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https://killexams.com/exam_list/CiscoKillexams : Cisco needs to simplify. Here’s how.
With a nearly $60 billion revenue run rate, growing at 14% and throwing off more than $5 billion in operating cash last quarter, Cisco Systems Inc. has an awesome business.
But customers are vocal about the complexity of Cisco’s portfolio and, if their concerns are not addressed head on, the company risks encountering friction beyond just economic headwinds. We believe Cisco’s challenges are most decidedly not product breadth and depth. Rather, the company’s mandate is to integrate the piece parts of its intricate offerings to create more facile and seamless experiences for customers.
In this Breaking Analysis and ahead of Cisco Live in Las Vegas June 4-8, we dig deeper into Cisco’s business and double-click on three key areas of its portfolio: 1) security; 2) networking; and 3) observability. We have spending data from Enterprise Technology Research and a guest appearance from SiliconANGLE contributor and market watcher Zeus Kerravala, principal at ZK Research.
Stocks of pure-play competitors outperforming Cisco year-to-date
Let’s start by doing some stock market comparisons.
The chart above shows year-to-date comparisons among Cisco, Palo Alto Networks Inc., Arista Networks Inc., Extreme Networks Inc. and the Nasdaq Composite. As you can see, the pure plays, as well as the NAS, are outperforming Cisco by a wide margin. That’s despite Cisco’s double-digit growth last quarter, 65% growth margins and a $200 billion market cap.
The reason is Chief Executive Chuck Robbins set modest expectations for 2024, which, when modeled out relative to Cisco’s longer-term outlook, suggest slowing momentum in the near- to mid-term. In addition, we believe the breadth of Cisco’s portfolio, while a key strength, also creates adoption challenges for the company’s customers.
What follows is a summary of how Kerravala interprets this data.
Kerravala sees this as a nuanced comparison between Cisco, a behemoth with an impressive cash generation capability, and smaller companies such as Arista and Extreme. Despite acknowledging the fair comparison, he suggests a lack of completeness, emphasizing that though smaller entities may capture the benefits of a market trend more swiftly, Cisco’s broad scope often hampers its ability to do so. But Cisco throws off more operating cash in a quarter than these companies generate in annual revenue.
He used the example of Zoom Video Communications Inc. and RingCentral Inc., noting how Cisco’s performance paled in comparison two years ago, but the tide has turned since then, with the unified communications sector waning, but Cisco thriving in relative terms.
Kerravala believes Cisco’s breadth and stability make it a safe investment bet, but its size prevents it from realizing the rapid growth that smaller, more specialized companies can. The broad spectrum of markets that Cisco operates in implies a reduced likelihood of success across all these fronts simultaneously.
Cisco’s complex business remains anchored in core networking
The table below represents the contribution of Cisco’s lines of business as reported in its financials. As we said at the top, 14% revenue growth is pretty astounding for a company of Cisco’s size. With tough comps ahead, it’s unlikely Cisco can keep up this pace.
Networking makes up more than half of Cisco’s revenue, but the company is growing its software contribution, which is just under 30% today, and its annual recurring revenue accounts for more than 40% of revenue, which gives the company better visibility on the future. This all helps prop up Cisco’s alluring 65%-plus gross margin model, which unlike many of its large incumbent competitors has held up well over decades. Moreover, Cisco’s shift to a recurring revenue and subscription model has been executed quite well compared with many firms (some much smaller, such as Splunk Inc.), which have struggled with that transition.
To break this down further, examining Cisco’s 10-K provides the following added context:
Secure, Agile Networks comprise core networking, switching, routing, wireless and compute. This includes products such as Catalyst, Nexus, Meraki and Cisco’s software-defined wide-area network products.
Internet for the Future includes optical networking, 5G, in-house silicon and optics solutions. This includes products such as the Cisco 8000, NCS 5500 and ASR 9000 series.
Collaboration includes Webex and call center solutions.
Optimized Application Experiences includes AppDynamics, ThousandEyes and Intersight.
Here are Kerravala’s thoughts on Cisco’s portfolio, the challenges they face and what’s needed going forward:
His analysis suggests that Cisco is challenged to create interoperability and cross-platform optimization despite its wide array of excellent products. He notes that even within Cisco’s own ecosystem, products such as Webex, Meraki and Catalyst do not necessarily provide a significantly better experience on Cisco’s network than competing products. Despite its ownership of Meraki for nine years, only last year did Cisco permit customers to view Catalyst devices on the Meraki dashboard, a development credited to the unification of the two lines under General Manager Todd Nightingale. Kerravala pinpoints political dynamics, internal friction and business unit structures as contributing factors to simpler execution.
In terms of future improvements, the consolidation of mass scale, Internet for the Future, and Secure Agile Networks under John Davidson should lead to better interoperability between the telecom and enterprise sides. Although Cisco possesses a portfolio of impressive products, including Kenna, AnyConnect, Talos, Meraki and Catalyst, these do not coalesce to form a comprehensive Cisco platform story.
However, steps are being taken to address this gap, such as the announcement of the XDR solution at the latest RSA Conference, Cisco’s first cross-security solution. Kerravala posits that Cisco’s focus should be on creating a synergistic portfolio where the collective value exceeds the sum of the parts, as opposed to having to compete fiercely on a product-by-product basis.
Spending data underscores the macroeconomic impact on Cisco’s overall business
The ETR spending data for Cisco, at a high level, shows what virtually all tech companies are facing: a decrease in the percentage of customers that are spending more relative to last year.
The candlestick chart above shows the granularity of Net Score, ETR’s proprietary spending metric that measures customer spending patterns. Of the 1,700 information technology decision makers in the most latest ETR survey, more than 1,000 are Cisco customers – so we have a nice sample. The lime green is the percentage of those customers adding Cisco new, the forest green represents those spending 6% or more relative to last year, the gray is flat spend, the pink is spending down 6% or worse and the bright red is churn. Subtract red from green and you get Net Score, which is the blue line.
You can see the steadily declining trajectory because of the gray and the reds increasing. The brown line is the pervasiveness in the overall data set, which has actually held up well. Cisco has a massive installed base and it is stable, although more customers are leaving than are being added within this survey. Remember, this survey doesn’t measure spending amount, only the percentage of customers in each bucket.
We asked Kerravala if this accurately reflects his view of the market and is the deceleration a function of economic headwinds, complexity or both? What follows is a list of his key takeaways:
The competitive dynamics in the networking industry have significantly shifted, with Cisco now facing more formidable rivals such as Arista, Fortinet Inc., VMware Inc. and Extreme Networks.
The entry of cloud companies and Aruba into the networking market introduces additional competitive pressures.
These industry changes necessitate sharper sales execution from Cisco, as it can no longer rely on competitors’ missteps to retain its advantage.
In light of this more complex competitive landscape, Cisco’s strategy must evolve to distinguish itself effectively and maintain its leading position.
I do think a lot of what you’re looking at there is more credible vendors are in market and that requires much sharper sales execution than it did before. Because Cisco can’t just show up and compete on the fact that the other companies are going to mis-execute, which is what they had the luxury of doing for a long time.
Cisco’s center of gravity starts with core networking
Let’s drill into the segment data, starting with networks.
The chart above shows Net Score or spending velocity on the vertical axis and pervasiveness in the data set on the horizontal axis. The red dotted line at 40% indicates a highly elevated Net Score. We’ve highlighted Cisco overall and Meraki, a company Cisco bought in 2012 to help better control network devices.
As is evident, Cisco stands out as the clear leader here in both presence (X axis) with very respectable customer spending velocity on its products (Y axis). In fact, we saw earlier a 29% year-on-year revenue growth figure from last quarter in networking. That is amazing for such a large business. As Cisco works through its backlog, it creates uncertainty in the forecasts, but underlying demand for Cisco’s networking products is sound.
As well, you can see a number of other companies here, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s Aruba, Arista, VMware with NSX and a number of others, including Cloudflare Inc., which all are hovering near the elevated 40% line.
Kerravala laid out his thoughts as follows:
He is critical of Cisco’s approach to its Meraki and Catalyst product lines, not on the merit of their features and value but on the lines between them. He asserts that customers should not have to choose between them. He suggests a unified hardware line that offers customers the flexibility to manage it either through Meraki or the command-line interface, or CLI. Currently, a switch from Meraki to Catalyst necessitates a complete hardware overhaul, a problem that could be resolved by a common set of hardware compatible with both management methods.
Further, Kerravala notes that Cisco’s potential to integrate data center, campus and Wi-Fi certifications to Improve the user experience has yet to be fully realized. While some integration has occurred at the campus level, the data center side remains separate. He concludes that networks should deliver applications and experiences as a single, unified entity instead of being sold as separate silos, an approach that contributes to unnecessary complexity.
His key analysis points include:
Cisco should offer a unified hardware line for customers, which could be managed either through Meraki or CLI, mitigating the need for a hardware overhaul when switching between the two.
By integrating data center, campus, and Wi-Fi certifications, Cisco could enhance the overall user experience.
The current siloed approach to network products adds unnecessary complexity, which could be addressed by treating the network as a single, unified entity focused on delivering applications and experiences.
Security is perhaps Cisco’s best upside opportunity
Let’s shift gears and look into the all-important and exceedingly crowded security sector.
Above we show the ETR spending data in the security market – same dimensions – Net Score on Y and Pervasion on the X. Microsoft Corp. is in the upper right and skews the data, but you can see Cisco has a major presence. As do Palo Alto Networks and Splunk. All credible on the vertical axis.
The leaders in presence are below the 40% line, but that’s expected for such large companies. The squiggly line represents Cisco’s path over the past 10 quarters. There is no debate that the company is very strong in security, but we believe it needs to do a better job consolidating the piece parts and simplifying customer outcomes.
Note that Cisco doesn’t have the spending velocity of the pure plays such as CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., Okta Inc., Zscaler Inc., CyberArk Software Ltd. and SailPoint Technologies Inc. — or even Cloudflare – but its Net Score is respectable. Cisco also just purchased Armorblox Inc., which uses artificial intelligence to reduce email and other risks.
In many ways we think Cisco could be a leader in the security supercloud, bridging on-premises, multiple clouds and edge security experiences.
The following summarizes Keravala’s thoughts:
Kerravala acknowledges Cisco’s success in the security sector, citing notable products such as Kenna, Talos, Umbrella, Duo and AnyConnect. However, he identifies a critical missing element: a coherent Cisco security narrative. The fact that these products are still referred to individually underscores this deficiency. He also points out the lingering independent identity of these products, with customers sometimes being unaware of Cisco’s ownership.
According to Kerravala, the future of security is shifting toward platform-based solutions, moving away from signature-based systems to AI- and analytics-based models. Given Cisco’s broad network reach, the company should possess an unequalled advantage in security, having the ability to detect things that others can’t. Nevertheless, Cisco still needs to integrate its products and offerings better, a process that began with the XDR announcement at the RSA Conference.
Key takeaways:
Cisco has a range of high-quality security products but lacks a unified security narrative.
The future of security is shifting toward platform-based solutions, underpinned by AI and analytics.
Despite their extensive network reach providing a potential competitive advantage, Cisco needs to Improve integration between their various offerings.
The announcement of the XDR solution at RSA was a positive step towards a more unified platform approach, and further advancements are anticipated at Cisco Live.
In some ways Cisco has been successful in security almost in spite of itself. – Zeus Kerravala
Let’s now dig into observability, which is sort of the confluence of log analytics, application performance management, monitoring and related fields. Cisco has a major stake in this business through its acquisitions of AppDynamics and ThousandEyes.
Before we look at the spending data, here’s what one customer said in an ETR roundtable about this topic:
This is a head of engineering… a customer who says I’m sticking with AppD. This person references the value of the ThousandEyes acquisition along with AppD and security. The application-centricity is an attractive dynamic to this Cisco shop. SecureX is Cisco’s integrated security play, which admittedly needs more and better integration. But basically in the second quote this person calls out the attractiveness and value of a single platform. If you’re a Cisco shop. And if not it’s a “free game” – perhaps implying a free-for-all of complexity.
AppD has been maybe the biggest wasted opportunity for Cisco since they’ve acquired it. I really expected AppDynamics to become the tip-of-the-arrow sale for Cisco… and I would like to see AppD become a lead sales tool across Cisco’s portfolio. – Zeus Kerravala
Key takeaways from Kerravala’s commentary on this topic:
He has high praise for ThousandEyes and AppDynamics and their adaptation into Cisco’s product portfolio. He particularly appreciates the internet performance visibility that ThousandEyes provides, which is especially critical in today’s corporate world where the internet is heavily relied upon for operations.
However, he feels Cisco has missed out on using AppDynamics to its full potential. He had expected AppDynamics to serve as a lead sales tool for Cisco, considering its ability to provide insights into application performance which can inform network upgrade decisions.
Kerravala sees latest improvements in Cisco’s understanding of how to effectively use AppDynamics, partly thanks to Liz Centoni’s oversight of emerging tech. He cites the introduction of “business risk observability” at Cisco Live EU as a positive development in this regard. This tool allows the mapping of threat data to application environments, which aids in prioritizing network and security initiatives by potential impact.
With AppDynamics, initiatives can now be ranked by business value, thus simplifying the sales model. It shifts the discussion from technical specifics to business metrics, helping communicate the business performance improvements that network upgrades can bring about.
Let’s get into the ETR data. ETR doesn’t have a full-stack observability category, but through this next view below we’re able to bring in various companies that are hovering around the space to see their relative positions.
It’s a similar chart above where we show Net Score against pervasiveness in the data. And we’ve plotted Splunk, Datadog Inc., Elastic N.V., Grafana Labs, Dynatrace Inc. and New Relic Inc.. You can see AppDynamics, which Cisco bought in 2017 for almost $4 billion. And it introduced Intersight shortly thereafter as a visualization and orchestration tool. But there were still holes in the portfolio as the market moved to full-stack observability, so Cisco bought ThousandEyes during the COVID pandemic for about $1 billion. Then it sort of strung them together with an overlay, but the story is not over.
Cisco has an opportunity to really take these pieces and integrate them across the portfolio in a potentially game-changing way. At least in the manner that one customer described earlier – especially for Cisco shops.
Kerravala’s primary argument is that Cisco needs to deliver on the vision of full-stack observability and streamline its multitude of single-pane-of-glass solutions into a unified, intuitive dashboard. The diverse range of visibility tools it currently offers could be more effectively utilized if they were integrated into one comprehensive system, with AppD serving as the principal lens. Operational specifics could then be accessed through drill-down features, allowing for a more organized and efficient user experience.
Kerravala’s key takeaways on observability:
Cisco must make good on its promise of full-stack observability.
The current multitude of Cisco’s single-pane-of-glass solutions should be streamlined into a unified dashboard.
AppD should be the main view, with the ability to drill down into the other specific tools.
He recognizes that Cisco already has all the necessary components; the challenge lies in integrating them into a cohesive system.
Kerravala just published a “Know before you go” post on SiliconANGLE, outlining his thoughts on what to expect at Cisco Live. Let’s review that and what we’ll be looking for next week.
Whither AI for Cisco?
A key question is how Cisco will handle AI. These days, brands run the risk AI washing, but if you bury the AI lede, you look less relevant. In our view, Cisco at the very least has to use AI to make Cisco infrastructure run better and more secure through automation and better management.
Here’s a summary of key points from our conversation with Zeus on what to expect from Cisco Live in terms of AI:
We don’t expect Cisco to brand itself as an AI company like Nvidia Corp. or even IBM Corp.’s attempts to do so. Instead, AI will remain an integral part of their overall toolkit used to build their products.
AI has been part of Cisco’s portfolio for a while. It underpins products such as intent-based networking and Encrypted Traffic Analytics, which uses AI to detect malware in encrypted traffic.
The company’s collaboration portfolio is also AI-rich, but it is considered more of an operational tool rather than a product that’s sold separately.
AI might be highlighted more during keynotes due to current hype, but it’s not the company’s primary focus.
The use of AI, such as a ChatGPT-like interface, could be beneficial for Cisco’s operations, like using Webex to find information or for network operations to identify areas in need of upgrades. This would essentially make their portfolio more user-friendly.
Natural language processing can simplify interfaces, relieving the load from high-level engineers and delegating tasks to tier one or two support.
The security opportunity calls for Cisco
We’ll be watching the security space closely. We believe it’s a mandate that Cisco integrate its vast portfolio across on-prem, all the major clouds and out to the edge. Palo Alto Networks has the leg up on consolidation in our opinion, but Cisco has such a major presence that it can do very well in this area, coming at the problem its strength in networking.
Here’s a summary of what we think Cisco needs to do in security and what we’ll hear at Cisco Live:
Security is important because it offers the most substantial growth potential for Cisco, as it is a single-digit player in a market projected to be worth $75 billion-plus.
Even a slight increase in market share, such as reaching 10%, would greatly boost Cisco’s revenue.
The long-term vision is to have Cisco’s security share match its network share, and to have Cisco network and Cisco security working together for improved risk identification and resolution.
We hope to see more integration of Cisco’s cloud security products to create a more unified and user-friendly experience.
The security industry often makes the user the integration point, which can lead to confusion and inefficiency. This needs to be addressed by the industry at large and Cisco has an opportunity to attack this problem.
Cisco is in a unique position to make security more user-friendly and seamless because it owns the network and can embed a lot of security features into it.
We anticipate hearing more about Cisco’s progress on its vision for security and expect to see more of the product roadmap at the upcoming event.
Can Cisco be the supercloud network?
Core networking is always a the forefront of Cisco Live. I keep coming back to the supercloud concept – a singular experience across clouds in a cloud-native fashion. Can Cisco bridge the legacy world of apps and infrastructure with cloud-native?
Cisco is not going to become a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services Inc., but it has the potential to be an abstraction layer that enables the concept of a “supercloud.”
A network supercloud would allow customers to use multiple cloud providers, edge locations, and private data centers seamlessly as one logical cloud.
Traditional cloud providers will not enable this, as their tools are specific to their platforms. Cisco, however, can provide network transport, security and optimization that transcend individual cloud platforms.
Cisco can become the bridge between physical clouds and create a logical supercloud thanks to its work with cloud providers, telcos and tools such as ThousandEyes and AppDynamics.
This process begins with networking, hoping to see more progress with the Meraki/Catalyst integration at the upcoming show. We are also looking for advancements in consolidating different versions of Wi-Fi and other disparate parts of Cisco’s networking story.
Collaboration: Hybrid work is still a big thing
What about collaboration? That business went from rocket ship to rapid deceleration post-pandemic, but hybrid work isn’t going away and it brings real challenges. Is this a game of integrating with your security portfolio to reduce risk? Or creating better and more simplified user experiences? We know that Jeetu Patel wants to make Webex 10 times better than any other platform.
We believe Cisco’s primary challenge in the collaboration market is Microsoft Teams. Despite having a poorer user experience compared with competitors, Teams is widely adopted thanks to its inclusion in Microsoft licensing plans.
Teams, however, can prove costly when additional features such as voice and security are added.
Cisco has accepted the coexistence with Teams, allowing its devices to run Teams natively. This could be beneficial as companies are likely to use more than one collaboration vendor.
We believe Cisco’s WebEx, loaded with extensive features, can offer a better experience for specific departments and expand its presence within organizations gradually.
A suggested strategy for Cisco is to manage other collaboration platforms through the WebEx console, offering better management for those platforms and then gradually introducing their own solutions.
In the context of observability, the application-centric view is crucial. Prioritizing network upgrades and security deployments based on their impact on application performance can provide quantifiable business metrics.
Cisco’s AppDynamics offers a unique perspective into application performance that other infrastructure vendors may lack. This tool could be instrumental in making such decisions.
Application centricity is the opportunity in full-stack observability
Cisco we think has an opportunity to make some moves in full-stack observability, but the linchpin as Kerravala wrote on SiliconANGLE is the application-centric view of the world. The two main takeaways from our conversation on observability include:
The application-centric view is crucial. Prioritizing network upgrades and security deployments based on their impact on application performance can provide quantifiable business metrics.
Cisco’s AppDynamics offers a unique perspective into application performance that other infrastructure vendors may lack. This tool could be instrumental in making such decisions.
Every large tech company has to address ESG
And finally we asked Kerravala if he has ever been to a Cisco Live where Chuck Robbins hasn’t done his part to address environmental, social and governance issues? Here’s a summary of what we discussed:
Cisco has a corporate goal to positively impact a billion lives by 2025. It’s making significant progress toward this goal through a variety of programs. It’s part of the Global Citizen group, and it conducts contests and provide financial support to entrepreneurs aiming to make the world a better place.
Cisco’s products also help with sustainability. They are embedded with features such as EnergyWise, which shuts off the network when it is not in use and turns it back on when it is needed.
Cisco’s custom application-specific integrated circuits are optimized for specific network functions, leading to lower power consumption.
The company offers Power over Ethernet features to further support sustainability.
At events such as Cisco Live, it has highlighted these sustainability features, and we expect to see more of this in the future.
We didn’t talk much about edge, but it’s a significant part of the future and we anticipate hearing more about it in the future.
Finally, theCUBE will be at Cisco Live in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay. We’re on the expo floor across from the Net Vet Lounge, which is Booth 1427. We have a small space so we’re doing the pop-up CUBE and we’d love to see you. By all means please stop by and say hello.
Keep in touch
Many thanks to Zeus Kerravala for stopping by the studio to share his knowledge. Thanks to Alex Myerson and Ken Shifman on production, podcasts and media workflows for Breaking Analysis. Special thanks to Kristen Martin and Cheryl Knight, who help us keep our community informed and get the word out, and to Rob Hof, our editor in chief at SiliconANGLE.
Also, check out this ETR Tutorial we created, which explains the spending methodology in more detail. Note: ETR is a separate company from Wikibon and SiliconANGLE. If you would like to cite or republish any of the company’s data, or inquire about its services, please contact ETR at legal@etr.ai.
Here’s the full video analysis:
All statements made regarding companies or securities are strictly beliefs, points of view and opinions held by SiliconANGLE Media, Enterprise Technology Research, other guests on theCUBE and guest writers. Such statements are not recommendations by these individuals to buy, sell or hold any security. The content presented does not constitute investment advice and should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. You and only you are responsible for your investment decisions.
Disclosure: Many of the companies cited in Breaking Analysis are sponsors of theCUBE and/or clients of Wikibon. None of these firms or other companies have any editorial control over or advanced viewing of what’s published in Breaking Analysis.
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Sat, 03 Jun 2023 05:07:00 -0500en-UStext/htmlhttps://siliconangle.com/2023/06/03/cisco-needs-simplify-heres/Killexams : Used Appliance Sales
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Wed, 13 Apr 2016 00:54:00 -0500entext/htmlhttps://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/used-appliance-salesKillexams : Is Cisco Systems Stock a Buy Now?
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Sun, 21 May 2023 01:23:00 -0500Leo Sunentext/htmlhttps://www.fool.com/investing/2023/05/21/is-cisco-systems-stock-a-buy-now/Killexams : Dell TechWorld 2023 — Security, AI And Multicloud
I spent the last few days in Las Vegas attending Dell TechWorld (DTW) and am happy to report I've returned home to Dripping Springs, Texas, no poorer due to gambling. I'm also pleased to report that Dell TechWorld was worth the trip and time away. In addition to catching up with old colleagues and friends, there was much news regarding Dell's strategy and vision.
As with most conferences, DTW had a theme. This year, it was technological innovation is the key to human progress. Based on this theme, the company focused on addressing what it sees as five significant challenges in the enterprise:
The future of work — Managing the remote workforce
Multicloud — While this may seem like an overplayed term, the challenges are real.
AI — Technical, ethical and operational barriers to adoption
Edge — Like Multicloud, this is talked about often but still encounters lots of challenges.
Security — It should baked into everything—every device, every server, every environment.
Dell’s five focus areas
Dell
While there is much to discuss across all of these areas, in this piece I will dive deeper into my three biggest takeaways and what I think of Dell's overall approach, vision and strategy.
Some events stand out for the right reasons; Dell DTW is one of them
Before getting into my analysis, I want to deliver the Dell analyst relations (AR) team recognition for putting on a wonderful event. I am on the road nonstop this time of year for conference season, so I see lots of good, bad and average events. DTW 2023 was amazingly well run, and I know that the folks who helped make it so don't ever get credit. So for my AR contact, Beth Williams: thank you for making this such a pleasant learning experience. And to AR leader Erin Zehr: you and your team are rock stars.
Security: Big leaps forward
I've traditionally considered Dell's security messaging adequate, albeit not exactly impressive. While others in the market have made a lot of noise around their security capabilities, Dell has quietly gone about building a solid security portfolio and partnerships.
In October of 2022, Dell announced its Zero Trust Center of Excellence (CoE) at DreamPort, the US Cyber Command’s premier cybersecurity innovation facility. The function of this CoE will be to allow customers to test their environments against the U.S. Government's zero-trust security specifications. This is a real and practical value-add for IT and information security professionals to drive the highest levels of protection across their organizations—something I would have jumped at the opportunity to use when I was in IT. And as of this spring, the CoE has entered the testing milestone as Dell prepares for U.S. Government validation.
At DTW, Dell took it one step further by announcing Project Fort Zero, an end-to-end validated zero-trust solution for Dell customers to deploy. With this initiative, Dell is bringing together over 30 of the leading cybersecurity companies in the market to help establish a zero-trust environment that adheres to the U.S. government's mandate.
Dell CoE qDell CoE quick facts—one integrator for zero trust Source: Dell uick facts—one integrator ... [+]for zero trust
Dell
Here's what I like about what Dell is doing. It uses its market influence to enable its customers to deploy a true zero-trust environment. And it is doing so through a consortium approach, where companies have a real incentive to work together to deliver a complete solution. More to the point, Dell understands that neither it nor any other company can be the only answer for zero trust. This is a team effort, and to its credit Dell is pulling together the players.
AI: It’s everywhere
Surprising nobody, AI was a major focus area for Dell at DTW. It was part of every keynote, every group breakout and every discussion. And for good reason. During one keynote, Dell's Co-COO, Chuck Whitten said that AI might be the most significant technological innovation since the PC, the internet and even the smartphone (gulp). And when one thinks about the impact AI is having and will have—on our lives, our economy, on everything—his statement makes sense.
More precisely, the conversations at DTW focused on generative AI (sick of hearing about ChatGPT yet?). By everybody's estimate, generative AI is going to change the way we work and the way we live. And because of this, organizations of all sizes are looking at ways to implement such an environment.
The challenge? Training a large language model (LLM) for your specific needs. Let’s say you’re a big sporting goods chain and want something like ChatGPT to serve as a shopping assistant for your customers. When a customer searches for a “driver,” you want them to find a long golf club—not a construction tool. Likewise, if a customer wants to find a “bat” for their promising baseball player, you don't want the search to return something about the Mexican free-tailed bats that live in Austin. Now think about how you would apply this to a law firm sifting through millions of digitized pages of case law, briefs and so on. Or a pharmaceutical company whose inputs span drug discovery, clinical testing and safety reporting. This is where the concept of training domain-specific LLMs comes into play. It's all about context and relevance.
So, what did Dell Announce around AI at DTW? Well, a few things. But I will focus on what I found super compelling: Project Helix, which is a partnership between Dell and Nvidia to deliver a full-stack generative AI solution to its customers. Think curated generative AI for specific customer needs. Major law firm? Health care provider? Sporting goods store? Dell and Nvidia will deliver a pre-trained model and the tools needed to easily further optimize it.
Project Helix—a full stack GenAI solution from Dell & Nvidia
Dell
Like Dell's moves in security, I like this partnership with Nvidia. AI has been an almost science fiction-like concept to many businesses for a very long time. While we've talked about the eventual rise of this technology, its applicability has often been narrow in scope. And frankly, we've often misused the term entirely, placing the AI label on technology that is really advanced analytics.
Recently, though, generative AI has made AI tangible to far more people. And Dell’s partnership with Nvidia is going to make AI real for many businesses.
One last note on Project Helix. The NVIDIA software stack being used for it is powered by the newly launched Dell XE9680, a beast of a server that packs two Intel 4th Generation Xeon CPUs and eight Nvidia H100 GPUs.
Dell’s XE9680 powers Project Helix
Dell
While generative AI became white-hot just over the last few months, Dell, Nvidia and Intel must have started working on the ground-up design of this solution a couple of years ago. That’s impressive foresight.
Multicloud: We may be bored of talking about it, but it’s still relevant
“Multicloud” and “hybrid multicloud” are so overused that I'd be willing to bet that somewhere, college kids have created a drinking game around these terms. Yet we talk about these concepts so much because the industry still hasn't figured out how to consistently implement them elegantly, efficiently or economically.
At DTW, Dell discussed multicloud and its “as-a-Service” solution, APEX, and how the company envisions enabling its customers to navigate this multicloud world more quickly and affordably.
My biggest takeaway from Dell's presentations on APEX is that everything starts with data. Data that is generated on the edge or in the cloud and must be shared with distributed applications. Legacy data that sits in a data warehouse and is critical for feeding algorithms that can help drive better customer outcomes.
And because of this need to make data from the datacenter to the cloud and from one cloud to another, storage is critical. The connective tissue that makes this work is the architecture that enables the movement of data between cloud and on-prem and from one cloud to another. To that end, Dell announced APEX Block Storage for AWS and Azure, as well as APEX File Storage for AWS. Running APEX storage in these clouds allows Dell customers to have clean integration from what Dell refers to as “cloud to ground” or “ground to cloud.” In other words, from on prem to off prem, and from off prem to on prem.
Dell’s cloud strategy—connecting clouds through storage
Dell
In addition, Dell announced the APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, VMware and Red Hat. Through these partnerships, Dell is trying to make the cloud experience (and environment) as tight as possible. The Red Hat partnership especially interests me because it allows IT administrators to manage their combined infrastructure, virtualized and containerized environments from the OpenShift interface.
The last thing to note on multicloud and APEX is around manageability—one of my favorite topics. At the event, Dell announced APEX Navigator for Multicloud Storage and APEX Navigator for Kubernetes. This was the sleeper hit of the show, in my opinion. Having a single SaaS-based console to manage my entire (Dell) storage environment is a big deal. It makes managing storage far less complex—and cheaper—while optimizing the entire environment.
As I mentioned, there's so much to discuss here, so capturing it all in a few paragraphs is hard. If you're interested in learning more, here are a couple of videos from Dell that are worth watching:
Bonus: An observation from the show floor
While I expected to see a seemingly endless number of AI and security startups and other companies on the show floor (which I did), I was surprised at the number of cooling companies I also saw. These covered a wide range of technologies from direct-to-chip to immersion cooling and everything in between.
GRC showing off its immersion cooling tank
Dell
Companies such as GRC, Zutacore and Chilldyne were out in force to showcase their solutions. Even Intel was showing off its chips being cooled by Zutacore in its booth. This only makes sense when you think about where the market is going. The XE9680 mentioned above that’s so impressive puts out a lot of heat those H100 and Xeon processors. And the chips driving platforms like that are only going to get hotter.
It's worth checking out what some of these companies are doing regarding cooling, especially as you plan and implement refreshes to your infrastructure.
Final thoughts
It was a long couple of days at DTW 2023—in a good way. Besides the specifics covered above, my overall takeaway is that innovation is alive and well at Dell. I often talk about the pragmatic approach Dell takes to delivering solutions to the market. But that pragmatism also drives an innovation engine that has positioned the company as a leader in meeting companies’ needs for what tomorrow brings.
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Wed, 31 May 2023 04:34:00 -0500Matt Kimballentext/htmlhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2023/05/31/dell-techworld-2023---security-ai-and-multicloud/Killexams : Should You Repair or Replace Your Broken Appliance?
Andy Bergmann
Andy is the director of design and data at CR. His data-driven design work has been featured on CNN, FastCo, Washington Post, NPR, NBA, and Sports Illustrated. He was formerly an executive creative director at CNN and is the author of "The Starry Giraffe" (Simon & Schuster). Follow him on Twitter: @dubly
Wed, 10 May 2023 12:00:00 -0500en-UStext/htmlhttps://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/repair-or-replace-your-broken-appliance-a2640447120/Killexams : Investors Heavily Search Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO): Here is What You Need to Know
Cisco Systems (CSCO) is one of the stocks most watched by Zacks.com visitors lately. So, it might be a good idea to review some of the factors that might affect the near-term performance of the stock.
Shares of this seller of routers, switches, software and services have returned -6.8% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +0.8% change. The Zacks Computer - Networking industry, to which Cisco belongs, has lost 9.2% over this period. Now the key question is: Where could the stock be headed in the near term?
Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.
Earnings Estimate Revisions
Rather than focusing on anything else, we at Zacks prioritize evaluating the change in a company's earnings projection. This is because we believe the fair value for its stock is determined by the present value of its future stream of earnings.
Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.
For the current quarter, Cisco is expected to post earnings of $0.97 per share, indicating a change of +11.5% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +0.1% over the last 30 days.
The consensus earnings estimate of $3.76 for the current fiscal year indicates a year-over-year change of +11.9%. This estimate has changed -0.2% over the last 30 days.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $4.03 indicates a change of +7.3% from what Cisco is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed -0.2%.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the latest change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, Cisco is rated Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
12-month consensus EPS estimate for CSCO _12MonthEPSChartUrl
Projected Revenue Growth
While earnings growth is arguably the most superior indicator of a company's financial health, nothing happens as such if a business isn't able to grow its revenues. After all, it's nearly impossible for a company to increase its earnings for an extended period without increasing its revenues. So, it's important to know a company's potential revenue growth.
In the case of Cisco, the consensus sales estimate of $14.39 billion for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +12.1%. The $56.56 billion and $58.66 billion estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicate changes of +9.7% and +3.7%, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise History
Cisco reported revenues of $13.59 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +6.9%. EPS of $0.88 for the same period compares with $0.84 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.43 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +1.18%. The EPS surprise was +2.33%.
The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates three times over this period.
Valuation
No investment decision can be efficient without considering a stock's valuation. Whether a stock's current price rightly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects is an essential determinant of its future price performance.
While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S) and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an An is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
Cisco is graded C on this front, indicating that it is trading at par with its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
Bottom Line
The facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about Cisco. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can get 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Thu, 11 May 2023 07:01:00 -0500en-UStext/htmlhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/investors-heavily-search-cisco-systems-130001754.htmlKillexams : Best Refrigerators of 2023
During testing, we outfit each refrigerator with thermocouples in a climate-controlled chamber and monitor it for more than a month, collecting more than 5.4 million temperature readings that identify warm and cold spots to determine which models will keep your food fresh longer. We also factor in survey data from thousands of CR members to judge brand reliability and satisfaction. All of that—and then some—informs CR’s refrigerator ratings and each model’s Overall Score.
To help you find the ideal refrigerator, we organize our ratings by the width of the appliance. After all, the best refrigerator in the world is useless if it doesn’t fit the slot in your kitchen. You can see the top models by width in our comprehensive refrigerator ratings.
Below, CR members can read ratings and reviews of the best refrigerator for each type we test. They include models of several widths from Dacor, GE, LG, Samsung, and Sub-Zero. To learn more about the different types of refrigerator configurations, check out our refrigerator buying guide.
Fri, 02 Jun 2023 06:49:00 -0500en-UStext/htmlhttps://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/refrigerators/best-refrigerators-of-the-year-a6399727407/Killexams : Appliance Repair Service
Startup Costs: $10,000 - $50,000 Home Based: Can be operated from home. Part Time: Can be operated part-time. Franchises Available? Yes Online Operation? Yes
Stoves, washers, dryers and dishwashers--repairing home appliances is a service that has been--and will always be--in high demand. There are many instruction courses available that can train you to become an appliance repair technician, and some instruction courses take as little as one year to complete. That's a very strong argument for starting an appliance repair service, especially given the fact that appliance repair rates are now in the range of $50 to $80 per hour.
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:45:00 -0600entext/htmlhttps://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/appliance-repair-serviceKillexams : CISCO SYSTEMS
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Wed, 15 Feb 2023 22:05:00 -0600entext/htmlhttps://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/tag/cisco+systemsKillexams : Cisco, Take-Two Tell 2 Tales of Earnings Season
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Wed, 17 May 2023 15:46:00 -0500Dan Caplingerentext/htmlhttps://www.fool.com/investing/2023/05/17/cisco-take-two-tell-2-tales-of-earnings-season/