29-03-2014, 11:57 AM
Product Guide For Small Business
Introduction
Welcome to the April 2012 edition of the Cisco Small Business Product Guide
This guide supports Cisco partners, resellers, and distributors who need a broad, high-level overview of Cisco
products and solutions for small business. It supplements other product collateral, training materials, and other
resources that are available on Cisco.com and Partner Central.
Cisco® offers a broad portfolio of networking and communications products and services built for small business.
They are organized on a simple Connect, Secure, and Communicate structure.
• Connect
Cisco has everything that you need to connect small businesses to the world—simply, reliably, affordably.
• Secure
Cisco helps secure small businesses with secure network solutions that keep the business up and running.
• Communicate
Cisco Small Business products help you communicate and collaborate more efficiently by bringing together
phone, email, text, conferencing, and video.
The Cisco Small Business Product Guide provides the following information for each product line:
• Product line overview and positioning.
• Common features.
• Decision logic to map customers’ business requirements to Cisco products.
• Product SKUs and descriptions.
• Feature comparison tables to help you recommend the best models for your customers’ needs.
We are always looking for your input and guidance to make this product guide more useful and valuable in your daily
activities. Please send feedback and/or suggestions to productguide-feedback[at]cisco.com.
Business Challenges
Today’s Internet-based economy often demands around-the-clock business availability and customer service. Many
growing small businesses reach a point at which their existing business processes can no longer efficiently manage
day-to-day activities. This can reduce customer satisfaction and make it harder to compete effectively. Successful
implementation of network-based business processes and communications tools is vital to increasing business
efficiency and managing growth.
Employees need to share information and communicate with the business systems that hold the company’s vital data.
They are accessing their company intranet and cloud applications from their mobile devices, while they’re on-the-go.
The proliferation of smart phones and tablets is significantly increasing network traffic. Combine that with limited data
plans and the performance of 3G and 4G networks, and it’s clear to see why the network is more important than ever.
This collaboration and communication must be fast and efficient, whether employees are at the main office, traveling,
or working from remote locations.
A network is critical to connect all the network devices and to support dissimilar applications, protocols, and services
while efficiently moving data among people and business systems. It must also be smart enough to automatically fend
off disruptive security incidents and to adjust to changing traffic loads to maintain consistent application performance.
Cisco Products That Fit Small Business
Customers interested in Cisco products that Fit Small Business tend to have more sophisticated requirements—they want
high availability and greater scalability. They buy for the long term and think like small enterprises.
Many of the products in this category are based on Cisco IOS® Software, a robust, industry-leading network operating
system with rich features and flexibility that extends across device platforms. A command line interface (CLI) can be
used to configure products in this category, offering more granular control and a greater degree of customization.
Cisco solutions in this category are supported by the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC), which offers deep
expertise in a number of different technologies, for assistance with even complex issues. Support options for this
category of products include award-winning Cisco SMARTnet® Service.
Cisco SMART Designs
Today’s networks require a significant level of technology and management integration to function optimally and
securely. Implementing these best practices will result in a simpler, systems-centric approach to networking that
automates operations and lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO) for small businesses.
Cisco SMART Designs are a portfolio of proven and validated network solutions, optimized to meet the needs
of small businesses. They incorporate a best-in-class network foundation and advanced technologies, so Cisco
partners don’t have to start from scratch for each new opportunity.
Today, thousands of partners use Cisco SMART Designs
globally. In a recent partner survey, the vast majority
indicated that these designs were an “exact match”
or a “very close” match to the network solution their
customers needed. SMART Designs have helped simplify
the installation process, minimize outages, and reduce
the complexities of ongoing maintenance. What’s more,
Cisco partners have found standardized network designs
and implementation to be an essential stepping-stone to
a successful managed services approach.