Realcomm’s Jim Young asks Cisco’s Rick Huijbregts, “Are You Back?”

Cisco’s venture into the building space with the Mediator came and went — leaving a lot of unanswered questions behind. In response to Jim Young’s first question, “Is Cisco Back?” Rick Huijbregts, VP, Industry Transformation and General Manager, IoE Smart + Connected Communities at Cisco Canada, answers, “Yes,” and that “Cisco is here to stay,” as he reviewed Cisco’s past, present, and future positions — and reminded everybody that Cisco enters billion dollar opportunities quickly, as they did in the telephony, video, and data center markets. Cisco has the option to make, buy, or partner their way into the smart connected building market, and in this instance, Cisco has chosen to partner with companies like Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Schneider, Rockwell, and Intel. Cisco sees tremendous opportunities in the IoE, with particular focus in the IoT and cloud services, and has created four IoE Centers of Excellence to accelerate the co-creation of future real estate and smart communities advancements.