Author: Calin

Calin is a network engineer, with more than 20 years of experience in designing, installing, troubleshooting, and maintaining large enterprise WAN and LAN networks.

Cisco may be forced to drop the acquisition of Tandberg

After one month ago Cisco announced that will offer $3 billion for Tandberg, today there are rumors that this acquisition will not work as expected. It seems that after Tandberg’s board of directors recommended to accept the price offered, for 153.5 Norwegian Kroner per share, now this still requires approval by 90 percent of the company’s shareholders by 9th of November.

The problem get more complicated as shareholders, representing 24 percent of Tandberg’s shares, don’t plan to accept the deal, with arguments that Tandberg can succeed on it’s own. Another opinion would be that Cisco, or another bidder, has to offer a bigger price per share.

Checking now (4th of November 2009) the stocks price for Tandberg is aprox. 149.50 Norwegian Kroner per share, which is less that Cisco,s offer. Cisco’s Chief Strategy Officer Ned Hooper is reserved in regard to Cisco’s position about a new offer considering the actual price fair and admitting that the company will act with fiscal prudence.

In any way this dispute and the possibility that Cisco will not acquire Tandberg made a lot of people thinking about Cisco’s place in future of video communication.

Read more on NetworkWorld.com and Ned Hooper’s blog page.

Cisco, EMC unveil data center joint venture

Cisco and EMC this week unveiled their anticipated collaboration, which will provide integrated products and services for customers building private cloud computing infrastructures.

The partnership, which also includes virtualization software vendor VMware, is set up in two parts: one is a Virtual Computing Environment coalition to develop the new products; the other is a joint venture, called Acadia, to train customers and partners on how to install and use the products.

Cisco and EMC are lead investors in Acadia, while VMware and Intel are minority investors. Acadia will have its own CEO, which the companies are searching for, and an initial staff of 130. Acadia’s main mission will be to accelerate product sales and deployment, perform initial operating and then transfer operations to customers or partners.

“It will be a repository of knowledge transfer and best practices,” said EMC CEO Joe Tucci, during a Webcast announcing the coalition and joint venture.

The collaboration between the three companies is targeting a market the companies say — citing data from McKinsey and Company — exceeds $350 billion annually. Half of that amount is spent on capital expenses — product acquisition — and half on operating expenses.

Roughly 70% or more of those costs are allotted to maintaining existing infrastructures, leaving 30% or less for new technology purchases. The companies also say that approximately $85 billion can be addressed with data center virtualization and private cloud technology by 2015.

Read the full article on NetworkWorld.com

Birth of the Internet

Even this post has nothing do to with Cisco, Juniper or other great products, I strongly believe that has to do with the idea of “network”. I don’t know how many remember that on 29th of October 2009 we celebrate 40 years from the birth of Internet. I have to admit that I didn’t remember, but reading an article on CNN made it all clear.

From CNN’s webpage post one phrase remain in my mind: “On October 29 of that year, for perhaps the first time, a message was sent over the network that would eventually become the Web. Leonard Kleinrock, a professor of computer science at the University of California-Los Angeles, connected the school’s host computer to one at Stanford Research Institute, a former arm of Stanford University.”

I invite you to read CCN’s article and think for a second what Internet means and how much it helped for the global human development.

Full story and interview here!

Cisco released second generation of ISRs

Cisco Systems announced another major step in its quest to create “borderless” networks that allow organizations and individuals to communicate anytime, anywhere and in any way they wish.
With the public launch of the second generation of the Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR G2), the company is making it far easier and more affordable for businesses to bring the benefits of video networking, on-demand computing and Web 2.0 technologies to branch offices, retail stores and other remote sites.
When Cisco introduced the original Integrated Services Router in 2004, it clearly hit on a pent-up need to help better connect branch offices to company headquarters. The first generation ISRs became one of the fastest-selling networking products ever created, reaching 2 million units shipped in two years. Now more than 7 million units are in use worldwide.
The ISR – perhaps more than any other Cisco product – reflects the breadth and depth of the company’s networking expertise. In the first generation, Cisco combined the best of its routing, security, voice and other capabilities into one device to greatly simplify branch office operations. Now Cisco is writing a new chapter in that tradition.
Read Cisco’s vice president of network systems, Marie Hattar, full interview with questions and answers on Cisco’s official homepage.