cisco

Cisco Systems, one of the world's largest technology companies, signaled last week that it has more than a passing interest in cloud infrastructure by submitting a design for OpenStack: Network as a Service (NaaS).

Cisco's proposal is not the first for NaaS, but I believe it signifies an important acceptance not just of a change to the way that we consume compute and networking but a shift in how big companies will make OpenStack both the literal and metaphorical Apache Web server for cloud services.

The networking component of both public and private clouds has been woefully underserved, … Read more

Cisco has "disappointed our investors and confused our employees," CEO John Chambers said earlier this week in a kind of mea culpa about the company's weak performance recently. But, he promised, fundamental changes are ahead.

Revealing his thoughts in a memo sent to employees on Monday and published yesterday on a company blog, Chambers pointed to Cisco as a business that has lost some of the credibility that was key to its success. Seeing both the marketplace and his company as in transition, he said that it's time to focus to help define those transitions.

Chambers … Read more

The Nasdaq stock exchange will cut the weighting it gives to Apple on a key index at the same time that it boosts the weighting for tech titans including Microsoft and Cisco Systems.

In a major rebalancing of the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index, which will go into effect ahead of the market open on May 2, the exchange aims to better reflect the current market values of several significant companies. For example, Apple's weighting on the Nasdaq 100 is currently more than six times that of Microsoft, even though Apple's market value is only 46 percent larger, according … Read more

If you have read the review of the Linksys E4200 router and decided to move on, thinking "It's just so sweet but it's too expensive, plus I don't want all the bells and whistles anyway," perhaps you don't need to walk away. As it turns out, the E4200 is just a teaser of an entire new generation in the Linksys E series that Cisco announced today.

Apart from the E4200, the new generation includes four new routers: E1200, E1500, E2500, and E3200. Except for the E1500, which is a new tier of its own, … Read more

Facebook is going to start showing movies (and making you buy credits), Microsoft is staking Nokia $1 billion to distribute Windows Phone 7/Nokia love children, and Sprint may buy T-Mobile USA and create a massive mobile carrier third head. Plus, in data porn, Android tops the U.S. smart phone market, AT&T dominates on downloads, and the iPad 2's dual-core processor is apparently not all that. But iOS 4.3 is! Also: vote for Asian Usher! --Molly

Cisco Systems said today that it will cut the price of its consumer video-conferencing product called Umi.

The product, which first hit the market in October, will now come in two versions. The original product, which transmits video in 1080p resolution, will cost $499 instead of $599. And the company will offer a $399 version that offers 720p video resolution. There will also be a free software client available for PCs and Macs later this year.

The service will be reduced from $25 a month to $99 for the year or $9.95 a month.

While Cisco maintains it is … Read more

Cisco Systems has invested in Control4 and intends to use Control4's home automation software in large deals with utilities and cities.

The deal, announced today, calls for Cisco to sell Control4 products, such as its home energy management dashboard, under the Cisco brand and to create closer ties between the two companies' products. Cisco invested an undisclosed amount but was the lead investor in a recent round of private funding in Salt Lake City-based Control4.

Control4's software is like an operating system for connected devices in a home, including consumer electronics, home appliances, lights, and thermostats, said company … Read more

Cisco Systems allayed concerns about its second-quarter results with earnings that topped expectations.

The networking giant reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.5 billion, or 27 cents a share, on revenue of $10.4 billion. Non-GAAP earnings were 37 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 35 cents a share.

As noted in a preview, analysts were expecting Cisco to rebuild its order backlog. Demand throughout the quarter looked solid. Indeed, Cisco CEO John Chambers said "the quarter played out as we expected."

Read more of "Cisco calms worries, posts solid second quarter" at … Read more

The announcement of the latest release from open-source cloud-management software project OpenStack is remarkable in many ways. The rapidly growing OpenStack community is gaining ground on a mature platform--this release adds image management and support for unlimited object sizes in its object storage service software--and there were a number of new IT vendors added to the list of supporters.

ZDNet UK covered the basics of the announcement, so I won't pick it apart here. Rather, I want to focus on one of the most interesting aspects of many of the vendors announcing their participation with this release.

Namely, several … Read more