Cisco CTO reasserts video's value for work, home

Computerworld - BOSTON -- Cisco Systems Inc. CTO Padmasree Warrior today stressed the importance of video and collaboration technologies to the networking giant, as well as its customers.

"Video is really going to become a game-changer in enterprises and connected life," Warrior said in a roundtable discussion with reporters during the Cisco Partner Summit 2009 here. "Video is a big priority [at Cisco]."

Building on its "connected life" slogan, Cisco this year purchased Pure Digital, the maker of the popular Flip handheld HD videocamera. Warrior noted how simple the device is to use, making it an obvious means for average consumers, even children, to create their own content.

In fact, making video technology simple to use is what will distinguish Cisco as a leader in the field, Warrior added. Success in marketing video technology, whether for mobile video chat users or high-end telepresence videoconferencing systems, "comes down to making the experience simple," she said. "The Flip is so attractive and easy to use that my eight-year-old niece could use it."

She said that for mobile video chat to take off, phone makers still need to incorporate video software in devices, and next-generation wireless networks need to provide faster speeds for uploading and downloading video.

Warrior said Cisco executives, including CEO John Chambers, are video-blogging to fellow workers with ideas. "John just takes his Flip and records a blog," she said.

Even though Cisco has purchased the Flip maker, Warrior suggested the device is not going to be the centerpiece of its video effort.

"Flip is more about an architecture [for Cisco], and less about the device itself," Warrior said. "One piece [of Cisco's interest] is user-generated content and how to capture that on the go, and there's a big demand for that, but it's also extending the architecture to everything from user-generated video to high-end telepresence."

Warrior said she recently recorded a 10-minute Flip video segment that was shown to a team of workers in Bangalore, India, since she could not make the trip there. It was high density video, but because of the nature of the Flip "it was more personal and not done in a studio. The most natural way to communicate is over video, other than face-to-face."

Asked whether average companies are going to warm to video-blogging or high-end videoconferencing over expensive monitors in specially lighted rooms, Warrior said, "we feel we've crossed the chasm, since more and more companies are deploying videoconferencing for business use."

The economic downturn has also played a role. Cisco has saved $300 million in travel costs, with videoconferencing replacing actual conferencing over the last two years.