Padmasree: Sure, the large ones, perhaps the most critical ones, that we are focused on currently, are video or visual networking, one of the areas that we see as an exciting opportunity both in the enterprise space and in the consumer space. The second is virtualization, leading up to cloud computing, and the role of the data centre in that space and the role that network plays as compute and networking come together. And the third area is collaboration, this is involving unified communications along with Web 2.0 technologies, and the role that can play in becoming the “e-business” of the next decade. There are other opportunities like new markets. Emerging markets is one of the priorities, Globalization; the Globalization Centre East that we have in India serves as yet another priority, and they go all the way to putting routers into space, which is very much a technical challenge. So the priorities we have span the whole range from technology- focused to very much market- driven.
Kamla: So would the top three technology bets be the ones that you listed as priorities?
Padmasree: Yes absolutely. The three areas that I would say we are very focused on are visual networking or video, collaboration and virtualization.
Kamla: You talked about Cisco East. So emerging markets is a strong focus for Cisco. Could you talk a bit about what you are doing in places like India, China and Dubai and what are the differences in terms of strategy because the opportunities in each market is different.
Padmasree: Yes, you know Cisco, we actually are very innovative in how we approach the emerging markets. Most companies when they look at emerging markets, especially India, start off their strategy with “let’s use that as an R&D outsourcing centre”. Cisco took a very different approach with emerging markets especially with India ,where we said, let’s actually move our second headquarters to India. Our Globalization East Center in India is not really just an R&D outsource centre, but it is actually creating new solutions for all of the emerging markets. Those include the countries that you mentioned: India, China, the Middle East, some of the countries like Dubai in the Middle East, as well as Mexico, Brazil, you know there is a lot of opportunity we see in many of these countries. The focus we have is to develop new verticals as I call them in these countries. For example, connected real estate is an area we are focused on in Dubai. There is a lot of construction that is going to happen there. Why not use the urbanization focus and combine that with the digital focus, meaning bring IT technologies and an IT backed backbone into the new buildings, and make them smart buildings that can be more energy -efficient and be very technology-driven buildings. So those are the kinds of things we are doing, so our centre in India not only develops products and solutions to meet the needs of the India market, but it actually is focused on developing solutions for many of the emerging markets.
Kamla: My eyes are drawn to that Dubai book that you have there. I was thinking because the economic downturn has impacted Dubai. You talk about the connected real estate and there have been talks that, you know, the real estate market in Dubai is probably going to slow down. How are you factoring in the changed landscape in Dubai?