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Tag: Cisco

  • ‘Multimedia technology has high growth potentials’

    Maxwell Nzekwe is the General Manager, Voidant Broadcasting Limited, a media technology company and owners of eventstracer.com, an online event industry hub. In this Interview with Medinat Kanabe, he talks about how his company supports small businesses and their recent partnership with the Silverbird Group.

    For Maxwell Nzekwe, the Cisco, IBM, and Bloomberg Media trained engineer, applying his Information Technology, Media and Project Management skills in digitalising Nigeria’s event industry through the launch and development of eventstracer.com was probably the best decision he ever made.

    The digital native who holds a degree in Information Technology and an MBA has strong interests in the growing of SMEs through the deployment of technology to reduce their costs which can help them build, scale and enhance their distribution capacity.

    Justifying his passion for start-ups, he said, “My certification gave me an opportunity to work in many national and international organisations before I became an entrepreneur. The last place I worked was where I discovered a gap in the media and technology industry before I went into entrepreneurship. I discovered that small businesses do not get the awareness they are supposed to get and most of the aspects of the economy are being powered by these small businesses.”

    Expatiating, he said, “The small businesses I am referring to are those that have a staff strength of between five to fifty and their turnover is between N5 million to N50 million per month. Yes, we have such entrepreneurs in Nigeria, but nobody is giving them the awareness they need so my company decided to give them the awareness they need.”

    Nzekwe who kept researching later discovered that small businesses, especially those within the social ecosystem, tend to operate independently, hence his company decided to create a platform for all the stakeholders in the event industry so that they can come together.

    “That’s how the eventstracers.com was birthed. The website allows the venue owners, the events’ organisers, the sponsors, the event exhibitors, the event visitors to get information. If you are a sponsor, looking for an event to sponsor or a visitor looking for an event to attend, the best place to check is the eventstracers.com to see the events that suits your taste.”

    The Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka graduate who said he has since seen a huge potential in the future of SMEs, disclosed that he had no qualms at all about lending his support for the sector as he notes that it can guarantee huge return on investment (ROI) in it.

    “The ROI is massive and the impact on the economy is visibly felt in a positive way,” he says as he added that the Piggybank.ng recorded a staggering savings growth of 3000% from 2016 to 2017.

    According to him, there is no arguing the fact that SMEs can become the backbone of any economy. “They account for more than 90% of all firms outside the usual white-collar jobs, constituting a major source of employment. Empirical reports have also shown that about 70% of the industrial employment in Nigeria is held by SMEs and more than 50% of the Gross Domestic Product is generated by SMEs.”

    He advised that startups should engage more in the services and agricultural sector because these sectors according to him are growing at an exponential rate.

    According to him, “If SMEs in Nigeria are given all the support they need in terms of their frame work, Capital, Health, Insurance, Technology, Training and most importantly Awareness (CHITTA), in the next five years, there will be massive development in all sectors of the Nigerian economy. “Government has done well by injecting about N1trillion into the sector and we hope this takes SMEs to the next level in the next five years.”

    On his partnership with Silverbird Group, he said his company found out those small businesses require CHITTA as a matter of course.

    “Small businesses lack capital, they hardly care about their health, they need training and insurance and they need awareness. After we discovered that they need all these, we thought about the best people to work with, so we settled for Silverbird Group. That’s why we went to them to see if they will partner with us and they agreed. This is what gave birth to the Silverbird Small Business Events Circuit which will run for eight months and everything surrounding the CHITTA will be provided for the chosen SMEs.”

    Although the Nigerian government is trying to help SMEs grow, Nzekwe while responding to a question on how diverting SME funds can be curtailed said it is part of the problem they hope to solve with the platform.

    “With a comprehensive data base it becomes easy to channel these funds to the right businesses and also track their progress. Let’s say, the federal government releases fund to help SMEs in the floriculture industry, with the available database, we can ensure they get the funds and also track their progress,” he added.

    The fear of not surviving is one of the reasons many Nigerians have not embraced SMEs, Nzekwe argues matter-of-factly, noting that the government can make them begin to want to become self-employed.

    “The CHITTA frame work captures all the ways that the government can help. Therefore, this should become the primary focus. Provide the enabling environment and you will be surprised at what our youths can do. A lot of startups die a natural death by the third year because they lack the proper support on how to run a business. Therefore, a lot of people shy away from starting a business for fear of failure,” he noted.

    The General Manager who says once you provide a service that solves a problem, you can be sure of becoming financially independent overtime said companies like Wangaru food, Techpoint, and CAR45 are doing very well.

    Nzekwe spoke about Voidant broadcasting, a media tech company that his organization runs for SMEs. He said they have a studio where they hold all their production. “We have pride TV for small businesses where we give them the publicity they require to grow.  The platform where we disseminate our content is Voidant Wire Services (vwsng.com), a small business news service that gives small business owners ideas on how to run their businesses. If you visit our site, you will see that we have packaged programmes that will help these small businesses.

    “For example, if you want to start up a saloon, you will see everything you need to start and how to start and if you don’t know the type of business to go into, if you visit the site, you will have an idea of what to go into. You will also hear stories of people who have done it before and how they succeed.

    “Those who are working as well, if they visit the page, they will see a side hustle that they can get involved in aside their salary job.”

    On how many entrepreneurs he has brought to the show so far, he said he cannot really say because they are a lot adding that it is so because they do not pay for it. “We are helping them create the awareness they need,” he said.

    For someone who studied biochemistry, and is now focusing on helping SMEs, The Nation asked what the relationship between the two are?

    Responding, he said during his first degree, he discovered he has a flare for entrepreneurship and the flare for technology. “Back in school, people didn’t have e-mail accounts so they go to cybercafés to pay and open an e-mail, that was in the early 2000.

    “What I did then was to start helping people open their e-mail addresses, even students in the engineering department were not left out. I also helped them do research for their projects; I may be at the café all night making research and I was making money a lot.

    “I had to change my mind and concluded that I could do it better if I study computer engineering after my first degree. I worked with IBM afterwards and gained so many insights about how these things work and here I am today.”

    The Bloomberg fellow who resigned to set up shop had to reject other juicy job offers just to be able to run his enterprise.

    “It was not easy, in fact, sometimes I wonder how I want to help others to succeed when I myself I am going through a lot of stress. If it is not something I am doing with passion, I would have left because before now very juicy offers came from different companies and I had to resist them; some were really tempting as I have never made the amount of money that they are ready to pay in a month before, but I had to refuse them.”

    Speaking about the challenges confronting small businesses, he said the major challenge is capital, adding that with all the money released for SMEs yearly they are still struggling because the money still gets to the wrong hands.

  • Cisco: dearth of cyber security personnel hits Nigeria, others

    Twenty-five per cent of organisations in Nigeria, Middle East and other African countries lack cyber security personnel, one of the biggest obstacles to cyber security, a new Cisco cyber security report has said.

    According to the report, 23 per cent of companies in the Middle East and Africa manage more than 21 vendors, while only 58 per cent of cyber security alerts in the Middle East and Africa are investigated. Of those, 39 per cent are legitimate, but only 53 per cent of legitimate alerts are remediated.

    For more than a decade, Cisco’s cyber security reports have been a definitive source of intelligence for cyber security professionals interested in the state of the global industry. These comprehensive reports provide detailed accounts of the threat landscape and organisational implications.

    “In February, the Cisco 2019 Threat Report was published. Our cyber security experts analysed prominent threats of 2018 for clues to new attack strategies and targets. It’s as close as we can get to anticipating future trends without a crystal ball.

    “Cisco has picked out five key stories from the last year or so, not just because they were big events, but because the company thinks these threats, or something similar, could very well appear again in the near future. They include: Emotet, a Trojan involved in malware distribution; VPNFilter, a modular internet of things (IoT) threat; unauthorised mobile device management; cryptomining and Olympic Destroyer, as an example of destructive cyber-attack campaigns,” the firm explained.

    It said Olympic Destroyer was created with the pure intention to watch the world burn. “We saw a number of threats like this in the last year, but none grabbed the headlines like an a ttack whose sole purpose appears to have been to disrupt the Winter Olympics while VPNFilter was an IoT-specific attack, hitting a vast number of routers and devices riddled with known vulnerabilities.

    E-mail remains a key delivery method for attackers and users continue to be the weakest link; education is therefore, paramount.

    “Revenue generation is the key motivation for attackers: malware follows the money. Crypto-mining threats are laser-focused on this goal. They have grown to become the most common threat in this category, due to the repeat revenue they offer and the low risk if caught spreading it.

    “As we prepare for major events across the region and as businesses continue to digitally transform, adopt the cloud and Internet of things (IoT), we’re prioritising cyber security above everything.

    “It’s impossible to predict everything that will occur, but the safest bets are usually the ones you most often come up against. Addressing those early can free up time to deal with the unexpected and zero-day attacks,” Cisco said in the report.

    Since coming onboard, Cisco has become a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Firewall. “Gartner specifically recognised the strength of our threat intelligence team, Talos, the largest threat research team in the world.” In addition, Cisco said it continues to enhance its integrated portfolio via acquisition.

  • Signal Alliance, Microsoft, Cisco collaborate on Azure Stack

    Signal Alliance, Microsoft and Cisco have partnered to deliver the Azure Stack solution to enterprises. Azure Stack is an innovative hybrid cloud computing solution designed to help organisations deliver their various services efficiently from their own data centers.

    Speaking at the workshop where the solution was unveiled in Lagos,  Signal Alliance Azure Practice Lead, Uche Nwaukwa, described the solution as an extension of Microsoft Azure, which brings the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing to on-premises environments.

    At the workshop, participants were shown how Azure Stack can enable businesses and government agencies leverage cloud capabilities and still maintain regulatory requirements around data residency, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) compliance.

    There was also a demonstration of how the solution serves as hybrid cloud computing platform for edge and disconnected scenarios which address latency and connectivity issues, including simple and easy-to-use analytics.

    While speaking on the development,  Head, Platforms & Applications, Signal Alliance, Sikiru Abass, said it enables organisations to build modern applications across hybrid cloud environments, balancing the right amount of flexibility and control. Moreover, with Azure Stack, developers can speed up new cloud application development by building on application components from the Azure Marketplace, including open source tools and technologies.

    With this consistent cloud platform, organisations can confidently make technology decisions based on business requirements, rather than business decisions based on technology complications.

    Azure Stack is an integrated solution made up of software and hardware components. Microsoft owns the software, while Cisco and other approved vendors support with their proprietary hardware. Signal Alliance acts as the partner delivering the solution and providing support for user organisations in Nigeria.

  • Cisco: Technology not enough to combat cyber insecurity

    Global leader in information technology (IT) and networking, Cisco, has said technology alone is incapable of combatting the growing insecurity on the cyber space. It said rather than focusing solely on technology, people, policy and processes should be combined to make the cyber space safe for businesses.

    A Systems Engineer and Security Expert at Cisco, Tomi Amao, who spoke on the sideline of the unveiling of Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report in Lagos at the weekend, stressed the need for the combination of the three elements in the fight against cyber marauders.

    He said businesses must adopt security measures built around a comprehensive approach across people, process, technology and policy to protect their businesses from hackers and cyber criminals.

    The Cybersecurity Report identified the evolution of ransomware as one of the most significant threat developments over the past year. The report also highlighted that malware had become more vicious and harder to combat and that attackers are developing more skill in creating malware that can evade traditional sandboxing. It also revealed that adversaries are increasingly embracing encryption – meant to enhance security – to conceal command-and-control activity and that nearly half of the security risk that organisations face stems from having multiple security vendors and products.

    General Manager of Cisco Nigeria, Olakunle Oloruntimilehin, explained the need for businesses and enterprises to adopt advanced methods of cybersecurity. He said: “Security is getting more complex and the scope of breaches is expanding. Several companies are hit by cyber breaches and attacks every year causing losses in millions of naira and stealing highly classified information. It is therefore imperative that any organization that desires to stay safe and minimise risk or loss address cybersecurity at the top, with executive leadership setting the tone and engender a ‘security-first-always-and-everywhere’ culture that flows throughout the organization.”

    The Cisco 2018 Security Capabilities Benchmark Study reveals that 94 per cent of companies in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) suffered a breach in the past year and that 34 per cent of breaches in resulted in more than half of systems being impacted. The study also indicated that nearly a quarter of organisations in the region manage more than 21 vendors and cite lack of security personnel as one of the biggest obstacles to security.

    Amao said: “Cisco researchers observed a two-fold increase in malicious web traffic volume in roughly over 12-months. This alone demonstrates that cyber adversaries continue to learn and evolve. The time to raise the bar in cybersecurity is now. That is why at Cisco we take pride in being able to educate and provide businesses with the solutions and best practices required for effective cybersecurity. Our threat researchers have a reputation for timely, accurate and innovative work, and our networks of talented teams are devoted to driving impactful outcomes for our customers.”

    Now in its 11th year, the Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report offers security industry data, analysis and insights about attacker behavior over the past year. The report highlights findings and insights derived from threat intelligence and cybersecurity trends observed over the past 12-18 months and provide recommendations designed to help organisations and users defend against attacks.

    Cisco has an integrated and comprehensive portfolio of security technologies to provide advanced threat protection. Cisco technologies include next generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), secure access systems, security analytics, and malware defence; which work together to deliver effective network security and incident response.

  • ‘Why Real Estate Developers Should Embrace Smart-City Technologies’

    ‘Why Real Estate Developers Should Embrace Smart-City Technologies’

    It is quite clear that technological advancement has greatly influenced the subsistence and survival of man in all facets of life. Its impact appears so vast in some areas of life such as construction, manufacturing, finance and communication, amongst others. With regards to construction, the real estate industry in Nigeria is currently witnessing a cyclical change, as developers begin to fully grasp the benefits and comparative advantages of technological real estate innovations, in terms of attractiveness of their properties to prospective buyers.

    The advent of smart buildings technology is one of such innovations that has become the deciding factor in identifying prime real estate as customers are actively seeking new experiences in their purchase and consumption of real estate. To enable new customer experiences, accelerate workforce innovation and introduce innovative business models, companies are digitizing their business operations and buildings – be it a retail store, a factory floor, a healthcare or an educational institution or your very own workplace – are central to this digital transformation.

    Building owners are looking at technology convergence to deliver enhanced occupant experiences and improved efficiencies in their buildings. However, as the number of networks and connections within buildings grow, they are becoming increasingly complex. Interconnecting and interoperating isolated building systems such as lighting, HVAC, badging systems, security, CCTV, sensors and audio-video equipment, into a single converged system is fundamental to the digital transformation of buildings. Today’s building systems and equipment need to work together smoothly and efficiently to meet owners’ and occupants’ needs, which requires a holistic approach of integrating new technologies.

    Cisco has the leading footprint in network innovation, the Cisco Catalyst Digital Building Series switch is a big step towards a robust foundation for the next-generation digital buildings. This is the industry’s first purpose-built switch optimized for low voltage PoE deployments, IoT connectivity and building automation in smart buildings. Digital Building Series switches will greatly simplify the deployment experience with integrated security and lower total cost of ownership. Other developers in Nigeria have also leveraged of the attractiveness of smart city technology to ensure that its structures are equipped with start of the art innovative technology that ensures efficient communication between all devices within the city. But the question here is do consumers fully understand the value and benefits of smart city technology.

    A building isn’t connected unless the people inside are. Smart buildings can be outfitted with high-speed internet and voice over internet protocol services. Since businesses increasingly rely on the internet, an increase in speed could mean an increase in production and revenue. Smart buildings are designed to constantly gather data and monitor themselves for problems in the structure’s facilities. These technological advancements are made possible by companies which constantly push the boundaries of innovations, Cisco is one of such organization.

    The vision of smart city offered by Cisco is of an integrated urban information and communication technology (ICT) overlay on a city that can support delivery of connected urban services and allow for efficient management of those services on a global scale. Cisco helps cities gather, share, understand and act on data from and with other agencies, from and with city residents and visitors, and from and with business and social organizations. So, for example, if an elevator breaks down, the building could find the problem, self-diagnose and communicate with the appropriate organization to get it fixed. Smart buildings can also monitor system performance to increase energy savings. Overseeing these processes could decrease complaints about inefficient or failed facilities, reducing time spent addressing potential problems. Smart buildings are expected to save money in more ways than one might think.

    Cisco

    It is quite clear that smart cities significantly reduce energy and operating costs, but there are a number of expected not-so-obvious benefits gained from implementing a smart building system. It is becoming increasingly important for people to feel safe at the workplace, and smart buildings can help in those efforts. Take, for example, a situation in which a fire alarm goes off. With Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities, a smart building can detect smoke, tell occupants to evacuate the building, contact the correct authorities and prepare the structure for minimizing the spread of risk. Security also is an important issue, and the deployment of cameras and the ability to stream footage from a surveillance camera to a laptop can increase safety and provide peace of mind to tenants.

    By leveraging the Internet of Things, cities can integrate people, processes, data and things to create safe and vital places to live, work, learn and play. Partnering for Innovation and Success Cisco’s engagement in smart-city issues is championed by the Smart+Connected Communities (S+CC) initiative under the Cisco Industry Solutions group. Working closely with the Internet of Things group, the Services Platform Group and other departments within Cisco, S+CC is developing a growing portfolio of city-oriented solutions

    These solutions provided by intelligent buildings could give a boost to a building owner’s return on investment while providing occupants with an intelligent work and home environment Smart buildings are set to adapt to the way people live. They have control of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting, learning the schedules of those who operate these systems in order to optimize comfort.

    Early adapters of smart building technology are embarking on a journey that will lead to increased economic benefits, sustainability, and positive occupant experience outcomes. This is equivalent to incremental change driven by simplistic short-term returns. Crossing the chasm into a truly intelligent built environment will require a roadmap, supported by not only facility managers but also, real estate developers, and all key influencers in the digital transformation of real estate. The future of intelligent buildings is experiential — and real estate developers who embrace the intelligent building roadmap process will gain a competitive advantage.

    By: Olakunle Oloruntimehin; Cisco General Manager for Nigeria.

  • FG warns volunteers against selling N-Power devices

    FG warns volunteers against selling N-Power devices

    The Federal Government on Thursday warned that N-Power volunteers caught or implicated in the sale of the programme’s tablets would be dismissed.

    The Presidential Aide on Job Creation and Youth Empowerment, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    “Information reaching us is that some of our N-Power Volunteers are attempting to dispose their device, we urge you in your best interest not to do so.

    “Once caught, you would not only be dismissed from the programme, you would be blacklisted from other federal government’s social Investment Programmes.

    “A lien would also be placed on your bank accounts for the full refund of the asset cost to the Bank of Industry,’’ he said.

    Imoukhuede recalled that N-Power is a Learn/Work/Entrepreneurship Programme of the federal government’s National Social Investment Programme for unemployed Young Graduates.

    He reminded the beneficiaries that the devices currently being distributed to the volunteers were secured through an Asset Finance arrangement.

    He said the arrangement was made with the Bank of Industry (BOI) for 20 months by the National Social Investment Programme.

    “As such, the devices are to aid the continual learning and development of our volunteers, which seek to enhance their employability ready for the labour market when they exit the programme after 24 months.

    “These devices are also their work tools as it would aid the discharge of their community functions in their primary places of assignment be it at the Public Schools, Primary Health Centres or the Agriculture Development Farm Settlements.

    “In addition, these devices contain global knowledge content contributed by some of our global partners such as Cisco, Google, Microsoft on ICT, Leadership and Entrepreneurship for their continuous development,’’ he said.

    The Presidential Aide warned volunteers that the employment office had devised means to gather such information and data concerning sold or unutilized devices.

    NAN reports that the federal government took over the remittances of the total cost of the devices to the asset finance partner, besides the N30,000 monthly stipends to no fewer than 200,000 volunteers.

  • Innovate or die, Cisco, Signal Alliance tell lenders

    Two technology giants, Cisco and Signal Alliance have advised deposit money banks (DMBs) to leverage technology in their operations in order to  be more efficient without spending above their budget.

    Speaking at the Signal Alliance-Cisco business engagement session, Signal Alliance Director of Service Delivery, Adegbola  Adesina,  said: “More companies continue to embrace mobility, cloud, analytics, and increase in custom built application on low bandwidth, consuming applications to digitise their businesses. These have made IT teams to struggle in their bid to keep up with the ever-increasing complexity of the network, sophistication of security attacks and growing end user’s expectations.”

    This according to Adesina, has made many organisations to spend huge sums of money acquiring new devices all in the name of upgrade which may not be necessary.

    The Signal Alliance Digital Transformation event was well attended by leading banks in Nigeria. The bankers were shown by experts how their organisations can make do with what they already have, cut down on their IT spend and grow their services in a more secure environment to gain competitive advantage through process digitisation.

    Another speaker,  Yinka Adeosun also of Signal Alliance, spoke on Digital Network Transformation, while Tomi Amao of Cisco demonstrated the new Cisco Security Integrated Architecture.Kaecy Udumukwu’s presentation was on Digital Business Transformation.

    Cisco told participants that traditional networks simply could not scale to meet the increasing demands of the digital business. For this reason, a new network was needed for the digital business; a new network for the digital era; a network designed from the ground up to be flexible, programmable and open; while leveraging on and protecting existing investment.

    Amao said the Cisco Digital Ready Network helps IT to address these demands by moving networking from hardware-centric to software-driven, from manual to automated, and from reactive to adaptive.

    Signal Alliance is a diversified technology company with over 20 years’ experience in the Nigerian technology and business landscape, starting out first as an IT networking company in 1996, before quickly evolving into IT systems integrator. It is a leading Cisco partner in Nigeria who won the 2016 Cisco Global Partner Plus Winner Circle Award for Africa. Signal Alliance also invests and incubates technology startups.

  • Cisco: Budget, others stall cybercrimes fight

    Cisco: Budget, others stall cybercrimes fight

    udget constraints, poor compatibility of systems, and a lack of trained talents are the biggest barriers to advancing security postures by chief Security Officers (CSOs), Cisco has said.

    The firm, in its latest Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR), said leaders also revealed that their security departments are increasingly becoming complex environments with 65 per cent of organisations using from six to more than 50 security products, increasing the potential for security effectiveness gaps.

    To exploit these gaps, ACR data showed criminals leading a resurgence of classic attack vectors, such as adware and email spam, the latter at levels not seen since 2010. Spam accounted for nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of email with eight to 10 per cent, cited as malicious mails. Global spam volume is rising, often spread by large and thriving botnets.

    The General Manager, Cisco Nigeria, Olakunle Oluruntimehin, who spoke in Lagos, said the penetration of mobile and growth in internet usage also means that people are more vulnerable to cybercrimes.

    He said: “That is why we leverage our partners, the Cisco Networking Academy programme and certifications in addition to typical customer enablement activities to grow our security market share. We have a growing list of over 300 partners in Nigeria covering security in verticals like retail, financial services, oil, healthcare, hospitality and public sector. The Networking Academy is expanding its courses to include security everywhere by providing knowledge and capacity building partnering with government and private educational institutions. This aligns with the skills development and jobs creation goal of the government ensuring that we are also increasing skills in ssecurity IT. We have over 130 academies in Nigeria and have more academies joining this number on a quarterly basis.

    “This year, cyber is business, and business is cyber – that requires a different conversation, and very different outcomes. Relentless improvement is required and that should be measured via efficacy, cost, and well managed risk. The ACR demonstrates and justifies, answers to our struggles on budget, personnel, innovation and architecture.”

    Cybersecurity has changed drastically since the inaugural Cisco Annual Security Report in 2007. While technology has helped attacks become more damaging and defences become more sophisticated, the foundation of security remains as important as ever. In 2007, the ACR reported web and business applications were targets, often via social engineering, or user-introduced infractions. In 2017, hackers attack cloud-based applications, and spam has escalated.

    The 2017 ACR reports that just 56 per cent of security alerts are investigated and less than half of legitimate alerts remediated. Defenders, while confident in their tools, battle complexity and manpower challenges, leaving gaps of time and space for attackers to utilise to their advantage.

    Cisco advises organisations to take steps to prevent, detect, and mitigate threats and minimise risk. These steps include making security a business priority; executive leadership must own and evangelise security and fund it as a priority. Operational discipline must be measured while review of security practices, patch, and control access points to network systems, applications, functions, and data must be taken seriously.

    It called for test security effectiveness and establishment of clear metrics which should be used to validate and improve security practices. Adopt an integrated defence approach and make integration and automation high on the list of assessment criteria to increase visibility, streamline interoperability, and reduce the time to detect and stop attacks. Security teams then can focus on investigating and resolving true threats, Cisco added.

  • Cisco recertifies Vodacom as cloud, managed services master partner

    Cisco recertifies Vodacom as cloud, managed services master partner

    Cisco has re-certified Vodafone Group Plc as a Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Master Partner globally. This comes after Vodafone reaffirmed its capabilities of delivering cloud and managed services using Cisco’s technology. The certification rewards partners for their expertise and investments for building, selling and delivering cloud and managed services world-wide.

    Speaking on the development, Mark Shoebridge, Executive Head of Network Operations, Vodacom Business Nigeria, the operating company of Vodafone Group Plc in Nigeria, said, “We provide world-class cloud and managed service solutions to our customers and this is why we use Cisco technology. This certification validates our commitment and ability to provide the highest service levels possible and employing class leading technology to serve our customers. “Our customers can be rest assured that our Cisco powered managed service and technical capabilities, deliver a secure and reliable high level of service and performance. We are pleased to have qualified once again for this certification.”

    As a Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Master Certified Partner, Vodacom Business Nigeria will deliver at least two Cisco Powered services built on the IT Infrastructure Library framework, and provide enhanced management and stewardship practices to its customers.

    Cisco recognises a partner’s expertise in deploying solutions based on Cisco advanced technologies and services by using a third-party audit process to validate the partner’s technology skills, business practices, customer satisfaction, presales and post-sales support capabilities, and other critical factors that customers consider when choosing a trusted partner.

  • Cisco sees internet users in Nigeria, others rise to 425million

    Dd for mobile access and video services, internet users in Nigeria, other parts of Africa and the Middle East will rise steeply to 425million, a United States tech giants, Cisco has predicted.

    According to the 10th annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast for this year, by 2019, there will be nearly 3.9 billion global internet users (more than 51 per cent of the world’s population), up from 2.8 billion last year.

    In Middle East and Africa, internet protocol (IP) traffic will grow six-fold by 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 44 per cent. Factors expected to drive traffic growth include global increases in internet users, personal devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, faster broadband speeds, and the adoption of advanced video services.

    Internet traffic will grow 6.8-fold from last year to 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 47 per cent and there will be 2.1 billion networked devices in 2019, up from 1.4 billion last year.

    Cisco said 78 per cent of all networked devices will be mobile-connected in 2019 with M2M modules accounting for 17 per cent (358.9 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to eight per cent (112.1 million) last year; tablets will account for four per cent (93.1 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to two per cent (24.7 million) last year while smartphones will account for 31 per cent (652.0 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to 14 per cent (196.6 million) last year and non-smartphones will account for 38.3 per cent (818.9 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to 68 per cent (943.6 million) last year.

    Connected TVs will account for three per cent (69.4 million) of all networked devices in 2019, compared to two per cent (23.8 million) in 2014. In Middle East and Africa, TVs accounted for two per cent of total internet traffic in 2014, and will be two per cent of total Internet traffic in 2019, Cisco averred.

    General Manager, Cisco Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mr. Dare Ogunlade, said the relevance of VNI is underscored by the rise in internet of everything.

    He said: “As consumers, businesses and societies in Nigeria head towards the digital era with the Internet of Everything gaining momentum, VNI is even more relevant now in its 10th year than it was in its first. For our customers and the industry ecosystem as a whole, we look forward to continuing to report on these trends, the challenges they bring, and the immense opportunities ahead.

    “We are entering into a very dynamic technological era and the rapid increase in connected devices will benefit a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, transportation, oil and gas, utilities, government, healthcare, sports and entertainment, education, in terms of increased efficiency, reduced costs, and, most important, improvement of the lives of citizens.”

    Key global IP traffic and service predictions by Cisco also showed that several elements will shape IP traffic in the coming years, adding that on more internet users, last year, there were 2.8 billion internet users, or 39 per cent of the world’s population of 7.2 billion, adding that by 2019, there will be about 3.9 billion internet users, or 51 per cent of the world’s projected population of 7.6 billion quoting Population Division of the Dept. of Economic & Social Affairs of the United Nations.

    On proliferation of devices and connections, the firm said 24 billion networked devices/connections is expected online by 2019, compared with 14 billion last year. It urged service provider networks to adapt to an influx of sophisticated devices. These devices include tablets, smartphones, and Internet-enabled ultra-high definition (UHD) TVs, as well as M2M connections and wearables (including new smart watches, health monitors, and others.)

    “Globally, the average fixed broadband speed will increase two-fold from 20.3 Mbps in 2014 to 42.5 Mbps in 2019. Year-over-year, the average global fixed broadband speed grew 26 per cent from 16 Mbps in 2013 to 20.3 Mbps in 2014. From a regional perspective, Western Europe and Asia Pacific continue to lead the world in fixed broadband network speeds.

    New and Advanced Video Services – IP video will account for 80 per cent of all IP traffic by 2019, up from 67 per cent in 2014. The evolution of advanced video services (fr example UHD and spherical/360 video) and increasingly video centric M2M applications are anticipated to create new bandwidth and scalability requirements for service providers. Residential, business and mobile consumers continue to have strong demand for advanced video services across all network and device types, making quality, convenience, content/experience and price key success factors.

    “Mobility Momentum – By 2019, more than 14 percent of monthly IP traffic will derive from cellular connections, and 53 percent of monthly IP traffic will come from Wi-Fi connections globally, making differentiated and monetizable mobile strategies more important for all service providers,” it added.

    On the Internet of Everything (IoE) and M2M Growth, Cisco said IoE trend is showing tangible growth as M2M connections and will more than triple over the next five years (growing to 10.5 billion by 2019). There will be significant IoE adoption across many business verticals (agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and transportation) as well as connected home deployments (that is video security, smart meters, lighting/temperature control, etc.). Connected Health consumer segment will have the fastest M2M connections growth at 8.6-fold (54 per cent compound annual growth rate or CAGR) from 2014 to 2019

    Cisco predicts a marked increase in network traffic associated with game downloads driven by availability of storage capacity on gaming consoles, an increase in upstream cloud traffic, and increasing fiber connections.

    “Online music will be the fastest-growing residential Internet service with a CAGR of 7.7 percent from 2014-2019, growing from 1.2 billion users to 1.7 billion users by 2019. Mobile location-based service (LBS) will be the fastest growing consumer mobile service with a CAGR of 27.5 percent from 2014-19, growing from 597 million users in 2014 to over two billion users by 2019. Desktop and personal videoconferencing will be the fastest growing business Internet service with a CAGR of 23.5 per cent from 2014-2019, growing from 76 million users in 2014 to 220 million users by 2019,” Cisco said.