looking at the big picture. In order to flourish, innovation needs a platform – a secure, digital platform architected to support and accelerate your business transformation.
This is why Cisco Business Architects make sure each investment you make to fund a Business Innovation Sprint contributes to the gradual built-out of your long-term, multi-domain architecture. At the end of the day, this architecture is going to be your key competitive differentiator, whether you are a university trying to improve services to students and researchers; a bank looking to cross-sell adjacent services to existing customers; or a hospital on a mission to radically change how patients are being cared for.
Business decision makers – who hold the purse strings – find it hard to connect their strategic objectives with the technicalities of architecting this digital platform. This is why it falls upon IT to EXPLAIN and JUSTIFY.
EXPLAIN the linkage between IT’s “Strategic Plays” and the outcomes delivered to the business
Cisco Business Architects leverage the SCIPAB framework to structure and visualize the impact of IT’s “Strategic Plays” in the context of the customer’s Digital Transformation Strategy:
◉ Situation: Objectively, what’s the current state of the business, technology, industry, and/or mega trends?
◉ Complication: What are the critical issues (changes, pressures, demands, etc.) that are impacting the Situation and creating problems or opportunities?
◉ Implication: What are the consequences of failing to act on the problems or opportunities described in the Complication?
◉ Position: We then clearly and confidently state the strategic direction to solve the problems and reap the benefits.
◉ Action: We explain the role everyone needs to play and the key initiatives that will be undertaken in the next few weeks.
◉ Benefit: We describe how the recommended Position and Action will address the stakeholders’ needs, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Over the years, Cisco Business Architects have developed dozens of SCIPAB storyboards, similar to the one below.
Example of a SCIPAB Storyboard focused on the Employee Collaboration Strategic IT Play (click to download pdf)
JUSTIFY the investment through a financial analysis and ROI model
IT as a Business, or ITaaB, is a structured engagement process and tooling which enable Cisco Business Architects to develop a financial value proposition and demonstrate to your business stakeholders the Capability, Cost, Compliance and Calendar (speed) benefits of evolving towards a multi-domain architecture. Typical areas of focus include: Secure Access, Secure SD-WAN, and Secure DC Network.
ITaaB is a structured process to develop a financial value proposition
6. Create a virtuous lifecycle for ongoing success
Today’s IT projects are more complex and interdependent than ever, spanning multiple technology domains and affecting a myriad of stakeholders. Environments and requirements change every day. In-house IT teams are always short on resources and critical skills.
In this context, success relies on the effective orchestration of all involved parties throughout the business transformation lifecycle.
How Business Architects orchestrate innovation, in 6 steps
Cisco Business Architects are the orchestrators. The tools that we have developed over many years (e.g. Digital Journey Dashboard, Business Innovation Sprints, SCIPAB, ITaaB LITE) empower us to build bridges and establish an open collaboration and clear communication between our customers, our rich partner ecosystem, our professional services (Customer eXperience, CX), as well as engaging the many parties within Cisco focused on customer innovation, including Cisco IT, Industry Solutions Group, Co-Innovation Centers, Customer eXperience (CX), Partner Organisation, etc.
When your business is growing, you need your network to enable that growth, not stand in the way of it. So, it’s important to have a network that you know you can rely on. This is why we designed the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches – providing flexibility, simplicity, and security for deployments of up to 250 users.
Flexible, so you can allocate resources intelligently
Small businesses are known for agility, so your network requirements may change over time. The great news is, the Catalyst 1000 switches fit a host of use cases, whether you’re adding connectivity for an increase in staff or bringing online a host of Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
For example, Catalyst 1000 provides both flexibility and redundancy to your network with horizontal stacking. This is helpful in the age of pay as you go, which allows stacking over Small Form Factor (SFP) and Enhanced SFP (SFP+) front-panel ports. This way, you can keep adding switches to the network as needed. Up to eight switches can be part of a single stack, all functioning as a single switch with unified management/control plane and distributed control plane.
The compact, fanless design of the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series means it does not need to be placed in a wiring closet, but instead can sit in an open-plan office, day spa, or classroom without disturbing the environment.
The series also offers a greater PoE budget, which means you can run more devices per port. Plus, Perpetual PoE ensures that the connected devices retain power in the event of a switch reboot.
Simple, so you can do more, easier and faster
Not all businesses have the luxury of experienced, dedicated IT professionals to keep their networks running. Even if they do, it’s likely that each IT person has to wear multiple hats. For this reason, we have built in several features that help save on network management time.
One of these features is an on-box intuitive WebUI, called Cisco Configuration Professional (CCP). CCP provides you with a wizard for day-0 setup, day-N provisioning, image upgrades, troubleshooting, diagnostics, system monitoring, and a client view.
Smart Managed models in the series are only managed through the WebUI, while the fixed managed switches offer complete access to the command-line interface (CLI) for those network administrators who prefer greater control over their management.
Other time-saving features include the ability to connect via a Bluetooth dongle, and automatic switch recovery. You can access the user interface through Bluetooth connectivity by pairing the switch to a computer – helpful when the switch is tucked away somewhere hard to reach. With automatic switch recovery, you can configure automatic recovery on the switch to recover from the error-disabled state after the specified period of time.
To demonstrate how easy it is to use, we asked a customer why they recommend the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches over any other competitor’s switches or even pro/consumer options.
“Adding users, access points, and changing port types and VLAN settings can all be accomplished in minutes. The user interface is designed for people with minimal technical knowledge – and the device pretty much configures itself.”
—John House, Senior IT Network Administrator for Transpo Systems
Secure and reliable, so you can grow with confidence
Even smaller networks must serve multiple functions, and the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches make it easy to meet competing demands with expanded support for VLANs. Larger-scale access control tables enable network administrators to segment traffic for greater security and control. The series runs classic Cisco IOS, one of the most hardened networking operating systems ever released. Advanced security features like 802.1x authentication and IPv6 First Hop Security provide additional protection.
When a business is running in high gear, you need to be confident that your networking gear is going to keep running as well. Reliability has been built into the Catalyst 1000 series. When the only space you have to place the switch is in an unventilated closet, the extended operating temperature range is a boon. And with Perpetual PoE, your endpoints will continue to have power even if the switch must be rebooted.
Upgrade from the Catalyst 2960-L switch series
The Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series is the upgrade for the Catalyst 2960-L series. Compared to the C2960-L, the C1000 series has improved hardware reliability, more advanced software options, and provides expanded support for VLANs.
All in all, the Catalyst 1000 series offers cost-effective connectivity that is ideal for a variety of network needs:
◈ Branch offices with conventionally wired workspaces with PC, IP phones, Wireless Access Points, Cash Registers and printers, etc.
◈ Building infrastructure networks to connect physical security, sensors and control systems; and any application requiring Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and a low total cost of ownership.
The Catalyst 1000 series switches are also backed by our enhanced limited lifetime hardware warranty. This provides next-business-day delivery of replacement hardware where available and 90 days of 8×5 Cisco Technical Assistance Center.
Flexible, simple and secure, the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series switches deliver enterprise-grade quality sized for small deployments.
With cloud, virtualization, internet of things, 11ac and Wifi 6, businesses need a high-performance network to support the growing devices, applications and traffic. 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE) may sound like an overkill for small and midsize businesses (SMB) a few years ago, but today it has increasingly become a necessity.
Cisco Small Business team develops networking technologies tailored for SMB. In 2014, we launched our 1st 10GE switch for SMB market. In 2016, we expanded our 10GE switch line to 8 models. And now, we’re bringing our 10GE offering to the next level.
Cisco SX350X and SX550X 10GE Switches
The new offering includes 11 models – 5 in the 350X series and 6 in 550X series. The port density starts from just 8 ports of 10GE all the way to 52 ports. And there is a diverse selection of 10GE copper, 10GE fiber or mixed config models for different use cases. Most importantly, these switches are now more affordable – perfect for SMB to upgrade their network with limited investment.
The switches also come with a bunch of exciting features including
◆ 4 x combo 10GE uplinks for maximum flexibility
◆ Larger packet buffer to handle burst in traffic
◆ Trustworthy systems including secure boot and run time defense for security
◆ Stackable with existing SG550XG and SG350XG 10G switches for investment protection
Embedded FindIT Probe and Cisco PnP Connect
In the recent software updates, we have introduced some exciting new capabilities. These are all to make the deployment and operation of the switches even more intuitive and secure. Download the software updates for your switches at Cisco Software Central.
Why Cisco 100-500 series switches an ideal option for SMB?
SMB loves 100-500 series switches for the following reasons
◈ Simple, easy to use UI – No CLI skill required
◈ Warranty support model – limited lifetime hardware warranty and software updates
The Cisco Small Business and the Cisco FindIT Product Teams are very pleased to announce the release of version 2.0 of the Cisco FindIT Network Manager and Probe. Some of the improvements mean that some use cases are now in play especially with larger scale scenarios. We think you all will be impressed by what the team has been able to accomplish!
This is a major update to Cisco FindIT and brings a couple of big improvements:
◈ A completely revised interaction model that greatly improves your ability to perform multi-site management. You can view, report and act on devices across multiple sites at the same time, and configuration profiles can now also be applied across multiple sites.
◈ Managed Services Providers will like the introduction of organizations. These allow you to group your customers’ networks together and filter your view to a single customer. You can also limit individual users to being able to view and manage only a single organization or a subset of organizations. This means you can even give your customers direct access to FindIT so they can see their networks without having any concerns that they will see the networks of any other customer.
◈ In-house IT Organizations will also love the new improvements of the multi-site, multi-tenancy as well the ability to manage separate sites easier, quicker and with greater efficiency. This allows organizations to do more with less.
In addition to these big changes, there are a number of smaller enhancements, including:
◈ Wireless reports are now more flexible and interactive, and keep a greatly extended history; up to two years’ worth of network data
◈ The FindIT Monitoring Dashboard has been reworked to allow it to be customized more easily and intuitively
◈ Cisco FindIT Network Manager now scales more flexibly than before. Previously, the limitation was by the number of sites, now this limitation is by the total number of devices under management
◈ Privacy controls have been added so you can explicitly control how and when any data gets shared with Cisco
◈ The installer packages and virtual machine images have been cryptographically signed to give you confidence that the software has not been modified or tampered with in any way
◈ In addition, numerous other enhancements and improvements have been made throughout the application.
Finally, for those of you who are interested in using our Cisco FindIT 2.0 Network Plug and Play for doing zero-touch deployments (No need to pre-configure or pre-stage) of your network hardware, we have put together the Network Plug and Play Solution Guide for SMB that goes through everything that you need to get the zero-touch process up and running. This is a big improvement!
Our team is very excited by this release, and we hope you think so too. For existing users, you should already have been notified about the update through the FindIT Manager user interface. For new users, go to https://www.cisco.com/go/findit-sw to download the software and try it out, or search for ‘Cisco FindIT’ in the AWS Marketplace. Remember, you may download and try FindIT for up to 90 days without any obligation.
How can I get full visibility into all IT assets that I own and use?
How can I control and centralize access to my IT assets and entitlements?
How do I manage my IT assets and associated entitlements in a cost-effective way?
I already have an ITAM solution to manage all my procured assets from multiple vendors, can I integrate with Cisco for the investments we have made with Cisco?
How do I automate license deployments and management from our environment with Cisco’s cloud-based licensing platform?
These are questions that I hear from IT managers and administrators every day. That’s why I am happy to tell you about our secure interoperable asset and entitlement management platform —My Cisco Entitlements (MCE). Based on the principle of transparency, standards and security, My Cisco Entitlements provides a convenient platform for customers and partners to manage all their post-sales Cisco IT assets and entitlements.
Smart Accounts – The Foundation of MCE
Smart Accounts and ISO Compliant Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provides the foundation for MCE. Cisco Smart Accounts were initially created as a time-saving way for customers to organize, use, and manage their Smart Licenses and associated entitlements. MCE extends the concept of Smart Accounts to manage all of Cisco licenses, devices, services, and subscriptions. For Cisco, this is the first time we connect the services and licensing worlds. It brings together license deployment information such as serial numbers with service product identifiers.
Benefits of MCE—Full Visibility, Centralized User Access, and Actionable Insights
When MCE connects services and licensing together, it provides benefits such as full visibility to all assets and entitlements, centralized user access management, and simplified install base reconciliation. Smart Account admins can control access on who views and manages assets.
The MCE dashboard summarizes the health of your products and services. It identifies risk areas such as upcoming Contract Expiration and Last Date of Support (LDoS) dates. For a specific insight, you drill down and view details. Then you can export and act based on this information.
By providing multiple interconnected views, MCE simplifies install base discovery and reconciliation. The “Devices” view captures all of the service coverage and related telemetry data. In addition, users can view all of the licenses deployed on that device enabling them to initiate device-led operations such as license rehosts.
We’ve normalized a “License” feature-based view across classic, smart and cloud licenses. No matter how you purchased the license – individual or bundled in an Enterprise Agreement – you will see it in one inventory. You have the ability to see the service coverage or subscription, as well as all of the devices where that license has been deployed.
The “Service and Subscriptions” view captures all of your technical support contracts and software subscriptions in one inventory. You can also view links to the licenses or devices covered in any contract. Using various views and functionalities like global search, users can quickly search across device, licenses, services, and subscriptions to find all related data for their search term.
Automation and Scale with APIs
While we’ve built these experiences for online access, we recognize that automation of the tasks required to keep your records in sync with Cisco needs to scale. Customers and partners are increasingly adopting IT Asset Management Systems to automate tasks in maintaining compliance across vendors. These tools manage entitlements from Enterprise Agreements, purchases, and other records to automatically determine and optimize assets and entitlement positions against discovered hardware and software.
To execute these tasks in a cost-effective way, MCE will allow all operations available online to be executed with ISO standards-based APIs. Using the same secure Smart Account, customers and partners will be able to maintain their investments in multi-vendor IT Asset Management solutions without the redundant and manual operations to keep them in sync.
MCE allows integration of all online functionalities to be executed with ISO standards-based APIs. MCE also provides service automation platforms for license generation, consumption, and reporting. In the future, we will offer MACDs (Move Add Change Delete) for service SLA management. Integration for Partner Support Services (PSS) to route cases to partners will also be available.
Cisco offers a number of Smart Account and Smart Licensing related APIs including Smart Account Search, Create and Delete, Validation of User Access, License Consumption, Usage, Alerts and Management, and Device Management.
MCE will offer APIs for:
◈ IEC/ISO 19770 Compliant XML for software, hardware and agreements
◈ Smart Account structure and user access management
◈ Asset Management (MACDs)
◈ Direct transaction processing such as Download SW, Case Open, License, SaaS Consumption Management
MCE delivers on our vision for secure, interoperable Asset and Entitlement Management with customers and partners. I look forward to sharing more in the future as we continue to evolve our capabilities.
Making an investment in IT is more critical today than ever before for a small- to medium-size business. With so many open-air business settings and anywhere, any location workspace bring technology up close and personal. Cisco’s insight into saving space and reducing noise makes everyone—from librarians to your coworkers—happier than ever.
We live in a connected world of phones, laptops and tablets in our hands, and we’re surrounded by our technology of whiteboards, routers, wireless access points, and switches that connect multiple devices on the same network within a building or campus. A switch is necessary because it enables connected devices to share information and talk to each other.
Cisco’s Catalyst 2960-L fanless switch.
Why does a feature like fanless matter? Fanless means quiet and compact. Compact because the use of fans requires airspace and airflow. A fanless switch can be put in smaller spaces that wouldn’t normally work. A typical network switch is a bit noisy. Some networks range from a hum to what is best described as “helicopter-like whirling. That can be distracting in offices, retail, hospitality or clinics where noise can be an issue.” Being fanless opens up options for smaller organizations to create a robust network in smaller spaces than before.
The Cisco Catalyst 2960-L has been designed for just an environment. The Cisco Catalyst 2960-L Series switch isn’t just any fanless switch: it’s the industry’s first 24-port and 48 port 1 Gbps, POE, fanless switch.
Reliable, Secure and Intuitive
The Cisco Catalyst 2960-L includes a host of reliability and security features that come with Cisco IOS. And the Cisco Catalyst 2960-L is preloaded with Cisco Configuration Professional for Catalyst (CCPC) built-in. CCPC provides users with an easy-to-use and intuitive graphical interface to configure, manage and monitor a standalone, stack or cluster of Cisco Catalyst switches.
Key features that solve problems for SMBs:
◉ Quiet and cool operations — You won’t even know it’s there
◉ Small form factor — Great for mounting in confined spaces to be inconspicuous for hospitality, cruise ships, healthcare or retail locations.
◉ Perpetual PoE — Power over Ethernet for all connected devices avoids unnecessary power cabling to connect to the switch.
◉ Automatic switch recovery — No touch recovery. You can also configure automatic recovery on the switch to recover from the error-disabled state after the specified period of time.
◉ Bluetooth connectivity — You can access the Command-Line Interface (CLI) through Bluetooth connectivity by pairing the switch to a computer.
◉ Cost-effective connectivity — Ideal for branch offices, wired workspaces and infrastructure networks; conventionally wired workspaces with PC, phones and printers; building infrastructure networks to connect physical security, sensors and control systems; and any application requiring fast Ethernet connectivity and a low total cost of ownership.
◉ Enhanced limited lifetime hardware warranty — Next-business-day delivery of replacement hardware where available and 90 days of 8×5 Cisco Technical Assistance Center.
◉ Built-in web-based GUI: Catalyst 2960-L supports a day-zero GUI called Cisco Configuration Professional for Catalyst (CCPC) to help with easy deployment of the switch without the need for a CLI.
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