“Learn How to Keep Your Network SAFE”

This TechChat features Bill McGee, Manager, Security Solutions and Calvin Chai, Security Solutions Marketing Manager, both from Cisco. During this TechChat our speakers will discuss how a solutions-based approach to security, based on the SAFE architecture, provides more comprehensive security, better risk management, and tighter visibility and control of your network than traditional, siloed security products.
30 APRIL 2009 at 1200 PDT

SUPPORTING URLs
1: Cisco SAFE: http:// www.cisco.com/go/safe
2: Cisco security solutions: http://www.cisco.com/go/security
3: Cisco validated designs: http://www.cisco.com/go/cvd
4: Cisco SAFE services: http://www.cisco.com/go/services/security
5: View the archive of this TechChat on the Cisco Virtual Environments Blog: http://blogs.cisco.com/virtualworlds/
6: Register now for Cisco Live 2009: http://www.cisco.com/offer/ciscolive09/172410_2

POST EVENT SURVEY
Please complete a post event survey so we can determine how to utilize Second Life TechChats to best meet your business needs!

http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/viewsflash?cmd=showform&pollid=sms03!2L_Apr30_TechChat

SPEAKER BIOS:

BILL MCGEE
Bill McGee is a Cisco network security subject matter expert and a manager in Cisco’s Security Solutions Marketing team. He is currently responsible for program development and strategy for Cisco’s SAFE, Secure Unified Communications, and Secure Campus programs. In addition, he is a regular speaker on network security issues, trends, and approaches, delivering lectures, seminars, and training at events around the world.

Since 1999, Bill has played an integral role in the development of Cisco’s security solutions, including the Self-Defending Network initiative. His responsibilities during his tenure at Cisco have included PIX Security Appliance Product Manager, developer and manager of Cisco’s initial Security Channels program, including the creation of the VIP program, marketing manager for NAC, and application security specialist for Cisco’s Application Networking Services group.

CALVIN CHAI
Calvin Chai is a senior marketing manager for the security solutions marketing team at Cisco.  Calvin currently leads the integrated security, policy, and identity management marketing team where he is responsible for the definition and execution of the marketing strategy for the integrated security capabilities on the Cisco router and switch platforms.

Calvin has over thirteen years of experience in the networking and security field.  He has spent the last nine years at Cisco functioning in technical and product marketing roles within the network management and security technology groups. During that time, he has helped drive Cisco’s outbound marketing initiatives around firewall, VPN, security management and monitoring, and threat management solutions.

Prior to Cisco, Calvin spent four years as a software engineer and architect for a networking startup company where he was responsible for the development of the firewall feature set and user experience of a SOHO product line. Calvin holds a BS degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

On a personal note, I am happy with the evolution of this build. We took the comments we received last year and try to incorporate as many improvement for ease of access that we could, for example we removed the elevator that traveled up and down from the Sphere down to the Video Center and installed a simple teleport up into the sphere. While the elevator was real cool, it did not engage people enough to go up into the sphere. And it was slow. We also improved the entrance into the Video Center to make it more inviting and easier for a new Second Life user to get into the building. There were other tweaks here and there to numerous to mention. All of this is important in building a more effective engagement for Cisco and its community.

I would love to hear others opinion on this build.

All day events will be held here on June 30 and July 1.

Banana also wrote that Dedric Mauriac did an outstanding software development job on the EnergyWise demo.  I know the 3D demo was easy to use and brought to life this very cool concept. Go Cisco!

Cisco Live 09 Update

Cisco EnergyWise Office

Tawni CiscoSystems  just dropped this info to Banana on their TechChat series.  Cisco does a great job with their TechChat series.  If you want to see it, please join them in Second Life.

Cisco EnergyWise – Improve Your Green Practices with Cisco EnergyWise
Date = April 14
Time = 8am SLT
Location = Bandwidth Stage, Cisco Systems Sim 4, Second Life

Meta Magic Studio will be there providing support.

Today, Jan 27, 2009, Cisco® opened its Sustainability Center demonstrating its new EnergyWise Technology and their Networked Sustainability Network in Second Life®. This center is located at Cisco Systems Sim 2 and demonstrates Green technologies and products. The center was developed by Meta Magic Studio.

Virtually all large enterprises are conscious of the image they project, and corporate responsibility is an important part of that image. Green technologies represent an opportunity for corporations that extends beyond brand reputation and can affect overall profitability.

We at Meta Magic Studio are very proud of this development that began with a meeting at Cisco on January 6th. In less than one week, we were able to come up with a “Earth and Technology” concept for the look and feel of the outer building that was “outside of the box” thinking while maintaining consistence with established Cisco branding and the Cisco Virtual Campus look. We built a working concept within one week in order to get approvals from Cisco, then we began the true work of building an interactive pavilion.

Concept

Main Message Kiosk

Inside of the pavilion there is the following

• Main Message Kiosk
• Four interactive kiosks that provide notecards, web urls, and pdf urls
• One “EngeryWise” Business Calculator kiosk featuring a power point presentation with supporting web url
• Two video on demand kiosks featuring a message from Chairman and CEO John Chambers and a technical data sheet video
• Upstairs video vault area
• “Carbon Free” flight animations – for fun!

Outside of the pavilion, extensive work was done in creating a “natural park” feeling with information signage on green trends. This area includes both audio and visual recreations of birds and butterflies which enhance the virtual experience.

All of this effort by Meta Magic Studio was completed within 21 days of getting the job.

———————————

Just a reminder that on Feb 3rd, Cisco will be holding another Tech Chat at 12:00 PST in Second Life at the Bandwidth Stage. Afterwards there is a “birthday” celebration of Cisco’s second year in Second Life. It is a little late, but hey, I am always up for virtual cake — it helps with my virtual diet.

On the 27th of January, Cisco will be opening its Sustainability Center in Second Life.

We have exciting news to share with you about how you can reduce energy costs and Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions using your network as a platform for change. We can all reduce travel and daily commutes by collaborating in virtual environments, but there’s so much more we can do in this networked world.

Source: Cisco http://blogs.cisco.com/virtualworlds/comments/green_it_efforts/

Location: Visit the Sustainability Center in world via this SLurl.

In the next few days, we will post some comments on this very exciting development that we are working on for Cisco’s Virtual Campus.

Notes on the next event:

“Scalable, Secure, and Cost-Effective WAN Services with Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers”

This TechChat features Michael Weir, Manager, Enterprise Technical Marketing in Cisco’s Edge Routing Business Unit (ERBU), and Matthew Eubanks, Product Manager for Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers in the Edge Routing Business Unit. During this TechChat, Weir and Eubanks will discuss new innovations and solutions on the Cisco ASR 1000 Series routers, designed to address existing and future networking requirements.
3 FEBRUARY 2009 at 1200 PST

SUPPORTING URLs
1: Cisco ASR 1000 Series: http://www.cisco.com/go/asr1000
2: Cisco Unified WAN Services Solution: http://www.cisco.com/go/uws
3: View the archive of this TechChat on the Cisco Virtual Environments Blog: http://blogs.cisco.com/virtualworlds/
4: Access 100s of Cisco Live at Networkers! Technical Sessions Online: http://www.cisco-live.com/virtual.php

SUPPORTING SECOND LIFE LANDMARKS
1: Cisco’s Quantum Shift: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cisco%20Systems%204/49/30/21/

SPEAKER BIOS:
Michael Weir is the Manager, Enterprise Technical Marketing in Cisco’s Edge Routing Business Unit (ERBU). Over the last 5 years he has been developing the ASR 1000 Series Router requirements, and prior to that he was the TME responsible for other Cisco products such as the Cisco 7200, 7304 and 10720 Routers. Michael has been involved with network engineering and operations of some of the largest carrier, research and enterprise networks in Canada. He holds a diploma in computer engineering from Algonquin College in Ottawa and has been a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert for almost 10 years.

Matthew Eubanks is a Product Manager for the ASR 1000 Series Routers in the Edge Routing Business Unit, and works on product development and channel partner enablement, amongst other product management tasks. Prior to joining Cisco, Matthew received his MBA at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and before that ran a software start-up in New York.

Cisco Live! Pavilion – Second Life

The final step in any development, is the deployment. The time that you release to the world your new offering. I always enjoy these moments and believe that they should be marked with some sort of celebration or at least a big cheer. But usually, with the normal day to day activities and the typical time pressures, these deployments are never fully acknowledged, let alone celebrated.

And with any deployment, there is the natural nervous anticipation of users reactions. Who will visit? How many will visit? What worked? What didn’t work? What can we improve? Are we getting the anticpated results, or is something else happening?

Plus there is the dread of something not working or not being accepted or worse, not useful. I always prepare myself for the negative reviews; that way, if it does happen, I am mentally prepared.

Deploying builds in Second Life come in various ways: the reveal of a secret, the slow build out, or the bang – here it is.

Meta Magic Studios’ latest project which launched today is the Cisco Live SL Pavilion which is in support of the annual Cisco Live mega event being held in Orlando, Florida next week. Cisco Live is Cisco’s annual IT and communications conference. The conference features Networkers, their premier education and training program, and other special programs designed to meet the diverse needs of today’s IT and communications professional from increasing technical proficiency to understanding the impact of technology on business. (There is one planned for Johannesburg, South Africa in December)

The Cisco Live SL Pavilion was a true collaborative effort with many talented people contributing and putting in an amazing amount of effort. Meta Magic Studio (MMS) began this project back in March when we were still called SL Brand. So today, I am going to take some time to thank some of them. (If I missed you, I apologize as I am writing this right before a meeting.)

From Cisco

Dannette Veale (Dannette CiscoSystems) – Main Cisco contact point for Meta Magic Studio on this project. This is not the only project Dannette is working on, but her organizational ability is outstanding. Not only was she able kept MMS on track, but she was able to provide an amazing insight and resources inorder for us to bring this build to life. Dannette was key in getting the budget, build “look” and all the numerous details that are required for a succesful build. And she was always very encouraging of MMS efforts and ideas – and was very understanding about our “technical” issues.

Tawni Unite (Tawni CiscoSystems) – I call Tawni the “slide person” for the Tech Chats, which means she has not-so-easy task of co-ordinating the various Tech Chat presenters and getting them to provide their power point slides early so that the slides can be convert to jpeg images so they can be viewed in Second Life. Not an easy task. I know that she has numerous other responsibilities, so please do not think this is all she does.

Alison Gemmell (Alison CiscoSystems) – Alison did not play a direct role in this particular developement, but she is always a great resource for MMS. She never hesitiates to help us when we are tyring to weave our way through the huge Cisco world.

Randy Sisk (Randy CiscoSystems) – While Randy has moved away from the day to day management of Cisco SL, he was there at the beginning of this development and helped co-ordinate the initial meetings and the ever so important budget, plus location of the build.

Dennis Mancini (Dennis CiscoSystems) – Dennis, who is Senior Art Director at Cisco, provided “visual” direction for the build and color scheme. He was able to describe via a simple sketch what the “look” and overall feel for the build. Hopefully we were able to deliver his vision.

Packet Sort Game Development

Lewis Moten (Dedric Mauriac) – I call him Dedric, and he is an amazing developer that MMS contracted with to develop the all important collaborative game which we call “Packet Sort.” While the game is simple in concept, it was no easy scripting job he undertook. The delivered product is an amazing use of the SL platform to show a complex concept of how the ASR 1000 Series Routers are able to distinguish video packets, voice packets, data packers and threat packets and then route them accordingly.

You can read about the game development on his blog – Cisco Data Sort Game.

Dedric’s Blog

Twitter and Other “Cool” Gadgets

Talia Tokugawa – Most of my conversations with Taila begin with “Hey T, do you know how…..” which is my lame way of crying out for help. And Talia delivers every time. This time we are getting a twitter board!

Talia’s blog

Musicians

There is going to be a customer apprecuation event held on Tuesday, June 24 at 3:00 pm SLT. Two great musicians will be apperaing on the Cisco Bandwidth Stage. At 3:00 will be Rich Palmer, known in SL as Rich Desoto and at 4:00 will be the ever lovely Grace Buford, aka Cylindrian Rutabaga.

Rich’s website

Grace’s website

Meta Magic Studio

Jen (Cheerie Beery) – Jen is our photoshop person deluxe and she is beginning to work with building. The doomed screens that are featured in the build are Jen’s concept, plus she has a great eye for details that I do not think about. She also made the silly Cisco Live hats by taking already developed sculpties and texturing them.

Dot (Dot Baum) – Dot keeps track of what we do so we can make a profit.

Myself – lol. I am the main wonk for Second Life at Meta Magic Studio, which means it is my head if it does not get done.

Photos of the development

Phase 1 – Initial Concept before Cisco input

Color scheme based upon Cisco Live doc.

After review by Cisco, the concept changed to more rounded platforms with less branding.

Phase 2 – Cisco Review Concept

Phase 3 – Kiosk Development

We developed a kiosk that was deployed at Dr. Dobb’s / CMP 4 – Hosting Life 2.0 Summit

You can see the windlight effect from the base glow. Also we have fully developed the “screen” concept that helped “frame” the build while remaining rounded / soft.

Phase 4 – Build Development

Taking the “round platform” concept, we wanted to create a “iconic” image that was both functional and eye appealing. We elected to go with this type of sphere versus a fully geodesic dome to cut down on the number of prims.

We wanted the sphere to be elevated over the Cisco Campus since it is placed opposite the EBC tower (sim 2).

Note the “Blade Runner” type of display boards that rotate pictures / textures. Originally we going to have the boards be free floating along an invisible track, but the scripting load was not worth it. Instead we implement a simple rotating script.

Phase 4.5 – Game Development

Phase 5 – Approval

Phase 6 – Deployment