Cisco: Discontinuity is a catalyst for opportunity

Cisco has assured customers and partners that it will step up its support in this difficult period while also letting them know there is opportunity for them.

At Cisco Live’s APJC Virtual Event today, Cisco APJC president Miyuki Suzuki told participants that countries, companies and communities across the region must find ways to keep in operation as we live and work in unprecedented times, and that Cisco is there to help make it possible.

“IT is at the heart of your organisation, but your role has evolved,” Suzuki said. “So our commitment to you is that while we’re on this incredible digital age journey, we’ll partner with you to achieve what you aspire to do most, and address what challenges you most.”

“We are facing a time of huge upheaval and discontinuity, but it can be a catalyst for opportunity that creates change for the better, and change will happen more in different forms.”

Suzuki said the Asia Pacific, Japan and China region is still an economic growth powerhouse and is a region of “tremendous” opportunities, particularly in cloud adoption, 5G and Wi-fi 6.

“5G may feel like a lot of hype right now but by 2023 it is going to be a commercial reality and you’ll have a significant impact on the world around us,” Suzuki said.

“I’m so proud that Cisco’s been able to help our service provider partners to roll it out. Together with 5G, Wi-Fi 6 is going to truly transform the mobile experience in this multi-cloud world by modernising applications and they way things connect.”

Suzuki went into more detail on the support Cisco has given so far in this ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, which she suspects will “stretch on for some time”.

“We have to make sure that we emerge and learn the lessons from this period and make lasting changes, which will benefit businesses and markets and our community at large,” she said.

“There's a necessity now for new ways of learning and working. In recent years, organizations have taken steps to accelerate workforce transformation."

"This current crisis has laser focused on the benefits of remote working in learning. So we all have to work hard to support customers to achieve business continuity in this time of contracted work.”

Some of the offers the vendor had in place were free Webex, Meraki, VPN and security products, as well as increased network bandwidth and more.

“Organisations around the world are moving very quickly — much quicker than they have ever imagined to remote working,” Suzuki said.

“In the first 11 days of March this year, we saw 5.5 billion WebEx meeting minutes being consumed in 221 countries and territories around the world so that they could maintain connectivity and productivity.

“Cisco is working with telecommunication companies and service providers to anticipate this surge in demand and expand their infrastructures and capabilities.”

Suzuki cited examples of working alongside Optus and Telstra, providing new remote contact centres for the former and offering free trials of virtual meeting rooms using Webex for the latter.

Another partnership highlighted was with the Victorian Department of Education and Training, which Suzuki said was investing in implementing remote learning capabilities “for many years now”.

“Using WebEx teams, they've improved learning experiences for their students,” Suzuki said.