Cisco Systems Inc."s Networkers Africa 2005 conference took place at Sun City last week. The conference is held annually, and its aim is for Cisco engineers and developers to share the latest technology trends and products with CIOs.

Says Mokati Ramphele, GM for Cisco in sub-Saharan Africa: "Networkers Africa is designed to provide networking professionals with vital updates on trends, innovations and developments in technology."

Among other things, in his keynote Ramphele emphasised the fact that today"s networks need be much more than just a bunch of wires that route data. "We have entered the age where networks need to be intelligent, they need to provide users with many uses, but, at the same time, they need to be secure," he says. "The transition is already occurring," he says.

"With the deregulation of VoIP by Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, in September last year, service providers are now able to provide networks that will not only route data, but voice too. Not only does this save money, but it is also the first step to a converged network," he says.

Cisco does not see the convergence stopping there though. "We believe a network needs to be the core aspect of any company"s infrastructure. As well as routing video, data and voice, the network must be secure, adaptable and scalable, and, at the same time, provide productivity and services to meet the needs of any company of any size," he says.

Cisco claims that to achieve this converged network, various steps need to be taken on both the company and Cisco"s side.

"Firstly companies need to start to deploy technologies that provide a stable and secure voice and IP solution over one network," he says. "Secondly companies need to adopt a "one device to many services" approach. By this I mean that instead of a company having a firewall and a router, it will use one intelligent device to perform both functions," he says. "These intelligent devices need to incorporate security and other business-critical services directly on the network, thus removing the need for numerous servers, each performing a single function."."

"The third phase is for companies to start implementing telephony and video applications onto the network, thus creating an aware network that knows that, if a user picks up a telephone, the video conferencing application and any other application the user might need must be launched." "To achieve this Cisco has been pouring, and will continue to pour, endless funds into research and development. It will also continue to make critical acquisitions and partnerships," he concludes.