Cisco has traditionally been a strong contender in the enterprise networking space. What’s the new focus for Cisco and what’s the company’s strategy to take these plans forward?
While we continue to focus on the network platform and on traditional verticals, we also want to bring technological innovation to industries that have not seen major transformations in a long time. The key to achieving this is Smart + Connected communities and intelligent networks.

We look at markets such as power, education and real estate that are opening up, and explore ways to introduce smart intelligence. We believe technology can play a significant role in introducing efficiency.

When we entered Telephony, for instance, the industry had not seen major changes for some time. Then suddenly we had a significant transition by moving voice into IP.

In the power sector, technology can help cut down power loss and introduce efficiencies—thus reducing costs. This is enabled through smart grids.
We’re talking about the ‘Internet of Things’ where everything will be connected in the future. In preparation for this we’ll make routers more powerful and switches more intelligent. The network is becoming a platform and needs to have this intelligence—to do things like optimization—in order to be more efficient.

At Interop last year, your Global CEO spoke about the ‘Internet of Things.’ What does this concept mean?
The world is moving towards the ‘Internet of Things’— towards ‘anytime, anywhere’ information. This concept can be applied to power, water resources, education, health care, citizen services, etc. From a market perspective we see opportunities for smart connected communities, smart grids, smart agriculture and national security.

How do you plan to make this a reality?
We’ve signed an MoU with Lavasa Future Cities to build a city on the backbone of technology. You could be ill at home and a doctor can diagnoze you via telepresence.

Some personalized services will be online and others can be push services. Every service in a smart city is a revenue opportunity. For instance, one can offer security monitoring services for a nominal fee. So the business with the consumer continues.

What kind of partnerships are you looking at to develop the ecosystem for future cities and smart connected communities?
Cisco has always believed in the ecosystem model and we’ve had deep engagements with partners, whether it was go-to-market or technology engagement. For smart grids, we do not have any expertise in power and are looking for partners. For smart buildings, we acquired a company called Richards-Zeta with expertise in building management software (middleware). It’s the same with smart connected communities.

Such concepts can change the way cities, towns, and villages are designed, built, managed, and renewed to achieve economic, social, and environmental sustainability.