Test Prototypes in a Lab Before a Launch

Imagine trying out the launch of a strategic business application in a test environment before deploying it in your own environment. Your IT team could identify problems, concerns, and glitches long before users saw them. By prototyping your application within a Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture solution, you can demonstrate whether your network capabilities meet your business integration needs.

Meeting Challenges

IT departments face challenges every day. To maintain competitive differentiation in a changing market, a company must be able to quickly adopt emerging technologies. But integrating multiple advanced technologies into complex networks with diverse business applications can be difficult and time-consuming. IT organizations that attempt to meet this challenge without using proven methodologies and best practices risk incurring significant problems and delays.

By performing prototyping and application integration in a Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) lab, IT administrators can speed the effective implementation of new technologies before the actual deployment. This approach:

• Simplifies deployment
• Maximizes return on network investment
• Reduces risk for companies transitioning to new technologies

With Cisco SONA, you can evolve your infrastructure to support new business capabilities to:

• Reduce complexity and management costs
• Enhance system resiliency and flexibility
• Improve network resource efficiency

How It Works

Before you deploy a new application in your business, you use Cisco Business Transformation Optimization Service to build a counterpart solution in a Cisco lab. With your own business applications and solutions from your vertical software partners, you then use a tightly coupled model to test design variations before preproduction. Working with this model, and through proven methodologies from the Cisco Services team, you implement real-time interactions, such as testing and validation, to reduce your risk during the actual implementation.

This proof-of-concept engagement is a fast and simple way to see how Cisco SONA integration can align your business processes with your technology architecture.

Solution Capabilities

Cisco Business Transformation Optimization Service capabilities include:

• Rapid prototyping: Your team works with Cisco solution engineers in brainstorming sessions to create a project plan that includes detailed timelines and responsibilities.
• Solution building: Your team confers with a Cisco business development team to:
  • Identify and create a proof-of-concept solution
  • Validate the solution against your requirements
  • Define the roles and responsibilities of the Cisco team, Cisco partners, and vendors
  • Identify the project goals, scope, and initial milestones
• Solution testing and system validation: During this process, you work with Cisco to:
  • Create and review test plans and acceptance criteria
  • Build a technical plan for transitioning the solution from the lab to your environment
  • Finalize a detailed project timeline with critical milestones
• Architecture governance and program management: This process builds a management plan for Cisco to create the solution in your production environment. The plan includes funding, project planning, and program management to coordinate the necessary resources to move from rapid prototyping to solution building, solution testing, and system validation. A Cisco project manager monitors overall progress and reviews critical milestones with your team.

Controlled Environment

The Cisco Business Transformation Optimization Service lets you create an actual solution in a controlled environment that addresses the complex integration of strategic applications. It also helps you:

• Increase business velocity by prototyping application deployment and integration to identify and correct problems before you install the solution
• Simplify application integration and new technologies by building a proof-of-concept that demonstrates the solution feasibility
• Validate the application deployment success to build management commitment
• Learn about new, advanced network capabilities to support future business application integration and optimization in your environment 

With the help of Cisco experts, you can also improve application performance by aligning networking technology with your business needs. This proof-of-concept approach can make it easier to introduce emerging technologies into your production environment and help you meet business objectives more quickly.