Regulatory concerns around the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding program are top of mind for those involved in rural broadband opportunities, and the Build America, Buy America… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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Regulatory concerns around the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding program are top of mind for those involved in rural broadband opportunities, and the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act is a challenge for both manufacturers and service providers.

Manufacturers face the realities of today’s supply chain and the need to provide cost-effective solutions to rural broadband providers eager to make network investments to help close the digital divide. For service providers, the challenge is making sure they get BEAD funding, and that manufacturing complies with the BABA requirements.

The good news is the Department of Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have finalized a BABA waiver for the majority of what a service provider needs for broadband build-outs. A waiver is needed if the good or product needs to be made in the U.S., and 55% of the cost of components need to be U.S.-produced goods. For electronics, about 60% to 70% of the cost of a bill of materials is in the semiconductor components, and those are not sourced from the U.S.

Cisco supported the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act because only 12% of the semiconductors available today are made in the U.S. We know CHIPS implementation will help generate more U.S. supply over time, but not within the five-year timeframe of the BEAD program. The NTIA has done an excellent job of listening to the concerns of manufacturers and understanding the realities of today’s electronics supply chain, resulting in the proposed waiver for BEAD.

Meanwhile, Cisco has been making its own investments in the rural broadband space to complement the aforementioned government programs. One example is that Cisco made a $20 million investment in a broadband innovation center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., to demonstrate last-mile solutions, middle-mile solutions, and metropolitan area networks for K-12 learning at home, as well as how Webex can bring together people from all walks of life.

Another example, is our investment in integrating more functionality into our routing platforms to help simplify a service provider’s broadband network edge, make it more resilient, and improve user experiences. These initiatives help Cisco achieve its goal to bridge the digital divide and power an inclusive future for all.

Understanding available funding options

Check out our updated whitepaper sponsored by Cisco and written by the Grants Office, An Updated Look of the U.S. Government Broadband Funding Landscape: Stimulus, Infrastructure Grants, and More, which provides an excellent overview of available funding programs.

If you are an existing or emerging broadband internet service provider, request a visit to Cisco’s Rural Broadband Innovation Center, where we can provide you with a demo of Cisco’s next-generation solutions in person or virtually.

Read our U.S. Government Broadband Funding white paper

Discover how Cisco can help you identify and pursue funding initiatives for broadband access:

Cisco Public Funding Office

Reference: Revitalizing the U.S. Semiconductor Ecosystem; Report to the President

"}]]  How Cisco is addressing challenges that rural broadband providers face with the NTIA BEAD program.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

In an expanded collaboration with Intel, we’re giving partners and customers an exciting opportunity to access three new innovation centers that will serve as test beds for enterprises seeking to e… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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In an expanded collaboration with Intel, we’re giving partners and customers an exciting opportunity to access three new innovation centers that will serve as test beds for enterprises seeking to evaluate private 5G use cases.

The first innovation center opens in March at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters and will help customers test a wide range of private 5G solutions in a real-world environment through pilots and prototypes prior to full deployment. Additional labs are planned for Frankfurt, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan.

The new facilities will build on a collaboration with Intel announced last year to help accelerate engineering innovation and drive adoption of Cisco Mobility Services Platform (Private 5G) based on Intel technology. Each innovation center will provide local access points for global enterprises across regions to validate 5G applications and network configurations tuned to their specific requirements.

The centers aim to help reduce risk, complexity and cost for enterprises adopting private 5G—nonpublic mobile networks that can use licensed, unlicensed, or shared spectrum—by delivering a sandbox environment to test early private 5G, validate proof-of-concept, and evaluate customized solutions ahead of full production rollouts.

Cisco partners and other vendors who visit an innovation center will be able to validate their 5G end devices and demo systems with Cisco’s industry leading Mobility Services Platform and Intel Mobile Edge Computing applications. Multiple radio access network (RAN) vendors have also partnered with Cisco to realize cutting-edge private 5G use cases for real-world applications.

Our vision for the innovation centers will enable customers to test their end devices, RAN, and applications with a variety of existing end-to-end private 5G use cases, including:

Anomaly detection—Cisco’s Private 5G and Intel’s Computer Vision system analyzes images and videos captured at various stages in production lines or processes to detect unusual patterns, events, or deviations.
Autonomous retail—UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, integrated their SCO (self-checkout) terminal powered by Computer Vision with Cisco’s Mobility Services Platform. UST Vision Checkout Connection over Cisco Private 5G network makes checkout up to three times faster, providing increased efficiency for modern retailers.
Video surveillance—Cisco has integrated support for the General Mobile 5G IP Camera, powered by Fii (Foxconn Industrial Internet), enabling ultra-high-definition video surveillance in real time. This is supported by advanced analytics for use cases such as smart cities, perimeter security, and commercial outdoor environments. With LTE/5G NR support, this camera ensures low latency, high bandwidth, and reliable video transmission, making it a cost-effective choice for private network and MEC applications.
Remote assist and work instructions—By leveraging augmented reality (AR) and spatial computing technology, Taqtile’s wireless Manifest software improves operational workflows to allow jobs to be completed more accurately and consistently. Deskless workers can document maintenance and operational procedures, follow step-by-step work instructions, remotely collaborate with experts, and analyze job history and performance in the spatial computing world of Manifest.
Webex Expert on Demand—This solution brings collaboration to the frontline with assisted reality devices that enable faster and smarter experiences for workers. Webex Expert on Demand provides the full capabilities of Webex, delivering enterprise-wide collaboration to hybrid workforces. Webex offers integration with smart glasses from Real Wear to facilitate digital transformation and business continuity across industries.

Cisco is a Titanium partner in the Intel® Partner Alliance program and the Intel® Network Builders community. This is an exciting new chapter in our collaboration with Intel as we seek to help customers and customers develop innovative new solutions using private 5G. If you are attending MWC Barcelona 2024, come visit the Cisco Stand (#3E30) in Hall E of the Fira.

Visit Cisco at MWC to learn more.

"}]]  A new collaboration between Cisco and Intel will help accelerate engineering innovation and drive adoption of Cisco Private 5G powered by Intel technology.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

Migrating to Cloud Calling is a priority for many organizations seeking better visibility, flexibility, and functionality with reduced total cost compared to on-premise Calling—without sacrificing t… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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Migrating to Cloud Calling is a priority for many organizations seeking better visibility, flexibility, and functionality with reduced total cost compared to on-premise Calling—without sacrificing the reliability of a traditional landline telephone.

The speed of migration to Cloud Calling has accelerated significantly for those moving to the Webex Calling and Collaboration platform, particularly among organizations that prioritize robust security and compliance standards, employ hybrid deployments, or seek enhanced AI capabilities.

Cisco & NWN Carousel partner to accelerate Cloud migration without interruption

Cisco has partnered with Cloud Communications Service Provider, NWN Carousel, integrating their managed services via the Experience Management Platform (EMP) into Webex Calling to deliver a seamless migration experience, especially for customers with unique needs in high compliance and regulatory industries.

Webex Calling, combined with NWN Carousel’s EMP, allows customers to distribute users across Multi-tenant (MT) and Dedicated Instances (DI), with the ability to migrate them over time as their Cloud Calling business requirements change. This combination provides several key benefits including:

More manageable Cloud migrations with reduced risks, costs, and faster time to value.
Security controls required to comply with strict enterprise or state and government Cloud storage and usage regulations.

The power of Webex and NWN Carousel

Webex Suite is a single platform for every collaboration need, including Calling, Meetings, and Messaging, which has significant integration benefits for businesses with older Cisco endpoints and local survivability solutions.

NWN Carousel’s EMP is a powerful extension to Cisco’s Webex Calling and Webex DI, delivered as an integrated cloud service. With an as-a-service hybrid model that offers customers a streamlined path to digital transformation, EMP provides better visibility, insights, and control of multi-cloud environments and hybrid IT solutions, seamlessly integrating endpoints, infrastructure, and collaboration applications. This allows our shared customers to transform support, consolidate operations, increase adoption, and provide an exceptional experience for their end-users.

Because of this partnership, we’ve already identified over 75,000 seats for migration in the first half of this year.

Learn more about Webex Calling

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with #CiscoPartners on social!

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"}]]  Cisco has partnered with Cloud Communications Service Provider, NWN Carousel, integrating their managed services via the Experience Management Platform (EMP) into Webex Calling to deliver a seamless migration experience, especially for customers with unique needs in high compliance and regulatory industries.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

Renewable energy is a rapidly growing segment of the energy industry. Technologies such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and energy storage are now considered mainstream. However, all of these… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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Renewable energy is a rapidly growing segment of the energy industry. Technologies such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and energy storage are now considered mainstream. However, all of these sites require secure connectivity to enable important remote monitoring and control.

Renewable energy companies must connect an array of renewable energy assets spread across wide geographic areas. Many renewable asset operators also use public and private cloud-based applications, including SCADA. They need a network architecture that is simple to deploy at scale across numerous distributed sites and yet highly secure to ensure cyber threats do not impact uptime.

SD-WAN is ready for prime time with distributed energy resources

Enterprises have widely deployed Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) over the past 10 years to address similar requirements: connecting remote sites using whichever networking technology is available, simplifying management of the infrastructure, offering seamless access to applications wherever they are hosted, delivering assurance for applications especially for remote users, and offering a very high level of security throughout the network.

Most renewable energy companies today are used to building large networks utilizing technologies such as Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) and Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network (DMVPN) to encrypt critical Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) communications. They’re using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) for the underlying transport network, and public or private cellular for remote sites with no other WAN connectivity.

SD-WAN brings these technologies together and enables automation to greatly simplify deployments and offer unmatched cybersecurity benefits out-of-the-box:

Secure zero touch deployment of field gateways, meaning no field staff is required to configure a gateway.
Simple provisioning of service VPNs to segregate traffic (SCADA, CCTV, IP telephony, etc.).
Templated configurations making it easy to change configuration and push it to gateways while ensuring compliance of all field assets to authorized templates.
Application of unified security policies across a diverse range of remote sites and equipment.
Managing multiple backhaul connectivity options at the gateway including private MPLS for critical SCADA traffic and cellular for backup and even internet-based connections for non-critical traffic, where appropriate.
Lifecycle management of gateways, such as firmware updates, alarm monitoring and statistics.

Simplifying connecting large, distributed infrastructures

Deploying an SD-WAN overlay also allows the renewable energy company to control the end-to-end IP addressing schemes and remove the need to engineer complex routing plans based on the underlying transport network, quite often provided by a third-party service provider. This divorces the underlying transport network from the overlay network. Hence, it simplifies operational tasks and provides a more secure overlay network for critical monitoring and control traffic.

Wouldn’t it be beneficial to have a single solution with a choice of industrial ruggedized gateways for different site types? We think so, and Cisco provides several industrial routers to suit all deployment sites and can be managed as part of the Cisco SD-WAN solution.

Cisco industrial routers such as the Catalyst IR8340 Rugged Series Routers for larger sites, Catalyst IR1100 Rugged Series Routers and Catalyst IR1800 Rugged Series Routers for smaller sites all operate as SD-WAN edge gateways alongside with the well-known Cisco enterprise routers (virtual and physical), which can be used for control centers, cloud locations and other operational sites to provide a single overlay network connecting to any site.

Unifying networking and cybersecurity

Cisco’s SD-WAN solution also provides a broad set of cybersecurity features, simplifying policy creation and deployment to the edge gateways. Advanced security capabilities such as:

Firewall with application awareness (NGFW) to filter traffic in real time and provide granular control capable of detecting thousands of applications.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDS/IPS) with Talos® signatures to identify and block known threats and malicious activities such as vulnerability exploits.
Advanced malware protection techniques, including signature-based and behavior-based analysis, to identify and block known and unknown malware threats.
URL filtering to block or allow users to access URLs based on more than 80 web categories covering millions of domains and billions of webpages.
Secure access to cloud and internet resources with Cisco Umbrella® which combines secure web gateway, DNS security, cloud-delivered firewall, cloud access security broker functionality, and threat intelligence to protect against internet threats.

Managing cyber risks to drive regulatory compliance

Further to securing the perimeter and connectivity to the renewable energy site, Cisco provides further security tools that can be leveraged ‘over the top’ to increase the security posture of the site:

Cisco Cyber Vision gives asset owners full visibility into devices connected to their industrial networks, communication patterns, vulnerabilities, and application flows to help assess the OT security posture. Renewable energy companies now have precise information to understand their cyber risks, implement security best practices, and drive compliance with cybersecurity regulations such as NERC CIP or NIS2.
Cisco Secure Equipment Access (SEA) helps secure remote access to grid assets giving you full control over which technician or contractor can remotely access assets for configuration, maintenance, or troubleshooting. It brings all the benefits of a zero-trust network access (ZTNA) architecture to distributed renewable energy sites, so users have access only to the devices you choose, using only the protocols you specify, and only on the day and time you allow.

Secure your distributed energy infrastructure with Cisco

In summary, the Cisco SD-WAN solution coupled with Cisco Catalyst Industrial Routers and OT security products is very relevant to renewable energy networks and can help simplify deployment at scale while offering advanced cybersecurity capabilities. Learn more about it in the solution overview we recently published. I’ve also discussed it in more details in a recent webinar, which you can now watch on-demand. We’ll be happy to help you build the secure SD-WAN infrastructure you’ve been waiting for.

"}]]  Connecting highly distributed renewable energy resources requires an advanced WAN infrastructure. Learn how a validated SD-WAN architecture can help you simplify site connectivity while offering the advanced cybersecurity features you need for regulatory compliance.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

Partners serve as the lifeblood of Cisco and form an essential part of the backbone that supports thousands of businesses across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). They play an integral… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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Partners serve as the lifeblood of Cisco and form an essential part of the backbone that supports thousands of businesses across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). They play an integral role, acting as key contributors in maintaining the smooth and seamless functioning of critical networks, applications, and operations.

In an era where assuring digital experiences has transitioned from a mere option to an absolute necessity, Cisco and its partners are joining forces to redefine the boundaries of business resilience and continuity. In this spirit of innovation and partnership, Cisco ThousandEyes takes immense pride in announcing the recipient of the inaugural ThousandEyes Integration Partner of the Year Award 2024 for EMEA: Sintrex.

This award recognizes EMEA-headquartered partners or channel organizations that demonstrate the critical role of ThousandEyes in their company’s practice of assuring digital experiences for businesses and the proof of value demonstrated through their customer success stories.

Watch the Sintrex interview with Mohit Lad, SVP/GM Cisco Networking – Assurance, Co-founder & CEO, ThousandEyes.

“Their exceptional work in seamlessly integrating ThousandEyes into their visibility platform has not only exemplified innovation but also set a new standard in operational excellence,”
– Tony Finn, Director of ThousandEyes, EMEA Channel Sales

A Winning Integration

The process to determine the winner of this award was nothing short of rigorous. It consisted of several stages, each designed to challenge the contenders and reveal their strengths.

This process reached its culmination when the finalists were invited to present their strategies and solutions to an expert panel of judges. The panel included leaders from ThousandEyes’ Sales and Engineering Leadership, a discerning audience to those presenting their integrations.

Nonetheless, the integration presented by Sintrex was a standout and will help ensure they stay ahead of technology trends while providing their customers with exceptional digital transformation solutions. This unique blend of innovation and service has not only won them the award but also a chance to shine in a highly visible way.

As a prize for winning this award, Sintrex had the opportunity to join alongside ThousandEyes at Cisco Live EMEA 2024 to showcase their award-winning integration to customers and partners.

Sintrex’s comprehensive understanding and deep knowledge of ThousandEyes have been instrumental in them clinching this award, further testifying to their expertise in the field.

Continuing Our Partnership

The collaboration between the companies involved in this award process has resulted in a unique partner-based approach to assuring digital experiences for businesses. This aspect has been acknowledged and praised by everyone involved.

Mihaela Traus, ThousandEyes Channel Account Manager for Sintrex, said, “We are excited about our partnership with Sintrex. Their offer around ThousandEyes is an innovative example of what assuring digital experiences for business looks like. I’m thrilled about our journey together.”

“This recognition is a testament to our collaborative efforts and commitment to excellence in the digital assurance space,” said Emile Biagio, CEO of Sintrex. “The opportunity to showcase our value proposition at the exhibition with ThousandEyes is invaluable. It highlights our dedication to delivering exceptional solutions and strengthens the partnership, paving the way for continued success in the dynamic digital landscape.”

Learn About the Sintrex Integration

Hear from Sintrex experts in this episode of the ThousandEyes Partner Connection Podcast. Subscribe today and tune in!

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with #CiscoPartners on social!

Cisco Partners Facebook  |  @CiscoPartners X/Twitter  |  Cisco Partners LinkedIn

"}]]  Cisco ThousandEyes takes immense pride in announcing the recipient of the inaugural ThousandEyes Integration Partner of the Year Award 2024 for EMEA: Sintrex. This award recognizes EMEA-headquartered partners or channel organizations that demonstrate the critical role of ThousandEyes in their company's practice of assuring digital experiences for businesses and the proof of value demonstrated through their customer success stories.  Read More Cisco Blogs