Know the Industry :: IT in Focus
But Does it Actually Work? Want to Know how Cisco Tests its Phones?
The best way to make sure your customers are happy with your products is to make sure that you're happy with them first.
Cisco on Cisco is a crack squad of technical and corporate trouble-shooters who do just that. We caught up with Donald de Witte, IT Manager and top problem-solver, to find out a bit more about the work he does, what's hot in Cisco and where he thinks the future will be taking us.
NETACAD ADVANTAGE (NA)
So, what exactly is Cisco on Cisco?
DONALD DE WITTE
Well, it's an internal IT programme that enables Cisco to research, develop, deploy and show-case its own technology inside the company. Cisco IT collaborates very closely with the research and development divisions within Cisco – feeding back to them directly on how our products perform in the work place; in other words, in Cisco's own offices. We also work with the business itself, deploying our technology before it goes to market and trouble-shooting across all areas – not just technical – to ensure that we get it right.
I think of us as a kind of laboratory for research and development.
NA
So how many people are there in your team?
DdW
Worldwide, the Cisco on Cisco team has about 20 people. But all the people in Cisco IT, and all the Cisco employees who try out new technology and feed back information, are all part of the Cisco on Cisco effort. We work closely with each other and with the business itself to ensure that we understand where the business wants to go, and to articulate plans to get there. We then liaise with the IT organisations, the IT infrastructure teams and the design teams to work on the design and implementation of products in the workplace. And we share this experience with customers, by making our experts and our documents and presentations and videos available to our customers.
NA
Do other companies have similar programmes?
DdW
Some other companies have similar programs, but not exactly like this. Cisco may be unique in building such a wide range of business solutions that we keep Cisco IT busy all year trying them out.
NA
So in a nutshell, you help create, design, deploy, troubleshoot and fine-tune Cisco's products?
DdW
Yes, Cisco IT provides a service that takes our products from the production stage through design, deployment and management development and impact on the user. We interact not only with the research and product development teams, but also with customer advocacy teams – the divisions that represent customers' needs and issues – and with the marketing and sales teams.
By monitoring the way that our products are used in Cisco's own offices, by Cisco's employees in real working situations, we can give feedback to these teams on issues like customer service agreements, maintenance issues and more besides. Our feedback is not just limited to technical problems by any means.
NA
Oh? Could you give a concrete example of that?
DdW
Well, take Telepresence, which is one of the biggest and most innovative products that Cisco has launched recently. We have overseen the installation of Telepresence right across the company, from San Jose to Barcelona. We realised very quickly that the colour of the Telepresence rooms themselves was just as important as the technology – and that the suites needed to be re-painted. Telepresence is a real-time experience. Users can see each other and speak to each other as if they were in the same room, even if they are on the other side of the world. We realised that the suites themselves had to be painted a certain colour, as skin tone and lighting is really important in order to create the sense that participants are 'really there'. We told Cisco to get the paint brushes out!
NA
And how did Cisco react?
DdW
Well, there are 198 Telepresence suites across the world, so that's a lot of painting! But seriously, it's our job to really help make the company's vision a reality. And to help it sculpt its vision and direction. When John Chambers says the network is the enabler, it's our job to ensure that that happens.
NA
So what are the technologies that Cisco creates and uses in its own offices?
DdW
Any product that fits into an enterprise company. We use our routers and switches everywhere, of course; and wireless and VoIP in all of our offices – if you come into a Cisco office you will see Cisco phones in use, for instance. As well as video, IP TV and Data Centres which enable the virtualisation of data storage and processing.
We think of every office as a show room for our products.
NA
Have you ever found anything that would have been a disaster had it gone to customers?
DdW
A disaster? No. However, there are frequently bugs in pre-release software, and limited feature sets in early releases. And if we find that there would be scalability or manageability problems in deploying them in the 400 Cisco buildings worldwide, we feed that back to the business and wait for the right product release before we deploy it in-house.
For example, our first wireless access points back in 2000 had some problems. The IT team did not want to place them in Cisco offices as they lacked sufficient wireless encryption . Based on our recommendations, they upgraded the product with a new encryption protocol, and we were able to deploy them in every office.
NA
Do you test absolutely every Cisco product in this way?
DdW
No, there are a lot of products that don't make sense to test in an enterprise environment: things designed for service provider, or small business or home environments. And Cisco makes such a wide range of products that we don't use one of everything in our enterprise network.
NA
So you sit right between the business and the customer. That's a pretty good vantage point from which to observe the industry – the way it's changing and the direction it's moving in. What is 'hot' right now?
DdW
Well, as we move into a web 2.0 model, we are seeing the business and the industry adopt a more collaborative work ethic. I believe that this is something we will see more of in the future.
The fact is that the young people that we hire are more technology-savvy than previous generations. They are used to the internet, iPods, on-line chat, Facebook, instant messaging and so on. This generation of users, employees, networkers are online and up to date, and their behaviour and expectations of our technology are driving the way the technology itself is evolving.
Within Cisco there is the Internet Business Solutions Group, a think tank that has a strategic role in steering the company. IBSG have coined the term, 'the children of now'. Today's users want results now.
So I think we'll see companies developing and using technologies that provide instant access to data, more collaboration within the workspace, and the ability to be always online.
NA
So are there areas of the industry that our students should focus on, in your opinion?
DdW
I'd keep looking at the new generations of collaboration tools, especially high-touch and visual tools. Increasingly users in the office and at home want to see a face when they interact online.
Also, I'd say security remains a big area to watch. With increasing collaboration and access, security has to be top of mind now more than ever.
We'll also see more convergence I think – access will be same on any kind of device. So your Iphone will have the same access as your laptop.
NA
Does Cisco on Cisco have a vision of the workplace of the future?
DdW
I'd sum it up by saying 'anytime, anywhere'. We believe that the office will remain a place for encounter – for meetings and collaboration and to socialize – and less of a place for people to do individual heads-down work. This is already happening in Cisco. Employees are using our technology to work whenever and wherever they want. And this implies not just a technological change, but also a cultural one. We are moving away from a culture of '9-5' and towards an objectives-based work ethic. As employees we now expect to be able to meet our goals any time, anywhere.
The future has already begun.
Donald de Witte was talking to Aine Doris