Chambers: Security is cornerstone of IT future
Cisco commits to backing technology hub plans as chief executive John Chambers places bets on vendor's future
Cisco chief executive John Chambers stressed that security should be the bedrock on which the next generation of IT architectures is built during a visit to the UK this week.
Chambers also brought his wallet, committing $500m (£310m) to back prime minister David Cameron's plans to turn London's East End into a technology hub. Cisco's work on the British Innovation Gateway (BIG) project will include helping build two networked innovation centres - one in Shoreditch and one in the Olympic Park in Stratford.
The networking vendor will also run the annual BIG Awards, which have been designed to shine a light on industrial innovation.
"I welcome this major statement of support from Cisco," said Cameron. "This will help create new jobs and opportunities, and support our drive to diversify our economy and generate sustainable economic growth."
Chambers gave a keynote speech at the Cisco Live event at London's ExCel arena last week. He examined how IT could increase productivity and help economies return to growth, and outlined where his firm would be placing its bets in the future. We round up the highlights of a characteristically upbeat address.
Chambers on cloud and new technologies
The number-one issue is security. There is no such thing as a secure datacentre or secure network. Even before we think about cloud, not just from a data or staff perspective, access and control are key. The stronger we are as an architecture, the more we differentiate ourselves.
On where Cisco is placing its bets
Short term, it is collaboration, video and datacentre virtualisation. In the intermediate, it is about cloud. Longer term, it is SmartGrid. We caught a transition and became number one in the voice world. We think the same thing is going to occur in the datacentre.
On innovation
In FY10, we made a $5.3bn investment in R&D - that's 13 per cent of revenue. We have 20,000 engineers and 8,000 patents. We have turned out more new products in the past year and a half than in the decade before that. To say that we are committed to innovation is an understatement.
On the competition
There has never been a time [until now] that I could say that we are number one in each [of 15 key] product areas. We have brought out products in every category. But we have to do what we do best. Operational excellence beats innovation. We have to think about how we can combine the two.
On IT and the economy
Business leaders in Europe and around the world are getting more optimistic. End-user confidence follows two to three quarters later. But economists are more optimistic than business leaders about productivity growth.
The network will be the platform for change. Economists are saying productivity can grow five per cent. I am talking about a market transition that is moving from the information economy to the network economy.
We used to think networking was about routers. Today it is about bringing the power of the cloud over any combination of wired or wireless networks.