Cisco Systems Inc. plans to acquire a 1.6% equity stake in virtualization software player VMware Inc., mirroring a step Intel Corp. took earlier this month.
The investment is part of an upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of 10% of VMware's stock.
Cisco said Friday that it plans to buy US$150 million of VMware Class A common shares, which are owned at present by EMC Corp., VMware's parent company. The move is subject to regulatory and other closing conditions. Once the investment has been made, Cisco will own around 1.6% of VMware's total outstanding common stock. According to an updated VMware S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Cisco will buy 6.0 million shares, valuing each VMware share at $25.00.
VMware is considering whether it will appoint a Cisco executive to its board of directors.
Cisco hopes taking a stake in VMware will help bring two companies closer together and result in more users adopting VMware virtualization software and Cisco networking products. Cisco and VMware also announced they have agreed to collaborate on joint development and marketing.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Cisco kills Linksys brand
In a roundtable with the European press, John Chambers confirmed the "end of life" of the Linksys name, being replaced by the new and redesigned Cisco branding.
This decision follows Cisco's move last April to make it easier for Linksys resellers to add Cisco products to their offerings and vice versa. Also, just a few weeks ago, Cisco created a new division solely focused on the SMB market and headed by Rick Moran, formerly marketing chief of several Cisco communications applications like the unified communications portfolio, Cisco IPICS, Cisco Small Business Systems (Linksys One), TelePresence, Business Video and Physical security.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Cisco warns of bugs in wireless LAN controllers
The vulnerabilities affect Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, but the company is offering a workaround..
Cisco Systems released a security advisory on Tuesday afternoon to address several vulnerabilities in its Wireless LAN Controllers that could enable hackers to cause a denial-of-service on the affected network.
The flaws lie in the handling of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packets. The advisory noted that a unicast ARP request may be flooded on the LAN links between Wireless LAN Controllers in a mobility group.
A vulnerable WLC may mishandle unicast ARP requests from a wireless client, leading to an ARP storm. The bugs affect versions 4.1, 4.0, 3.2, and prior versions of the Wireless LAN Controller software, according to the advisory.
The protocol provides a mapping between a device's IP address and its hardware address on the local network. And the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide real-time communication between lightweight access points and other wireless LAN controllers for centralised system-wide WLAN configuration and management functions, according to Cisco.
As a workaround, Cisco is recommending that operators require all clients to obtain their IP addresses from a DHCP server.
Cisco Systems released a security advisory on Tuesday afternoon to address several vulnerabilities in its Wireless LAN Controllers that could enable hackers to cause a denial-of-service on the affected network.
The flaws lie in the handling of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packets. The advisory noted that a unicast ARP request may be flooded on the LAN links between Wireless LAN Controllers in a mobility group.
A vulnerable WLC may mishandle unicast ARP requests from a wireless client, leading to an ARP storm. The bugs affect versions 4.1, 4.0, 3.2, and prior versions of the Wireless LAN Controller software, according to the advisory.
The protocol provides a mapping between a device's IP address and its hardware address on the local network. And the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide real-time communication between lightweight access points and other wireless LAN controllers for centralised system-wide WLAN configuration and management functions, according to Cisco.
As a workaround, Cisco is recommending that operators require all clients to obtain their IP addresses from a DHCP server.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Cisco Says Network Gear Caused Duke iPhone Flooding
Cisco confirmed that the networking problem Duke University experienced involving Cisco's wireless network and Apple's iPhone was caused by a Cisco network issue. Cisco says it has worked closely with Duke and Apple to identify the source of the problem.
A two-sentence e-mail from a Cisco PR spokeswoman to Network World confirmed the problem was caused by a "Cisco-based network issue."
"Cisco has provided a fix that has been applied to Duke's network and the problem has not occurred since," according to the e-mail.
No other details were provided, and no reply has been received yet to an e-mail and two phone requests to Cisco for more details. No additional details have been provided by Duke University or by Apple.
The wireless problem crystallized exactly a week ago, on Friday, July 13 as it happens, when Duke's IT staff identified the source of intermittent floods of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests as at least two Apple iPhones connecting via the phone's built in wireless LAN adapter to Duke's campus-wide net. The ARP floods, up to 30,000 requests per second, knocked offline sometimes as many as 30 access points, for between 10 and 15 minutes.
That conclusion was based on an early analysis of traffic trace data by Duke IT staff. Frank Miller, assistant director, communications infrastructure, with Duke's Office of Information Technology, was firmly convinced that the iPhone was the instigator. "I don't believe it's a Cisco problem in any way, shape, or form," he said at the time.
The Cisco spokeswoman's e-mail said Cisco "worked closely with Duke and Apple to identify the source of this problem."
A two-sentence e-mail from a Cisco PR spokeswoman to Network World confirmed the problem was caused by a "Cisco-based network issue."
"Cisco has provided a fix that has been applied to Duke's network and the problem has not occurred since," according to the e-mail.
No other details were provided, and no reply has been received yet to an e-mail and two phone requests to Cisco for more details. No additional details have been provided by Duke University or by Apple.
The wireless problem crystallized exactly a week ago, on Friday, July 13 as it happens, when Duke's IT staff identified the source of intermittent floods of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests as at least two Apple iPhones connecting via the phone's built in wireless LAN adapter to Duke's campus-wide net. The ARP floods, up to 30,000 requests per second, knocked offline sometimes as many as 30 access points, for between 10 and 15 minutes.
That conclusion was based on an early analysis of traffic trace data by Duke IT staff. Frank Miller, assistant director, communications infrastructure, with Duke's Office of Information Technology, was firmly convinced that the iPhone was the instigator. "I don't believe it's a Cisco problem in any way, shape, or form," he said at the time.
The Cisco spokeswoman's e-mail said Cisco "worked closely with Duke and Apple to identify the source of this problem."
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Cisco Wide Area Application Services Edge Services SYN Flood Denial of Service
Software: Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS)
Description:
A vulnerability has been reported in Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).
The vulnerability is caused due to an error in Edge Services, which uses CIFS optimisation, when handling packets sent to ports 139/TCP and 445/TCP. This can be exploited to cause a device running WAAS to stop processing all traffic by sending a TCP SYN flood to port 139/TCP or 445/TCP.
Successful exploitation requires that WAAS is configured for Edge Services.
The vulnerability is reported in WAE appliances and the NM-WAE-502 network modules running WAAS versions 4.0.7 or 4.0.9.
Solution:
Update to version 4.0.11.
Description:
A vulnerability has been reported in Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).
The vulnerability is caused due to an error in Edge Services, which uses CIFS optimisation, when handling packets sent to ports 139/TCP and 445/TCP. This can be exploited to cause a device running WAAS to stop processing all traffic by sending a TCP SYN flood to port 139/TCP or 445/TCP.
Successful exploitation requires that WAAS is configured for Edge Services.
The vulnerability is reported in WAE appliances and the NM-WAE-502 network modules running WAAS versions 4.0.7 or 4.0.9.
Solution:
Update to version 4.0.11.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Cisco Catalyst 3750G test
The product is an amalgamation of Cisco’s wireless LAN controller and its Catalyst 3750 switch. At its foundation are 24 copper Gigabit Ethernet ports, all of which are 802.3af PoE enabled, and the switch has a meaty 32Gb/sec switching backplane. The primary purpose of the Gigabit ports is to facilitate the distribution of Cisco’s Aironet access points. These act as the system’s eyes and ears on the wireless network, but only those running the LWAPP (lightweight access point protocol) are supported.
More >>
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Web 2.0 will speed up business
As a man who has the ear of Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, John Chambers, chairman of Cisco Systems, has become respected for his crystal-ball gazing.
Yesterday, the head of the world’s biggest maker of data networking equipment was at it again: he predicted consumer-led technologies, amid Web 2.0, will spark a boom in productivity.
Social networks, teleconferencing, wikis and other technologies that allow interaction on a large scale could also change traditional business models, Mr Chambers reportedly said.
But before he elaborated, and explained what the second growth phase of the internet might look like over the next decade, he verified Cisco’s track record as a soothsayer of all things ICT.
“If you go back to what we said in the mid-1990s, we made predictions on productivity that people thought were mathematically impossible and yet it was over-achieved beyond what any economist thought,” Mr Chambers told the Financial Times yesterday.
In an interview with the paper, he continued: “We said [internet protocol] would be the future and it wouldn’t be separate voice, and video and data networks, and that has happened.
“We said there would be a brutal industry consolidation among the data communication companies and that clearly happened.
“We said that all electronic devices past a given price point would connect to the internet. That’s clearly happened.”
For the future, Cisco’s growth will come not just from network infrastructure, but from applications that help customers leverage connections between themselves and their customers.
Yesterday, the head of the world’s biggest maker of data networking equipment was at it again: he predicted consumer-led technologies, amid Web 2.0, will spark a boom in productivity.
Social networks, teleconferencing, wikis and other technologies that allow interaction on a large scale could also change traditional business models, Mr Chambers reportedly said.
But before he elaborated, and explained what the second growth phase of the internet might look like over the next decade, he verified Cisco’s track record as a soothsayer of all things ICT.
“If you go back to what we said in the mid-1990s, we made predictions on productivity that people thought were mathematically impossible and yet it was over-achieved beyond what any economist thought,” Mr Chambers told the Financial Times yesterday.
In an interview with the paper, he continued: “We said [internet protocol] would be the future and it wouldn’t be separate voice, and video and data networks, and that has happened.
“We said there would be a brutal industry consolidation among the data communication companies and that clearly happened.
“We said that all electronic devices past a given price point would connect to the internet. That’s clearly happened.”
For the future, Cisco’s growth will come not just from network infrastructure, but from applications that help customers leverage connections between themselves and their customers.
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