The VAR Guy

At the Cisco Partner Summit this morning in San Francisco, CTO Padmasree Warrior and several top executives took the stage to demonstrate a range of “innovations” that have little to do with traditional switches and routers. Hardly surprising, video and telepresence dominated much of the discussion. Here are the details.

First, a little background: This morning’s session didn’t contain blockbuster news or game-changing high-tech inflection points. Generally speaking, Cisco reinforced many of the messages it has already promoted into the market… The network is the platform; video will dominate network traffic; collaboration requires more than endpoints.

Overall, it was a solid session. But at some points, the Cisco-led discussion sounded quite a bit like Cisco Partner Summit 2009. Only, this time around there wasn’t any major recession talk. That, by the way, was refreshing.

Here’s a recap:

1. Stepping Up Her Game: CTO Padmasree Warrior is a far more polished conference speaker these days compared to her previous time at Motorola.

2. Two Secrets to Success: Innovation combined with operational excellence deliver success, Warrior said.

3. Smart Connected Community: Cisco, the hardware giant, is showing social media community software and video capabilities. The VAR Guy has suggested previously that CIsco is becoming more and more of a software company. But is that premise accurate?

4. Mobile Experience: Users now expect all of their applications to be available, everywhere, Warrior noted.

5. Future of Connected Life: Video remains the key enabler that scales human interaction, Warrior asserted.

6. Future of Computing: Here comes virtualization chatter. Plus, the Internet and “the network” will be the platform that enables business transformation across vertical markets.

7. Another Big Switch?: Warrior says the industry is moving from Information Economy to Networked Economy 2.0. Interesting concept. But isn’t the 2.0 metaphor a bit dated? How ’bout 3.0, Cisco style?

8. More than Price/Performance: IT solutions must also focus on sustainability and efficiency, Warrior asserted.

9. Hybird: Cloud and on-premises will march forward together, Warrior said.

10. Cloud Computing: Cisco wants to create an open, flexible and distributed compute platform, Warrior said. “This is a journey; cloud computing will take 10 years to unroll.” Warrior added that Cisco’s cloud strategy addresses enterprises, small business and service providers.

11. Big Numbers: More than 7,000 partners are watching the Cisco Partner Summit’s virtual edition, according to Tony Bates, Senior VP and GM, Enterprise Commerical and Small Business.

12. More Big Numbers: Cisco has 17,000 people in sales and marketing, but 282,000 “channel employees” (i.e., partners), said Bates. That creates economies of scale.

13. Video Demos: Lots and lots of them. Video phones are everywhere here. The company is preparing video new endpoints for boarderless networks. Launch time: May 2010.

14. From Products to Vision: Transform from product specialists to network architect specialists, Cisco recommended.

15. Broadband Bulks Up: Video communications traffic will increase tenfold from 2008 to 2013, said Martin De Beer, senor VP of emerging technologies. In 2013, 90% of network traffic will be video.

16. Telepresence in Healthcare: United Healthcare has 10,000 nurses visiting patients. De Beer says virtual healthcare solutions and telepresence can greatly reduce those on-site visit requirements.

17. Newlyweds: Cisco demonstrated combined Cisco and Tandberg video conferencing technologies. And Cisco showed some video search capabilities

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