In The Boardroom With...

Mr. Bill Stuntz
Vice President, General Manager
Cisco

Bill Stuntz, vice president and general manager, Physical Security Business Unit,Cisco, said: �Today�s announcements represent key steps we are taking as we evolve our safety and security strategy to a more solutions-oriented, services-led approach. We envisage a greater role for our large security integration partners as we focus on projects with our clients that will take advantage of the Medianet architecture. The security business is converging on IP and open standards, and Cisco is continuing to collaborate with the industry to underpin this evolution.� For more information: http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=475603

Bill Stuntz: I am the vice president and general manager of Cisco's Physical Security business unit. As such, I am responsible for overseeing Cisco's development strategy and go-to-market model for its physical security solutions, including video surveillance, access control systems, IP cameras, and incident response.

Before joining Cisco, I was the CEO of BroadWare Technologies and developed an open platform for managing surveillance video and security information over IP networks. It allowed system integrators to pull together multiple technologies to create physical security solutions for military sites, top government facilities, transportation systems, borders, and campuses.

Before BroadWare, I had a variety of CEO and executive-level responsibilities and roles in sales, marketing, product development, operations, and manufacturing for companies that provided solutions for wireless data, security, electronic instrumentation, and data-acquisition industries.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Please tell us about Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities and share your vision regarding how Cisco safety and security solutions and recent innovations and announcements fit into this strategy. Let's start with the challenges.

Bill Stuntz: Over the next five years, approximately 500 million people will be added to the world's cities, and by 2050, a hundred new cities will each be inhabited by more than a million residents. With world populations shifting to urban areas, community leaders face increasing challenges of overcrowding, pollution, and budget and resource constraints. They need to create safe, efficient environments to attract businesses and compete in global markets. This demands better use of resources, stronger infrastructures, and better living standards.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: What are the benefits that are delivered by a Smart+Connected city?  

Bill Stuntz: The big difference between typical deployments and the Smart+Connected approach is that the network is the platform and a critical element in delivering services. That allows the integrator to choose the best available technologies, and deploy them to meet the specific needs of each customer.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Please give us some example of the benefits to the communities.�

Bill Stuntz: The benefits come in three areas:

1) Social sustainability: The services provided on the Cisco platform enable citizens to enhance their quality of life and increase their standard of living by creating a healthy and interactive environment.

The Cisco Smart+Connected Communities solutions range from education to government to health care.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Interesting. How does the network help address the challenges?

Bill Stuntz: Today, city authorities are looking at how to do more with less: to effectively coordinate and deliver services to their communities and give citizens better access to those services. Providing a safe and secure environment is the foundation that these services need to be successful.

For example, you can significantly reduce stress in transportation systems by making services available to citizens in their homes, alleviating traffic congestion and reducing energy utility requirements.

As security moves onto an integrated platform, you can deliver information in a format that lets city authorities make better decisions more quickly. The platform also allows you to more quickly provide new services at a lower cost.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: These benefits sound compelling. Can you elaborate how Cisco Physical Security solutions are enabling this for customers?

Bill Stuntz: We recently announced a simplified video surveillance solution to make it easier for schools, colleges, and universities to respond quickly and effectively to security events, and to help promote a safe and secure learning environment. The new solution provides an intuitive user interface for viewing live cameras, quick access to video archives, and an integrated mapping interface, together with video paging capabilities.

We also announced a new Physical Security Operations Manager (PSOM) that unites multiple systems and applications into a single interface for cities, agencies, and enterprises. With PSOM, safety and security personnel can quickly detect incidents and prioritize key information, enabling faster and more effective collaboration among incident response personnel. 

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: How does the Smart+Connected approach create opportunity and change the physical security industry?

Bill Stuntz: The Smart+Connected approach is designed to shift more value to systems integrators, who will be able to create truly integrated solutions and networked systems that can meet customer and capacity requirements. Cisco’s role is to provide the products, tools and services that help our partners deploy these large projects.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: We read with great interest your recent announcement  regarding Cisco's collaboration with the city of Holyoke, Mass., to initiate strategic pilot programs aimed at advancing the city's vision for redevelopment. What is the status of pilot programs launched by OneHolyoke and Cisco?

Bill Stuntz: The Smart+Connected Community pilot programs at Holyoke are intended to revitalize the city with improvements in infrastructure and connectivity, and to provide an environment that allows the delivery of emergency response services to customers, and safe and reliable energy to the community. We are continuing to develop a plan with Holyoke community leaders, including the Holyoke police department and Holyoke Gas & Electric.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Sounds fascinating. Could you give us more examples like the city of Holyoke deployment? 

Bill Stuntz: Another good example is Georgetown County in South Carolina. It was able to integrate multiple services and applications while taking advantage of the core networking platform. We continue to receive positive feedback such as the quote below, which validates this approach.

"Cisco Physical Security solutions and the Smart+Connected Communities approach have helped to enhance public safety throughout the county and significantly improved communications between the court system, public safety, and MIS departments." --
Leslie Thomas, director of MIS, Georgetown County

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: We enjoyed your video presentation   during which you mentioned that the "Cisco business video strategy is transforming the security industry." Care to elaborate?

Bill Stuntz: There are two key reasons for the transformation. First, the Cisco strategy enables security professionals to create better solutions by integrating multiple applications and technologies into a single unified system. Second, it helps responders make better decisions by delivering all the appropriate information to the right persons, wherever they are, and then enabling first responders to communicate with each other. 

The key point is that with Cisco's business video strategy -- and medianet-optimizing architecture -- the network becomes the platform for integrating all of these technologies together.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: What is a medianet, and how does that benefit the physical security solution?

Bill Stuntz: A medianet is an intelligent network optimized for rich media.

As part of Cisco's wider business video strategy to bring the medianet to all video endpoints, we recently introduced the industry's first medianet-enabled video surveillance camera. The significance of this is that the cameras can be automatically configured on the network to simplify deployments and reduce the time and skills needed to configure cameras once they are plugged into Cisco Ethernet switches. We expect to continue to evolve the network and medianet architectures and capabilities to make IP-based solutions easier to install, use, and operate.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: It is safe to say that Cisco's brand recognition is second to none and that Cisco has achieved significant "wins" and success stories in every conceivable enterprise vertical, including education, government, financial services, health care, retail, and transportation. Please share with us any particular "wins" in these markets that you'd like to talk about.

Bill Stuntz: We clearly are a global company with a strong reach in nearly every vertical market you can imagine and strive to earn the trust of IT directors throughout the world.

In education, the Oakland Unified School District in California enhanced its school safety to create a safer learning environment using a Cisco solution.   

In health care, St. Vincent's Hospital in Ireland shared best practices for accomplishing its objectives to improve safety with physical security technologies on the IP network.

In enterprise, Panduit Corp.'s unified physical security operations center was able to achieve a better solution and a significantly better return on investment.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: There is a wealth of resources on Cisco.com, including white papers, case studies, seminars, webcasts, discussion forums, product support, and training.
Where would you direct those interested in more information about Cisco solutions?

Bill Stuntz: More information about Cisco Connected Physical Security solutions can be found at cisco.com/go/physec  and information about Cisco Smart+Connected Communities can be found at:  cisco.com/go/smartconnectedcommunities.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thanks again for joining us today, Bill.  

Bill Stuntz: Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today.