Cisco About To Add A New Concept In The Technological World

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Jan 30, 2015
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The worldwide leader in information technology, Cisco (CSCO, Financial) has made an official announcement for launching its Cisco ONE software licensing strategy, which the company had planning of launching since the last year. The company has also made an announcement regarding expansion of its cloud offerings by extending the capabilities of its acquisition of Meraki, which the company completed in 2012 at the cost of $1.2 billion. With this expanded cloud strategy announcement, Cisco is all set to leverage its installed hardware base while also addressing the software centrism. The new strategy will also benefit customers as it offers consumption flexibility, like easier procurement options, all aimed at boosting sales performance. Let’s take a short glimpse at what deal the company has recently struck to address the technological problems but before that let’s start with the snapshot of the company.

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About the company

Cisco System, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells Internet protocol (IP)-based networking products and services related to the communications and information technology (IT) industry. The company also provides services associated with these products and their use and also provides products and services for transporting data, voice, and video traffic across intranets, extranets, and the Internet. The Company’s business operates in three operational segments: America; Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific, Japan, and China (APJC). The Company groups its products and technologies into the following categories: Switching, Next-Generation Network (NGN) Routing, Service Provider Video, Collaboration, Data Center, Wireless, Security, and Other Products. These products, primarily integrated by Cisco IOS Software, link geographically dispersed local-area networks (LANs), metropolitan-area networks (MANs), and wide-area networks (WANs).

Aiming to fight technological complexity

Cisco is coming up with its new virtual Assistant and has faith that it will go well in fighting the technological complexity, and has signed a deal with noHold to develop this Virtual Assistant, named SARA (Services Automated Resolution Agent). Till now, conventional Virtual Assistants (VAs) and Virtual Customer Assistants (VCAs) were meant to resolve basic queries and perform other simple tasks. But, Cisco Systems, Inc. now aims to revolutionize this space with SARA, which will be created to connect with more sophisticated devices and resolve more complex problems.

The synergies are apparent

noHold’s CEO Diego Ventura stated – “Overall, we wanted to create an experience that mirrors Cisco’s vision and create a Virtual support partner that can help. In the technology space, the level of complexity is increasing; in the datacenter, it’s even more complex. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we can use machines to fight the very complexity that they [machines and technology] have created. Cisco has a very sophisticated set of APIs that can be leveraged by third party vendors and partners. On our side, we were excited to see that the Virtual Assistant can not only query, but can control information in the database, the devices themselves, while being able to leverage the context of the situation…”

Cisco has a vision which is a significant shift from the traditional services paradigm as it urges to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to make use of data that’s stored in networking devices such as routers to make real time updates and perform tasks for network administrators. This Virtual Assistant would for example capture data from a sophisticated router and pass it on after trouble shooting to an administrator for faster case solutions. And noHold had already joined hands with the tech major early in 2014 when they started working together on the onePK Application Programming Interface which is a key element within the Open Network Environment SDN strategy of the company.

Now with the project “SARA” in hand, the combined efforts are out there to prove that the vision seen once by CISCO can be turned into a reality and thus they are working out the process to make machines capable of fighting the complexities that technology has created – hence the end-solution lies embedded in the complex problem.

Last word

The reputed brands in the markets are going to all length to prove that the virtual assistant could be used to diagnose and fix intricate and complex issues and even communicate among devices. Cisco’s senior director, Glenn Schleicher explains the concept in these words – “Virtual agent technologies have come a long way, and we were pleased to partner with noHold to explore what is possible today. The potential to streamline and automate complex customer service interactions is huge…” Hence, going by these words it looks like Cisco is all bound to add a new dimension to the tech world and that is already in the making.