Cisco lifts its Cloud

Cisco today unveiled multiple enhancements to its collaboration portfolio, delivered via public, private or hybrid cloud models, giving customers more ways to access an expanded set of offerings.

These offerings include TelePresence, Web conferencing, unified communications (UC) and contact centre solutions.

· Expanding the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS): As the number of service providers and partners offering Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solution more than doubled in the past year Cisco is dramatically extending the application breadth and platform depth of the solution. The HCS offering includes advancements spanning Cisco TelePresence, Customer Collaboration (contact centre), Unified Communications and mobility. With these developments, HCS partners, including service providers, systems integrators, wholesalers and resellers can deliver an even more robust unified collaboration experience to their customers as an “as-a-service” cloud-based model.

· Extending Cisco WebEx Web Conferencing to the Private Cloud: As the number of WebEx meetings worldwide via the public Cisco WebEx cloud continues to soar – with a 38% increase year over year -- many customers are also asking for a private cloud solution that provides the same level of collaboration capabilities with a consistent user experience and increased internal control. Cisco is addressing this request with Cisco WebEx Meetings Server, an offering designed for organisations that require or desire a fully “on-premises” conferencing solution housed in their own data centres.

These innovations continue to advance Cisco CloudVerse, a previously announced set of solutions that provides the foundational elements that organisations need to build, manage and connect public, private and hybrid clouds. Cisco CloudVerse includes Cloud Applications and Services (the focus of today’s announcement), Unified Data Centre and the Cloud Intelligent Network. CloudVerse helps enable businesses to realise all of the benefits of clouds: an integrated and consistent assured collaboration experience, as well as improved agility, better economics and enhanced security.

Additional Announcement Details:

 - Hosted Collaboration Solution Developments – With HCS, customers can quickly deploy hosted collaboration offerings with minimised capital expenditures. Partners can accelerate their ability to deploy hosted collaboration offers with HCS partner enablement services.

 - Cisco WebEx: Private Cloud Developments and Public Cloud Utilisation – Cisco WebEx Meetings Server, incorporates tools for effective online meetings – both in the office and in mobile settings – in a private cloud environment. This solution is ideal for customers who prefer or require an on-premises offering and, in the “post-PC” era, want access to Web conferencing solutions that work across a multitude of devices and operating systems and integrate with existing UC capabilities. Customers can also utilise Cisco Planning and Design Services with this offering.

 - At the same time, from the public Cisco WebEx cloud perspective, WebEx Web conferencing continues to see dramatic increases in utilisation, also driven in large part by rapid changes occurring with today’s workforce in the “post-PC” era. WebEx has noted the following increases in global utilisation with its public cloud Web conferencing offering:

 - Number of registered users up 30% year-over-year (Y-o-Y) with over 6.8 million registered users worldwide in August, 2012.

- Number of meetings up 38% Y-o-Y with 9.6 million meetings in August, 2012.

- Number of meeting minutes up 32% Y-o-Y with 1.8 billion minutes in August, 2012.

- Number of mobile client downloads: 2.7 million with more than 30%  Y-o-Y growth in application downloads on Apple devices and more than 11% Y-o-Y growth for Android devices.

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