Unleashing IT

Winter 2012

Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

Building (of) the future

How Loretta Cockrum and Allen Firouz envisioned and developed one of the most technologically advanced, cloud-ready office buildings in the world.

In a virtual world, infrastructure matters When mobile and cloud collide

In collaboration with

Unleashing IT Seize innovation, accelerate business,

Why infrastructure matters
Our cloud approach brings together the intelligence of the network, the power of the data center, and the flexibility of applications to transform traditional IT to service-oriented IT. The result is better economics and greater flexibility. And the potential is endless. This issue of Unleashing IT focuses specifically on a core element of that cloud equation: the power of the data center. In collaboration with VMware and ecosystem partners, Cisco is enabling a dynamic cloud infrastructure fabric that is virtualization aware and cloud ready. On the next page, you can read more about how Cisco and VMware are working together to build the infrastructure foundation for enterprise-ready clouds that deliver seamlessness, consistency, security, and performance. With the power of a virtualization-aware data center infrastructure, Cisco has changed its IT/business relationship model by deploying Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services (CITEIS), an internal cloud (page 7). And Foram Group implemented Cisco cloudenabled infrastructure to deliver connectivity, flexibility, and capability in their office building of the future (page 10). For us, cloud is not a concept. It is a viable IT delivery model that is proving its worth through improved economics and flexibility. Cisco infrastructure, enabled by VMware cloud infrastructure software, is at the core of those transformational capabilities. Together, we remain committed to innovating and unifying the data center to enable new levels of flexibility into resource access and sharing. For more information, follow the links inside or contact Cisco at 1-800-553-6387 and select option 1 to speak with a Cisco representative. We welcome your feedback on the articles in this feature at: www.UnleashingIT.com Sincerely,
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drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

Winter 2012
Perspectives and Solutions 03 In a virtual world, infrastructure matters

Cisco and VMware come together to ease the journey to the cloud.

04

New research reveals big opportunities for service providers and businesses.

When mobile and cloud collide

06

CLOUD2 Commission report reveals new prospects for innovation.

Accelerating innovation in the cloud

Experiences 07 Cisco proves the power of the cloud

Ciscos own internal cloud helps IT support business agility through self-service and automated provisioning.

10

How Miamis Foram Group developed one of the most technologically advanced, cloud-enabled office buildings in the world.

Welcome to the future of utilitarian business computing

12

FICOs private cloud will enable business teams to quickly bring new products, features, and services to market.

Handing IT management to business users

13

St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust leverages Cisco Network Architecture Blueprint to support business and clinical priorities.

Enabling clinicians to move with the pace of care

Cover Loretta Cockrum (left), CEO of Foram Group,

and Allen Firouz, CEO of Venturian Group

Wendy Bahr Sr. VP, Worldwide Partner Organization Cisco Systems, Inc.

Jeff Casale Sr. VP & GM, Americas VMware, Inc.

Share with a colleague

Unleashing IT is published by Cisco Systems, Inc. We welcome your feedback on the articles in this feature at: www.UnleashingIT.com Pages 4, 5 1 International Telecommunication Union, October 2010. 2 Cisco, Mobile Consumers Reach for the Clouds, July 2011. 3 Cisco, The Mobile Cloud: When Two Explosive Markets Collide, June 2011. Page 6 1 Cloud First, Cloud Fast: Recommendations for Innovation, Leadership, and Job Creation, TechAmerica Foundation, July 2011. 2 Cloud Computing Now Makes it Easier (and Cheaper) to Innovate: Study, Forbes.com, October 12, 2011. 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco CloudVerse, Cisco UCS, Cisco Unified Computing System, and Cisco Nexus are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1201) 2012 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

In collaboration with

In a virtual world, infrastructure matters

Cisco and VMware have come together to enable seamlessness, consistency, security, and performance as organizations journey through heterogeneous environments on their way to the cloud.

Perspectives and Solutions

While the ultimate goal for most organizations is to get to the cloud stateless architectures on multi-tenant platforms that enable rapid reallocation of resources and consolidation in a secure, predictable mannermany of them still rely on a combination of dedicated physical resources, dynamic virtual resources, and automatically scaling cloud resources. With the reality of heterogeneous infrastructure, organizations still want a consistent user experience for enterprise applications, says Prashant Gandhi, Senior Director of Product Management, Server Access Virtualization Technology Group (SAVTG) at Cisco. They also want to be able to migrate any application to the cloud delivery model to take advantage of ondemand capabilities and greater elasticity. But in making that journey, inevitable challenges arise in terms of performance, security, and manageability. Working together, Cisco and VMware have anticipated those challenges and address them through differentiated integration points between infrastructure and virtualization. The result is a dynamic infrastructure fabric with consistent capabilities across physical and virtual environments, the required foundation for an enterprise-ready cloud that can deliver seamlessness, consistency, security, and performance.

Cisco infrastructure, in its design and development, is virtualization aware, says Gandhi. Layering our partnership with VMware on top of those inherent capabilities, we are able to offer a level of consistency, seamlessness, automated operations, and management across the physical and virtual environments. In 2008, Cisco launched the Cisco Nexus 1000V to enable consistent networking between physical and virtual environments. Building on that in 2009, the Cisco Unified Computing SystemTM (UCS) introduced fabric computing, changing the server paradigm by uniting network, compute, virtualization, and storage access all in one platform. In 2010, the partnership took another step forward with further improvements in Cisco UCS performance as well as overlay transport virtualization on Cisco Nexus 7000, which propelled VMware vSphereTM vMotion across data centers. The Virtual Security Gateway also added a stateful virtual firewall for the Nexus 1000V, which created an architecture for providing VM-level controls for securing multi-tenant environments. New standards were the focus for 2011, with Cisco and VMware working closely on Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN). With 16 million LAN segments supported by VXLAN, virtual machines and vApps can be isolated at the network level while allowing them to migrate broadly across pods within an enterprise or cloud data center. Cisco and VMware have been working in close collaboration to accelerate data center transformation, says Soni Jiandani, Senior Vice President, SAVTG at Cisco. Cisco UCS and Nexus product families work with VMware to deliver the full spectrum of endto-end virtualization from the network access layer to the compute server infrastructure down to the desktop.

The future
Enabling maximum choice for customers with heterogeneous environments remains the goal for both companies. Our partnership with Cisco has resulted in numerous technology innovations that are delivering strategic value across customer environments, saysRaghu Raghuram, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Infrastructure and Management,VMware. With new and enhanced technology integrations, were continuing to help customers transform their data centers for enterprise hybrid cloud computing and their desktops for the post-PC era. Upcoming innovations include the full integration of Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch with VMware vCloudTM Director 1.5; the future integration of ASA 1000V cloud firewall to offer tenant-level security and edge gateway into VMware vCloud Director and Overdrive network services manager; and the ongoing commitment to standardize VXLAN for secure, fluid movement of virtual resources across cloud infrastructures. While the ideal scenario is to have as much cloud capability as possible supporting business users, the current reality is heterogeneity, says Gandhi. To truly actualize the enterprise cloud, we need to build the right foundation that integrates a fabric able to span physical, virtual, and cloud resources. Cisco, in partnership with VMware, is creating that type of dynamic infrastructure without sacrificing the performance, scalability, and security needed for application consistency and the management and policy needed for operational consistency. Continue reading for more examples of how Cisco and VMware collaborate in the cloud and for customers.

A legacy of innovation
Cisco and VMware have been working together since 2007, building on individual innovations to maximize the relationship between infrastructure and virtualized workloads. Cisco has been focusing on the networking, compute, security, and manageability components to support and enable VMwares virtualization components.

Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the Cloud.

When mobile and cloud collide

Perspectives and Solutions

New research reveals big opportunities for service providers and businesses in a ready-to-explode mobile cloud market.
Close to 80 percent1 of the worlds population now has access to a mobile phone, and new devices like the iPhone and Android smartphones are bringing a throng of applications and services to the palms of peoples hands. At the same time, cloud has become the new way of deliveringand charging forIT services and functionality. So, what happens when two of the hottest technology trendsmobility and cloudcollide? To find the answers, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) conducted a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. mobile users to understand their current and future needs. The results revealed a host of opportunities for those who capitalize on this ready-to-explode market. Our findings were very clear, says Scott Puopolo, Vice President and global head of Cisco IBSG. Mobile users want to move to the cloud, and they want unique mobile cloud services. The opportunity for service providers (SPs), he adds, is staggering. The research indicates mobile customers are generally satisfied with their current provider relationships and view mobile operators as a natural and preferred source for mobile cloud services, Puopolo explains. Operators also have a strong brand and relationship with customers that they can extend to become customers premier mobile cloud provider. For these reasons alone, SPs are well positioned to flourish in this burgeoning market. The prospects for businesses are also considerable. Our survey revealed that business users will be key adopters of mobile cloud services, says Stuart Taylor, Director, Cisco IBSG Service Provider Practice. They will be quick to embrace mobile video conferencing, document management, and specific business applications that extend the boundaries of their offices. By tapping the mobile cloud,

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businesses can help employees become more effective and productive. A healthcare company, for example, could arm its emergency medical technicians (EMTs) with smartphones that help check vital signs; access a patients medical records; send real-time video to the ER; communicate with a patient in their native language; and create and upload incident reports. Because the data is securely transmitted and stored in the cloud, the patients privacy is assured. In addition to improving operational efficiency and employee productivity, businesses can tap the mobile cloud to enhance customer satisfaction. Several retailers are already using the mobile cloud to integrate home and in-store shopping experiences. A U.K. grocery chain, for example, allows its customers to use the barcode scanning capabilities of smartphones to create shopping lists, see product details and inventory, and receive promotional offers at home. There is untold value for businesses across all industries, says Taylor, when you draw on the unique capabilities of those multifunctional devices that are already in most peoples pockets. Therein lays the critical success factor for SPs and businesses. According to both

Puopolo and Taylor, porting traditional, wired applications to mobile devices isnt enough. The greatest areas of needand the greatest source of opportunityare for applications that take advantage of the unique attributes and functionality of todays and tomorrows mobile devices. Where voice calling once defined mobile, it is now just another application or function for most smartphone users. In fact, voice calling ranked as the fifth-most-used function by business users in Cisco IBSGs survey. Both business users and consumers are much more interested in using their smartphones for texting and taking photos, which ranked first and second, respectively. In addition, business users are the largest adopters of more advanced types of hybrid, dual-persona services that allow them to readily combine their personal and professional lives. And, of course, they are also the largest users of more work-centric features such as productivity tools, business applications, and conferencing. Voice and text were just the tip of the iceberg, says Puopolo. Smartphones now offer location awareness, multimedia, translation, bar code scanning, and so much more. From inventory and trouble ticket management to customer care and one-to-one marketing, the possibilities are limitless.

As mobile and cloud technologies continue to collide, Cisco IBSG is ready to help SPs understand the markets, services, and strategic models that create differentiation and maximize revenue. Cisco also has a host of foundational solutions that enable businesses of all types and sizes to capitalize on the mobile cloud.

By the numbers:
More than 50% of Cisco IBSG survey respondents are currently accessing web-based email, updating their social networks, and shopping from their mobile devices.2 20% of respondents are already utilizing advanced cloud services such as web conferencing, content sharing, and online storage. 2 70% of all mobile users expect to consume cloud-delivered services in the next one to two years.3

More information Download a white paper and attend a webcast to learn more about the study results at: www.UnleashingIT.com

Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the Cloud.

Accelerating innovation in the cloud

A recent report from the CLOUD2 Commission reveals new opportunities for government agencies and commercial enterprises to innovate.

Perspectives and Solutions

Wyatt Starnes, cloud innovator and technology consultant

Innovation is risky. Its costly. And it takes time. But what if it was less risky, less costly, and less time consuming? What could be achieved? And who would achieve it? We may soon find the answers, thanks to the evolution and ongoing proliferation of cloud technologies. Cloud computing has ushered in vast improvements in the cost, agility, and efficiency of computing. These benefits alone drive a strong business case, reports the Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud (CLOUD2). However, the more compelling return is the opportunity to leap forward; to discover new markets and improve how we interact with, serve, and support U.S. citizens, users, and other nations. The cloud holds the potential to unlock widespread entrepreneurism of all shapes and sizes, and expand the scope to do entirely new things. Comprised of representatives from 71 companies and organizations, the CLOUD2 Commission sought to generate recommendations for accelerating cloud adoption in the U.S. government and commercial markets. The resulting reportCloud First, Cloud Fast: Recommendations for Innovation, Leadership, and Job Creation1reflects the strategic imperative to fully embrace and capitalize on the power of cloud computing. While the cloud sometimes raises questions and concerns about trust, transnational data flows, transparency, and transformation, the CLOUD2 Commission found tremendous opportunities for companies and government agencies, says Wyatt Starnes, Vice President of Advanced Concepts at Harris Corporation. Once they get past the challenges and fears associated with cloud adoption, the U.S. government can become more effective and U.S. businesses can be more competitive. As a member of the CLOUD2 Commission, Starnes was instrumental in developing the Cloud First, Cloud Fast report. The recommendations found within were born, in part, from

Starnes decades of experience as a cloud innovator and Harris extensive work building a Trusted Enterprise Cloud offering for government agencies and commercial enterprises. Innovation isnt just the next great product, says Starnes. It involves new business models; new ways of going to market; new ways of partnering with other organizations; and new ways to engage with customers. The cloud enables these things to be explored and realized faster, and with less cost. The natural reflex in the business world has been to avoid going overboard with innovation, since it means sinking considerable time and resources into ideas that dont get off the ground, writes Joe McKendrick, an author and independent researcher who recently reported on a London School of Economics survey about the emerging role of cloud computing.2 However, cloud computing technology may be clearing the way to turn formerly hidebound businesses into innovation factories, McKendrick concludes.Thats because it now offers a low-cost way to try and fail with new ideas. In essence, the price of failure has suddenly dropped through the floor. Failure has become an option. More information Harris Corporation, a member of the CLOUD2 Commission, engineered Trusted Enterprise Cloud, a patented service for critical applications and business processes. For more information, visit: www.cyber.harris.com To request a proof-of-concept, contact your VMware or Cisco Account Representative, Channel Partner, or call 1-800-5536387 and select option 1. For more information on Cisco and VMware cloud solutions, visit: www.UnleashingIT.com

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Cisco proves the power of the cloud

Experiences

Unafraid to put its money where its mouth is, Cisco shows how the cloud can help IT support business agility through self-service and automated provisioning.
Show me. Dont tell me. In a confusing and jargon-filled cloud market, proving the cloud works means more than big promises of potential. Thats one reason why Cisco implemented Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services (CITEIS), its own internal cloud. And the lessons learned along the way are going to help organizations as they adopt cloud-based service delivery. We wanted to create an infrastructure with an agile face that can be provisioned quickly and can drive costs down through automation, says John Manville, VP IT, Network and Data Center Services, Cisco. It was important for us to prove to ourselves the extended benefit of developing and using a cloud in addition to virtualization. Clearly, virtualization plays a critical role in our five-year data center strategy, but CITEIS takes it one step further, expanding time and cost savings as well as fueling greater agility in how the business consumes IT.

CITEIS combines an impressive suite of capabilities from the Cisco CloudVerse framework for cloud delivery. This includes the Cisco Unified Computing SystemTM (UCS) and Cisco Nexus 7000 switches on the hardware front; with Ciscos Unified Management (Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud, Cisco UCSTM Manager), Cisco Nexus 1000v, rPath, and Ciscos Virtual Security Gateway on the software front. Currently, VMware is also an important partner in the CITEIS implementation, with Cisco leveraging VMware vSphereTM virtualization and VMware vCloudTM Director.

Life before CITEIS

Prior to the CITEIS implementation, provisioning IT meant a high-engagement model with project managers and application teams. In a purely physical environment, timeframes were anywhere from six to eight weeks. With virtualization, the pace sped up, taking approximately two to three weeks, but still remaining a largely manual process. With CITEIS, provisioning is automated entirely, eliminating the high-touch engagement. And the benefits are already becoming clear. Cisco has realized an average decrease in quarterly costs of each operating system instance from $3700 to $1200 by using virtualization and

Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the Cloud.

The business group becomes responsible for capacity planning and management, which creates a tighter link between costs, demand, and actual usage.
Brian Cinque, Solutions Architect, Cisco

cloud. In addition, the time to deliver virtual machines has been reduced from weeks to 15 minutes. We have changed the way that IT and the business interact by positioning IT as a service provider in an enterprise environment, says Brian Cinque, a Solutions Architect with Cisco. Historically, for example, the business came to IT and requested half of a data center based on growth forecasts. And IT couldnt really dispute the request. Now, we have six standardized, chargeback service offerings that business users can consume. The business group becomes responsible for capacity planning and management, which creates a tighter link between costs, demand, and actual usage.

which included design, architecture, implementation, and service delivery/ operations teams. With this lifecycle structure, Cisco can design, manage, and implement at a systems level, which naturally includes the traditionally siloed elements of network, compute, storage, software development, and integration. Without the silos, the team can look at cloud from many different technology perspectives, leading to quicker issue resolution and clear accountability. Operations are more streamlined from a service management perspective as well. We now have a service owner for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)who oversees operational issues, feature priorities and additions, and stabilitysupported by a virtual team, says Manville. The business requests a compute service with specific characteristics, not a server of a given size. We can satisfy the majority of the requests through our standardized service catalog. And we know that the business units are happy with the cost and agility benefits because they are asking us to expand the set of standard use cases to include more readily-consumable middleware features.

Public or private cloud: Which is best?

In the ongoing debate over public versus private cloud models, two questions prevail: 1. Which is more expensive? 2. Which approach is best? The cost differences between public and private cloud can be a lightning rod with wildly varying opinions, says Vinay Nichani, Unified Computing System (UCS) Regional Manager for Cisco. Lets set the record straight. Public clouds are far cheaper at first glance, but there are hidden expenses, particularly around I/O and storage, that have to be considered. In fact, independent research shows that public clouds cost 12.5 cents per ECU [Elastic Compute Unit] hour on average, while private clouds cost 1.3 cents per ECU hour on average. So a private cloud is always the right choice? Not necessarily, Nichani warns. It really depends on the company and its computing needs. It doesnt make sense to invest in a private cloud if youre only going to use it sporadically. Think of it this way, he adds. If you need a car every day, buy one. But if you only need a car once in a while, its probably better to rent. Visit www.UnleashingIT.com for a three-part video whiteboard discussion on private and public cloud options, interoperability, and economics.

The operational journey

Technology change wasnt the only aspect driving Cisco ITs services evolution. Process and cultural shifts were also required to support the architectural strategy. Four years ago, Cisco IT was structured traditionally, with silos for network, storage, and compute. But that model was marginally effective in a virtual world. Cisco reorganized the infrastructure team into a lifecycle model,

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Enabling smart services

Cisco smart services use automated, software-enabled capabilities to collect network diagnostic data regularly and compare it against a comprehensive knowledge base, providing the visibility required to identify issues proactively, simplify and automate ongoing operations, and support network evolution. CITEIS is integral to delivering the scalability, redundancy, and availability needed to offer smart services on a global scale. If we had wanted to do a two-day proof-ofconcept in the traditional IT model, it would have taken 12 weeks to access the IT services and infrastructure, says Craig Huegen, Senior Director, Connected IT Services Architecture, Cisco. Now we can get the virtual machine in a matter of minutes and operate the test without the complex underlying process. With CITEIS, we get flexible configuration, instantaneous provisioning, and a service approach, which accelerates our delivery and growth. Recently, Cisco Services released the Services Foundation Application Environment, a dynamic application fabric that sits on top of CITEIS. Now, the Cisco Services team can access its application development and execution

environment as standardized cloud components, further speeding time to deployment. The faster that we can execute on proof-ofconcepts or leverage scale to grow our smart services organically, the faster our clients are going to gain visibility into and intelligence about their networks to improve performance, says Vijay Ponukumati, Senior Director of IT, Cisco Services. With CITEIS as our back-end infrastructure, we can speed time to market while driving a higher level of consistency in solution delivery.

The future
The CITEIS architectural strategy was built to allow Cisco to connect further up the application stack. The vision is to expand the service catalog by adding more middleware and database standard components to address a broader range of business use cases. In addition to vertical growth, CITEIS will fulfill a bigger set of horizontal infrastructure requirements to satisfy requests from application teams. These capabilities include integrated change management, workload elasticity, service assurance, and support for different vApps.

We will use the same management technique to provisioning services jointly with hardware, says Manville. With that capability, our internal private cloud will act like a provider-based cloud service. We will have the power to provision a service where it meets the best combination of cost, service level, risk, and timing for our business needs, regardless of whether its an application hosted on our private cloud or a software-as-a-service delivery. With growth up the stack and horizontal expansion across infrastructure requirements, we will enable IT and the business to make a smart, strategic, and cost-effective choice every time. More information

To discuss this solution, contact your VMware or Cisco Account Representative, Channel Partner, or call 1-800-553-6387, select option 1. For more information on the Cisco CloudVerse framework for cloud delivery and the products that enable Cisco CITEIS, visit: www.UnleashingIT.com

Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the Cloud.

Experiences

The fourth utility: Loretta Cockrum and Allen Firouz envisioned and developed a building of the future.

Welcome to the future of utilitarian business computing

How Miamis Foram Group developed one of the most technologically advanced, cloudenabled office buildings in the world.
We set out to develop one of the most connected, technologically advanced office buildings in the world, says Loretta Cockrum, CEO of Foram Group, a real estate portfolio and management company. And we succeeded. Every office building comes with three standard utilities: water, electricity, and heat/air. Rarely has a fourth utility been provided for tenants, until now. In providing information and communication technology (ICT) as a move-in ready utility, Miamis 600 Brickell office tower will forever change the way buildings are imagined and designed. When a company moves into an office building, they have to figure everything out for themselves, explains Cockrum. They have to build or link to a data center, tap into voice and data services from local carriers, and hire IT personnel to set up their desktop and network systems. This takes time, money, and effort that are typically outside the scope of their normal business competencies and goals. We wanted to relieve our tenants of these problems, she continues. They should never have to worry about computing or connectivity, from the moment they get their keys and every day thereafter. It wasnt enough to offer a fixed or predetermined set of ICT services. Foram Group sought to provide an infrastructure with virtually unlimited flexibility and scalability, into which tenants can plug for any and all computing capabilities, services, and connections.

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A two-pronged approach: Firouz removed technical barriers, while Cockrum focused on tenant opportunities.

Attracting multi-national tenants

Miamis financial district offered an auspicious locale for 600 Brickell. Often called the Gateway to Latin America, Miami also features Terremarks NAP of the Americas. A massive, carrier-neutral telecommunications hub and data center, the NAP [Network Access Point] was designed specifically to link Latin America to North America and extend connectivity to the rest of the world. We want to attract multi-national companies that are expanding their operations into the U.S. and around the world, says Cockrum. With redundant fiber optic connections to the NAP, our tenants have unsurpassed connectivity options. For example, if a Brazilian company wants to use Brasil Telecom and link directly to their carrier and data center back home, they can. If a German company wants to use Deutsche Telekom, no problem. These choices also come with dedicated, 24x7 service and support. In addition to an on-site data center, network operations center, and conferencing center, 600 Brickell has a full-service ICT organization in the building. Whatever a tenant may needfrom additional bandwidth to cloudbased systems to high-definition video conferencingis merely a phone call away.

We spent a lot of time considering everything a tenant might need from computing and connectivity standpoints, both now and well into the future, says Allen Firouz, CEO of Venturian Group, the IT consulting and solutions architecture firm that helped envision, design, and build the computing infrastructure for 600 Brickell. The on-site infrastructure and services are designed to meet just about any IT need immediately, simply, and cost effectively.

throughout the building, tenants can scale from T1 connectivity to 400 Gbps at a moments notice. And they can tap virtually any cloud service, from Venturians VMware-based services to hosting services from any preferred provider. Both Cockrum and Firouz indicate Cisco solutions were clearly the best choice for 600 Brickell. Designed for seamless performance upgrades and featuring a fully integrated suite of products for switching, routing, optical networking, and Wi-Fi, the buildings all-Cisco infrastructure is built to stand the test of time. We cant predict the future, but we can make strides to ensure adaptability, says Firouz. To our knowledge, 600 Brickell is the first office building in the world that offers this level of connectivity, flexibility, and capability. But it wont be the last. Proof-of-concept To request a proof-of-concept, contact your VMware or Cisco Account Representative, Channel Partner, or call 1-800-553-6387 and select option 1. For more information on the Cisco Connected Real Estate framework and infrastructure solutions, visit www.UnleashingIT.com

Tapping into the cloud

According to Firouz, the cloud proved to be a key enabler of Foram Groups ICT vision. As a medium for accessing ever-changing computing services, it helps deliver on the promise of a future-proofed utility. There have traditionally been three barriers to the cloud: redundancy, scalability, and security, Firouz explains. We actively addressed each of these issues in the buildings ICT architecture. With secure, redundant fiber connections to carriers and cloud service providers, 600 Brickell will be as technologically relevant in 10 to 20 years as it is now, if not more. 600 Brickell is the first building in the world to be ISO 27001 certified, representing the pinnacle of information security. With the Cisco Connected Real Estate framework and a host of Cisco infrastructure solutions

Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the Cloud.

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Handing IT management to business users

Experiences

Tom Grahek, technology guru and business enabler

Despite decades of technological advancement, the tug-of-war continues between business and IT teams. Business groups submit an ongoing stream of technology requests. IT teams, invariably swamped with a multitude of tasks, struggle to keep up while trying to maintain control over budgets and resources. Like their IT counterparts, business groups want to control costs and be efficient with their technology usage, says Tom Grahek, Vice President of IT at FICO, a leading provider of decision management and predictive analytics software. But they dont always have visibility of their IT consumption, costs, and available resources. Without this visibility, business teams are handcuffed, unable to fully understand and effectively alter their IT environments. As a result, they remain incapable of satisfying their changing needs. An IT organization can continually tell their internal customers what time it is, Grahek says. Or they can build a watch and show business groups how to use it.

FICO is in the process of building a watch. In creating a private cloud with self-service IT resources, the company is putting the power of technology management into the palms of business users. Instead of the request-andwait approach, FICO business teams will soon be able to provision compute, networking, and storage environmentsquickly and without hand-holding from IT personnel. With a backlog of requests, a disparate mix of management tools, and a host of manual processes, our IT team was overloaded, Grahek explains. By implementing a private cloud and automating routine tasks, we can give our business groups the ability to provision and manage their own technology resources. Based on the Cisco Unified Computing SystemTM (UCS) and VMware vCloudTM Director, FICOs private cloud will offer a common set of management tools and a comprehensive service catalog. Instead of taking weeks or months to set up a new virtual machine or test environment, it will take hours or days, and can be done without IT intervention. The companys geographically diverse business and

development teams will become more productive and self-sufficient, quickly bringing new products, features, and services to market. While some may perceive risk in giving up control of IT resources and processesand others might fear obsolescenceGrahek sees opportunity when IT teams forego the traditional tug-of-war and hand the rope to their business counterparts. Business teams, whether they realize it or not, have a choice of where they get their technology, Grahek explains. If we can empower them and demonstrate value back to the business, we all become more effective and integral to the companys success. Proof-of-concept To request a proof-of-concept, contact your VMware or Cisco Account Representative, Channel Partner, or call 1-800-553-6387 and select option 1. For more information on the Cisco Unified Computing System, visit: www.UnleashingIT.com

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Enabling clinicians to move with the pace of care

Experiences

St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust leveraged the Cisco Network Architecture Blueprint for the U.K.s National Health Service, which enables information and communications technology (ICT) to support business and clinical priorities.
When clinicians start voicing their frustration about wasting time in getting priority information, IT takes it seriously. That was precisely the case at St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust, one

of the largest healthcare providers in Southwest London, which provides a wide range of acute, community, and tertiary clinical services to both a local and national population. The Trusts main campus, St Georges Hospital, is co-located with St Georges University of London medical school and research center. For voice communication, the hospital and university were sharing a traditional PBX system. Limitations abounded. Each person had an extension number, but available numbers were reaching capacity for its allowable range. Mobility and resilience were also issues. Business users were cabled physically to numbers, so they couldnt roam or indicate availability to colleagues through presence features. Our primary goal was to improve clinician mobility and the availability of information,

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13

says Kerman Jasavala, Assistant Director of IT, St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust. Right now, clinicians carry many different devices, which is a personal inconvenience and can be an obstacle to effective communication. We also wanted to improve our IT efficiency, agility, and spend. From an IT perspective, moves, adds, and changes for physical switches and cables became a time consuming and expensive proposition.

Starting with the network

Upon attending a workshop at the Cisco Executive Briefing Center, the St Georges IT team received expert guidance on modernizing its voice capabilities for improved resilience and cost reduction. Cisco recommended a single unified communications (UC) system between the hospital and the university. But to realize the potential of UC, the network needed to be strengthened.

St Georges is a perfect example of why we created the Cisco Network Architecture Blueprint for NHS Trusts, says Terry Robinson, U.K. Health Sector Manager, Cisco. Our vision behind that blueprint is to advocate an architectural approach that links ICT investment with business and clinical priorities directly. Business-led NHS ICT can play an integral role in delivering greater productivity while also supporting new channels of care. To begin its UC journey, St Georges implemented the Cisco Nexus product line as the foundation of its new network operating core. With the Cisco Nexus 7000s, virtualization, and aggregation of server networks and external services, the Trust gained the flexibility to improve network resiliency required for UC. With that phase completed, St Georges installed and rolled out the Cisco Unified Computing SystemTM (UCS), which consolidated its virtual server environment from six hosts down to two and readied

the environment for Cisco Unified Communications Managers. Running UC on Cisco UCSTM is a distinct advantage for us because we get direct integration into the network core, says Sam Pearson, Head of IT Networks and Communications, St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust. With that, we can experience better bandwidth consumption, performance, functionality, and speed across the internal network. And the network hardware is much easier to manage. With the investment in Cisco networking, Cisco UCS also became a strategic option for St Georges server and desktop virtualization.St Georges is the first London hospital investing in VMwares next-generation virtualization solution with its pilot of VMware View for desktop virtualization software. This is in addition to its mature VMware ESX virtualization platform, which supports more than 55 percent of the Trusts server estate.

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Unleashing IT

Our focus is on providing a more effective service for the same cost. With this UC system, our IT team will be more efficient and cost effective, and our clinicians will be able to move at the pace of care.
Sam Pearson, Head of IT Networks and Communications, St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust

To build on that, St Georges is also trialing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), with a focus on enabling session persistence in clinical areas, says Justin Beardsmore, Head of IT Infrastructure, St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust. With those capabilities, combined with the new UC system, clinicians will gain access to both their desktops and phone numbers while roaming between clinics, wards, and hospitals. The main goal is to try to give people the option to use the end device of their choice.

bound by strict austerity measures. To address cost savings requirements, the NHS has established the Quality, Innovation, Productivity, and Prevention (QIPP) program, which aims to save 20 billion during the next five years. The focus is on reinvestment in patientcentric initiatives to meet the increasing demand for health and care services. All NHS organizations are under pressure, and mergers and/or service reconfigurations are quite commonplace, says Jasavala. We have to make ourselves as agile as possible to respond effectively to the changes by extending and integrating with other organizations. The focus is on providing more services, increased flexibly, at less cost. The UC implementation is one way St Georges is responding to the agility demands. Currently, 200 people across the Trust are trialing the new system to gauge the user experience. The functionality is

greatly improved with extension mobility, Microsoft Office integration, and virtual desktop integration. One phone solution is much easier to manage, says Pearson. Our engineers are not cabling node to node and dont have to deal with moving ports, configuring connections, and standing up phones. Our focus is on providing a more effective service for the same cost. With this UC system, our IT team will be more efficient and cost effective, and our clinicians will be able to move at the pace of care. More information Visit www.UnleashingIT.com for more information on unified communications and virtual desktop infrastructure solutions. To discuss this solution, contact your VMware or Cisco Account Representative, Channel Partner, or call 1-800-553-6387 and select option 1.

Industry demands for agility

Clinician frustration wasnt the only factor exerting pressure for change and modernization. The next five years will be a very challenging time for NHS organizations. They must find strategic ways to respond to the Coalition Governments reform and reconfiguration plans, continue to innovate in delivering patient-centric care, and operate in an environment

Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the Cloud.

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Copyright 2011 VMware, Inc.

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