Cisco's next stop on Internet-of-Everything roadmap: Connected analytics
Cisco is taking its Internet-of-Everything game plan to the next level with the infusion of "connected analytics."
Unveiled amid the Cisco Global Editors Conference on Thursday, the networking giant announced the immediate availability of new software analytics packages targeted at infrastructures, aiming to address data science and analytics ranging from energy to retail, and collaboration to IT.
More specifically, these software packages include components for network, location, collaboration, contact centers, and video.
Collaboration analytics, for instance, could be used to quantify and measure travel industry and carbon footprint savings based on call logs and customer data.
Or in retail, Cisco is positioning its connected analytics software for improving and speeding up stock replenishment by linking up Wi-Fi with integrated video surveillance and optimized checkouts to track inventory.
The Norwegian Football League has already deployed Cisco's connected analytics solutions to improve fan experiences within stadiums as well as real-time operations by connecting the dots between device and app usage, video-based data, digital signage, and staff deployment. All of this was possible as the sports association was already using Cisco's Wi-Fi network infrastructure.
Reflecting an industry-wide race, Cisco's news follows hot on the heels of a similar announcement earlier this week by Intel, which unveiled its own "IoT Platform" tailored to provide businesses with a streamlined framework for deploying "limitless solutions."
Cisco estimates that roughly $7.3 trillion of the $19 trillion value opportunity promised by the Internet-of-Everything movement will stem from just data and analytics alone.
After surveying 1,230 of its customers, Cisco found that the biggest hurdle to take cash in on the multi-trillion dollar opportunity is figuring out its data strategy - namely distributing, storing, and managing data.
Within three years, Cisco researchers speculated that 37 percent of data will end up being processed at network edges, such as mobile devices, routers and appliances.
Mike Flannagan, general manager of Cisco's data and analytics business group, explained via telephone on Monday that a new approach is needed to both reach and analyze that data.
"From the use cases we're seeing from our customers, that's going to need to be a necessary part of the enterprise analytics strategy to capture all of that data," Flannagan stressed. He added that for Cisco, the "end state" for processing analytics will consist of an overlap among the cloud, data centers and "out at the edge."
Flannagan clarified a big difference with Thursday's news is that Cisco has reached the point in which it has identified enough "repeatable patterns," enabling Cisco to bundle services together as software suites rather than deliver features as service engagements - a progression that should guarantee lower price points in the long run for enterprise customers.