2008 Jan 30

Networking means inter-Networking.

Networking means Communications.

Communication is good.

Smart Business Communications is our goal.

            

Every modern business and family enjoys connection via the INternet (We call it the "N").  Today, most enjoy broadband connection to the N via Satellite, cable, or phone DSL (Digital Subscriber Line); larger organizations utilize T1 service.  In any case, the connection carries the good -- and the evil.

The basis of all life is the cell.  Like a carrot, i am a diverse community of cells.  To succeed, each cell must be protected from the Second Law of Thermodynamics = Evil.  Similarly, the user of a communication node (PC, iPod, mobile phone, etc) must be protected.  It is increasingly probable that an agent, submitting to the Second Law, will readily find on the N a method to disrupt our good use of the N.

Protection from this rapidly increasing plethora of evil methods against us is now the number one job of our functional network.

Initially, job 1 was connection.  Cisco was formed by academics within Stanford University in 1984.  Internetworking depends on connections to pathways for packets of digital (ones and zeros) data.  The key to internetworking is properly deciding the route from the input port to the output port on a device called a router.  The impetus:  Love.

Newly-weds Len and Sandra were across campus and desired to communicate from dissimilar network centers.  The solution became available, beginning 1980, by William Yeager.   Stanford Medical School engineer, tasked with connecting campus LANs, Dr. Yeager wrote the software (Network Operating System) NOS that became IOS (Internetworking Operating System).  His developing software was required to be efficient due to limited 56K memory on the DEC PDP 11 (the platform on which i learned programming at UC during '81 - '85).  While personal computing exploded with the Intel 8088 and Motorola 6800, in 1982 a Master's student Andy Bechtolsheim produced a board computer based on the 68000, creating the first "workstation" that led him to found Sun Microsystems.  In 1983, Yeager ported his code to Bechtolsheim's board supporting 256K, and the router was born.

Since those founding days, Cisco has consistently led the promulgation of methods, and hardware-engineering of devices, to power the modern iNternet, based largely on the evolving IOS.  At end of 2007, at Version 12.04, IOS was announced to become open source -- now enlisting global, creative refinement and elaboration.   Ingenuity and increasing processing power respond to our escalating demand for secure, richer communication and increasingly sophisticated services, real-time. 

Previously, for the typical SMB, the router has been primarily a simple "gateway" to the N.  In larger, multi-site business enterprises, the router is the glue and connection point unifying business (Local Area Network) LANs.  For larger enterprises, the router is competing with Servers and phone systems to provide global communication services in real-time, dissolving geographic distance.  Hence, Friedman's Flat world. 

The evolved enterprise Cisco router is:   Integrated Services Router, ISR.   The ISR is for networking what the Server is for a community of PCs.  Our organization's ISR is the brain and grand central station for our communications -- now extended by Wireless networking and (Wide Area Network) WAN links to other nodes and routers -- providing mobility.

The Cisco ISR families --  2800 and 3800 --  are IP packet movers operating at wire speed providing: 

Enterprise ISR(s) collapse time over global distance for flexible, real-time, multi-media, multi-dimensional, even holographic communication.

These ISRs cost money, and the small SMB may not yet justify the investment in a Cisco 2811 ISR. 

During 2007, Cisco released the fruit of a $2billion development, providing for small-business:  enterprise-class, new-age Unified Communications UC.  The basis of UC is, of course, an integrated services router.  The focus is you (U).

There are two basic strategies for you (U) to save money and enjoy the new world of UC:

  1.   Centrix:  the communications brain is outside your organization  and U rent it.
  2.   PBX:  the communications brain is inside your premises and U own (or lease) it.

Both strategies have compelling advantages and trade-offs impacting your business potential and success.  Trust john to help U assess the best strategy for your organization.  We provide, for each strategy, the most cost-effective solution among a vast portfolio based on the global leader Cisco.

For example, focusing on Option 2:  introducing ISR-smb:   The UC520 is the affordable, but highly capable, Cisco smb ISR. 

The UC520 is a network computer on steroids.  The tidy little box sits in a rack, or on a desk, silently -- not even a fan.  Well, i'm a fan!  If you knew what i know about this puppy, you would want one too.

The marketing term is SBCS, Smart Business Communications System.  Most noteworthy is the comprehensive System solution it provides a Business.  Imagine not having to rely on Microsoft for network security!  Imagine a scalable Communications System that works reliably, as simply as dial tone, for persons no matter what version of Microsoft (or non-Microsoft) is operating on PCs, servers, mobile phones and the like.

Imagine, with either strategy, Unified Communications:  your voice mail is integrated with your eMail, right there in the inBox.  Your access to inBox is secure, reliable, and always available wherever you roam.  Imagine video feeds sourced from low-cost network cameras located to teleport your eyes and ears and mouth to the location of your concern.  The field, door, stockroom, baby's crib...

For more discussion on Unified Communications with SBCS, please ring us at:

727-9999

RCS-9999

Reliable Communications Services 99.99% available.