Cisco UK boss: Internet of Everything is a channel play

Cisco's traditional networking partners can grab slice of IoE market but they must evolve, Phil Smith tells CRN

Cisco's UK chief executive has urged partners to either adapt their business models or form alliances to take full advantage of the impending Internet of Everything (IoE) boom.

Talking to CRN at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Phil Smith shrugged off suggestions that Cisco's traditional networking partners will lose out to other professions, such as electricians, as more "things" - be that cars, livestock or heart monitors - are connected to the internet.

"It's an interesting question - and I think we're going to see a blend [of traditional and new types of partners]," he said.

"I think if you look at the people who will do building automation systems and traffic lights [for instance], some of our traditional partners will want to do that and some already have those capabilities already through other parts that they integrate. Some won't. That doesn't mean they don't have a job to build the networks but I think the scale of the opportunity of IoE is so huge that some people will want to build practices around automation or some other capabilities."

Smith's comments came after visiting press were shown around the temporary IoE exhibit Cisco is running at the Glasgow Science Centre during the Games, for which Cisco is the formal network infrastructure partner.

Cisco predicts the number of devices connected to the internet will double between 2010 and 2015 to 25 billion, before doubling again to 50 billion by 2020. But the fact Cisco recently launched an IoE training programme aimed at electricians - focusing on smart meters - shows the vendor is looking outside its traditional networking channel in its efforts to corner the market.

Even so, there is a place in the IoE market for partners with a background selling Cisco's routers and switches, Smith maintained, pointing out that many had already successfully made the leap from networking into the datacentre.

Many UK Cisco partners already do asset tracking of "things" such as wheelchairs and bloodstands in the healthcare sector, Smith pointed out.

"It's not a huge leap from that to say ‘OK, how would you monitor a few thousand or few million other things'," said Smith (pictured below, right, with Touchbase's Mike Danson). A lot our partners are on that path and we'll probably see a lot more partnering between partners. Maybe the traditional people who have provided the systems in buildings partner with the traditional VARs - I think that's going to be the trick in the next few years as well."

Smith added: "[Our partners] need to keep changing and thinking about partnering with others because we are in a very dynamic world and unless we recognise that, we've potentially got a problem."

Cisco's IoE exhibition is designed to showcase practical examples of how the IoE could improve business and leisure activities in the future. Using 18 Arduinos - open source devices capable of registering environmental information such as light, sound and temperature - supplied by Cisco, students at Glasgow University had designed apps capable of pinpointing the quietest part of a library and the loudest pub.

This could be cross-referenced with Cisco's CMX technology, which can determine how many things, such as smartphones, are in a given location, explained Cisco systems engineer James McDonald.

"Putting some processes and information around it - the analytics - is what makes the IoE much more useful than the IoT as ‘things' are just computers or devices," he said. "We want to create applications and data that are actually useful to your business and enjoying the activities around you."