In this 2-minute vidcast I review Cisco’s Borderless Network Branch Office solution, the ISR G2, and explain what is so special about the ISR G2 from an evolutionary perspective on branch office networking. Enjoy. Nick

Ron Sege President and Chief Operating Officer of 3Com discusses its worldwide strategy, value proposition and how it plans to gain share and compete in the large enterprise market. 3Com has an entirely refreshed product line that spans switching, routing, security, wireless and unified communications that’s been tested in large enterprise customers. 3Com is differentiating this product with cost advantage, total cost of ownership and services. Ron explains how 3Com survived the crash and is positioned to lead in the recovery as IT leader’s buying patterns have shifted. It’s a fascinating discussion, enjoy. Nick

As businesses grow across borders, a new era in branch office IT is emerging born out of systemic business efficiency planning prompted by business leaders efforts to reduce corporate spending as revenues declined during the market crash of 2008. To assist business and IT leaders reduce operational spend, get closer to customers, automate new streamlined business processes and position their firms for the current economic recovery, Cisco has launched the second generation of Integrated Services Routers or ISR G2, their flagship branch office solution for Borderless Networks. Shashi Kiran Senior Manager Network Systems and Security of Cisco Systems discusses macro business trends and explores how these trends are creating a new era in Enterprise Networks.

We live in an ever-increasingly connected world where our workspace is with us constantly, independent of geographic location and user device. The days of boundaries or obstacles to access information that location, applications and devices would erect are limited and dwindling. These boundaries are being torn down by business necessity, personal preferences and technical innovations. Joel Conover, Senior Marketing Manager at Cisco Systems joins me to discuss a new Cisco network architecture that addresses today's most complex IT challenges called Borderless Networks.

This short Lippis Vidcast is on Cisco’s Borderless Networks architecture and its ISR G2 launch.

Avaya Aura is being extended to the mid sized enterprise market by simplifying its packaging into a single server solution loaded with unified communications and contact center applications. The Mid Market is typically characterized as 100 to 250 employees with revenues of $50M to $1B dollars. These Line of Business (LoB) managers seek to increase revenue and improve customer experience while differentiating against larger competitors. Their IT issues include older and dead ended communication technologies, limited IT and contact center agent staff and the need to rapidly reduce cost. To make LoB and IT ends meet, the Avaya Aura solution for Mid-Size Enterprises is offered for businesses with up to 2,400 users and 250 locations. Bruce Mazza Director of Unified Communications Market Solutions for Avaya joins me to discuss the mid enterprise market challenge.

Zeus Kerravala of Yankee joins me to discuss the post Great Recession IT industry structure. Our industry has dramatically consolidated over the past year and as the economy improves a new concentrated order is emerging filled with winners, losers and dark horses. Layer on top of macro economic caused shifts is new IT buying patters plus a new technology wave of virtualization and cloud computing which promises to alter IT delivery. We discuss Cisco, Nortel, Avaya, 3Com, Siemens, HP, IBM, Juniper, Force 10, Brocade, Arista Networks, Alcatel Lucent, Ruckus Wireless, Enterasys the potentially new JV between Cisco and EMC plus many others in this jam packed extended edition podcast. You may want to load this onto your ipod and listen to you coming or going to work. Enjoy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported over 182,166 laboratory-confirmed cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza virus with 1,799 deaths. In June, 2009 the WHO raised the pandemic alert level to six, signaling a pandemic of this influenza is underway. If the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, is in full pandemic force during the fall and winter months of the flu season then an estimated 40-to-50 percent of the workforce could be affected. To assist business and IT leaders develop strategies to mitigate the impact of pandemics and other natural or man made disasters I asked Samantha Ma Security Solutions Manager at Cisco Systems to be my guest as she’s an expert in business continuity preparation.

Mixed vendor network environments increase complexity and complexity is not reliability’s best friend. In the following 3-minute Lippis Report podcast, Nick Lippis discusses network complexity and the disruptive outcomes it creates via two examples; the US Customs and Border Protection Agency at Los Angeles Airport and global Skype VoIP service. Enjoy, Nick

The system that provides electricity transmission, commonly called the electrical grid is under intense scrutiny to make it smarter. Today’s electrical grid was designed decades ago without optimization and information flow of electricity consumption beyond local utilities leaving businesses, homeowners and utilities blind to how electricity is being consumed. The Smart Grid adds intelligence from energy source to consumption end points so that businesses and homeowners can view their consumption and control their usage while utilities can better manage electricity demand and delivery. The building of the smart grid is an estimated market of $20 B/yr over the next five years with governments passing legislation, mandates and partial funding to build it. For perspective, Smart Grid networks have the potential to be much larger then the internet! The building of highly scalable and secure IP networks is Cisco’s core competency, making them uniquely qualified to supply it. I talk with Inbar Lasser-Raab Senior Director, Network Systems and Smart Grid Solutions at Cisco about Cisco’s Smart Grid architecture and initiative. It’s the best down to earth discussion of Smart Grid on the plant. Enjoy

The word Gestalt means a structure or configuration of elements so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by the summation of its parts. IT can create greater security defenses by approaching security as an integrated system of its siloed security tools and appliances. The Gestalt approach is a way to make sure that every device is contributing to the security of the corporation by being able to share information and work collaboratively to defend against increasingly sophisticated exploits through increased visibility and control. The best example of the Gestalt approach is Cisco SAFE, a security architecture and framework to network existing security devices so they work in unison and thus deliver a higher level of IT defense. I talk with Bill McGee, of the Security Technology Marketing group at Cisco Systems about Cisco’s new SAFE security architecture.

Unique is the operator of Zurich Airport and offers a broad service portfolio to about 180 other companies, which also reside in the airport. Zurich Airport offers work for about 20,000 individuals and transports approximately 18 million passengers annually. Airport applications like air-traffic control and tower communications demand the highest uptime and need to be separated from operations like baggage distribution, business administration, video surveillance, and public WLAN traffic. Peter Zopfi, Head of Communication Engineering for Unique was confronted with building a network with tunable attributes that were as varied as the businesses that relied upon it. In this podcast Peter discusses what worked and didn’t and how a LAN based MPLS VPN Cisco Network Virtualization strategy was key to delivered business value to all businesses and operations at Zurich Airport. It’s a fascinating discussion that you don’t want to miss. Enjoy, Nick.

Zeus Kerravala, of Yankee joins me to discuss the many changes occurring in the industry including Nortel’s liquidation and Cisco’s huge influence over the industry as it reshapes to respond to its UCS and data center 3.0 initiatives. We discuss HP’s new relationships with MSFT and Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade, Enterasys, Extreme, Force10, IBM, Juniper, and much more. We talk winners and losers and provide insight into the major trends that are focusing new corporate IT buying behavior. Enjoy

The market crash of 2008 has modified business behavior & processes permanently. When capex resumes it will not fund follow-on pre crash IT projects but IT projects that are top down driven by executive mandate to streamline operations. IT project winners are Collaboration, Video Conferencing, OPEX reduction, virtualization, security. mobility and cloud computing. Zeus Kerravala, SVP at Yankee and Steve Garrison, VP Marketing at Force10 Networks are my guest as we discuss data center network design in a virtualization post crash era. It’s a great discussion, enjoy.

According to Frost and Sullivan’s July 2008 World Web Conferencing Services Forecast, the web collaboration market is expected to grow at 22.5% CAGR through 2013! That’s the good news. In larger organizations that use web conferencing for a mix of internal, external and a combination of sessions there is growing evidence that WAN bandwidth is being heavily consumed. To significantly reduce WAN bandwidth cost while Web conferencing load increases, Cisco has introducing a hybrid model by introducing the WebEx Node for the ASR 1000. Tere’ Bracco Senior Marketing Manager for Network Systems and Security at Cisco joins the program to discuss web conferencing trends and the new hybrid model for WebEx.

Today’s collaborative infrastructure and evolving security landscape brings an abundance of risk. Newly adopted IT tools and services, often untried and vulnerable, allow cybercriminals to exploit them to sabotage or gain financially. The newest wave of threats such as Conficker, McColo, Srizbi etc often target personal data propagating via multiple blended vehicles such as web, email, and USB keys to bypass legacy security tools. Even strong security technologies are often unable to keep up with today’s attacks: they are too nimble, specialized, and targeted. Cisco’s new Security Intelligence Operations or SIO offering identifies threats in real time via global correlation so that businesses can be more secure in their IT defenses. Ambika Gadre, Director Product Marketing in the Cisco Security Technology Business Unit discusses SIO, reputation scoring, global correlation and a powerful approach to mitigating blended exploits from infecting your corporation.

Marlowe Fenne, Cisco Systems Solutions Marketing Manager in the Network Systems group joins me to talk about the IT Innovations forum and Cisco’s spring announcements. We discuss the business results of exploiting WAN Advantage, Webex Node, Virtual Connect, Security, Unified Communications, AXP, Switching, H1N1’s reminder of the importance of telecommuting and much more. Marlowe provides a sneak preview of the May 7th IT innovations Form too which I present at and you can attendee for free at http://www.ciscoitinnovationsforum.com .

In late March of 2009 Siemens Enterprise Communication announced a UC cloud service where it has placed its OpenScape Voice and UC applications on Amazon’s EC2 cloud infrastructure. This is significant and important as it’s the first time that a UC application is available in the cloud and offered in a SaaS model. This represents a new and fundamentally different channel to address the SMB market. The hope is that UC delivered as a SaaS offers a radically different delivery and price model and may very well be the model enterprises have been waiting for to consume UC on a massive scale. Paul McMillan Director of UC Technical Vision & Strategy at Siemens Communications is my guest as we talk about UC in the cloud and offered as a SaaS.

Of the original 500 S&P companies just 82 remain. The pace of change and corporate flexibility required to keep up continues to dramatically accelerate. Both McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group say one-third of companies in the top quarter of their industry failed to maintain their competitive position during the 2000 economic slowdown. Five years later, just 10% returned to their same competitive position. The Business Roundtable reports 45% of CEOs expect declining sales over the next six months. The bottom line is that company’s which excel figure out how to save money but also prepare for the rebound. Mark Straton, Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing at Siemens Communications is my guest as we discuss three imperatives for communications management during a tough economy that will assure your company maintains its competitive position during and after the economic slowdown.

Force 10 Networks has introduced ExaScaleTM E-Series family of switch/routers to meet the stringent performance, management and cost requirements of today’s virtualized data center and cloud computing environments. As enterprises transition toward virtualized data centers and adopts cloud-based services, the network is increasingly required to be more dynamic and responsive to changing resource demands. Steve Garrison, VP Marketing for Force10 Networks is my guest as we discuss the new design options for data center networking in a virtualization era.

Along with a turbulent macro economic cycle comes business rationalization and in networking the wide area offers a unique opportunity to deliver value both in terms of operational efficiency and business initiative alignment. The branch WAN as been pieced together usually site by site without a comprehensive plan as branches are connected with inconsistent WAN Services. IT planners are being offered an opportunity to implement a common set of WAN Services embedded within routers such as UC, WAN optimization, security etc., which promise to lower operational spend, align business initiatives and policy while delivering Local Area Networks (LANs) like application performance over the WAN. Tere’ Bracco Senior Marketing Manager for Network Systems and Security at Cisco joins me to discuss Cisco’s new WAN Advantage initiative that delivers a common set of WAN Services between ASR and ISR routers.

Avaya has launched a new architecture for Unified Communications (UC) with its new software product Avaya Aura™. This enterprise-wide SIP architecture connects users, UC devices, disparate legacy voice and IP systems plus UC applications, creating a holistic UC services delivery system. That is, a centrally managed Avaya Aura™ can disseminate common UC services to every corner of the enterprise independent of locations and multivendor systems, across all kinds of SIP endpoint. Avaya Aura™ promises to significantly reduce communications and management costs, using a single multivendor dial-plan, common user profiles and by simplifying SIP trunking, while offering federated presence and application integration software to integrate UC into enterprise applications. To understand Avaya Aura™ and what’s next for UC, Lawrence Byrd, Director of Unified Communications Architecture for Avaya, is my guest.

There are over 1.5 billion people worldwide using the internet representing only 23.5 percent of world population and we are now entering an Internet population explosion as emerging internet countries go online and need address space. Experts predict that an IP address exhaustion date is coming between Nov 2010 and Feb 2011 or sooner as countries potentially rush to acquire the last available addresses to avoid being shut out of the internet. In addition the number of IP addresses per person is growing too as millions to billions of new devices have become IP aware such as Mobile internet IPhones, smart phones, etc plus new internet services on trains, plains and the home grow. So the question is, is the industry heading toward another Y2K event? Fred Wettling, a Bechtel Fellow plus Manager-of Architecture & Planning and coauthor of the book “Global IPv6 Strategies: From Business Analysis to Operational Planning” joins us to provide perspective and strategy on how IT leaders can manage IP addressing and avoid a Y2K event.

While world governments figure out how to save the banking system our industry is changing at a pace I haven’t seen since the mid 1990s. Nortel is bankrupt, Cisco is making a huge announcement the week of March 15th, Force10 and Turnin have merged, Cisco launched EnergyWise, HP ProCurve launched ProCurve One, Juniper announced its EX2500 and Stratus, Brocade extended its DCX backbone, Mallanox launched a converged fabric gateway. IBM is getting closer to Juniper while HP TSG fortifies its data center position with EDS services and a lot more etc. Zeus Kerravala. Senior VP, Global Enterprise Research for the Yankee Group joins me to discuss the blizzard of announcements and changes taking place in our industry and offer our opinions and guidance on how to make sense of an industry in fundamental change.

Clearly the economic news over the past five months has been disturbing and at many times scary. So the question we ask is why invest in Unified Communications (UC) now and not wait until the recovery? The answer is straightforward, as UC not only pays for itself with a rapid payback measured in months, and at times as short as six weeks, but most importantly it reduces corporate operational cost by streamlining business processes. Steve Hardy Director Global Product and Solutions Marketing for Avaya joins me to discuss investing in UC now during a challenging macro economic climate. For any executive seeking both IT and corporate cost cutting projects, you need to listen to this podcast.

The future of IT is a networked model. Value creation and innovation is found in content that flows freely throughout networks. Cloud computing, Web 2.0, mobile applications, unified communications, video on-demand, social networking, etc are the result of the networked IT model. But IT and networks can be more tightly integrated with an applications enablement layer offered by service providers, which provide Over the Top suppliers with reliability, privacy, billing and security services. To link and simplify IT and networks in the most complex environments the industry needs a Network Integrator. I talk with Avedis Menechian, Chief Marketing Officer for Alcatel-Lucent about Alcatel-Lucent’s role as the Network Integrator of Choice.

Data center investments and upgrades are a bright spot in this challenging economy because they cannot be postponed like PC upgrades since data centers are central to business operations and revenue generation. To address this market HP ProCurve now part of HP's Technology Solutions Group (TSG) is introducing the HP ProCurve Open Network Ecosystem called ProCurve ONE and unveiling a new set of data center networking solutions. Five new Gig and 10Gig data center switches and the ProCurve Data Center Connection Manager make up this introduction. HP is differentiating from other IT companies by offering a complete data center solution including servers, storage, applications and networking. The ProCurve ONE Ecosystem includes marquee partners such as Microsoft, Avaya, Riverbed, F5, McAfee and many others. Matt Zanner, Core & Data Center Category Business Manager of HP ProCurve Networking discusses the significance of this announcement in further detail. If you are investing in data center infrastructure then you need to listen to this podcast

IT suppliers are delivering products that consume less energy while offering new IT delivery approaches such as data center virtualization to reduce cooling and power demands. Cisco Systems has taken a broader approach to energy management by delivering a power command and control architecture called Cisco EnergyWise which seeks to provide business and IT leaders with the tools to measure, manage and control the power consumption of all devices connected to the corporate network. Further, EnergyWise seeks to connect facility heating, air conditioning, lighting and other non-IT systems—systems that consume the largest proportion of corporate energy—in an effort to provide IT leaders with the tools and means to manage their overall energy consumption. Berna Devrim, Sr. Manager, Access Switching Marketing at Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss Cisco’s EnergyWise initiative and what it means to business and IT leaders who seek to control energy consumption.

Marie Hattar Vice President of Network Systems and Security Solution Marketing at Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss the sustainable effect afforded by networks and communications. Networking has always contributed to Green initiatives by provided teleworking, collaboration, telepresence and other ways of organizing people and workflow independent of geographic location. But networking is now taking the role of power management and control for IT and non-IT systems offering one of the most powerful sustainability tools available. Find out how by listening to this podcast.

Zeus Kerravala of The Yankee Group and I make our annual IT predictions. This year we make ten predictions ranging from data center/cloud/virtualization, green IT, the fate of UC, the new IT organization design to which firms will be gone by the end of the year. Enjoy, Nick

While the global economy slows down, network security spending continues to be robust as business and IT leaders seek to protect corporate assets, thus avoiding a major distraction when market focus is needed most. Recent analyst numbers suggest that data loss can result from myriad corporate security vulnerabilities. It’s getting harder to protect a company's intellectual property as the modern concept of work is based upon anywhere and anytime electronic collaboration and the borderless enterprise. Nasrin Rezai, Senior Director of Information Security for Cisco Systems is my guest as we discuss PPT or People, Process and Technology as the strategy to mitigate data from being lost or stolen from your company. To understand best practices of data loss prevention, you need to listen to this podcast

Green initiatives, governmental requirements, work-home lifestyle changes, business expense controls, reduced real estate requirements, business continuity - all these concerns add up as strong motivation for business and IT leaders to drive enterprise-wide mobility initiatives. Now more than ever, the value gained through the mobile enterprise is being embraced as executive management seeks operational cost reduction and increased productivity. Joe Ghory, Marketing Manager at Riverbed Technology is my guest as we discuss best practices to deliver corporate value though a mobile workforce. If your firm's initiatives are cost reduction and increased productivity then listen to this podcast.

Over the last 20 years, business and IT leaders have been distributing IT infrastructure to the branch and mobile employee environment. However, the past decade has demonstrated a trend in the need to consolidate distributed IT infrastructure back to the data center in order to cut costs and gain more security and control. With data centers being consolidated and virtualized, central applications perform poorly when accessed via branch office or mobile networks. By adding application optimization and acceleration technology to branch and mobile users, IT leaders gain the economic efficiencies afforded by data center consolidation without the pain of poor branch and remote application performance. Bob Gilbert, Director of Marketing at Riverbed Technology is my guest as we discuss strategies to reduce corporate operational spend through data center, branch and mobile networking. If you’re centralizing branch and mobile users applications for then you need to listen to this podcast.