cisco

LAS VEGAS--Cisco Systems plans to focus on the consumer market a lot more in the next three to five years, the company's CEO John Chambers said Wednesday during the company's press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show.

This increased focus will likely mean a "steady stream of product announcements, partnership announcements and acquisitions" from the company as it grows this market, Chambers said.

Cisco initially got into the home networking business in 2003 with its acquisition of Linksys and it increased its presence a couple of years later with the acquisition of set-top box maker Scientific Atlanta. … Read more

Network-attached storage servers, in my opinion, have generally not been user-friendly enough. Even the easiest-to-use ones require some getting used to.

This is looking to change with the two new Media Hub series released under the networking giant's marketing brand "Linksys by Cisco" at CES this year, the NMH400 and the NMH300.

The NMH300 series is a budget solution that offers just the core features of the Media Hub, and you need to use a computer to manage the device.

The NMH400 series, on the other hand, features an LCD screen that lets users view a variety … Read more

Cisco has debuted an iPhone application that can make use of the company's popular WebEx collaboration tool. The new app, available free from the App Store, allows users click to join and actively collaborate in WebEx meetings. A company statement reads:

"The online meeting experience gives users the ability to take advantage of simultaneous web and audio conferencing capabilities from Cisco on both the 3G mobile and 802.11 wireless (Wi-Fi) networks. The solution supports multiple telephony configurations including SaaS-based telephony from Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, premises-based telephony from Cisco Unified MeetingPlace, or telephony from Cisco's service … Read more

After hinting at a "digital stereo" product in The New York Times last week, Cisco unveiled the details of its Wireless Home Audio System today, which will be released under the networking giant's "Linksys by Cisco" consumer networking brand. At first glance, the system--which is actually a suite of six products that will be available separately or in a variety of preconfigured bundles--bears a remarkable resemblance to the Sonos Multi-Room Music System. Like the Sonos, the Linksys product has a large-screen remote and offers networked base stations designed to live in several rooms of the house where they can play digital music from networked PCs or online audio sources (Internet radio via RadioTime, Rhapsody subscription service in the U.S., and the AudioLounge premium service in Europe). The Linksys device can also use a "zone" system, so different rooms can access different audio sources, or be linked together for synchronized playback of a single audio stream in multiple rooms simultaneously. … Read more

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that technology from the Five Across acquisition was the foundation for the new Eos service. It is not.

LAS VEGAS --Two years after it first started courting big media companies, Cisco Systems will finally launch a new product to help these companies harness the power of social networking and connect their brands to fans.

On Wednesday, Cisco will kick off the Consumer Electronics Show here by announcing Eos, a hosted software platform that allows media and entertainment companies to create, manage and grow online communities. Through Eos Cisco has compiled technology tools and slapped on an easy to use interface to make building and customizing Web sites easy. But most importantly, it's bundled into the software, technology that will allow media companies to build interactive Web sites so that fans can connect with musicians, TV shows, movies, or whatever brand a media company wants to promote.

Cisco first began looking for ways to help big media companies late in 2006, when it created the Media Solutions business unit. The idea was to develop and market products to digital media content owners. In February last year, the company bought a startup called Five Across, which developed social networking software.

Dan Scheinman, the Cisco executive behind Eos, believes that the new software platform addresses one of the biggest problems that media companies face today.

"The reality is that media is so disrupted by digital technology," he said. "Fans are looking for ways to connect to their favorite artists or TV shows and they are seeking out communities, but the media companies have been slow to provide this for them. Eos is centered around community and allows fans to participate."

The service provides tools that allow media companies to create blogs, live chats, message boards, rating and ranking systems.

Scheinman believes that social networking is the most important way for marketers and big media companies to reach consumers. Consumers are using sites such as YouTube and Facebook to share media, like videos, music and pictures. He also believes that media companies can combat piracy by offering fans an interactive experience through their own branded Web sites.

"In many ways digital destroys the value proposition for media," Scheinman said. "Other people can rip off the content and monetize it, aggregate it, and take pennies for it."… Read more

Cisco Systems, which builds the gear that powers the Internet, is making a big push this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with new products that will help consumers move digital media around their homes.

The company plans to hold a press conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday to reveal the new products and its refined strategy for providing consumers with "communication and entertainment experiences that are more visual, more social and more personal," the company said in a press release.

To get a sneak peek at Cisco's strategy, I talked by phone with Ned Hooper, senior vice president of corporate development for Cisco's Consumer Business Group. While details of the soon-to-be-announced products are still under wraps, Hooper shed some light on why Cisco thinks there is a big opportunity in helping consumers get their homes connected and where the company plans to go with its strategy from next.

Q: Cisco isn't the first company to build products for the digital home. Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett-Packard have all tried to develop products to help consumers play their music and video throughout the home. So far, none of these companies have been very successful. Even Apple's Apple TV is a considered a niche product. Why do you think Cisco will have more success? Hooper: I think it's important to look at how media and entertainment is being delivered to the home. The presence of the Internet and digital media is transforming all these industries and how people access entertainment and how they communicate with each other.

Over 100 million households have set top boxes with their cable or digital satellite service. So the digital set top box market is doing well. Services such as video on demand and DVRs are in high demand. But building expensive devices for a single function hasn't proven to be a viable market.

Cisco has been positioned very well in terms of being able to offer infrastructure for these network services. And we're already in the consumer electronics business with Linksys and Scientific Atlanta. It might surprise you to know that Cisco has shipped over 160 million consumer devices. This includes set-top boxes and home routers.… Read more

Vyatta, the open-source networking company, has been turning on the heat lately against Cisco, the networking giant. Even as Cisco expands beyond its networking base with collaboration products, Vyatta's sole focus remains beating Cisco network performance at rock-bottom prices.

And yet, as called out in a recent TechTarget article, Vyatta's biggest obstacle may well be Cisco's strong brand:

Tony Iams, an analyst with Rye Brook, N.Y.-based Ideas International, said the networking market continues to grow, but Vyatta faces a challenge because Cisco has such a strong brand name, and companies are reluctant to gamble with … Read more

Networking is a dark art, and putting the word "home" in front of it makes it no simpler. Debugging a home network is not for the faint of heart--the intelligence of the on-screen wizards peters out after the first few obvious fixes, and soon you're checking help forums, running ipconfig commands, and tweaking DHCP settings.

So today's news from The New York Times--that networking giant Cisco Systems is getting into the consumer electronics business--filled me with dread.

The idea of piping audio files from your computer to your home stereo or other audio devices is valid: … Read more

When I read that the Free Software Foundation is suing Cisco Systems over alleged violations of the GNU General Public License (GPL), my first reaction was, "Put that subpoena back in your pocket, FSF." A copy of the complaint is available on PDF.

After all, I figured that it was yet another BusyBox claim and, while I believe that everyone - including open-source developers - has a right and duty to protect its intellectual property, it has seemed lately that the open-source world is becoming as litigious as the proprietary world, and that's not a good thing.… Read more