The IT Nerd

AppDynamics, part of Cisco and the world’s #1 Application Performance Monitoring (APM) solution and full-stack, business centric observability platform, today announced the appointment of Rebecca Leach as Country Manager for AppDynamics Canada. Based in Toronto, Rebecca will oversee AppDynamics’ continued expansion in the Canadian market.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, AppDynamics has helped customers throughout Canada shift to digital and support technologists who have found themselves under pressure and in need of observability tools to manage their complex IT stack. In the recent Agents of Transformation Report, 64 per cent of Canadian technologists interviewed said the pandemic had exposed weaknesses in digital strategies and 69 per cent of Canadian IT professionals said digital transformation projects had been implemented in weeks rather than the months or years it would have taken before the pandemic. AppDynamics supports businesses across industries in Canada to help prevent digital performance issues by monitoring cloud-native technologies and traditional infrastructure to understand exactly what drives user experiences and impacts the bottom line for businesses. 

Prior to joining the AppDynamics team, Rebecca was General Manager of Software Sales for Cisco in Canada, where she also acted as the lead for the company’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy in Canada. At AppDynamics, Rebecca will be responsible for growing the Canadian business with a focus on key sectors including government, finance and retail. Rebecca is also looking to continue her diversity and inclusion efforts as she cultivates a world-class team.

Recognizing the impact COVID-19 has had on IT teams now managing a surge of digital demands, pressure and accelerated timelines of digital transformation projects, AppDynamics is extending support to businesses with the offer of a free trial of its APM software and one-on-one meetings with a consultant. Visit https://www.appdynamics.com/covid-19/assist-program to get started.

AppDynamics, part of Cisco and the world’s #1 APM solution, announced its partnership with connected health developer, Nouveal e-santé to improve the performance of its latest solution, Covidom. Covidom is an app that allows remote monitoring of patients with COVID-19, created specifically to simplify remote medical monitoring, improve service logistics for individuals in quarantine and enable contract tracing for people who have come in contact with or been recently diagnosed with COVID-19.

Nouveal e-santé implemented AppDynamics Application Performance Monitoring (APM) to monitor the performance of the application as the company quickly developed new features and capabilities, ensuring users would continue to receive a flawless digital experience regardless of updates being made on the backend. By partnering with AppDynamics, Covidom was able to successfully scale from a rate of supporting 20,000 patients a year to 20,000 patients in two hours without any disruption in service, reducing the strain on hospitals and healthcare professionals and helping to manage the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

When COVID-19 hit in March, France was one of the most significantly impacted countries in Europe. The country needed a solution to quickly free up healthcare organizations from unnecessary patient visits so that they could focus resources on those with severe symptoms. Nouveal e-santé knew that in order to create a platform that could scale and support the country during an unprecedented health crisis, it would need a partner to monitor the performance of the application. Nouveal selected AppDynamics’ APM solution to ensure application performance issues were identified and resolved quickly, ensuring that any change in service due to potential issues on the backend would not impact the thousands of patients using the app. 

Since partnering with AppDynamics, Nouveal e-santé has been able to make vast improvements in scaling the platform, including:

• Performing real-time surveillance of their apps as they develop new features
• Reducing average response times from 1,500 milliseconds to 110 milliseconds 
• Accelerating capacity from serving 20,000 patients a year to 20,000 patients in just two hours

The Covidom app currently supports more than 186,000 patients, enabling individuals to manage the virus themselves and reducing the strain on hospitals. Today, Covidom is available in France ⁠with growing interest across the globe.

The pandemic has dramatically changed how we work—and how we feel about going back to our offices. According to a new global survey, 95% of workers are uncomfortable about returning to the office given the current health crisis, 98% expect future meetings will have participants joining from home, 53% of companies are planning to optimize their office footprint, and 96% want intelligent technology to improve work environments.

With that as the backdrop, Cisco’s collaboration group today announced innovations for both the remote and the in-office experience—to help teams stay safe and get great work done as companies navigate 2020 and beyond. With the goal of creating a 10x better meeting experience, innovations announced today are as follows:

Making remote work 10x better than in person experiences: Webex meetings
According to the survey, 58% say they will continue to work remotely eight or more days per month even after the pandemic is over—so it’s critical that companies nail the video meeting experience. Webex is full of features to help users before, during and after meetings. Today we add even more: 

• Show up the way you want.  Waiting in the lobby before you’re let into the meeting? Use that time to personalize how you’ll appear in the meeting. We’ve enlarged the view so you can clearly see how your background will appear—or select a virtual background. Cisco has added more of those, too.
• Stop searching for how to ____ (fill in the blank). Webex has a new, elegant design which puts controls in the most logical place without covering shared content or your video —and even adapts to your screen size. Want to chat with someone? Hover over them. Need to change your audio? Hover over yourself. Simple.
• Make it yours. Hate it when your screen fills with a big gray box because the person who is talking isn’t sharing video? Now you can tell Webex to hide non-video participants. This is just one of many new customizable options. Customize once, enjoy every meeting.
• End the background noise. Distracting noise on Webex meetings is a thing of the past. By the end of this month, technology from our BabbleLabs acquisition will both quash the whirr of the vacuum and enhance the speaker’s voice so you can hear clearly.  (Read related press release here.) 

Technology to help workers safely return to the office—when it’s time
Whether you think a return to the office is three, six or even 12 months away, companies know they must prepare now since far-reaching changes are needed.  Companies need to optimize their space, address worker concerns about sanitation and social distancing and plan how to communicate policies and information clearly. Cisco is giving customers the data and tools to make this journey back to the office. Specifically, Cisco is adding:

• Even more environmental sensors in Webex devices. Cisco has pioneered the use of sensors in collaboration gear provide important environmental datapoints to users, IT and employee experience experts to ensure and safe and comfortable workplace. Previously Cisco announced sensors that detect ambient noise levels and count the number of people in a space. These existing sensors—and the data they collect—become even more important now as they can identify underutilized or overcrowded spaces. Additional sensors will now also collect data on room temperature, humidity, air quality and light. Plus, they have made our people counting capabilities smarter. Thanks to machine learning, Webex will help ensure compliance with room capacity limits, counting people whether they are wearing face masks or not —no matter where they are in the room. Quickly identifying workspaces with environmental roadblocks lets companies take action to improve productivity and the quality of the meeting experience, for both in-office and remote participants.
• Webex Room Navigator: New devices for inside and outside meeting rooms. Companies need a new approach to the meeting space to ensure safety and optimize use. Cisco is announcing today two versions of the new Webex Room Navigator. These are purpose-built devices that contain all the sensors mentioned above. They sit either inside or outside the meeting room to provide intelligent, safe room booking for users and deep data for IT and facilities managers. The out-of-room model makes it simple to find and book a space to meet; it clearly shows when the room is free and changes the status to booked when you enter. Activate it with touch or—to avoid touching a possibly contaminated surface—just use your voice. The in-room model provides alerts for social distancing, cleaning schedules, and more and allows you to book from inside the space, too. Both versions have a digital signage mode—so companies can use the screens to convey important information. Even better: built-in “no-show” technology automatically senses if no one shows up for a scheduled meeting and frees up the room for another team’s use.
• Webex Control Hub: Deep, actionable workplace analytics. Webex’s survey highlighted that fewer than half of all companies can measure room utilization, which means they lack the visibility needed to set proper cleaning schedules—a top concern of employees as they contemplate returning to the office. Webex Control Hub provides this much-needed visibility. Now it will provide historical insights into both room utilization and room environment metrics such as rooms booked but not used, median occupancy across all spaces, and ambient noise levels. These insights provide actionable information for workplace decision makers to optimize real estate utilization.

Partner Integrations: Targeted value to protect employees even further.

Citrix is announcing three integrations:

• Digital signage and team communications with Appspace. Integrated within Control Hub so it is super-simple to set up, Appspace  gives companies dynamic and modern digital signage and team communications options both in the office and at home for workers with Webex Desk Pros.
• Collaboration insights with Vypota. Gain deeper, actionable insights across people, space, and technology for both in-office and remote collaboration.  With Vyopta’s support of Cisco and third-party UC technologies, intelligently plan safe office returns and optimize collaboration experiences.
• Wayfinding with MazeMap. If your meeting room hits its capacity for safe social distancing, our integration with MazeMap can help identify an additional nearby room that’s available and guide users to it, so your meeting can continue efficiently.

In light of COVID-19, businesses have turned to digital like never before with IT performance facing its toughest challenge to date. Today, AppDynamics, a Cisco company and the world’s largest and fastest growing APM vendor, released a special edition of its global research study, The Agents of Transformation Report, which reveals the pressures technology professionals are experiencing. 

The comprehensive study surveyed 1000 IT professionals across 10 countries. 

AppDynamics’ global survey of IT professionals found: 

• 81 per cent of Canadian technologists state that COVID-19 has created the biggest technology pressure for their organization they have ever experienced.  
• 64 per cent of Canadian technologists confirm that the pandemic has exposed weaknesses in their digital strategies, creating an urgent need to push through initiatives that were once part of multi-year digital transformation programs.  
• 69 per cent of IT professionals in Canada say digital transformation projects in their organization have been implemented within weeks rather than the months or years it would have taken before the pandemic. 
• 94 per cent of organizations changed their technology priorities during the pandemic. 

The report is very interesting and is worth your time to read today. Especially if you’re an IT professional.

Today, Cisco released its Annual Internet Report. The report forecasts the growth of users, devices and connections as well as network performance and key trends over a five-year period (2018 – 2023).

In Canada, the report forecasts that:

• Users are on the Rise: There will be 35.3 million total Internet users (91% of population) by 2023, up from 33.2 million (90% of population) in 2018.
• Faster broadband speeds: The average fixed broadband speed will grow from 48.2 Mbps in 2018 to 136.4 Mbps in 2023.
• A More Connected Everything: By 2023, there will be 423.1 million networked devices in Canada, up from 245.6 million in 2018.
• 5G Takes Hold: There will be 8.5 million total 5G connections in Canada by 2023 and will be 8.9% of total mobile connections by 2023.

The press release that is related to this report can be found here and the report’s interactive highlight tool can be found here.

Cisco Live 2020 Barcelona opens today, and runs through January 31, at Fira de Barcelona in Spain, bringing together nearly 20,000 customers, partners, IT professionals and visionaries. The event is designed to help customers realize the full realm of opportunities open to them, and give them the cutting-edge knowledge, skills, and technologies to make it happen.

Throughout the week, innovations across Cisco’s cybersecurity, networking and collaboration portfolios, as well as within its DevNet program will be unveiled – all designed to help businesses scale, stay secure, and drive digitization. Keynote presentations from Cisco’s President of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR) region, Wendy Mars, and the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Networking and Security Business, David Goeckeler, as well as other Cisco business leaders, will showcase the company’s strategy to help partners and customers seize new business opportunities in the era of digital transformation.

News highlights include:

• Accelerating Applications in a Hybrid Multicloud World : Cisco’s new multi-domain architecture offering brings together AppDynamics and Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer to deliver full visibility within the application, network and data center, both on-prem and in the cloud. Cisco HyperFlex Application Platform delivers an integrated container-as-a-service platform that simplifies provisioning and ongoing operations for Kubernetes across cloud, data center, and edge.
• Comprehensive Security Architecture for Industrial IoT : Organizations need complete visibility into the most disparate of network environments in order to secure their industrial edge, lower the risk of cyber threats, and optimize industrial processes. Cisco’s new IoT security architecture provides enhanced visibility across both IT and OT environments, protecting industrial processes and enabling the collection and extraction of data from the IoT edge so organizations can increase efficiencies to make better business decisions and accelerate digitization projects.
• Revolutionizing Customer and Agent Experiences with New Contact Center Enhancements : The world’s best brands earn customer loyalty over years, even decades – only to lose it in a few seconds if the customer experience is not stellar. While customer needs and expectations have changed, the ways in which companies respond have not kept pace. Today, Cisco announced three developments that fundamentally transform the customer experience with contact centers, for the better: an AI infusion, a new customer experience solution, and a new cloud contact center product.
• Better and More Engaged Meetings Through AI Innovations : New AI-powered voice intelligence capabilities to Webex Meetings turns talk into action, turning Webex meetings into a digital treasure trove. Additionally, Cisco continues its commitment to security and data privacy by enabling customers with the ability to choose whether their Webex Teams data will be stored in Europe or the United States. The company also announced the new Cisco Webex Room USB, an entry-level video device offering smaller organizations collaboration without compromise.

Conference highlights include:

• Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility: Cisco will outline its social impact agenda, supporting the company’s commitment to accelerate global problem solving through technology and expertise. Cisco is proud to partner with o3e to improve access to education, medical and other essential services for refugees and the homeless. At “Build a Bike” located in The Park area, volunteers can help build 50 bikes which will be donated to homeless and refugee programs in Barcelona. The initiative aligns with Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility priorities and the goal to positively impact 1 billion people by 2025.
• DevNet Zone : Attendees will get hands-on experience with APIs, develop coding skills in the coding lab, and learn more about Cisco’s new DevNet certifications (launching February 2020). DevNet is Cisco’s software developer resource community aimed at helping developers and network engineers innovate using Cisco technologies and platforms.
• World of Solutions and Cisco Showcase : Attendees are invited to explore the latest innovations from Cisco and its ecosystem partners in this experiential space where over 130 exhibitors will be demonstrating their products and solutions.
• Innovation Talks : Cisco executives will discuss the latest innovations in solutions and services and great best practices.
• Walk-in Labs : Designed to provide a one-of-a-kind, hands-on experience on a variety of Cisco products and solutions, attendees can work on pre-designed scenarios, explore features, and access training.
• Cisco Customer Experience (CX) : Attendees can experience the “Digital Heartbeat” of Cisco Live, Cisco CX, to learn about Cisco’s lifecycle approach to performing and transforming toward better business outcomes.
• Technical Solutions Clinics : Experts from the Cisco CX Global Center will be on-hand to troubleshoot any implementation, application, and integration issues.
• Network Operations Center (NOC) : Visit the NOC, in partnership with NetApp, to speak with engineers and solutions experts to discuss how Cisco rapidly builds and centrally manages a secure Cisco Enterprise Network.
• Capture the Flag: Learn new technologies and get hands-on experience by playing the “Capture the Flag” game, designed to solve demanding challenges. Try your hand at ethical hacking of networks and systems, design and investigate the Software Defined Campus and WAN networks and enhance cloud skills learning and exploring Cisco’s Meraki platform.
• Cisco Investments Village : Meet eight of the most prominent start-ups in the industry and learn about their unique technology solutions and how they are changing the realm of what’s possible.

There is a Live stream that is available for a front row seat at Cisco Live 2020, Barcelona

Today, Cisco released its 2019 Global Digital Readiness Index, measuring the digital readiness of 141 countries across seven areas, including business & government investment, technology adoption and technology infrastructure.

So how does Canada stack up? Canada ranked second in the world for Technology Adoption, coming behind only the U.S., but is falling behind in Ease of Doing Business (18^th), tech infrastructure (18^th), Business & Government Investment (20^th) and Startup Environment (26^th).

The strongest components of digital readiness include: “Basic Needs,” “Human Capital,” and “Technology Infrastructure.” In general, improvements in these three components will have the most impact overall on a country’s level of digital readiness.

You can find a whitepaper detailing the index here and the interactive map here.

Cisco has unveiled further details behind its technology strategy for building a new internet — one designed to push digital innovation beyond the performance, economic and power consumption limitations of current infrastructure. A multi-year approach that is defining the Internet for decades to come, Cisco’s strategy is already delivering technology breakthroughs to pave the way for the world’s developers to create applications and services they have only begun to imagine.

Cisco introduced its latest innovation including Cisco Silicon One^TM, the industry’s only networking silicon architecture of its kind; released the new Cisco 8000 Series, the world’s most powerful carrier class routers built on the new silicon; and announced new purchasing options that enable customers to consume the company’s technology through disaggregated business models.

Building Blocks for the Internet for the Future

Over the next decade, digital experiences will be created with advanced technologies — virtual and augmented reality, 16K streaming, AI, 5G, 10G, quantum computing, adaptive and predictive cybersecurity, intelligent IOT, and others not yet invented. These future generations of applications will drive complexity beyond the capabilities current internet infrastructure can viably support.

For the past five years, Cisco has driven a technology strategy that is building the internet our customers will need for the future success of their business in an advanced digital world. Aimed at solving the toughest problems that will emerge as digital transformation taxes current infrastructure to its breaking point, this strategy will lead to the next-generation of internet infrastructure that combines Cisco’s new silicon architecture with its next-generation of optics. Cisco’s strategy will change the economics behind how the internet will be built to support the demands of future, digital applications and will enable customers to operate their businesses with simpler, more cost-effective networks.

Cisco’s strategy is based on development and investments in three key technology areas: silicon, optics and software.

Introducing Cisco Silicon One – Breakthrough Unified, Programmable Silicon Architecture

The new Cisco Silicon One will be the foundation of Cisco’s routing portfolio going forward, with expected near-term performance availability up to 25 Terabits per second (Tbps). This is the industry’s first networking chip designed to be universally adaptable across service provider and web-scale markets. Designed for both fixed and modular platforms, it can manage the most challenging requirements in a way that’s never been done before. The first Cisco Silicon One ‘Q100’ model surpasses the 10 Tbps routing milestone for network bandwidth without sacrificing programmability, buffering, power efficiency, scale or feature flexibility.

Traditionally, multiple types of silicon with different capabilities are used across a network and even within a single device. Developing new features and testing can be lengthy and expensive. Unified and programmable silicon will allow for network operators to greatly reduce costs of operations and reduce time-to-value for new services.

Introducing: Cisco 8000 Series Platform Powered by Cisco Silicon One– Industry Leading Performance

The new Cisco 8000 series is the first platform built with Cisco Silicon One Q100. It is engineered to help service providers and web-scale companies reduce the costs of building and operating mass-scale networks for the 5G, AI and IOT era. Standout features include:

• Optimized for 400 Gbps and beyond, starting at 10.8 Tbps in just a single rack unit
• Powered by the new, cloud-enhanced Cisco IOS XR7 networking operating system software, designed to simplify operations and lower operational costs
• Offers enhanced cybersecurity with integrated trust technology for real-time insights into the trustworthiness of your critical infrastructure
• Service providers gain more bandwidth scale and programmability to deliver Tbps in even the most power and space constrained network locations

Global Customer Deployments and Trials

Cisco is working with a group of pioneering customers on deployments and trials of the Cisco 8000 Series. STC, the leading telecom services provider in the Middle East, Northern Africa region, marks the first customer deploying the new technology. Ongoing trials include Comcast and NTT Communications among others.

Optics for 400G and Beyond

Building a new internet that can support future digital innovation will depend on continued breakthroughs in silicon and optics technologies. Cisco is unique in the industry with advanced intellectual property in both areas.

As port rates increase from 100G to 400G and beyond, optics become an increasingly larger portion of the cost to build and operate internet infrastructure. Cisco is investing organically to assure our customers that as router and switch port rates continue to increase, optics will be designed to meet the industry’s stringent reliability and quality standards.

Through the company’s qualification program, Cisco will test its optics to comply with industry standards and operate in Cisco – and non-Cisco hosts. With this program, customers can utilize Cisco optics in applications where non-Cisco hosts have been deployed and have confidence that the optics will meet the reliability and quality standards that they have come to expect from Cisco.

In addition, as silicon and silicon photonics advance, functions that were traditionally delivered in separate chassis-based solutions will soon be available in pluggable form factors. This transition has significant potential benefits for network operators in terms of operational simplicity. Cisco is investing in silicon photonics technologies to effect architectural transitions in datacenter networks and service provider networks that will drive down cost, reduce power and space, and simplify network operations.

Changing the Economics of the Internet with Flexible Business Models

Cisco also announced plans to offer flexible consumption models first established with Cisco’s Optics portfolio, followed by the disaggregation of the Cisco IOS XR7 software, and now including Cisco Silicon One. This new model is highly adaptable and offers customers choice of components, white box, or integrated systems to build their networks. This approach matches the evolving nature of operators selecting discrete or aggregated technology elements for their buildout and creates new economics of the Internet to provide significant business value.

View the event live broadcast here: https://www.ciscofeedback.vovici.com/se/6A5348A77925123A

A new report released today from Cisco finds that Canada ranks 11th of 13 countries when it comes to strategically implementing projects that would support digital transformation, with only 40% of Canadian IT leaders reporting their organizations have done so.

The findings are part of Cisco’s first-ever 2020 Global Networking Trends Report, which explores how advanced networking technologies are dramatically changing networking models and operations. The report also aims to help IT leaders understand their network’s critical multi-domain role facilitating new and emerging IT and business trends.

Additional findings from the report include:

• 23% of Canadian IT leaders and network strategists reported their network architectures are at the minimum maturity level, compared to only 8% on average.
• Canadian IT leaders believe that ‘lack of budget or resources’ and being ‘too busy maintaining current network’ are the biggest obstacles slowing down their organization’s transition to an advanced network.
• To achieve their ‘ideal’ vision of the network, 47% of network strategists report that investing in new network infrastructure equipment would help the most.

The full report can be found here.