New Cisco Internet of Things (IoT) System Provides a Foundation for the Transformation of Industries

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 29, 2015) -   Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) estimates that 50 billion devices and objects will be connected to the Internet by 2020. Yet today, more than 99 percent of things in the physical world remain unconnected. To capitalize on the unprecedented opportunities presented by this wave of digitization, companies and cities are increasingly deploying Internet of Things solutions.

However, digitization is complex. Customers are often connecting devices and objects -- or converging unrelated networks -- at previously unprecedented scales. Furthermore, they can only realize the value of these connections through the application of advanced data analytics, and even then, customers often still need to create a new class of intelligent applications capable of accelerating new business models or increasing productivity. Of course, all of this has to happen without ever sacrificing security at any point in the system, from the device to the data center and via the cloud.

The new Cisco® IoT System, announced today, addresses the complexity of digitization with an infrastructure that is designed to manage large scale systems of diverse endpoints and platforms, and the data deluge they create.

The new Cisco IoT System comprises six critical technology elements or 'pillars' which -- when combined together into an architecture -- help reduce the complexities of digitization. Cisco also announced 15 new Internet of Things products within the six pillars. 

Six-Pillar Approach for Cisco IoT System
The six pillars of the new Cisco IoT System are as follows:

1. Network Connectivity: This pillar includes purpose-built routing, switching, and wireless products available in ruggedized and non-ruggedized form factors.
2. Fog Computing: 'Fog' is a distributed computing infrastructure for the Internet of Things (IoT) which extends computing capability -- and thereby data analytics applications -- to the 'edge' of networks. It enables customers to analyze and manage data locally, and thereby to derive immediate insights from connections. Cisco predicts that 40% of IoT-created data will be processed in the fog by 2018. Over 25 of Cisco's network products are enabled with Cisco's fog computing or edge data processing platform, IOx.