Cisco Showcases Breakthrough Consumer Video Experiences at CES 2010

At the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show, Cisco is showcasing its vision to enable consumers to live a connected life through its momentum in home networking and consumer video products, new partnerships with media and entertainment companies, and plans to drive a new class of consumer video communication experiences.
Cisco CES 2010 News Summary:

* Cisco today announced new customers, features and professional service options for the Cisco EosTM social entertainment platform.
o Travel Channel, All Access Today and The Eleven Seven Music Group/Tenth Street Entertainment join Warner Music Group as customers deploying the fast-growing Cisco Eos platform. Cisco also announced a new Eos partner ecosystem program and new Eos features, including Facebook Connect integration to facilitate audience acquisition; additional customization tools to enable rapid scaling of site launches; site migration tools to transition existing communities to Eos; and member group management capabilities to enhance engagement and monetization. Cisco Eos is a hosted "software as a service" platform that enables Media & Entertainment companies to more economically create, manage and monetize social entertainment experiences built around their portfolios of branded content.
* Cisco announced that it is providing a medianet -- a media-aware Internet Protocol (IP) video network infrastructure – to NBC during the network's coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, February 12-28. Cisco and NBC have expanded their relationship for the Vancouver Games, leveraging the best combination of video leaders to deliver the Games via an end-to-end IP video solution, from video production to content management and distribution. Cisco's IP next-generation network (IP NGN) video infrastructure will enable real-time editing by NBC personnel in Vancouver, New York and Las Vegas, and will allow for the transfer of gigabyte-sized files of content between locations and then delivered to three screens: TV, PC and smartphone.
* Cisco, which has shipped more than 200 million consumer devices to date, continues to generate momentum with its Linksys by Cisco home networking products and Flip Video camcorders. Cisco today announced data for Flip Video obtained during the 2009 holiday season that highlights the enormous growth in video usage over the past year. There were more than one million Flip Videos uploaded through FlipShare software in December 2009. These uploads represent three million minutes of Flip videos viewed, which is equivalent to more than six years of continuous video streaming, representing an increase of 395% from December the year before. In addition, there were 42,000 gigabytes of video streamed in December, up from 525% the year prior, indicating an increase in HD video usage.
* Flip Video camcorders are pre-loaded with FlipShare software to enable easy organizing, editing and seamless uploading to Facebook VideoTM, MySpaceTM, YouTubeTM and other video sharing sites. The latest FlipShare software also provides mobile apps for iPhoneTM, AndroidTM and select BlackBerry phones, which enable users to access their Flip Video library on their mobile phone. For the holidays, Cisco also introduced FlipShare TV which brings the user's entire Flip Video library of photos and videos into the family room and onto the TV screen without wires, and lets them share video instantly with other FlipShare TV owners.
* At CES, Cisco will also share its vision and progress toward developing an entirely new category of video communication, called home telepresence, which uses a consumer's existing HDTV and broadband connection to deliver a unique natural video communication experience from the comfort of a living room. Cisco will enter U.S. home telepresence field trials this spring, with Verizon as an early partner. Home telepresence field trials in France will start later in 2010, with France Telecom as Cisco's early partner.
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IDC forecasts that in 2010 there will be 32 million U.S. households with the required broadband connection to support a high-quality home telepresence communication experience.
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In three years, Cisco Business TelePresence has transformed the way people communicate in the workplace; it is the company's fastest-growing emerging technology.

Supporting Quote:

* "Video is rapidly expanding from a lean-back experience confined to the living room, to a new breed of exciting video experiences available on any device or screen – anytime, anywhere," said Ned Hooper, chief strategy officer and senior vice president, Consumer Business, Cisco. "The network is the platform to make this happen, and as a result, we are enabling new experiences that allow consumers to easily capture and share their lives and connect with the people and content that matter most to them."
* "With Cisco's best-in-class telepresence technology and networks such as Verizon's advanced, all-fiber-optic network, we believe we will deliver a video communication experience to consumers unlike anything they've seen before," said Marthin DeBeer, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco's Emerging Technologies group. "Home telepresence will make a difference in consumers' lives by allowing them to enjoy natural video communications with family and friends wherever they are located. To ensure that early home telepresence users will have plenty of friends and family to communicate with, in addition to calling other home telepresence users, they will be able to place calls to PCs using a webcam and video chat service."

Cisco at CES 2010:

* In addition, Cisco executives will be participating in CES panels and speaking engagements:
o Josette Bonte, director, Internet Business Solutions Group and Service Provider Consulting, "Video Anytime Anywhere: Video Across Platforms - Television, Internet and Mobile – Understanding the Value Proposition," Digital Hollywood at CES, Thursday, January 7 from 12:00-1:00 p.m, LVCC North Hall, Room N259.
o Ken Wirt, vice president, Cisco Consumer Marketing, "Staying Competitive in Turbulent Times," CES SuperSession, Thursday, January 7, from 12:00-1 p.m., LVCC, North Hall, Room N255–257.
o Scott Brown, director, Cisco Media Solutions Group Marketing
o "Television and Video as an Interactive Content Experience - New Technologies, New Advertising as Broadband, PVR and ITV Evolve," Digital Hollywood at CES, Friday, January 8, from 10:30-11:30 a.m., LVCC North Hall, Room N261.
o "The Future of Digital Distribution – Anytime, Anywhere, On Any Device," Digital Media Insider at CES, Friday, January 8, from 4:00-4:45 p.m. in the Venetian Hotel.
o John Davi, director, Cisco Media Solutions Group Engineering, "Ubiquitous Video to the Consumer: The Technology and Content Enablers – Broadband, IPTV, Mobile & TV," Digital Hollywood at CES, Friday, January 8 from 12:00-1:00 p.m., LVCC North Hall, Room N259.
o Dr. Kaveh Safavi, vice president, Healthcare Consult Group, Internet Business Solutions Group, "Healthcare Technology for Emerging Markets," Technology and Emerging Countries – CES Partner Program, Friday, January 8 from 1:00-2:34 p.m., LVCC North Hall, Room N253.
o Loretta Brown, vice president, Cisco Media Solutions Group Services and Support, "Understanding the Connected Consumer," Variety Magazine and Deloitte Conference at CES, Friday, January 8 from 4:00-5:00 p.m., LVCC South Hall, Room SV222.
o All Cisco speaking engagements at CES can be viewed on Cisco's CES 2010 Web site.

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Cisco Reunites Family for Christmas Through the Magic of TelePresence

Cisco today helped reunite a family after more than 50 years of separation, using its Cisco TelePresenceTM system. The Cisco 'Christmas Connections' Contest invited people residing in Australia and New Zealand to submit their stories for a chance to connect with family and friends from around the world over Cisco TelePresence. The winning Australian entry was from three elderly sisters and their families from Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, and Virginia in the United States, who had seen each other only once in more than half a century.

With the help of Cisco, the family today enjoyed a 'virtual' Christmas dinner with more than 20 family members from three generations, including never before seen children and grandchildren.

The contest winners were Claire (83), Athlone (80) and Sonia (73), three sisters who last lived together as a family in Brisbane, with two other sisters, Leone and Zoe (both deceased). After WWII, Claire emigrated to the US where she lives today near Herndon, VA. The other sisters remained in Australia and have been together once since 1953. Danelle Dobinson, Athlone's eldest child, wrote in the contest entry submission that "in light of their ages, it's unlikely that my mother and aunts will have the opportunity to visit in person in the future, so it would mean everything for them to be able to see each other and as many of the children and grandchildren as possible once more."

Despite the oddity of eating Christmas "dinner" at breakfast time for the Sydney and Brisbane based relatives, while their American relatives ate dinner in snowy Virginia, the unusual situation did not detract from the warmth and intimacy which developed through the virtual connection. Sonia, the youngest sister from Sydney said before the event that "it will be lovely just to be able to see Claire, and catch up with as many of the family as we can at this special time".

Cisco TelePresence allowed more than 20 family members to reunite without the need for financially and physically draining long-distance travel. The technology combines high-definition audio quality, interactive technologies and a specially designed environment to approximate the feeling of being in the same room despite the participants being in separate locations.

Cisco awarded two first-place prizes of Christmas dinners over Cisco TelePresence, one for Australia and another for a New Zealand family connecting with relatives in England. Cisco also gave out 10 second-place prizes of a Cisco TelePresence meeting and 20 Flip MinoTM cameras for third-place prizes, to the people with the entries that best illustrated the importance of connections with family and friends at Christmas.

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Cisco Celebrates Two Years of Globalisation Centre East

Cisco Globalisation Centre East celebrated its two year anniversary of ongoing innovation in technology offerings, new partnerships and collaborative efforts with communities, cities, countries and governments around the globe. Over the past couple of years Cisco has established several examples of public-private partnerships and led global efforts to roll out Smart+Connected Communities, a global initiative launched out of the Globalisation Centre East in February 2009. This initiative is one of 30 key market adjacencies the company has identified.

Smart+Connected Communities is Cisco's global initiative to partner with government leaders around the world to help transform communities. With the network as the platform, technology can play a key role towards integrated city management, better quality of life for citizens, and economic development.

A number of important announcements were made in recent months to commemorate the Globalisation Centre East anniversary. Key milestones and highlights in the journey that started two years ago, include:

* In December 2009, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Cisco and the City of San Francisco during Mayor Newsom's visit to Bangalore to collaborate on a joint vision for a 'Sustainable 21st Century San Francisco'. The Mayor had a preview of Cisco's Banyan Building at the Cisco Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore, which represents the most sustainable building for the company worldwide.
* In December 2009, Cisco and the City of Amsterdam announced the rollout of Urban EcoMap, an Internet-based tool that enables cities around the world to provide smarter climate change information for their citizens.
* In November 2009, Cisco announced a MoU with HCL Security to collaborate on delivering IP-based safety and security solutions to help enable safer and more secure communities. The collaboration will combine the strengths of Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities leadership with HCL Security's 'Safe State' architecture to deliver safety and security solutions in India initially and later in other countries.
* In September 2009, Cisco announced an MoU with the Chongqing municipal government for a strategic relationship to advance Chongqing's IT manufacturing industry, spur innovation and R&D in green technologies and to develop Smart+Connected Communities solutions.
* In August 2009, Cisco announced its intention to expand its relationship with Gale International to create smart, sustainable cities of the future. The companies announced that they intend to collaborate on the Meixi Lake District project in Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
* In July 2009 Cisco announced Smart Connected Buildings as its latest emerging technology, a key component in delivering on its vision for Smart+Connected Communities. The Cisco Network Building Mediator, a Smart Connected Buildings solution, provides the intelligence to interconnect and enable building systems such as heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC), lighting, electrical, security, and renewables over the IP network to build smart and energy-efficient buildings of the future. Sandeep Vij, vice president and general manager, leads the team out of the Globalisation Centre East, reporting to Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of the Emerging Technologies Group.
* In June 2009 Cisco signed an MoU with Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) for the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) project. Cisco will collaborate with GIFTCL in achieving GIFT's vision of becoming a world class financial services centre, with infrastructure and facilities benchmarked to global standards.
* In April 2009 Cisco expanded its collaboration with the Incheon Metropolitan City to help the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) accomplish the vision of Smart+Connected Communities. Cisco is working with Incheon to help drive better city management, an enhanced quality of life for citizens, and support sustainable economic development.
* In April 2009 Cisco signed an agreement with Gale International, a global leader in city-scale real estate development, to establish the "Cisco Global Center for Smart+Connected Communities" in Songdo International Business District (IBD), a 1,500-acre new city being developed off the coast of Incheon by Gale International and POSCO E&C. In collaboration with Gale International, Cisco is helping achieve its vision for Smart+Connected Communities in Songdo IBD.
* In March 2009, Cisco announced its collaboration with Metropolis, an association comprising 106 of the world's largest cities, to develop new practices and enhance existing models in urban development and sustainability for cities around the world. The collaboration sets up key components of Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities initiative in alignment with Metropolis' 'Vision 2030.'
* In February 2009, Cisco unveiled its holistic blueprint for Smart+Connected Communities, a global initiative using the network as the platform to enable economic, social and environmental sustainability and transform communities, cities and countries.

Quotes:
Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice President, Cisco Services

"Over the next five years, 500 million people will be urbanised and technology will play a significant role in managing this change. In the last two years, Cisco's Globalisation Centre East has moved quickly towards creating a platform for what we call Smart+Connected Communities. This anniversary, we have crossed a noteworthy landmark in our globalisation vision by collaborating with several partners and governments to help build sustainable communities of the future. As we enter the phase of industrialization of the Internet, the role of the network as the platform will become even more integral to building these smart and connected communities"

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Cisco Completes Acquisition of Starent Networks

Cisco today announced it has completed its acquisition of Starent Networks (NASDAQ: STAR), a leading supplier of Internet Protocol (IP) based mobile infrastructure solutions targeting mobile and converged carriers.

With the Mobile Internet at an inflection point as IP-enabled Smartphones and other connected mobile devices gain rapid acceptance, service providers have been actively investing in this market. Global mobile data traffic is expected to more than double every year through 2013, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index.

Starent Networks' mobile infrastructure solutions play an important role in enabling service providers to scale their mobile infrastructure and monetize their investments via differentiated experiences. They provide the multimedia intelligence, core network functions and services to manage access from any 2.5G, 3G and 4G radio network to a mobile operator's packet core network. Starent Networks' access-independent technology is deployed in CDMA2000 (1X, EV-DO), UMTS/HSPA and WiMAX networks.

With the completion of the transaction, Starent Networks becomes part of Cisco's new Mobile Internet Technology Group within the Service Provider Group (SPG). In addition, Ashraf Dahod, former president and CEO of Starent Networks, becomes senior vice president and general manager of this new group, reporting to Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager of SPG.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco paid $35 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Starent Networks and assumed outstanding equity awards for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.9 billion. Cisco expects the acquisition to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 and accretive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2012. All shares of Starent Networks are expected to be delisted by the close of business today.

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TASER International Enhances Evidence Capabilities for Law Enforcement Agencies

Cisco today announced that TASER International®, the market leader in electronic control devices (ECDs), has deployed the Cisco® Unified Computing System to support its innovative new service called Evidence.com. Developed specifically for law enforcement agencies worldwide, Evidence.com is a massive cloud-based virtual data warehouse hosted by TASER that is available via a secure Internet connection. Evidence.Com enables agencies to store video data according to their own retention policies, access it on demand with industry leading security, and use powerful mapping and analytics software to synthesize it with location and other relevant information.

To deliver a service on this scale with the reliability and performance that law enforcement customers demand, the company needed an advanced yet cost-effective computing platform to provide scalable processing and storage access, end-to-end encryption, and fault tolerance. Cisco UCS was ideal for the project because it provides the high bandwidth, scalability, and performance capabilities required to process massive amounts of video data. Cisco UCS bridges data center technology silos with a unified architecture that unites compute, network, storage access, and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system using industry-standard technologies.
Facts:

* How Evidence.com works: When a law enforcement agency subscribes to the Evidence.com service, a small video camera worn by the officer captures video of officer encounters. At the end of their shift, officers dock the unit to upload the encrypted video over a highly secure link. Video and ECD data are stored according to each agency's retention policies, and authorized users need only a broadband connection to retrieve their video on demand.
* Massive data: TASER projects the new service will attract tens of thousands of global law enforcement agencies, which will collectively generate millions of video streams annually. This breadth of video traffic requires a compute platform with the capacity to initially manage 10 petabytes of video and ECD data, increasing to 200 petabytes within three years.
* Virtualized Data Center: The Cisco Unified Computing System is configured with two chassis and 16 server blades, connected to redundant Cisco Nexus® 7000 Series Switches over 10Gigabit Ethernet, providing ample bandwidth to move huge volumes of video data to and from TASER's customers. The system accesses an IBM storage area network (SAN) using a Cisco MDS 9124 Multilayer Switch and uses VMware ESX for the virtualized environment. Cisco Catalyst® 4900 Series Switches provide access to the Gigabit Ethernet servers.
* Security: To help protect evidence from being altered, or accessed by unauthorized people, the company developed an extensive defense-in-depth strategy with eight levels of protection, using solutions including Cisco firewalls, the Cisco Intrusion Prevention System, and Cisco physical security solutions to monitor the facility.
* Cisco Advanced Services: TASER's tight deadline required completion of the new data center in under 100 days to support its planned Evidence.com service. The company engaged Cisco Advanced Services to provide design, planning, and deployment services to help ensure that the project proceeded smoothly and on schedule.
* Future: TASER plans to implement Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), a cost-effective technology that combines networks within the data center, to realize further cost savings and plans to deploy a second remote data center for disaster recovery.

Technology and Business Benefits

* Capital savings: TASER saved $900,000 in upfront capital costs with the combined Cisco solution, including UCS, Nexus, and Cisco security technology, which was 35 percent less than the next closest option.
* Lower energy consumption: Cisco UCS also uses less energy, providing $37,000 in annual energy savings, which supports TASER's commitment to environmentally sustainable business practices.
* Responsiveness: TASER's UCS system can address memory in nanoseconds instead of the milliseconds needed with any other server, providing an extremely responsive environment for Evidence.com users.
* Memory: The 384 Gigabytes of on-board memory in the Cisco UCS eliminates slowdowns during database access, usually the slowest aspect of cloud services.
* Scalability and simplified management: TASER plans to rapidly scale Evidence.com as a global service, so the ability to easily add additional chassis and blades to the UCS architecture and manage up to 320 blades as a single cohesive system was key to supporting their business goals.
* High performance: The Cisco UCS and Cisco Nexus platform provide 10 Gigabit Ethernet access from the server to the core network, enabling users to rapidly retrieve video data.
* High availability: Built-in redundancy and automatic failover help ensure the availability of critical applications and a customer Web portal at all times.

Supporting Quotes

* Vince Stephens, vice president of network operations, TASER Virtual Systems:

"We realized we couldn't build the data center of the future with yesterday's technology. With its scalable processing, huge memory capacity, and tight integration with VMware, the Cisco UCS was ideal to meet our needs out to the foreseeable future."

* Jas Dhillon, chief strategy officer and general manager, TASER Virtual Systems:

"Cisco met our needs for innovation, financial stability, and ability to support our business for the long term. Cisco is a trusted name to our customers. In addition, the economics of the Cisco UCS and Nexus switch platform are superior and will become even more so as our service grows."

* Scott Clark, global lead, Unified Computing and Virtualization Services Practice:

"Companies today require more than compelling technology – they require complete solutions and business outcomes that address their broader business challenges. By partnering with Cisco Advanced Services in the planning, design and implementation stages, TASER was able to accelerate Evidence.com's time to market."

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Santa Says Hello to Child Patients via Cisco Video Link

Children at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and the Nottingham Children's Hospital based at the Queen's Medical Centre can stop worrying about Santa being too busy to visit them in hospital this Christmas. With the help of video communications technology from Cisco, he has 'dropped in' to speak to them directly about their Christmas wish lists.

Using Cisco® Unified Communications technology, the hospital's young patients and their families spoke directly to Santa at the North Pole via a video link installed in the hospital. The children shared their Christmas wishes with him, while Mrs Claus and Santa's elf helpers, in the form of Cisco staff, were on hand to give gifts in person to the children.

"Children in hospital can sometimes miss out on the excitement of some traditional Christmas activities," said Claire Hardy, play specialist at the Nottingham Children's Hospital. "The Santa Connection helps make Christmas special for them, bringing that piece of Christmas sparkle direct to the ward, whilst providing a relaxing moment for family and friends."

Cisco's Santa Connection enables children who are unable to leave hospital during the festive period to share in some of the Christmas spirit. Now in its third year in the U.K., the programme has also benefited children in the U.S., Canada and Germany over the last six years.

"Christmas is a busy period for Santa, but by using video communications, he's able to meet with some younger patients. We hope the Santa Connection brings a smile to everyone's face this year. The children's bravery, and the determination of those looking after them at this time, continue to inspire us," said David Meads, executive sponsor, Corporate Social Responsibility and Civic Council at Cisco.

Cisco employees have contributed presents online and in person totalling well over £2500, so that everyone can have a Christmas wish come true.

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Cisco Receives Clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission

Cisco announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have terminated the mandatory waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act of 1976, as amended, with respect to Cisco's pending acquisition of Starent Networks.

With the receipt of this clearance, Cisco has now satisfied the regulatory approval requirements under the merger agreement to complete the acquisition of Starent Networks. Cisco expects to close the transaction in the coming days

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