Networking News

Buses Are Running On Time Thanks To Cisco’s IoT Solutions

Vikas Butaney, vice president of IoT Product at Cisco, discusses Cisco’s success stories and investment in IoT.

Public transit riders in San Diego, California rarely have to wonder when the next bus is coming. That’s because the San Diego Metropolitan System has adopted Cisco’s Connected Mass Transit solution, providing real-time updates to all commuters.

“When you run a bus company, you need to make sure your buses are running on-time and it’s providing a great rider experience,” said Vikas Butaney, Cisco’s VP of IoT Product. “What this bus company has done is make Wi-Fi available to riders, video surveillance to make sure riders are safe, GPS technology to make sure buses are running on time.”

Connected Mass Transit is one of the many ways Cisco is transforming legacy infrastructure with IoT and it comes as Cisco predicts a massive shift towards connected devices, estimating that 500 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2030. To stay ahead of the curve, Cisco continues to make big investments in the space. In June, the networking giant announced its intent to acquire Sentryo, a company based in Lyon, France that provides device visibility and security solutions for industrial control system networks.

“As customers deploy IoT technologies, security is a key issue but to secure something you need to identify what those devices are. Sentryo is a key part of that strategy. So, now we can learn about a programmable logic controller, robot, machine - learn about the identity so then we can bring the best of Cisco technology around segmentation security to apply to this real problem,” said Butaney.

Cisco has also recently unveiled a new IoT product line to bring IoT to some of the world’s most remote locations.

“We have released a brand-new set of products that help us bring intent-based networking to the harshest environments, whether it’s a refinery, a mine, or manufacturing environments,” said Butaney.

For more coverage from CRN’s interview with Butaney and perspective from partners, watch CRN’s video.