Padmasree: It is not just Dubai, I think if you take any country... We are seeing an impact of the economy slowing down in many countries, so let me talk in general about that and we can use an example of the connected real estate. One of the things that we believe will be an opportunity in the economic downturn is that people are going to look for more efficient ways of doing things, and ways that we can save on energy, for example. Ways on how we can create jobs for example, what new industries can we create and I think that is something that we are very focused on. You know when I say new verticals we are looking at new areas of applying technology that will actually boost the economy and create new jobs etc. So yes, I mean in terms of actual building and the construction that was planned for Dubai, perhaps there will be a slowdown. But if you look at the principles of what we are developing, it’s applicable in any market and not just something that is only specific to Dubai. When we say combine building construction with IT technology that applies to any country that wants to urbanize and I think those urbanization needs are going to be there, whether it is China, whether it’s Mexico city or any of those opportunities. Within the US itself, you know President Obama has announced a large stimulus package and one of the areas of focus he sees for creating jobs is investing in infrastructure. So the construction of roads and buildings and so forth. So one of the things we do very well is bringing digital infrastructure to that physical infrastructure. So many of the concepts that we are developing around using the network as a platform, whether it is in a developed market looking at additional stimulus to boost the economy, or in an emerging country.
Kamla: And how does IPv6 play into this?
Padmasree:IPv6 is an area we are looking at. It is needed, and I think as an industry we have to move to where we have better addressing capability and Cisco is driving it. I mean it is something that is foundational.
Kamla: If IPv6 was factored into your digital infrastructure that you are talking about and then you think about the connected real estate, the whole picture changes. Does it not?
Padmasree: I think there are a lot of examples like that, and another area we are looking at is this area of smart grid. How can we bring IP technologies and what we know about the Internet, and how we can run the Internet efficiently into the electric grid, into the power grid. So there you are going to need things like sensors, and how to manage these sensors. So you can sort of see the beginning of the “Internet of Things” that people have talked about for a long time. So there will be lot of new concepts with an IPv6 Internet of Things where we will bring our strength from networking to create these new opportunities for the future.
Kamla: So where are the big multi billion dollar markets and opportunities?
Padmasree: I think clearly we see a big market shifting towards video on the Internet. If you think about the Internet, the first Internet as I call it. The first Internet really was all about a data transport mechanism. It was like you can say e-mail was perhaps the killer app in the first instantiation of the Internet and it was really a messaging platform. The next Internet, I think the Internet in the future, is really going to be focused more about being a collaboration platform, around being more about media transport, not just data transport. And so with video, we are just seeing the beginnings of the use of video in the enterprise. You see this big TelePresence unit sitting here in my office and I have to tell you, I use this on a regular basis. Within Cisco our own use of TelePresence is driving significant cost savings, and by the way it is energy-efficient. It’s carbon footprint is much lower.
So video is a huge opportunity for us, one of several billion dollars of opportunities, and we see this evolving from video communications to what I call visual networking. What we refer to as visual networking, which is really a combination of video communications and social networking as we know it. So it’s not too far away from where you will perhaps be watching a game, whether it is the Super Bowl or a World Series cricket test match or whatever it is that you are interested in, you can have people and your family and friends in multiple locations all watching the same game, and having a conversation virtually, without actually physically being there. And so it really has a potential to change social dynamics even in the consumer space.