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PRESS RELEASE

First Ukrainian International Bank (PUMB) Becomes the First Bank in Ukraine to Deploy Cisco TelePresence

Cisco Advanced Video Communications Technology to Enhance Collaboration Efficiency and Raise the Quality of Client Services

MOSCOW – July, 31, 2012 – Cisco today announced that the main offices of the First Ukrainian International Bank (PUMB) in Kiev and Donetsk deployed Cisco TelePresence®. The advanced video technology makes it possible to optimize internal and external communications in the bank, accelerate decision-making, organize collaboration at a higher level, and offer a better quality of service to bank customers in various regions of the country. The project was implemented by Winncom, a Cisco® Gold Certified Partner in Ukraine.

The bank installed Cisco TelePresence System 1300 Series enabling immersive "in-person" virtual meetings with up to six persons on each side.  Moreover, the bank received special equipment to integrate disparate systems into a single unified solution. 

Key Facts / Highlights:

• PUMB has been operating in the Ukrainian financial market for 20 years.  It is one of the top ten Ukrainian banks by key financial parameters (assets and liabilities, chartered and controlled capital). According to the RIA-Analitika Economic Research Center, PUMB is among one hundred largest banks of the CIS and among 1,000 largest banks of the world (the information was published in The Banker magazine).  By June 2012, the PUMB national sales network included 160 points of sale. 

• The decision to install Cisco solutions was motivated by the benefits of Cisco TelePresence technology, including accelerating decision-making, improving customer service, cost reduction, time savings, and growing efficiency of operations in the company.  Today nobody has to travel in order to meet specialists from the central PUMB office or the regional office in Donetsk.  Besides, bank employees will be able to use video communications to talk to customers and consultants worldwide. 

• Cisco TelePresence makes decision-making meetings more dynamic, as well as accelerates access to data located in various sources. Highly efficient collaboration systems enabling easy data exchange and content access in video environment, only recently considered impossible, will help to improve efficiency of such meetings. The Cisco TelePresence system installed in the bank can move content from one screen to another, demonstrate data from various sources and use dashboards (or "whiteboards") to highlight the main points and draw the audience's attention to key ideas. 

Tags, Keywords: CIS, Ukraine, Cisco, Cisco TelePresence, PUMB

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/rss-feeds

Supporting resources:

• Cisco
• Cisco TelePresence®
• PUMB

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go tohttp://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Russia is supplied through its authorized channel partners by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

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PRESS RELEASE

High-Definition Video-Enabled Web Conferencing Improves Medical Care and Access to Specialists in Argentina

Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 31, 2012 – The Stamboulian Group announced that it has implemented a Cisco® collaboration solution that allows healthcare specialists to consult with each other, improving the quality of medical care for HIV patients who live in remote cities such as Neuquén, Córdoba and Salta. The solution, based on Cisco WebEx® web conferencing technology also helps specialists to discuss solutions for infectious disease pathologies as well as other treatments and facilitates researchers' collaboration and medical training.

WebEx® enables one Stamboulian clinic and two Helios Salud clinics to perform specialized consultations among professionals working remotely, demonstrating that geographic distance is no longer an obstacle to providing high-quality medical care.

Key Facts:

• This system facilitates the interaction between specialists, no matter where they work or live. It improves the quality of patient care and the efficiency of medical attention.
• It allows for case discussions and "grand rounds" among HIV specialists
• It accelerates access to specialists for interconsultations.
• It optimizes resources in an efficient way.
• This solution also enabled Grupo Stamboulian clinics to collaborate with the University of Miami using a new medical protocol for training.
• This telemedicine project is an initiative of the Stamboulian Group and is part of the group's strategy for telemedicine and telehealth. It has been promoted by Dr. Daniel Stamboulian, and defines a new modality of services to improve the quality of HIV and infectious disease treatments using teleprocesses in medical administration. The project consists of Web-based solutions and integrates electronic joint consultations and trainings, connecting remote sites to three specialty centers, maintaining efficiency in clinical decision-making and therapeutic resolution.

Supporting Quotes

Dr Daniel Stamboulian, general director of Stamboulian Group

"We strongly believe in telemedicine and are innovating in this field as part of our long term strategy. Health is one of the great concerns, and this service will shorten waiting times, facilitate opportune diagnosis, and keep illnesses from getting worse."

Marta Garcia, executive director of Helios Salud

"The telemedicine project in Helios Salud is in line with the corporate e-health program whose objective is to make high-end technologies available for the existing health care system."

Alejandro Cambours, general manager of Helios Salud

"We needed a powerful communication tool with excellent-quality video and audio that could share visual references from a variety of media. It was also important that we be able to connect people from multiple locations, and that the tool be easy to learn and use. Cisco WebEx technology met all of these requirements."

Gustavo Menéndez, managing director, Cisco Latin America, Business Transformation

"The use of Cisco WebEx technology brings about more equitable and more effective access to health care for patients, regardless of where they live, which has generated a change in the traditional paradigm of health care delivery."

About Stamboulian Group

The Infectology Center was created by Dr Daniel Stamboulian in 1974, to carry out co-ordination and systematic management of an infectious disease service for the country.

About Helios Salud

For more than 25 years, Helios Salud has been caring for HIV patients helping them to improve their quality of life.

We believed HIV presented an opportunity for quality care, research and study so we created a Center of Care and Support based on a firm ethic line and the highest professional standards, prioritizing the patient and his/her family and providing them with a worm human consideration and quality of care.

Our "Helios Salud" ambulatory center was founded in September 1997 and today it provides integral HIV care to more than 3500 patients per month

Our multidisciplinary team is highly committed and passionate about helping our patients, doing research and providing continued medical education.

Nowadays, "Helios Salud" has a network of professionals around the country and has developed professional research links in several countries around the world.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com and http://newsroom.cisco.com/latam.

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Synopsys Mixed-Signal IC Design Solution Qualified for TowerJazz Power Management Reference Flow 2.0

News release:

Synopsys Mixed-Signal IC Design Solution Qualified for TowerJazz Power Management Reference Flow 2.0

Collaboration Delivers Comprehensive Power Management Solution

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, and TowerJazz (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM), the global specialty foundry leader, today announced that they have qualified Synopsys' unified mixed-signal IC design solution for TowerJazz's power management analog/mixed-signal reference design flow (Reference Flow 2.0) and 180-nanometer (nm) Power Management (PM) interoperable process design kit (iPDK). Synopsys' tool suite, the foundry iPDK and reference design flow are verified to seamlessly work together to enable designers to quickly become productive.
Synopsys' unified mixed-signal IC design flow includes the IC Compiler™ and Galaxy Custom Designer® physical co-design implementation solution, HSPICE® circuit simulation, CustomSim™ FastSPICE simulation, CustomSim-VCS® mixed-signal co-simulation, IC Validator physical verification, and StarRC™ parasitic extraction tools. The TowerJazz PM Reference Flow 2.0includes a reference design based on a 180-nm iPDK for the bipolar CMOS DMOS (BCD) process. The TowerJazz BCD power management process platform offers the combination of 180-nm CMOS logic density with a wide range of high-voltage power devices on a single chip to enable the design of complex power management integrated circuits (ICs).
"TowerJazz and Synopsys have an on-going collaboration to create and promote iPDKs as a standard for the custom design community," said Ori Galzur, vice president of design center and design enablement at TowerJazz. "This collaboration has now been extended to our new TowerJazz Power Management Reference Flow 2.0 and further expands our relationship to include a qualified Synopsys mixed-signal design solution that addresses the needs of power management IC design."
"As ICs become more heterogeneous with a mix of cell-based and custom implementation, designers require a unified implementation and verification solution to stay productive and competitive," said Bijan Kiani, vice president of product marketing at Synopsys. "With this foundry-qualified solution, our mutual customers will be able to more easily manage the increased complexity and aggressive development schedules of mixed-signal designs."
About SynopsysSynopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys' comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, system-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has approximately 70 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at www.synopsys.com.
About TowerJazzTower  Semiconductor  Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM), the global specialty foundry leader and  its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor, operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz, manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from  1.0  to  0.13-micron. TowerJazz provides industry leading design enablement tools to allow complex designs to be achieved quickly and more accurately and offers a broad range of customizable process technologies including SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed-signal and RFCMOS, CMOS image sensor, power management (BCD), and non-volatile memory (NVM), as well as MEMS capabilities. To provide world-class customer service, TowerJazz maintains two manufacturing facilities in Israel and one in the U.S. with additional capacity available in China through manufacturing partnerships. For more information, please visitwww.towerjazz.com.

VMware Simplifies Journey to The Cloud With Zimbra® 8.0

VMware News Releases

VMware Simplifies Journey to The Cloud With Zimbra® 8.0

New Zimbra Collaboration Server 8.0 offers email, address book, calendar and integrated unified communications built for the Post-PC era

Palo Alto, Calif — July 11, 2012 —VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced Zimbra® Collaboration Server™ 8.0. For many organizations interested in cloud-based email, Zimbra 8.0 offers a clear path for moving messaging and collaboration to the cloud. Easily deployed in private or public clouds, Zimbra is flexible enough to deliver the solution that best fits an organization’s needs - both now and in the future. As part of this announcement, VMware is making Zimbra 8.0 Betaavailable for download to organizations worldwide.

The newest version of Zimbra is built on the strength of VMware’s cloud expertise, offering all organizations from enterprise companies to small business the option to deploy a browser-based email solution in a private or public cloud, while delivering the advanced features and enterprise functionality that users demand. Further simplifying the IT experience, Zimbra 8.0 is available as a virtual software appliance that can be deployed in as little as ten minutes and requires minimal ongoing management. 

"We’re witnessing a fundamental shift in the way people work, and in turn a new set of demands that are put on IT infrastructure and applications like email and integration communications," said John Robb senior director at VMware. “Zimbra 8 is designed to make end users more efficient by connecting them with their data while providing IT departments a simple way to manage the transition to a public or private cloud and help deliver the benefits promised by the post-PC era." 

Zimbra 8.0 connects users to their personal cloud with a redesigned interface and a smarter mailbox that helps manage the flow of information through their email, calendar, voice and social channels. New to Zimbra 8.0, VMware has partnered with Cisco and Mitel to offer unified communications capabilities embedded within Zimbra. These deep integration capabilities allow users to connect their voice and message systems in a unified inbox, enabling Click2Call, voicemail, presence, and chat all from within the Zimbra Web app. Zimbra 8.0 features a user interface and the integration options to connect users to their cloud and enables a new way to work in the post-PC era.

"In the post-PC era employees are collaborating in innovative new ways.  More than ever, our customers are asking for cloud-based collaboration services that deliver compelling, integrated, productivity enhancing user experiences," said Laurent Philonenko, vice president, Cisco Unified Communications.  "Cisco works with innovative partners like VMware to integrate collaboration applications such as Cisco Jabber and Cisco WebEx — that bring together presence, instant messaging, voice and video, voice messaging, desktop sharing and conferencing into a consistent experience across PCs, Macs, tablets and smart phones."

“Mitel and VMware have delivered virtualized voice apps to more than 2,000 Mitel clients of all sizes,” said Alan Zurakowski, director of business development and strategic alliances for Mitel. “By offering an out-of-the-box integration with Zimbra, we’re extending the benefits of virtualized voice apps by providing end users with a great, streamlined unified communications experience, while simplifying usability, deployment, maintenance and upgrades for both Zimbra and Mitel apps."

Key Features of Zimbra 8.0

Integrated Unified Communications

Now unified communications are built into Zimbra with an all-new voice application that features out-of-the-box integration with Cisco and Mitel UC solutions accessible through the main user interface. This integration also features:

• Click-to-Call any phone number with call routing to device or soft phone
• Visual Voicemail with inline playback, management, and MWI status update
• Presence indication and launch of Click-to-Chat with Cisco Jabber integration
• Cisco WebEx integration to schedule and launch Cisco WebEx sessions directly from Zimbra
• Call history with placed, received, and missed calls visible within Zimbra
• Ability to extend or integrate other 3rd party UC solutions

Connecting the Personal Cloud
As part of the transition to the post-PC user experience, Zimbra has been updated to provide leading browser-based functionality featuring a smarter mailbox that helps users manage the flow of information through their email, voice and social channels. This functionality includes:

• Updated browser-based user interface featuring social conversation view
• Auto-filtering of bulk and distribution lists
• Expanded search capabilities, end-user managed distribution lists, shared tagging
• Enterprise Calendar – scheduling suggestions for complex meetings, smart views for managing multiple calendars

Managing ITaaS in the Cloud Era
Zimbra Collaboration Server 8.0 offers a consolidated collaboration service for messaging, calendar and contacts with enterprise IT security controls built to be delivered as a service as a private or public cloud solution. Zimbra 8 offers simplified IT management features such as:

• New Virtual Software Appliance that is feature complete and available for any size deployments
• Simplified upgrades and migrations with less than 60 seconds of mailbox downtime when moving to the new version of Zimbra
• SaaS administration and self-service experience to minimize end-user demands on IT
• End-user distribution list management from the web client. A delegated DL manager can create and manage subscriptions to distribution lists based on IT defined policies
• End-users can search and recover deleted items across Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and tasks based on IT defined recovery retention policies

For product download, video and screenshots of Zimbra 8, and to register for a webinar go to:http://www.zimbra.com/products/whats_new.html

About VMware:

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

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Microsoft to Acquire Perceptive Pixel Inc.

Press release:

Microsoft to Acquire Perceptive Pixel Inc.

July 09, 2012

Perceptive Pixel’s large-scale, multi-touch hardware and software technology will unlock new collaboration and productivity scenarios.

inShare5

REDMOND, Wash., and NEW YORK — July 9, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. and Perceptive Pixel Inc. (PPI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire PPI, a recognized leader in research, development and production of large-scale, multi-touch display solutions.

“The acquisition of PPI allows us to draw on our complementary strengths, and we’re excited to accelerate this market evolution,” said Kurt DelBene, president, Office Division for Microsoft. “PPI’s large touch displays, when combined with hardware from our OEMs, will become powerful Windows 8-based PCs and open new possibilities for productivity and collaboration.”

Founded in 2006 by Jeff Han, a renowned pioneer in multi-touch technology, PPI shipped its first multi-touch workstation and large wall solutions in early 2007. In 2008 its technology gained widespread recognition for transforming the way CNN and other broadcasters covered the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In 2009 the Smithsonian awarded the company the National Design Award in the inaugural category of Interaction Design. PPI’s patented technologies are used across a wide variety of industries such as government, defense, broadcast, energy exploration, engineering and higher education, and its expertise in both software and hardware will contribute to success in broad scenarios such as collaboration, meetings and presentations.

“We are incredibly excited to be working together on our mutual passion to build technologies that enable people to collaborate and communicate,” Han said. “By joining Microsoft, we will be able to take advantage of the tremendous momentum of the Microsoft Office Division, tightly interoperate with its products, and deliver this technology to a very broad set of customers.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

About Perceptive Pixel Inc.

Perceptive Pixel Inc. (PPI) is a recognized leader in interaction design, having pioneered the development of large-scale, unlimited multi-touch devices that came to prominence during the historic 2008 U.S. presidential elections. PPI’s advanced multi-touch technology platform enables professionals to get closer to their content, removing barriers to understanding, communication and collaboration. PPI is privately held and headquartered in New York. For more information, visit www.perceptivepixel.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Like Open Source? For Collaboration, Try Group-Office 4.0

There's no shortage of software out there designed to help foster collaboration in businesses large and small, but this past week a key open source contender got a major update that makes it particularly worth considering.

The package is Group-Office, and a major update to version 4.0 was released on Wednesday.

For more, click the link below:


http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/258924/like_open_source_for_collaboration_try_groupoffice_40.html#tk.nl_bdx_h_crawl

Press release:

Collaboration and Transparency Key to Providing the Edge Midmarket CEOs Need to Drive Innovation, According to IBM Study

Engaging with the Consumer as an Individual cited as Top Priority

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ARMONK, N.Y. - 13 Jun 2012: A new IBM (NYSE: IBM) global study of midmarket Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) indicates that nearly twice as many midmarket CEOs see creating a more collaborative work environment with a higher level of openness and transparency as a top priority compared to the findings from the IBM CEO study conducted in 2010.  

A total of 45 percent of midmarket CEOs see the need to create a more open business environment, a close to 50 percent jump from two years ago.

Additionally, nearly 70 percent of midmarket CEOs aim to partner extensively with other companies as external relationships will play a more critical role to CEOs’ overall business strategies; 64 percent of midmarket CEOs are focused on creating a more collaborative environment to engage employees with a new way of making faster and better decisions in an increasingly changing business environment; and 71 percent are focused on improving their understanding of individual customer needs.

CEOs also discussed the whirlwind of “social” change they’re witnessing. Facebook, Renren, Twitter, Weibo, Foursquare and other social media upstarts have changed the way products and services are marketed to consumers. Despite the surge in social media adoption around the world, only 15 percent of midmarket CEOs are using social media platforms to connect with the individual consumer today. Three to five years from now, that number is poised to spike to 50 percent. 

Market dynamics and technological advances continue to force more organizational change, significantly impacting how midmarket businesses engage with customers and employees and drive innovation. Midmarket CEOs are now looking to technology not only to make them more efficient but also to enable increased collaboration and create relationships – essential connections to fuel creativity.  

Rising complexity and escalating competition have also made partnering a core innovation strategy for many organizations. As midmarket businesses become more geographically diverse and interact with other organizations, the importance of sustaining a collaborative business culture will only continue to grow. Those that are perceived to be collaborative often find it easier to partner with other successful companies. In fact, about 50 percent of midmarket CEOs see partnering or collaborating as a way to stay on the path of innovation.  

In addition, given the market pressures to operate with greater openness and transparency, CEOs are looking for employees who will thrive in this kind of atmosphere. CEOs are increasingly focused on finding top talent with the ability to constantly reinvent themselves. These employees are comfortable with change; they learn as they go, often from others’ experiences. CEOs regard interpersonal skills of collaboration (72 percent), communication (68 percent), creativity (58 percent) and flexibility (66 percent) as key drivers of employee success to operate in a more complex, interconnected environment.

Organizations are under intense pressure to respond to not only how customers want products and services delivered, but also when and where. Businesses can profit from unique insights they discover about customers. In fact, 65 percent of midmarket CEOs identify customer insights as the most critical investment area. 

To effectively engage individual consumers and clients, organizations must weave together insights about the whole person from a variety of sources. They will need stronger analytics capabilities to uncover patterns and to act on insights. Two such examples are as follows: 

Bristol Water and Desert Mountain Reduce Water Footprint with Big Data

Bristol Water plc provides water supply and related services in the United Kingdom. It serves approximately 1.1 million people and businesses in an area of 2,400 square kilometers centered on Bristol.    

According to Bristol Water's CEO Luis García, the last two years have been the driest in the past 160 years, with rainfall exceptionally low and reservoir levels dropping much earlier than usual. With a fixed water supply and increasing population, water consumption needs are only growing. Concerns are increasing over water availability, water quality and overall water management complexity. As a result, Bristol Water is engaging individual customers to use water wisely over the summer and support them by providing water saving devices to help them to use less water. 

In addition, Desert Mountain, a Scottsdale, Arizona, golf and residential community consisting of 4,500 residents and six golf courses, is the largest user of reclaimed water (26 million gallons) in metro Phoenix-Scottsdale. Working with IBM and Business Partner UgMO, Desert Mountain had adopted a new collaborative approach to gather a variety of complex data (from weather variables such as temperature, humidity and evaporation, to most recent watering) generated from wireless sensors to pinpoint exactly how much water the course needs and monitor water usage in real time so that corrective action can be taken immediately. This innovative way to measure how much water and energy are consumed helps Desert Mountain make better decisions in their usage. 

Now the irrigation manager can use real time data to control irrigation systems, monitor water supplies and allocate water with unprecedented speed and efficiency by 50 percent. Instead of looking at five different views, the manager is only looking at one -- freeing up his time for other duties.  

Mobility: A Change Agent

Finally, mobility is also elevating customer expectations and creating new challenges for CEOs.  Midmarket clients have a tremendous opportunity to create value out of immediacy to be ready with relevant services and information in the context of the moment. As mobile commerce is expected to reach $31 billion by 2016, companies will need to take advantage of location based services and new forms of commerce in which mobile is integrated into a consumer's multichannel experiences, tailored to the individual, to stay competitive.

"Midmarket CEOs are establishing more open and collaborative cultures — in which employees not only connect more with each other and the outside world to innovate, but to reinvent themselves. Learning from each other, they stay ahead of the skills curve and open to change,"  said Andy Monshaw, General Manager of IBM Midmarket Business. "Business leaders are embracing technology in completely new ways to spot oncoming threats, capture an immediate, unexpected business opportunity, address business challenges with a clear focus on partnering with other organizations to seize these opportunities to drive growth and innovate."  

For access to the full study findings and case studies, please visit: http://ibm.co/Kr1P4O

For more information on IBM Midmarket Business: http://bit.ly/joxxPq

Facebook Page: IBM for Midsize Businesses: http://on.fb.me/sHgobr

Follow us on Twitter at: #IBMsmb

To hear how IBM is working with midmarket clients: http://bit.ly/rIjE5A

News release:

Red Hat’s Decade of Collaboration with Government and the Open Source Community

May 11, 2012

The Red Hat Public Sector Team

Ten years ago, it was hard to use Linux in the U.S. government. Sure, it was being used by research scientists. Sure, it was running the occasional web server. For the most part, though, Linux was something hard to buy, hard to use, and forbidden in many parts of government.

But all that changed, and it happened quickly. Based on engineering collaboration with Red Hat, the National Security Agency (NSA) released a new security feature for Linux, SELinux, in 2001 and contributed it to the Linux community. This was seen by many as a tacit endorsement of Linux, which had been thought by many people in government to be an unreliable amateur project. It was also significant because the NSA was *improving* the project with their own software.

In 2003, the U.S. Army commissioned a study on ‘The Business Case for Open Source Software’ and the then DOD CIO John Stenbit released the first DOD-wide guidance on open source software, which implicitly permitted its acquisition, development, and use. Nine months later, in July of 2004, the Office of Management and Budget issued a similar memo that covered the government as a whole.

At the same time, Red Hat released the first version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1. The Army deployed Red Hat’s operating system in its Blue Force Tracker system, which lived in jeeps and tanks on the battlefield. Major General Nicholas Justice, the man responsible for Blue Force Tracker, said later:

“When we rolled into Baghdad, we did it using open source.”1

To this day, the U.S. Army remains one of Red Hat’s largest customers by volume. Red Hat was recently made part of the Army's Common Operating Environment, which is their enterprise standard.

We were also making inroads in civilian government around this time. NASA, NOAA, the Department of Energy, and the National Weather Service all began moving their workloads to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The U.S. Census Bureau consolidated all their datacenters in 2003 and chose to standardize on Red Hat.

For the next several years, the U.S. government followed its counterparts in the commercial sector, and began adopting more and more Linux as they were moving from expensive, proprietary hardware to commodity, x86-based systems. The city of Chicago, the Federal Reserve, the states of Tennessee and North Carolina, the U.S. Courts, and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and hundreds of others switched to Red Hat. In 2006, Red Hat’s collaboration with the NSA, the open source community and other industry partners on the SELinux project bore fruit: Red Hat Enterprise Linux received the internationally recognized Common Criteria security certification and would go on to receive additional certifications in the next six years with 15 certifications to-date. We had a response for those still skeptical about the security of open source and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This development helped open the doors to the DOD and intelligence communities.

That’s also when the conversation changed. As the government became more comfortable with open source in general and Red Hat specifically, we saw it begin to think about open source in a more strategic way; they wanted to contribute code back to the communities that were helping them, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux was a catalyst.

In 2007, for example, the U.S. Navy collaborated with Raytheon, IBM, and Red Hat to add real-time features to the Linux kernel, which it needed for its new DDG-1000 destroyer. The Navy insisted that the patch be released back to the Linux community.

This kind of deep engagement between Red Hat, the open source community, and government was becoming more commonplace. By 2008, the government was only equal to the financial services sector as a user of open source. We also saw open source policies appear from governments at the federal, state and local level. On the heels of the Obama administration’s election, the Open Government Memo was issued, the DOD announced its own open source community, forge.mil, and Open Source for America was founded. In August of 2008, Macon Phillips, the White House New Media Director, called open source “the most concrete form of civic participation.”2 He would later release portions of the software for whitehouse.gov, which runs on Red Hat.

By the end of 2011, the Steve VanRoekel, the federal CIO, announced a ‘Shared First’ policy, which mandates re-use and sharing among civilian agencies. NASA released code.nasa.gov, a project to centralize all the source code released by NASA in one citizen-friendly web site. Open source and Red Hat, were now officially mainstream.

The adoption of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and open source in government is an evolution: the first furtive steps in the early 2000s, and leaders like the Army and the Census Bureau taking us to the close of the first decade of Red Hat Enterprise Linux where the government appears to be comfortable not just using open source, but creating its own open source communities. Red Hat is proud of the critical role Red Hat Enterprise Linux has played in this transformation, and so grateful for the deep and meaningful collaboration we have with our government customers. With Red Hat and open source at the heart of initiatives like Shared First, big data, and cloud computing, we expect the next ten years are going to be even better.

PRESS RELEASE

First Public Telepresence Room in Russia Welcomes Clients

Full HD Video Communications, Virtual Presence Technologies and Pay-as-You-Go Option Open New Global Business Collaboration Opportunities

MOSCOW – May 11, 2012 – Cisco today announced that Russia's first public telepresence service has been launched by Cisco, Tata Communications and BizKomm, a Cisco Registered Partner in Russia. The public telepresence room located in Moscow's Monarch business center offers immersive virtual communications, fully imitating personal face-to-face meetings. Unlike traditional video conferencing solutions that employ standard-quality video and audio, Cisco TelePresence® technology fully immerses the participants in a virtual communications environment with full-size high-definition images. The environment looks astonishingly realistic as if the participants are sitting together in one room.

Tata Communications will offer channel provisioning and management of the Russian public telepresence room that will be linked with all public and private telepresence rooms of the Tata Communications Global Meeting Exchange – one of the world's largest telepresence networks available today.  Access will also be provided to the world's largest Tata Communications Public Room Telepresence Network, which includes 40 rooms in five continents. This network coverage makes telepresence a viable tool of international collaboration.

The services of Russia's first public telepresence room will be especially attractive and valuable to international companies, local companies with foreign partners and suppliers, international recruiting agencies, and international business schools and universities with distance-learning courses, as well as to research and development teams distributed among different countries.

In 2012 the partners plan to open public telepresence rooms in Russia in the cities of St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Sochi and Khabarovsk.

Supporting Quotes:

Alexander Strakhov, regional sales director, Tata Communications, Russia, CIS, and Baltics:

"Telepresence is a game-changing technology for business. Russia has joined our global network, which is an important step forward in our video business strategy aimed at making the technology available to as many organizations as possible through our global telepresence network."

Roman Mornev, CIO, BizKomm:

"Public telepresence makes it possible for businesses to meet remotely at the top management level without capital expenses related to procurement, installation, management and software upgrades.  By opening telepresence rooms in Russia, we try to make advanced video technologies more available in order to enhance the quality of corporate communications."

Irina Stepanova, regional director, Collaboration Technologies, Cisco, Russia, and CIS:

"Cisco TelePresence makes it possible to call stakeholders from all regions of the world, put them in one virtual room, and give them the feeling of personal presence to accelerate data exchange and raise efficiency of communications.  Rented public telepresence rooms enable productive meetings with customers, partners and suppliers worldwide to cut travelling expenses and optimize office hours of the employees."

Tags, Keywords: Russia, Cisco, Cisco TelePresence, Public TelePresence services

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/rss-feeds

Supporting resources:

• Cisco
• Cisco TelePresence®
• Public telepresence services in Russia
• Video about the first public telepresence room in Russia
• Tata Communications Public Telepresence Network

About Tata Communications

Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications.  With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.

The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.

About BizKomm

BizKomm is a Russian high tech start-up company, focusing on deployment of UC, video and telepresence solutions; creation of complex IT infrastructures; consulting in the field of IT solutions' optimization; elaboration and implementation of service programs; professional project management, based on international experience and standards. For more information please visit www.bizkomm.ru.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go tohttp://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Russia is supplied through its authorized channel partners by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

# # #

Cisco and the Cisco logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

Note Gets It Right With Microsoft Office 365

Press release:

Note Gets It Right With Microsoft Office 365

May 09, 2012

Electronics manufacturer unifies collaboration and reduces IT costs in switch from Google services.

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STOCKHOLM — May 9, 2012 — Electronics manufacturer Note unified its communication infrastructure and reduced its IT costs by switching from Google Mail to Microsoft Office 365, which delivered greater value and offered a familiar work environment for its employees.

In late 2010, Note adopted the Google service, but the IT team at Note soon determined that the collaboration features Google provided were not meeting business needs. By the end of 2011, Note had switched from Google to Office 365.

“Office 365 is much more integrated and advanced than Google and offers more of the functionality our employees need,” said Mikael Johansson, IT and process development manager at Note. “Our employees can use Office 365 without additional training. Combined with the extended functionality in Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Lync Online, we think Office 365 offers much more enterprise value than Google.”

Based near Stockholm, Note is one of the largest contract manufacturers of electronics equipment in Scandinavia, with nine factories and 1,000 employees in six countries. Since Note centralized its communications with Office 365, the company is now able to better manage information and provide its employees with new opportunities to collaborate easily and productively.

“Office 365 is a better fit with our overall IT strategy,” Johansson said. “Now we have a single environment we can use to help organize and share information between business teams and across multiple facilities and devices. Google offers no equivalent to the deep integration between Office 365, Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online.”

Instead of managing multiple solutions from Google and other providers, Note has reduced costs by consolidating its collaboration environment with Office 365. The company can manage its Office 365 subscriptions under a single agreement and avoid the cost of third-party solutions.“We are a manufacturing company,” Johansson said. “Whenever we can effectively outsource our IT burden like we can with Office 365, we build competitive advantages for our business.”

More information on Microsoft’s customer success stories is available athttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/customerspotlight. More information on Office 365 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/office.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.