DFWCUG Newsletter

January 2008 Newsletter

Volume 12 No. 1

The Dallas / Fort Worth Cisco Users Group is an independent users group which meets on the first Wednesday of every month for the open exchange of technical information regarding the networking industry and Cisco products for the benefit of Cisco users.

Our meetings are free to attend - all we ask is that you register as a member and work directly with Cisco equipment.

If you can not read this email for some reason - see us at http://dfw.cisco-users.org

Home - Register - Meetings - Study Groups - Downloads

January Meeting

meeting sponsor

Your Company Here!


Date:	January 2, 2008

Topic:	Network Design Clinic
	Our panel of experts will answer your network design questions and show you some of the pit-falls of a poor design. Collectively, these guys have over 30 years of experience designing, running and troubleshooting Cisco networks. Emphasis will be placed on security, IP telephony and of course - routing & switching

Speakers:	Tom Young - CCIE, 13 yrs - MetroPCS Wireless, Inc Mark Egan - CCIE, 17 yrs - Cisco Systems, Inc. Eric Severson - CCNP/CCDP, 18 yrs - Network Specialties Inc.

Time:	6:00-6:30 PM - Catered dinner provided 6:30-9:00 PM - Presentations 9:00-9:30 PM - Networking with your fellow packet-heads

Place:	Cisco's Richardson Campus 2200 E President George Bush Building 6 - Larissa Conference Room Richardson, TX (214) 575-3192 Enter on the East side - sign in Google map

Meeting Sponsor for January

Your company could have sponsored this meeting! Sponsorship helps out our group and gives your company excellent exposure to the Cisco networking community. For further information on meeting sponsorship as well as our Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorship programs contact Mark Szewczul.

Door Prizes

At each meeting, we give away Cisco Press books that have been donated by Cisco Press - thanks Jamie! Meeting sponsors have also been known to provide door prizes... so make sure you get your raffle ticket and as always - you must be present to win.

Presentations

Upcoming:

February - TBD
March - TBD

We are always looking for good speakers. If you would like to do a presentation for the group or if you know someone that would like to do a presentation, please contact us.

Eric Severson

Vice President

Techbits

New Products and Features

Cisco Unveils Role-Based Architecture to Advance Enterprise-Wide Security
Cisco TrustSec architecture addresses key regulatory compliance requirements while still simplifying deployment of security. Read more.

Get Real-Time Troubleshooting with Smart Call Home
Connect your Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches to a new proactive service capability that is yours at no cost when your network is covered by Cisco SMARTnet Service. Read more.

Scale System Bandwidth Capacity to 1.4 Terabits per Second
Read Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System 1440 questions and answers to learn the four main benefits of this innovative new modular switching technology.
Read more.

Deliver Secure, Flexible, Nonstop Communications
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series with CenterFlex Technology facilitates business resilience for enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and Metro Ethernet customers deploying business-critical applications. Read more.

Enhance Unified Communications in the Branch
The following unified communications features are now available for Cisco Integrated Services Routers:

Unified Messaging Gateway
Scales to 10,000 branches interconnected with local voicemail and dial-by-name and can deploy distributed networks in a nearly zero-touch fashion. Read more.

Cisco Unity Express 3.1 with Interactive Voice Response
Supports multilanguage voicemail in the branch and adds significant interactive voice response (IVR) enhancements. Read more.

Cisco Unified CallManager Express 4.2 with Contact Center Features
Read more.

Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) with E911
Read more.

New Resources

Cisco Redefines Modular Switching: Launches Virtual Switching
Ben Goldman and Tere' Bracco of Cisco join the Lippis Report Podcast to discuss Cisco Campus Communications Fabric 2, one of the most significant network infrastructure announcements from Cisco in recent years. Read more.

Network Virtualization: The New Building Blocks of Network Design
Analyst Nick Lippis defines network virtualization and its associated building blocks in this white paper with embedded podcast and other references. Read more.

Podcast: Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series
Learn about the new next-generation extension of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches with CenterFlex technology. Subscribe now.

Cisco Product Quick Reference Guide (QRG): Summer/Fall 2007
This recently updated document is a handy, compact reference tool that includes brief product overviews, important features, sample part numbers, and abbreviated technical specifications for many Cisco products. Read more.

Cisco Product Advisor: Beta Release
This interactive Web tool helps you to identify select Cisco router, switch, security, and wireless products based on features and business requirements. Requires Cisco.com login. Read more.

News and Updates

WAN Optimization Integrated with Branch Office Routers, Part 2. Read now.

Implement Role-Based Access Control for Stronger Security. Read more.

Financial Exchange Cuts Failovers with New Cisco Technology. Read more.

Cisco Rolls Out Virtual Switching Services. Read more.

Cisco Launches High-Performance IPS Appliance. Read more.

Seminars and Webcasts. Register now.

Cisco Events Calendar. Review now.

Cisco Study Groups

Study groups are a great way to improve your Cisco knowledge and help you pass Cisco certification exams. The best part is that they are free! Well, almost free. You have to invest the time and effort to make a study group successful.

If you are interested in learning about study groups and how to use them successfully to achieve Cisco certifications, please contact me.

Tom Young

Director of Education

President's Queue

Is Cisco on its way to becoming a true software company? Just a day after Juniper announced the opening up of its JUNOS operating system, Cisco announced similar plans to open up is venerable IOS routing software to third-party developers. The move will be the foundation for its metamorphosis into a software company. Backed by a dedicated software group that was formed last week, Cisco officials are now tinkering with making IOS more than just a platform for Cisco-developed services in the network, reports Network World's Jim Duffy, who is at Cisco's C-Scape conference this week. Cisco plans to "componentize" IOS – developing only one implementation of a specific function instead of several, depending on the image – dynamically link IOS services and move the software onto a Unix-based kernel. At Networkers 2007 Chambers said it was a misunderstanding... and now it's not - huh. Original content may be found here.

And, virtualization for consumers is back on... do you want a thin client on your desktop? If implementing virtualization in your fancy new data center wasn't enough, Cisco has set its sights on providing virtualization to consumer desktops and set top boxes.

The Dallas / Fort Worth Cisco Users Group officers:

President, founding officer, web - Ken Cooper
Vice President, Presentations Director - Eric Severson
Education/Certifications Director - Tom Young
Marketing Director - Mark Szewczul
Cisco liaison and Technical Advisor - Mark Egan

You may contact any officer at `first-initial``last-name @ cisco-users.org, ie, kcooper - or go directly to the officers page.

Sponsorships

The Dallas-Fort Worth Cisco Users Group is an all volunteer group that receives its funding from generous sponsors. We encourage our members to patronize our sponsors in order that we may continue to receive contributions.

So how does your company become a sponsor of the Dallas / Fort Worth Cisco Users Group? Contact Mark Szewczul and he'll describe the benefits of Gold, Silver and Bronze level sponsorships.


Gold sponsors

Silver Sponsors







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