Podcasts about cisco live

What happens when a single lost network packet can disrupt hours of manufacturing? Recorded at Cisco Live, this episode features John Hoenemier, Director of Network Security Operations at GlobalFoundries, one of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers. While most people think about microchips only when they buy a smartphone, laptop, car, or connected device, the reality is that modern life depends on a vast ecosystem of manufacturing facilities operating around the clock with extraordinary levels of precision. During our conversation, John explains why semiconductor manufacturing is one of the most demanding operational environments in the world. Production runs continuously throughout the year, and even minor disruptions can have significant consequences. In this environment, the network serves as the digital nervous system of the factory floor, connecting equipment, systems, data, and people in real time. We discuss the challenges of maintaining resilience in an environment where downtime is rarely an option. John shares how visibility, observability, security, and automation have become increasingly important as manufacturing operations grow more connected and more dependent on digital infrastructure. The conversation explores what happens when connectivity is interrupted and why reliability remains one of the most important measurements of success. We also examine the growing role of AI, operational intelligence, and unified management platforms. John explains why bringing together data from multiple systems is helping teams make faster decisions and why technologies such as Cisco Cloud Control are generating so much interest among infrastructure leaders. Along the way, we discuss cybersecurity, identity management, observability, and the unique realities of protecting highly distributed manufacturing environments. Despite operating in a very different industry, many of the challenges GlobalFoundries faces are remarkably familiar to technology leaders everywhere: balancing innovation with reliability, improving visibility, and finding ways to manage increasing complexity. What stood out most was the reminder that behind every AI application, cloud service, connected device, and modern technology platform sits a manufacturing ecosystem that must operate with extraordinary consistency and precision. As industries become increasingly connected, how important will resilient digital infrastructure become to the products and services we rely on every day?

What does it take to deliver reliable connectivity to a floating city carrying thousands of guests across the world's oceans? Recorded at Cisco Live, this episode features Diogo Almeida, Head of IT Infrastructure at AIDA Cruises, and Amine Belhad, IT Network Architect at AIDA Cruises. Together, they share what happens behind the scenes to keep one of Europe's leading cruise fleets connected while supporting everything from guest services and entertainment to restaurants, healthcare facilities, security systems, and operational technology. Most travelers think of a cruise ship as a vacation destination. The reality is far more complex. Each vessel operates like a self-contained city at sea, complete with data centers, wireless networks, hospitality systems, broadcast infrastructure, retail operations, medical facilities, and connectivity requirements that extend far beyond the ship itself. During our conversation, Diogo and Amine explained how guest expectations have evolved dramatically in recent years. Travelers now expect the same digital experiences they enjoy at home, whether that's streaming content, staying connected with family, accessing onboard services through mobile applications, or remaining productive while traveling. Meeting those expectations requires a resilient technology foundation capable of operating in one of the most challenging environments imaginable. We discuss the architecture supporting AIDA's fleet, the role of automation in managing complex environments, and how standardization has helped improve operational consistency across multiple ships. The conversation also explores how connectivity supports both guest experiences and business operations, from check-in processes and shore excursions to entertainment systems and day-to-day vessel management. Looking ahead, we examine how AI, predictive analytics, and greater visibility into infrastructure performance could help identify issues before they impact guests or crew. As digital services become increasingly important to the cruise experience, proactive operations are becoming just as important as connectivity itself. What stood out throughout this discussion was the scale of what happens behind the scenes. Most passengers never see the technology supporting their vacation, but it plays a role in almost every aspect of their experience from the moment they arrive at the terminal until they return home. As customer expectations continue to rise, how can organizations deliver increasingly connected experiences while operating in environments where reliability matters more than ever?

Recorded at Cisco Live, this episode features Mark Broderick, Senior Network Engineer at Room & Board. This furniture retailer has built its reputation around design expertise, long-term customer relationships, and personalized service. While many retailers focus on transactions, Room & Board takes a different approach, helping customers make decisions about products they may live with for years or even decades. During our conversation, Mark explains how technology is helping the company meet customers wherever they are. Whether someone visits a showroom, works with a designer remotely, or schedules a virtual consultation from home, the goal remains the same: deliver a consistent experience that feels personal, thoughtful, and easy. We discuss how customer expectations have changed in recent years and why retailers must support both physical and digital experiences without compromising quality. Mark shares how Room & Board expanded from thinking about dozens of retail locations to supporting a workforce that can effectively serve customers from almost anywhere. The conversation also explores the realities of running modern IT operations with a lean team. Mark explains how a small group of engineers supports networking, wireless connectivity, security, collaboration tools, and business operations across the company. We discuss the value of visibility, the role of automation, and why reducing operational complexity allows teams to spend more time supporting business outcomes rather than managing infrastructure. Looking ahead, we examine the growing role of AI in IT operations. Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for skilled professionals, Mark sees agentic technologies as digital coworkers that can help teams find information, handle routine tasks, and accelerate troubleshooting. The result is more time spent focusing on customers, employees, and strategic priorities. What stood out throughout this discussion was a simple philosophy: the best technology is often the technology nobody notices. When systems work as intended, customers can focus on designing their homes, employees can focus on helping them, and technology quietly does its job in the background. As customer expectations continue to evolve, how can organizations leverage technology to deliver better experiences without losing the human connection customers value most?

How do healthcare organizations continue innovating while protecting some of the most sensitive data in existence? Recorded at Cisco Live, this episode features Kevin Ludwig, Associate Vice President of Information Technology at XiFin, and Jeff Kronlage, CEO of CrossConnect Engineering.  Together, they provide a behind-the-scenes look at the technology infrastructure supporting healthcare billing, laboratories, pharmacies, and medical providers, where reliability, security, and automation all play a central role in keeping critical processes moving. During our conversation, Kevin explains how XiFin helps healthcare organizations process and validate complex billing workflows while reducing manual intervention wherever possible. With healthcare providers facing growing financial pressure, improving efficiency has become increasingly important, but never at the expense of security or data protection. We explore how cyber threats continue to shape decision-making across healthcare technology and why organizations are looking beyond traditional security architectures. Kevin and Jeff share their experience as one of the earliest adopters of Cisco's smart switching technology, discussing how distributed security models can simplify operations, reduce complexity, and help teams manage growing demands without constantly adding new layers of infrastructure. The conversation also examines AI adoption inside healthcare environments. While organizations are eager to benefit from automation and AI-powered capabilities, Kevin explains why guardrails, governance, and customer trust remain top priorities. We discuss the balance between innovation and risk, the importance of observability, and how teams are approaching AI with both enthusiasm and caution. Along the way, Jeff offers an insightful perspective on reducing decades of accumulated technical debt, challenging long-standing assumptions about network security, and creating simpler ways to manage increasingly complex environments. What emerges is a discussion about much more than technology. It's a conversation about trust, responsibility, and helping healthcare organizations deliver better outcomes through smarter systems and better operational decisions. If you're interested in healthcare technology, cybersecurity, AI adoption, or the future of enterprise infrastructure, this episode provides valuable insights from leaders working at the intersection of all four. As healthcare becomes increasingly connected and data-driven, how should organizations balance innovation, security, and trust?

By Doug Green “The best learning is actually to learn by doing.” In this episode of the Technology Reseller News podcast, Doug Green speaks with Carlos Pereira, Cisco Fellow and Chief Architect, Customer Experience, about Cisco IQ and how Cisco is using AI, lifecycle intelligence and customer experience to help enterprises better understand, secure and future-proof their environments. Pereira says Cisco IQ reflects a broader shift in how customer experience is being delivered. At Cisco, CX is not treated as something that begins after a product is deployed. It spans the full lifecycle: land, adopt, expand and renew, with support embedded throughout. That lifecycle view is especially important because more than 95% of Cisco's business is indirect through partners, and more than half of Cisco's revenue is recurring. Cisco IQ, which became generally available in April, is designed to give customers visibility across the Cisco assets they own, including devices that may be approaching or past end of sale or end of support. Pereira notes that many Cisco products remain in production for years because they are reliable, but long-running environments can create risk if older software, unsupported assets or unpatched vulnerabilities remain in place. With Cisco IQ, customers can see more of their environment, understand lifecycle status, assess security exposure and receive AI-driven insights tied to their own deployments. Pereira says that visibility becomes more important as AI accelerates the speed of both operations and threats. “The speed has changed because the adversary is now faster than what you think your ability to move,” Pereira says. The podcast also looks at how Cisco IQ fits with Cisco Cloud Control, announced at Cisco Live. Pereira explains that Cisco Cloud Control brings product operations together through an agentic interface, while Cisco IQ focuses on lifecycle visibility, entitlement, assets, security assessments, performance and operational insight. Together, the two offerings reflect Cisco's effort to combine AI-driven operations with full lifecycle intelligence. A major theme of the conversation is future-proofing the enterprise. Pereira says Cisco IQ can help customers identify assets that may pose security or operational risks, including devices past last day of support or software exposed to newly discovered vulnerabilities. Cisco IQ can also support assessments around emerging concerns such as quantum readiness, including hardware, software and cryptographic materials. Pereira also discusses why Cisco designed Cisco IQ to support multiple deployment models from the beginning. Cisco IQ can run as SaaS, on-premises tethered, or on-premises air-gapped. That matters for customers with government, sovereignty, security or isolation requirements who still need AI-driven insight without compromising deployment constraints. For partners, Cisco IQ creates a new way to engage customers around lifecycle management, security posture, renewals and modernization. Instead of waiting for problems to emerge, partners can use Cisco IQ to help customers understand what they have, where risks exist and how to prioritize action. Looking ahead, Pereira says the second half of 2026 will be less about AI hype and more about applying AI to business workflows with measurable ROI. In areas such as security and identity operations, the need for speed, visibility and lifecycle intelligence will only increase. Pereira encourages Cisco customers with support entitlements to begin using Cisco IQ directly at iq.cisco.com. Because Cisco IQ includes personalized, AI-driven documentation and insights, he says the best way to understand the platform is to self-onboard and begin using it. Learn more at cisco.com Cisco IQ: iq.cisco.com  

Send us Fan MailWe react to the biggest stories from Cisco Live, focusing on why Cloud Control and Multi-Cloud Fabric could simplify how teams manage multi-domain infrastructure. We also unpack the Mythos export control shockwave and the growing backlash to AI data centers as efficiency claims collide with real community costs. • Cloud Control as a manager of managers, bringing consoles, telemetry, and logs closer together • Early-stage reality of “unified” platforms, plus the longer-term need for a shared policy engine • AI Canvas and cross-product troubleshooting, pulling signals without console hopping • Multi-Cloud Fabric as network as a service for branches, data centers, and multi-cloud connectivity • Mythos 5 rollout frustrations for security workflows and why guardrails changed user experience • Export controls and the fallout for foreign nationals, partners, and even internal teams • Glasswing, vulnerability discovery, and the open question of how much better Mythos really is • Bug bounty economics, including the reported cost per bug and what that means for incentives • AWS water efficiency claims, plus why water and energy constraints still drive public resistance • AI spend whiplash, cloud-era déjà vu, and why capacity keeps running into physics Purchase Chris and Tim's book on AWS Cloud Networking: https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Advanced-Networking-Certification-certification/dp/1835080839/Check out the Monthly Cloud Networking Newshttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1fkBWCGwXDUX9OfZ9_MvSVup8tJJzJeqrauaE6VPT2b0/Visit our website and subscribe: https://www.cables2clouds.com/Follow us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/cables2clouds.comFollow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cables2clouds/Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cables2cloudsMerch Store: https://store.cables2clouds.com/Join the Discord Study group: https://artofneteng.com/iaatj

Expereo: Enterprises Are Racing Into AI, But the Network Still Has to Carry the Load, Podcast, “AI is no longer a debate. Enterprises are already using it. The question now is whether the network is ready to support what comes next,” says Marek Wasilewski of Expereo @Doug Green “AI is no longer a debate. Enterprises are already using it. The question now is whether the network is ready to support what comes next,” says Marek Wasilewski of Expereo. In this Cisco Live 2026 podcast, Doug Green speaks with Marek Wasilewski of Expereo about the company's 2026 Enterprise Horizons report and what it reveals about enterprise AI adoption, network readiness and the growing pressure on global connectivity. This is one of several Cisco Live podcasts worth revisiting after the initial wave of show coverage. The conversation provides interesting insights into how AI is changing the network conversation for enterprises, service providers and channel partners. According to Expereo's research, 92% of enterprises are using AI in some form, while 30% are already using it extensively. At the same time, 70% are investing in AI without carefully measuring ROI. That combination creates both opportunity and risk: enterprises are moving quickly, but many are still building on networks that were not designed for the scale, performance and resilience demands of AI-driven operations. Expereo, a global Network-as-a-Service provider, helps enterprises simplify and manage connectivity across complex international environments. In the podcast, Wasilewski explains why AI success depends not only on models, applications and cloud platforms, but also on the underlying network that connects users, data, workloads and business locations. For channel partners, MSPs and enterprise technology leaders, the message is clear: AI is making the network strategic again. Connectivity is no longer just plumbing. It is becoming a core part of digital transformation, customer experience, automation and business continuity. The conversation also explores how enterprises can think more clearly about AI investment, how global connectivity strategies are changing, and why network visibility, flexibility and reliability will matter even more as AI moves from pilot projects into production environments. Learn more: expereo.com

What does strategy look like when the technology industry seems to change every few months? Recorded at Cisco Live, this episode features Ammar Maraqa, Cisco's Chief Strategy Officer, whose role spans corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, venture investments, technology incubation, strategic partnerships, and long-term planning. Few people have a broader view of where the technology industry is heading and how companies can position themselves for what comes next. During our conversation, Ammar shares why he believes many organizations are thinking about AI the wrong way. Rather than viewing it as a productivity tool or cost-saving exercise, he argues that AI represents a much deeper shift in how work gets done, how organizations operate, and how leaders should think about growth. We explore Cisco's approach to strategy in an era defined by constant disruption, including why the company focuses on testing assumptions rather than repeatedly changing direction. Ammar also explains how Cisco uses a combination of building, acquiring, partnering, investing, and incubating to accelerate innovation and stay close to emerging technologies. The discussion also examines what Cisco learns from engaging with startups, entrepreneurs, venture investors, customers, and partners around the world. From advances in AI infrastructure and silicon to agent orchestration, observability, security, and enterprise adoption, Ammar shares the themes he believes deserve the closest attention from business leaders today. We also discuss one of the biggest challenges facing organizations: the growing gap between what AI is capable of and what companies are actually prepared to adopt. Ammar explains why infrastructure, data, security, workflow redesign, and organizational change remain essential ingredients for success, regardless of how powerful the underlying models become. Along the way, he offers insights into business model disruption, the future of enterprise software, and why some companies successfully reinvent themselves while others struggle to adapt. If you're interested in strategy, innovation, AI adoption, or the forces shaping the next decade of enterprise technology, this conversation provides a thoughtful perspective from someone helping guide one of the industry's most influential companies through a period of extraordinary change. How often does your organization challenge the assumptions behind its strategy, and would those assumptions still hold true if you were making them today?

Network Is Hot Again: Stackpane's Sarbjeet Johal on Cisco Live, AI Infrastructure and Systems Economics, Podcast, Johal brings a unique mix of technical, business, and economics experience to the discussion @Doug Green, Publisher, Technology Reseller News “The network is hot again because a lot more data is traversing on it, and a lot more data will traverse on it,” says Sarbjeet Johal of Stackpane. In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Doug Green speaks with Sarbjeet Johal, Founder and CEO of Stackpane, technology analyst, cloud strategist and go-to-market specialist, about why the network has moved back to the center of the enterprise technology conversation. Johal brings an unique mix of technical, business and economics experience to the discussion. A veteran of VMware, Oracle and Dell EMC, Johal has spent decades building and deploying enterprise systems, advising technology providers, and helping buyers understand cloud strategy, infrastructure modernization and digital transformation. At Cisco Live, Johal says the biggest theme was simplification. Cisco, he argues, is working to reduce infrastructure complexity for customers operating across public cloud, on-premises systems, AI workloads and increasingly distributed environments. That includes a renewed focus on infrastructure as code, platform control, and AI-assisted tools such as Cisco IQ, which Johal says can help customers and partners troubleshoot, configure and operate Cisco environments more effectively. The conversation then turns to Johal's recent observation that “the network is hot again.” His point is that AI, real-time systems, digital services, autonomous agents, and API-driven interactions are all placing new demands on network performance. As more data moves across enterprise systems, latency, memory, compute, and connectivity become more strategically important. Johal notes that during AI inference, latency is especially critical, making the network, chips, CPUs, and memory all part of the same infrastructure story. Johal also frames the issue through systems economics. Enterprises are not simply buying more technology for the sake of modernization. They are being forced to ask whether cloud, AI, on-prem infrastructure, and automation actually pencil out in terms of total cost of ownership, return on investment, and operational value. For MSPs, channel partners, and technology providers, that creates an opportunity to help customers make better architecture decisions, not just consume more tools. The podcast closes with a look ahead to a future conversation on token economics, AI infrastructure costs, and where MSPs and channel partners can find real business opportunity as enterprise technology becomes more automated, more data-intensive, and more dependent on resilient network infrastructure. Editor's note: This podcast was recorded at Cisco Live in Las Vegas and is being posted later. With time, the conversation has become even more notable. Johal's central point — that the network is “hot again” — has only gained relevance as AI, automation, cloud infrastructure and real-time digital services continue to place new pressure on enterprise networks. Learn more: Stackpane at stackpane.com

How do you double the size of a major sporting venue, rebuild its technology foundation, and still deliver a seamless experience for hundreds of thousands of fans? Recording from Cisco Live, I spoke with Robert Nichols, Principal Technical Architect for the Cincinnati Open, about the enormous undertaking behind one of the most respected tournaments in professional tennis. As an ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 event, the Cincinnati Open recently completed a $260 million expansion that increased the campus from 20 to 40 acres, all while working against a deadline that could not be moved. Our conversation explores what happens behind the scenes when nearly 300,000 visitors arrive expecting every aspect of the event to work flawlessly. From ticket scanning and connectivity to food service, hospitality, broadcasting, security, and crowd management, every part of the operation depends on infrastructure that most fans never think about. Robert explains how the team approached modernization without losing the qualities that have made the tournament special for generations. Accessibility, proximity to the players, and a welcoming atmosphere remain central to the Cincinnati Open experience, even as the venue continues to grow. We also discuss occupancy analytics, connected cameras, wireless networking across 40 acres, and how data helps organizers make better operational decisions throughout the tournament. Along the way, Robert shares insights into the scale of planning required to support one of the largest events in professional tennis. Looking ahead, we examine how AI and automation could influence the future of live events, helping organizers improve operations while keeping the focus firmly on the fan experience. Whether you're interested in sports, technology, operations, or large-scale event management, this episode offers a rare look at what it takes to deliver an event watched by millions worldwide. What part of a live sporting event do you think requires the most coordination behind the scenes?

Josh Gillick, Senior Director of Creative Marketing at Cisco (WebEx), didn't take a straight line to get where he is—and that's exactly what makes his perspective so valuable. After building his career across freelance and contract work in design, video, storytelling, and brand, Josh eventually stepped into creative leadership roles at companies like WebEx and Cisco. Today, his team owns the creative vision for major productions including Cisco Live and WebEx One, an event his team runs end-to-end. In this episode, host Pius Chan talks with Josh about what it actually looks like to lead a creative team inside a large enterprise—the people challenges, the stakeholder battles, the AI questions everyone is asking, and the hard-won lessons from years of doing it at scale. What You'll Hear: Why being a generalist can stall your career—and the mindset shift required to go from doing everything yourself to leading a team that does it better than youHow Josh hires for creative excellence: why he looks at portfolios before resumes and asks every candidate the same critical questionWhy not everyone should move into management—and why the best companies build paths for senior individual contributors who want to keep creatingThe one thing creative teams owe their internal stakeholders, forever: education, without ego, and without expecting it to ever be "done"A proven framework for presenting creative work to difficult executives—how to get them to stop interrupting and start listeningHow Josh is approaching AI at an enterprise scale: the evaluation framework his team uses, why accuracy and legal compliance come first, and why he's treating right now as a re-education phase rather than a revolution This podcast is brought to you by Lumen5, a video creator made by marketers, for marketers. Easily make videos for content marketing, thought leadership, and brand awareness in a snap. Use code SUPERCHARGE for 20% off your first 3 months at lumen5.com.

Join Cisco CTO of Wireless Matt Macpherson to explore the future of Wi-Fi, AI, and enterprise networking. Live from the bustling floor of Cisco Live, we sit down with Matt Macpherson, Cisco's CTO of Wireless, to explore the rapidly evolving landscape of connectivity. In this episode, our Cisco Champions dive deep into the latest advancements in wireless technology, tracing the evolution of Wi-Fi from its foundational roots to the cutting-edge capabilities of today's networks. Throughout the discussion, Matt shares exclusive insights into Cisco's recent product and technology announcements, detailing how the company is driving innovation to meet the demands of a hyper-connected world. From the impact of new standards to the strategic role Cisco plays in shaping the future of enterprise and industrial wireless, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone looking to stay ahead of the curve in networking. Key Topics Covered: The Evolution of Wi-Fi: A retrospective on how wireless standards have transformed the modern workplace. Cisco Live Highlights: An inside look at the most significant announcements made during the event. The Future of Wireless: How Cisco is leveraging AI, automation, and security to redefine wireless performance. Cisco's Strategic Vision: Insights from the CTO on the challenges and opportunities in the wireless market. Tune in to hear how the experts are navigating the next generation of wireless connectivity and learn how Cisco is building a more resilient, intelligent network infrastructure. Insider guests: Dan Jones, Solutions Engineering Director, Hamina Wireless Maikel van der Roest, Sr. Network Specialist Sebastian Kozankiewicz , Network and Voice Architect, NORMA Group Tony Dous, Network Security Section Head, Wadi Degla Holding Explore Cisco Wireless Solutions : https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/networking/wireless/index.html Discover how Cisco is transforming industries with cutting-edge technology and business-driven innovation.

Microsoft Build 2026 announced an end-to-end agentic AI stack. COMPUTEX Taipei confirmed heterogeneous AI infrastructure across ARM, Marvell, Intel, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA. Alphabet raised $80 billion. Cisco Live repositioned the network as the AI platform. Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman break it all down alongside earnings from Broadcom, HPE, Palo Alto Networks, and CrowdStrike, plus the token cost conversation, the edge AI push, and what Palantir and Oracle are saying about proprietary data as the real AI moat. The handpicked topics for this week are: Microsoft Build 2026 Announced an End-to-End Agentic AI Stack: Microsoft shipped MAI-Thinking-1, its first homegrown thinking model, alongside Scout, Microsoft IQ, Project Solara, and a Majorana 2 quantum update targeting a 2029 commercial timeline with claims of a 1,000x reliability gain. Pat describes MAI-Thinking-1 as likely better than Sonnet 4.6 in blind testing and delivering close to GPT 5.5 quality at a far lower cost. Scout is Microsoft's first autopilot agent, anchoring the M365 Agent Suite with Office Pilot Agent Mode and Agent 365. Microsoft IQ serves as the context layer, integrating M365, business data, boundary IQ, and web IQ with GitHub Copilot, Foundry, and Copilot Studio. Project Solara is a new Android-based platform built for agent-first devices across transportation, retail, and hospital settings. Microsoft also added 83 Unix commands to the Windows stack. Dan frames Microsoft's real play as distribution, not frontier model development, noting that the open model ecosystem being pulled into the platform will matter more to CFOs managing token costs at scale. (The Decode) The AI Stack Goes Multi-Silicon — COMPUTEX Taipei 2026 Confirms Heterogeneous AI Infrastructure: ARM's AGI CPU is in production with Google moving its TPU head node to ARM, and adding Oracle and ByteDance as new customers. ARM also introduced a new switch, the TT100, and put the 51T CPO switch on stage. Marvell received a trillion-dollar company endorsement from Jensen Huang, adding $90 billion in market cap on the comment alone. Intel announced disaggregated inference details and Xeon 6+ Clearwater Forest, its first 18A data center processor. Vista Equity and Cambium Capital announced a NeoCloud called Vector Core Compute, with Xeon 6 handling orchestration, Salmonova RUs handling decode, and Blackwell GPUs handling pre-fill. Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon announced the Dragonfly data center brand with Snapdragon C details coming at their June investor day. The WSTS raised the 2026 semiconductor TAM forecast by 90% to $1.51 trillion, with Pat noting the market could hit a trillion dollars if memory is excluded entirely. (The Decode) NVIDIA RTX Spark and the Edge AI Push: NVIDIA coordinated with ARM and Microsoft around the RTX Spark at COMPUTEX, with the shared message being that the future of Windows is here. Signal65's Ryan Shrout asked Jensen directly why NVIDIA wants to be in the PC business, given low margins and diminishing returns. Dan frames the answer in the context of devices increasingly becoming mobile data centers, capable of running models at much greater efficiency than cloud delivery. The edge AI conversation is also directly tied to token cost economics: as intelligence delivery moves closer to the device, the cost per token drops significantly. The jury is still out on whether NVIDIA will meaningfully disrupt the PC market, but its influence over OEMs like Lenovo and Dell that depend on it for data center gives it real leverage over SKUs. (The Decode) Token Economics and Frontier Model Cost Pressure: Dan and Pat discuss a substantive shift in how enterprises are thinking about AI consumption costs. Dan argues that "token maxing," the practice of defaulting to the most powerful frontier model for every task, has now effectively peaked, as bills have come due at scale. Companies paying for tokens in volume are starting to question whether they can afford the prices that frontier models actually cost to deliver. Pat pushes back, saying the dynamic is still present, but both analysts agree that the market is moving toward a model where token selection is matched to the job, with Microsoft's MOE approach and thinking models positioned to help CFOs manage that economics story. (The Decode) Continuum Goes Public at Highest Valuation for an AI Platform: Dan notes that Continuum, the Honeywell-spawned quantum company, went public this week at what he calls the highest valuation for an AI platform to date. He flags that IonQ will likely contest that characterization. The broader context is Microsoft entering the quantum conversation with Majorana 2 at Build, a name that has largely been absent from the quantum race, while IBM has received most of the attention. (The Decode) AI CapEx Has Outgrown Cash Flow — Alphabet's $80 Billion Equity Raise: On June 1, Alphabet announced an $80 billion equity capital raise, upsized to $85 billion, structured as $40 billion ATM, $30 billion underwritten, and a $10 billion private placement with Berkshire Hathaway anchoring. Pat frames the questions over CapEx returns as entirely dependent on whether you are an AI boomer or a doomer: if the payback comes, the raise is the right move. If it does not, the math doesn't close. Dan argues the investment is existential, drawing parallels to how infrastructure-first companies have always spent ahead of monetization, and notes that Google's equity is being used as a capital engine that may be more efficient than the debt markets right now. Both analysts flag the downstream implications for Broadcom, MediaTek, and Marvell given the TPU connection. (The Decode) The Network Becomes the AI Platform: Cisco Live 2026: Cisco launched Silicon One P200, the Secure AI Factory with NVIDIA and Spectrum X, AgenticOps, MCP-native automation, Cisco IQ, LiveProtect, and folded Astrix Security and Galileo into Splunk under one control plane. Pat identifies Cisco Cloud Control as the biggest announcement of the entire show, pulling together Catalyst, Meraki, Nexus, Firewall, and WebEx under agentic ops that run natively through MCP, with code running directly on smart switches that have x86 processors. Pat also credits Cisco for establishing Silicon One as a credible chip alternative for hyperscalers capable of taking on Tomahawk and Jericho. Dan frames the long-term opportunity as campus and branch enablement when industrial AI and robotics deployments accelerate, arguing that the numerator of AI's economic impact has barely started, as edge deployment spending has not yet begun. (The Decode) The Flip: Did Microsoft Build 2026 Effectively End the OpenAI Partnership? Pat argues the divorce decree has been filed. MAI-Thinking-1 was built with zero distillation from third-party models offering clean enterprise data lineage, with Maia 200 in production plus Anthropic chip supply, which signals vendor hedging. OpenAI is going all-in on AWS, which means you cannot be married to two people, and the full Build stack covering model, OS containment via MXC, agents via Scout and Agent 365, and context via Microsoft IQ removes every architectural dependency on OpenAI. Dan counters that Microsoft is hedging rather than leaving and predicts the partnership will run through the decade. Enterprise Copilot customers are explicitly showing in data that they demand GPT 5.5, internal benchmarks have not been independently validated, and Microsoft stands to make meaningful money from the OpenAI IPO. (The Flip) Broadcom Q2 FY26 Earnings: Broadcom posted revenue of $22.19 billion, a narrow miss depending on which consensus data set is used, with EPS of $2.44 beating estimates and AI semis at $10.8 billion. Hock Tan declined to raise the $100 billion full-year AI chip target, and the stock dropped 13% in premarket trading. Q3 guide came in at $29.4 billion. Pat calls the miss a timing issue driven by Google's multi-sourcing across Marvell, MediaTek, and Broadcom rather than a fundamental problem. Dan flags that Hock Tan opened the earnings call by accidentally reading from the 2025 print, calling it "not the best moment." Sell-side re-ratings held in the 500s across Jefferies, Mizuho, and Deutsche Bank despite the drop, with Futurum Equities having it at 600. (Bulls and Bears) Hewlett Packard Enterprise Q2 FY26 Earnings: HPE delivered revenue of $10.68 billion, up 40% year over year, and EPS of $0.79, up 100%. Juniper integration and AI servers both outperformed, and all FY26 guides were raised. The stock jumped 19% after hours before settling into a roughly 15% gain, with HPE up 68% over the last month. Pat frames HPE as a value play rather than a volume play, methodically targeting enterprise and sovereign cloud deals where it can maintain profitability, rather than competing for massive NeoCloud volume. Antonio Neri was clear on the call that the profitability pull-forward is a one-shot deal. Pat and Dan will both be at HPE Discover the week after next to interview Neri and the C-suite. (Bulls and Bears) Palo Alto Networks Q3 FY26 Earnings: Palo Alto posted revenue of $3.0 billion, up 31% year over year, beating the $2.94 billion estimate, with non-GAAP EPS of $0.85, beating the $0.79 to $0.81 range. NGS ARR reached $8.1 billion, up 60% year over year, including $1.6 billion from CyberArk and Chronosphere. RPO hit $18.4 billion, up 36%. Both FY26 revenue and EPS guides were raised. Adjusted FCF margin came in at 38.5% TTM, up 430 basis points. The stock jumped 11% immediately after hours, then drifted lower. Pat points to 2,200 platformized customers and 120% net retention as the most important metrics. Dan notes the SaaSpocalypse thesis continues to be wrong. (Bulls and Bears) CrowdStrike Q1 FY27 Earnings and the Proprietary Data Moat Argument: CrowdStrike posted revenue of $1.39 billion with EPS of $1.10 and ARR of $5.51 billion. Net new ARR of $255.8 million set a Q1 record, up 32% year over year. FY27 net new ARR guide was raised by $52 million to a $1.29 billion midpoint, and FY27 revenue was raised to $5.915 to $5.959 billion. A 4-for-1 stock split was announced effective July 2nd. The stock dropped 11% despite the beat after a 64% year-to-date run into earnings. Dan uses the results to make a broader argument against the software disruption thesis, referencing Palantir CEO Alex Karp daring customers to build without him using Anthropic or OpenAI, and Larry Ellison's argument that the real AI value unlock sits in proprietary enterprise data that is not accessible to frontier models. Enterprises with governed, secure, proprietary data will continue to need platforms like CrowdStrike regardless of what frontier models can do. (Bulls and Bears) Six Five Summit is coming. Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff will kick off the event. Register and stay current at sixfivemedia.com/summit. Watch the full video at sixfivemedia.com, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode.   The Decode Microsoft Declares Independence — Build 2026 Ships an End-to-End Agentic AI Stack (MAI-Thinking-1 + Scout + Microsoft IQ + Project Solara + Majorana 2) https://www.theverge.com/tech/941738/microsoft-build-2026-biggest-announcements The AI Stack Goes Multi-Silicon — Computex 2026 Confirms a Heterogeneous AI Infrastructure (ARM + Marvell + Intel ASIC + Qualcomm + RTX Spark); WSTS Raises 2026 Semi TAM Forecast 90% to $1.51T https://www.tomshardware.com/tag/computex AI Capex Has Outgrown Cash Flow — Alphabet's $80B Equity Raise Is the Largest in U.S. Corporate History; Berkshire Anchors $10B https://abc.xyz/investor/news/news-details/2026/Alphabet-Announces-Proposed-80-Billion-Equity-Capital-Raise-to-Expand-AI-Infrastructure-and-Compute-2026-b0myAMewCa/default.aspx The Network Becomes the AI Platform — Cisco Live 2026 Launches Silicon One P200, Secure AI Factory (with NVIDIA), AgenticOps, Astrix Security + Galileo https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/about/whats-new/index.html The Flip Did Microsoft Build 2026 Effectively End the OpenAI Partnership? MAI-Thinking-1 Beats Sonnet 4.6 in Blind Testing, Microsoft Claims GPT-5.5 Parity at 10x Cost Efficiency — Will MS Quietly Wind Down OpenAI Exclusivity by FY28, or Is OpenAI Still the Frontier Anchor Microsoft Needs?   FOR:  MAI-Thinking-1 beating Sonnet 4.6 in blind preference + GPT-5.5 parity at 10x cost efficiency is a frontier-model independence proof point https://www.latent.space/p/ainews-microsoft-build-mai-thinking Build 2026: Accumulating Evidence of Microsoft's AI Independence — EDN (June 4) — https://www.edn.com/build-2026-accumulating-evidence-of-microsofts-ai-independence/ Maia 200 in production + Anthropic-Maia chip talks signal Microsoft is hedging its inference vendor stack https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/01/26/maia-200-the-ai-accelerator-built-for-inference/ Microsoft canceled Anthropic's internal software licenses + pivoted to chip-supply pursuit — customer-not-competitor positioning https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/21/anthropic-microsoft-maia-200-ai-chip.html   AGAINST:  Enterprise Copilot customers explicitly demand GPT-5.5 — internal benchmarks don't replace the brand https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/release-notes?tabs=all MAI-Thinking-1 benchmarks haven't been third-party verified — Microsoft is the only source https://www.latent.space/p/ainews-microsoft-build-mai-thinking The MS-OpenAI partnership is contractual through 2030+ — unwinding it is impractical and expensive https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/04/27/the-next-phase-of-the-microsoft-openai-partnership/ Microsoft's actual strategic risk is OpenAI leaving, not MS leaving — Anthropic + OpenAI IPOs make OpenAI exit risk the real concern https://www.anthropic.com/news/confidential-draft-s1-sec Bulls & Bears Broadcom (AVGO) Q2 FY26 ACTUALS — Rev $22.19B (Narrow Miss) + EPS $2.44 (Beat); AI Semis $10.8B; Hock Tan Refuses to Raise the $100B Full-Year AI Chip Target — Stock −13% Premarket; Q3 Guide $29.4B https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/03/broadcom-avgo-earnings-report-q2-2026.html Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Q2 FY26 ACTUALS — Blowout: Rev $10.68B (+40%), EPS $0.79 (+100%); Juniper Integration + AI Servers Both Outperform; FY26 Guides All Raised; Stock +19% AH https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260601866494/en/HPE-Reports-Fiscal-2026-Second-Quarter-Results Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Q3 FY26 ACTUALS — Beat-and-Raise: Rev $3.0B (+31% YoY, Beat $2.94B), Non-GAAP EPS $0.85 (Beat $0.79-0.81); NGS ARR $8.1B (+60% YoY, $1.6B from CyberArk + Chronosphere); RPO $18.4B (+36%); FY26 Revenue + EPS Guides BOTH RAISED; Adj FCF Margin 38.5% TTM (+430 bps); Stock +11% Immediate AH, Then Drifted Lower https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/company/press/2026/palo-alto-networks-reports-fiscal-third-quarter-2026-financial-results CrowdStrike narrowly beats estimates on AI tailwinds, but stock falls 9% — CNBC (June 3) — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/03/crowdstrike-crwd-q1-2027-earnings.html  

What is the office actually for? It's a question that many organizations are still wrestling with as they balance flexibility, collaboration, employee expectations, and business performance. At Cisco Live, I sat down with Christian Bigsby, Senior Vice President of Workplaces at Cisco, to discuss how the role of the workplace is changing and why measuring success by attendance alone may no longer make sense. Christian shares how Cisco has rethought the relationship between people, place, and technology, bringing together teams that traditionally operated separately to create a more connected workplace experience. Rather than focusing on how many employees are in the office, the conversation centers on the outcomes that become possible when people come together with purpose. We explore how hybrid work has reshaped workplace strategy, why employee experience has become a business priority, and how organizations can create environments that support collaboration, innovation, learning, and culture. Christian also explains why flexibility should not be viewed as a perk but as an important part of helping employees do their best work. The conversation also looks at the growing role of AI in workplace operations. From forecasting occupancy and improving space utilization to helping organizations make smarter decisions about resources and services, AI is helping workplace leaders respond to a level of variability that traditional operating models were never designed to handle. Along the way, Christian offers thoughtful insights on leadership, trust, organizational culture, and why the future workplace may have more in common with a dynamic service than a fixed location. If you've ever wondered whether the future of work is about where people work, how they work, or why they come together in the first place, this conversation offers plenty to think about. What do you believe makes a workplace valuable in 2026, attendance, experience, outcomes, or something else entirely?

What happens when the newest users on your network aren't people at all? At Cisco Live, I sat down with Aruna Ravichandran, SVP and CMO for AI, Networking, and Collaboration at Cisco, to discuss a shift that could change how organizations think about networks, operations, and AI over the coming years. For decades, enterprise networks have been built around human behavior. People work predictable hours, take holidays, and generally follow familiar patterns. AI agents are different. They work continuously, analyze information around the clock, and increasingly act as digital teammates that can help organizations monitor, troubleshoot, and improve operations at a scale that would be impossible for humans alone. During our conversation, Aruna explained why AI is no longer just an application discussion. As organizations deploy more digital teammates, networks must support a new type of user that never sleeps, never stops learning, and can help identify issues before employees even arrive at work. We explore Cisco's vision for AgenticOps, the role of Cisco Cloud Control as a unified command center, and how AI-driven operations are helping reduce complexity for teams already overwhelmed by alerts, dashboards, and operational overhead. Aruna also shared her perspective on one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today: trust. While the technology is advancing rapidly, organizations need confidence that their digital teammates can make reliable recommendations and support critical operations without removing human oversight. That balance between automation and accountability sits at the heart of Cisco's approach. We also discuss why domain expertise still matters in the age of AI, how Cisco is drawing on decades of networking experience to build purpose-built models, and why the next few years may see every IT professional supported by an expanding team of digital coworkers. If you've been wondering how AI will move beyond chat interfaces and become part of everyday operations, this conversation offers an interesting look at where networking, automation, and AI are heading next. How many digital teammates do you think you'll be working alongside in the next few years, and what tasks would you trust them to handle first?     Useful LInks Anurag Dhingra's blog DJ Sampath's blog Aruna's LinkedIn post re. The AgenticOps stats she mentioned Press Release 

Cisco is bringing AI agents into network operations with Cisco Cloud Control, AI Canvas, and Agentic Ops. In this demo, David Bombal is joined by DJ Sampath (SVP and General Manager, AI Software and Platform) to look at how Cisco is using AI to simplify complex network troubleshooting, infrastructure management, agent security, and observability. Instead of jumping between multiple dashboards, tools, teams, and tickets, Cisco Cloud Control brings network, security, observability, and infrastructure context into one interface. The demo starts with a simple real-world problem: why can't a phone connect to the network? From there, Cisco AI Canvas investigates the topology, calls the right agents, checks the wireless environment, moves into the firewall/security domain, and identifies the root cause: a site-to-site VPN tunnel issue caused by missing OSPF route exchange. You will see how Cisco is using MCP servers, topology agents, troubleshooting agents, firewall agents, and purpose-built models to help network engineers understand what is happening across Meraki, Catalyst, Firepower, Intersight, Splunk, Security, and other Cisco platforms. The video also covers the Unified Cisco Fabric app, which connects campus and data center environments with a firewall in between, plus Cisco's agentic security app for monitoring and controlling AI agents in the enterprise. DJ also shows how Cisco is thinking about token usage, runaway agents, agent observability, Splunk, Galileo, policy enforcement, and secure AI adoption. The interview also covers Cisco's work with OpenAI and Codex, including how frontier models, purpose-built Cisco models, MCP servers, APIs, Cisco data fabric, and real network data are being used to reduce hallucinations and make AI more useful for infrastructure teams. If you are a network engineer, cybersecurity professional, infrastructure engineer, or someone trying to understand how AI will affect networking, this demo shows where things are going. Thank you to ‪@Cisco‬ for sponsoring this video and my trip to Cisco Live! // DJ Sampath's SOCIAL // LinkedIn:  / djsampath X:  https://x.com/djsampath / David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - Coming up 01:05 - Is AI working? 02:55 - Cisco Cloud Control quick demo 09:38 - Cisco Cloud Control Summary 10:50 - Unified Cisco Fabric demo 12:38 - Agentic Security demo // Securing agents 15:25 - Agent Observability demo // Monitoring tokens 17:38 - Cisco Cloud Control in the real world 18:49 - Summary 19:22 - Cisco Cloud Control AI model explained 20:22 - Addressing hallucinations & false information 22:19 - Conclusion Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #cisco #ai #cybersecurity

Wipro Brings Enterprise Perspective to Cisco Cloud Control, Podcast Wipro's Uday Kiran discusses what Cisco's new platform means for enterprise customers, global partners and the shift to unified, AI-ready operations By Doug Green “Cisco Cloud Control unifies all of these domains.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast, recorded virtually during Cisco Live, Doug Green speaks with Uday Kiran of Wipro about Cisco Cloud Control and what the announcement means when viewed from the front lines of enterprise transformation. For Wipro, the announcement represents a logical evolution in Cisco's portfolio. Kiran says enterprise customers are often managing separate domains across networking, security and observability. Those domains have historically operated as “multiple islands,” creating complexity for IT teams that need visibility, speed and control across distributed environments. Wipro brings a global systems integrator's view to the conversation. The company serves enterprise customers in more than 64 countries, has more than 250,000 employees, works with more than 1,000 enterprise customers, and has partnered with Cisco for more than 30 years, according to Kiran. That scale gives Wipro a practical view of what customers are asking for now. Enterprises are not simply looking for another dashboard or another tool. They are looking for ways to simplify operations, improve resilience, bring security and networking closer together, and make AI useful inside complex production environments. Cisco Cloud Control is important because it points toward a more unified operational model. Instead of treating network, security and observability as separate disciplines, the platform is designed to bring those areas together. For partners such as Wipro, that creates a larger opportunity than product deployment. It creates a consulting, integration and managed services opportunity around helping enterprises modernize operations, rationalize toolsets, and prepare for AI-enabled infrastructure. The discussion also reflects a broader Cisco Live theme: AI is moving from concept to operations. As enterprises adopt agentic AI, infrastructure must become more observable, more secure and more automated. Wipro's role is to help customers make that transition in real environments, where legacy systems, global operations and business continuity all matter. In this podcast, Kiran offers a partner's view of Cisco Cloud Control: not just what was announced, but why it matters to enterprise customers trying to turn fragmented IT operations into a more unified, intelligent and resilient operating model.

Cisco Partners Move Into the AI Era with Cloud Control and AI Security, Podcast Cisco Live conversation with Alex Pujols highlights the partner opportunity around AI, security, and infrastructure operations By Doug Green “Tons of excitement. Having the entire portfolio anchored on Cloud Control is something that has everybody really excited.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at Cisco Live, I spoke with Alex Pujols, Vice President, Global Partner Engineering at Cisco, about what Cisco's latest announcements mean for Cisco Partners and their customers. Pujols said partners are responding with strong enthusiasm, especially around Cisco's move to bring more of its portfolio together around Cloud Control. He also pointed to the growing importance of security in the AI era, noting, “Security in the AI era is an area that we've invested heavily in. The entire market is moving that direction.” For partners, the opportunity is practical. Customers are hearing about AI everywhere, but many are still working through where to begin, what to secure, and how to move from experimentation to real deployments. Pujols framed the partner role around helping customers simplify the conversation, identify real use cases, and connect AI to infrastructure, security and business outcomes. That message is especially important for Cisco Partners serving customers who did not attend Cisco Live or who are only beginning to absorb the announcements. The AI opportunity is not simply about adding another product to the portfolio. It is about helping customers understand how AI changes the way networks are operated, how infrastructure is protected, and how organizations prepare for a more automated, agentic future. Pujols also emphasized that Cisco Partners have an important advantage: they already understand the customer environment. They know the installed base, the pain points, the security gaps and the operational realities. That gives partners a meaningful role as trusted guides in the transition to AI-enabled infrastructure and operations. As AI becomes more central to business operations, customers will need help making decisions about readiness, governance, security and deployment. For Cisco Partners, that creates a path to deeper advisory conversations and new services opportunities. In the podcast, Pujols makes the case that the next wave for partners will be about simplicity, trust and execution. The customers who win with AI will need more than technology. They will need partners who can help them put it to work securely, intelligently and at scale. Learn more at Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/

GEODIS Brings an End-User View of Cisco Infrastructure Modernization to Cisco Live, Podcast, GEODIS shares how Cisco IQ, Cisco Services and SD-WAN are helping a global logistics company move from reactive IT to proactive lifecycle management By Doug Green “I'm just a guy in IT that's using an extraordinary product that I feel deserves the attention that it's getting.” In this Cisco Live podcast, I spoke with Scott Malone, Vice President of IT Infrastructure for GEODIS, about how a global supply chain and logistics company is using Cisco technology to strengthen visibility, resilience and operational control across a complex enterprise environment. GEODIS is an end-to-end supply chain company supporting freight forwarding, contract logistics, distribution, express delivery and road transport. For a company operating across multiple lines of business and global markets, infrastructure reliability is not just an IT concern. It is part of the company's ability to serve customers and keep logistics operations moving. Malone brought a valuable end-user perspective to the conversation. Speaking shortly after presenting on stage at Cisco Live, he described GEODIS as a company working to modernize critical IT infrastructure while giving teams better tools to understand, manage and secure the environment. A central theme of the discussion was the shift from reactive maintenance to proactive lifecycle management. Through Cisco IQ, GEODIS has gained greater visibility into infrastructure health, vulnerabilities and areas requiring attention. That insight helps the IT team prioritize work, focus resources and move faster on remediation. Malone also discussed how GEODIS is working with Cisco Services and Cisco SD-WAN to build a more resilient architecture. The company's goal is to support high availability across a distributed footprint while continuing to modernize remote access and LAN core infrastructure. For Technology Reseller News readers, the GEODIS story offers a clear look at what enterprise IT buyers value in today's environment: visibility, security, uptime, lifecycle intelligence and trusted support. The conversation also shows how Cisco's broader portfolio can help large organizations move beyond point solutions toward a more proactive operating model. As logistics, data, applications and customer expectations become increasingly dependent on always-available networks, GEODIS provides a practical example of how infrastructure modernization is becoming a business requirement. Learn more at: https://www.geodis.com/

“Customer experience is not about selling a product anymore. It's about selling trust.” Cisco Webex: Turning Agentic AI Into Trusted Customer Engagement, As Cisco Live spotlights agentic AI, security and observability, Vinod Muthukrishnan explains why Webex Customer Experience sits at the front line of AI adoption By Doug Green “Customer experience is not about selling a product anymore. It's about selling trust.” That was the larger message from Vinod Muthukrishnan, Vice President and General Manager of Webex Customer Experience at Cisco, in this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at Cisco Live. Muthukrishnan connects several of the biggest themes at Cisco Live — agentic AI, observability, security and the network — to the place where they ultimately become real: the customer experience. As AI moves into customer-facing environments, the stakes change. An autonomous agent may access corporate data, customer information, PII and confidential systems. It may then act autonomously and communicate directly with customers, partners and outside entities. Put those steps together, Muthukrishnan says, and the threat surface becomes potentially “infinite.” That is why he argues that AI-powered customer experience cannot be treated simply as a front-end application opportunity. “For me, it's an infrastructure game,” says Muthukrishnan. The ability to observe, secure, manage and respond to AI-driven systems at machine scale becomes essential. The conversation reflects a larger shift in the contact center and customer experience market. AI is no longer just a tool for routing calls, answering routine questions or assisting agents. It is becoming a new operating layer for customer engagement. That creates major opportunities for better service, faster resolution and more personalized interactions. But it also raises new questions about trust, governance, data access and operational control. For Cisco Partners, MSPs and enterprise teams, that changes the conversation. The question is not simply how to add AI to the contact center. The question is how to build a secure, observable and trusted CX environment where AI can operate safely and effectively. Muthukrishnan's message is that Webex Customer Experience is positioned at that intersection. CX is where the promise of AI meets the expectations of real customers. It is also where enterprises will need to prove that autonomous systems can be useful, secure and trusted. In this podcast, Muthukrishnan outlines how Cisco Webex is approaching that challenge and why trusted customer engagement may become one of the defining measures of success in the AI era. Learn more at: https://www.webex.com/contact-center.html

Cisco Splunk: Agentic Observability, Token Economics and the Smaller War Room, Podcast, Cisco and Splunk are focused: helping customers bring the right information together, with the right context, so AI can be useful rather than overwhelming By Doug Green “The real opportunity is helping customers pull together all the different sources of data into an environment where they can understand when they need to pay attention, how to find and fix problems, and how to layer AI on top of that.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast, recorded at Cisco Live, I spoke with Patrick Lin of Cisco Splunk about the changing role of observability in a hybrid, AI-driven IT environment — and why the conversation now also includes token economics. As AI becomes part of everyday IT operations, enterprises are beginning to ask a new economic question: how much does it cost to reason over all this data? In an AI-native environment, every log, metric, trace, network signal and security event may become part of a larger decision-making process. That creates value, but it also creates cost. Token economics becomes part of the observability discussion because customers need to know what data matters, when to use AI, and how to get better answers without flooding systems with unnecessary context. That is where Cisco and Splunk are focused: helping customers bring the right information together, with the right context, so AI can be useful rather than overwhelming. Lin described how Cisco and Splunk are connecting observability, networking intelligence and AI-native workflows to help teams see across complex environments. A key example is the integration between ThousandEyes and Splunk Observability Cloud, giving teams the ability to understand whether a problem is happening in the application or in the network — and, if it is in the network, whether the issue is in the part of the network they own or the part they do not. That distinction matters. In hybrid environments, responsibility is often shared across enterprise infrastructure, cloud platforms, service providers, SaaS applications and third-party systems. Knowing where the problem lives can dramatically reduce the time teams spend in war rooms trying to determine what went wrong. Lin also pointed to Cisco Cloud Control and AI Canvas as part of a broader AI-native approach. Rather than forcing users to jump across separate tools and interfaces, Cisco is working toward a model where information from Splunk, Cisco platforms and the wider ecosystem can be brought into a collaborative environment. That includes human teammates as well as agentic assistants that can help teams reason across data, identify patterns and accelerate troubleshooting. For channel partners, Lin said the opportunity is significant. Customers need help bringing together data sources, building the right observability foundation and applying AI in practical ways. Partners can play a key role in making agentic observability real for customers by helping them move from disconnected monitoring tools to a more unified, intelligent operating model. The goal, Lin said, is not just more data. It is a “much, much smaller war room” when incidents happen. For Cisco Partners, that message is timely. As customers modernize applications, adopt AI, expand hybrid environments and depend on increasingly distributed infrastructure, observability becomes more than an IT operations tool. It becomes a business resilience capability. Learn more about Cisco Splunk at: https://www.splunk.com/ Learn more about Cisco at: https://www.cisco.com/

Qumulo and Cisco Launch Bridge-to-Cloud Architecture to Help Enterprises Beat the Flash Crunch at Cisco Live 2026 By Doug Green “Capacity extends to the cloud instantly. Users and applications never know that the systems have been extended into the cloud.” At Cisco Live 2026, Doug Green spoke with Brandon Whitelaw of Qumulo about the company's new Bridge-to-Cloud architecture with Cisco, a solution designed to help enterprises respond to one of the most urgent infrastructure challenges of the AI era: fast-growing data workloads, constrained flash supply, longer hardware lead times and rising demand for high-performance storage. Qumulo describes itself as an accelerated data company. In the podcast, Whitelaw explains that Qumulo helps organizations store and manage mission-critical file and object data across data centers, edge environments and the major public clouds. The goal is to unify those datasets into a consistent, AI-enabled data fabric that can support both today's high-performance applications and tomorrow's AI pipelines. Qumulo's customers include autonomous driving companies, media and entertainment organizations, special effects shops, sports broadcasters, life sciences organizations, genomic research teams, hospitals, public sector agencies and government entities. The common thread is data: large, high-capacity, high-performance datasets that must be available, protected and ready for use. The Cisco announcement focuses on Cloud Native Qumulo Enterprise combined with Cisco Unified Computing System through Qumulo's Cloud Data Fabric. The solution is designed to let enterprises extend file workloads from on-premises Cisco UCS infrastructure into the cloud without forcing a disruptive migration, application refactoring or a rebuild of existing workflows. For enterprise IT teams, the problem is practical. AI infrastructure demand is reshaping the market for memory and NVMe systems, creating pressure on traditional capacity planning. Instead of waiting months for new hardware or overprovisioning all-flash systems, Qumulo and Cisco are offering a bridge: keep trusted on-premises infrastructure in place while extending selected workloads into the cloud as needed. Whitelaw says the architecture gives enterprises a way to free up on-premises infrastructure for the most critical applications, while using cloud capacity to handle growth, burst demand and AI-readiness. The result is a hybrid model that is not simply about cloud migration. It is about operational flexibility. The solution also positions enterprise data for AI and analytics. Qumulo says CNQ Enterprise includes Cloud Data Fabric and NeuralProtect and can run on Cisco UCS on-premises as well as across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The architecture is intended to make enterprise datasets available for AI pipelines into services such as Microsoft AI Foundry, AWS Bedrock and Google Vertex AI. For Cisco partners, service providers and enterprise IT teams, the message from the podcast is clear: hybrid cloud is becoming a pressure-release valve for data infrastructure. The Bridge-to-Cloud model offers a way to gain capacity relief, preserve application continuity, support elastic scale and prepare data for AI without forcing customers into a disruptive replatforming project. Qumulo CNQ Enterprise is available now for deployment on Cisco UCS on-premises infrastructure and across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and OCI. It is also available through Cisco for simplified enterprise procurement. Qumulo is exhibiting at booth 4018 at Cisco Live 2026 in Las Vegas. Learn more at: https://qumulo.com/product/cisco/

Smart Out-of-Band management gives IT teams secure access when the primary network is down, “The days of designing your network assuming that it's always going to be up and not fail are over,” Quirk says By Doug Green “Visibility without control is really just awareness,” says Patrick Quirk, GM of Opengear. In this Cisco Live podcast, Patrick Quirk joins Technology Reseller News to discuss how Opengear is helping enterprises rethink network resilience as AI, edge computing, hybrid cloud and cyber threats make infrastructure more distributed and more business-critical. Opengear provides Smart Out-of-Band management: an independent, secure path into critical infrastructure when the primary network is unavailable. That means IT teams can monitor, troubleshoot and restore systems even during outages, cyber incidents or other network disruptions. “The days of designing your network assuming that it's always going to be up and not fail are over,” Quirk says. The challenge is that many traditional monitoring and management tools depend on the same production network they are meant to protect. When that network fails, organizations may lose access at the exact moment they need it most. Opengear's platform is designed to preserve control, giving engineers a way to diagnose issues, reboot devices, push fixes and recover services remotely. Quirk says AI is raising the stakes. AI workloads are moving beyond centralized data centers into edge environments, regional sites and hybrid infrastructure. As a result, every connection point becomes more important. At the same time, AI-enabled threats are moving faster, increasing the need for secure, resilient recovery capabilities. For enterprises, resilience is no longer simply a backup plan. It is becoming part of the operating architecture for AI-era networks. At Cisco Live, Opengear is showing how Smart Out-of-Band management supports secure access, automation, centralized orchestration and faster recovery across distributed environments. Visit Opengear at Cisco Live booth 5023. Learn more at www.opengear.com.

Happy (belated) one-year anniversary to the pod! To celebrate, Ian is looking forward to reliving 2016 with The Chainsmokers at Cisco Live, and Kat is building an army of AI agents to do her job for her. We're breaking down the actual difference between a regular chatbot and an autonomous AI agent, and debating whether outsourcing your life to a virtual Board of Directors makes you lazy or just a genius. From setting up agents in Webex's AI Agent Studio to managing your new digital employees, we have your AI strategy covered (we think). Guys...it's been a year. If you haven't given us a click, this is your sign: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

Send us Fan MailYour AI can write code fast, but it can also wander fast. That's why we sat down with Jason Belk from Learning at Cisco to unpack spec-driven development, a simple idea with huge impact: write the rules and requirements first, then let your coding agent execute with far fewer surprises.We talk through what “agentic coding” looks like in practice with Claude Code, including the trust and permission model of a local AI agent that can create files, run bash commands, and iterate on a real project. Jason explains how GitHub Spec Kit turns plain markdown and scripts into a repeatable workflow: start with a constitution that defines governing principles, then cycle feature by feature through specify, plan, tasks, and implement. Along the way we cover common gotchas like initializing in the wrong directory so skills never load, plus practical tips like using voice-to-text to improve prompts and choosing the right model tier when implementation quality matters.We also zoom out to the bigger picture: why context windows break long builds, how keeping plans on disk helps the agent “re-ground” itself, and where the industry may be heading with small specialized models versus one giant general LLM. Jason shares learning resources too, including a Cisco U tutorial that frames spec-driven development for network engineers, and the Cisco AI Technical Practitioner course and certification, plus upcoming Cisco Live sessions.Subscribe for more real-world AI workflows, share this with a teammate who keeps fighting prompt drift, and leave a review with the one automation project you want an agent to build next.Connect with Jason:https://linktr.ee/renobelkhttps://github.com/jabelk/claude-speckit-templateSDD Relevant Material mentioned in this episode:https://sdd.goecke.io/https://substack.com/home/post/p-189415335https://ondemandelearning.cisco.com/apollo-alpha/tc-ai-spec-driven-dev/pages/1 https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/aitech-exam-topicshttps://u.cisco.com/paths/cisco-ai-technical-practitioner-20806https://u.Purchase Chris and Tim's book on AWS Cloud Networking: https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Advanced-Networking-Certification-certification/dp/1835080839/Check out the Monthly Cloud Networking Newshttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1fkBWCGwXDUX9OfZ9_MvSVup8tJJzJeqrauaE6VPT2b0/Visit our website and subscribe: https://www.cables2clouds.com/Follow us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/cables2clouds.comFollow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cables2clouds/Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cables2cloudsMerch Store: https://store.cables2clouds.com/Join the Discord Study group: https://artofneteng.com/iaatj

Hello and welcome to a new season of the iTnews Podcast. We begin this year by speaking to Aussie Broadband's Head of Cloud and SRE Ben O'Shea.Eagle-eyed iTnews readers and listeners might remember Ben's appearance at Cisco Live in 2024, when he revealed work that was underway to build a new cloud platform for Aussie Broadband's own internal use, and to retire older virtualisation and containerisation platforms.In this episode, we hear where that cloud platform is at a year on, we discuss Ben's role expansion to cover SRE, and we also hear about a recent change to the company's backup tooling.

AB sits down with Gordon Thomson, Cisco's SVP EMEA Sales and EMEA President, for a great talk about The EMEA Moment, sovereign critical infrastructure, and how AI is a tool that is helping unlock human potential.

Is this the most powerful network switch ever built? In this interview from Cisco Live, we look at the new generation of Cisco 8000 and Nexus switches capable of routing 100 Terabits per second. We break down why AI data centers are forced to move from air cooling to liquid cooling, and how a single switch chassis can now handle the equivalent mobile traffic of 100 million people. AI models are growing faster than the infrastructure can keep up. To solve this, the network switch had to evolve. In this video, I talk to Will from Cisco about the engineering challenges of building the "G300" generation of switches, hardware so dense that air cooling is no longer enough. We discuss the massive architectural shift occurring in data centers, where Liquid Cooled Switches are becoming the new standard to support 1.6T Ethernet ports and massive GPU clusters. Key Hardware Topics: • The 100 Terabit Chassis: How Cisco architecture handles massive throughput. • Liquid Cooling: Why switches are adopting "direct-to-chip" cooling just like gaming rigs. • Scale-Out Networking: How these switches manage congestion for AI training jobs (Job Completion Time). • Career Insights: Will manages 5,000 engineers and explains why understanding the physical layer and hardware constraints is a superpower for modern developers. Big thanks to Cisco for sponsoring my trip to Cisco Live EMEA and for changing my life and the lives of many other people. // Will Eatherton SOCIAL // LinkedIn:   / willeatherton Newsroom: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsro... // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - Coming up 0:49 - Will Eatherton introduction and projects // Hyperscale, neocloud & enterprises 08:03 - New Cisco hardware // Silicon One G300 13:18 - Data centers + AI + GPUs 16:27 - G300 use case & Cisco Nexus 21:56 - Liquid-cooled switches 24:12 - Networking as a career path 28:41 - Development and opportunities in networking 30:14 - Conclusion Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #cisco #ciscolive #ciscoemea

What does it really take to move AI from experimentation into something enterprises can trust, scale, and rely on every day? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I'm joined by Rob Lay, CTO and Solutions Engineering Director for Cisco UK and Ireland, recorded in the run-up to Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam. As agentic AI dominates conference agendas on both sides of the Atlantic, this conversation steps away from model hype. It focuses on the less glamorous, but far more decisive layer underneath it all: infrastructure. Rob explains why the biggest constraint on scaling AI agents in production is no longer imagination or ambition, but the readiness of the environments those agents run on. We talk about how legacy technical debt, latency, fragmented networks, and disconnected security tools can quietly undermine AI investments long before leaders see any return. As organizations move out of pilot mode and into real execution, those cracks become impossible to ignore. A big part of the discussion centers on why AI changes the relationship between network, compute, and security teams. Traditional silos struggle to keep up as autonomous systems make decisions at machine speed. Rob shares how Cisco is approaching this shift through tighter integration across the stack, with security designed directly into the network rather than bolted on later. When AI agents act independently, routing everything through centralized chokepoints does not hold up. We also explore how operational complexity is evolving. Tool sprawl is already overwhelming many IT leaders, and agent sprawl is clearly coming next. Rob outlines Cisco's platform strategy, including how agent-driven operations, human oversight, and context-aware automation are shaping a new approach to day-to-day resilience. This leads into a wider conversation about digital resilience as a business issue, where visibility, assurance, and learning from incidents matter more than static continuity plans that only get tested once a year. For European leaders in particular, data sovereignty and control remain at the forefront. Rob explains how Cisco is responding with flexible deployment models, local data residency options, and air-gapped environments that support AI innovation without forcing customers into a single rigid operating model. We close by looking at where enterprises are actually seeing value today, where expectations are still running ahead of reality, and what leaders attending Cisco Live should really be listening to as announcements roll in. If you are responsible for infrastructure, security, or technology strategy in an AI-driven organization, this conversation offers a grounded view of what needs to be ready before agents can truly deliver on their promise. As AI-powered systems start to move faster than most roadmaps anticipated, are you confident the foundations underneath them are ready to keep up, and what would you change if you were starting that journey today? Useful Links Connect with Rob Lay Cisco Live Follow Cisco on LinkedIn

In this jam-packed episode of UC Big News, host Kieran Devlin is joined by expert analysts Jon Arnold, Melody Brue, Craig Durr, and Zeus Kerravala for a whirlwind tour of the latest from the unified communications world. The team unpacks Mitel's return from bankruptcy, gets hands-on with Google Beam's volumetric video marvel, and decodes Cisco's new enterprise-focused vision for Webex, fresh from Cisco Live 2025. Whether you're a tech leader, vendor watcher, or just UC-curious, this is the episode to watch.

In this episode of the @Endace, Packet Forensic Files, Michael Morris chats with Steve Fink, CTO and CISO of Secure Yeti and architect of the SOCs for Black Hat, RSA Conference, and Cisco Live, for an in-depth look at building effective Security Operations Centers (SOCs). With 26 years of cybersecurity experience, Fink shares strategies for leveraging packet data, integrating AI for automation, fostering vendor collaboration, and ensuring scalability and resilience. This expert-led discussion is a must-watch for cybersecurity professionals who want to learn how to optimize threat detection and avoid data swamps .ABOUT ENDACE *****************Endace (https://www.endace.com) is a world leader in high-performance packet capture solutions for cybersecurity, network and application performance. EndaceProbes are deployed on some of the world's largest, fastest and most critical networks. EndaceProbe models are available for on-premise, private cloud and public cloud deployments - delivering complete hybrid cloud visibility from a single pane-of-glass.Endace's open EndaceProbe Analytics appliances (https://www.endace.com/endaceprobe) can be deployed in on-premise locations and can also host third-party security and performance monitoring solutions while simultaneously recording a 100% accurate history of network activity.CHAPTERS01:24 Why is your nickname 'Fink' and not Steve?02:17 What foundational, architectural principles are essential when designing a next-gen SOC?05:43 How do you approach scalability & modularity in NOC/SOC design to accommodate future growth?08:57 How have you evolved to integrate cloud native technology or hybrid environments into your SOC and what were the challenges?12:04 What role does packet data and centralized logging play in your SOC design and how do you ensure efficient data ingestion and retrieval?14:45 How do you architect SOC to support real time threat detection and response across geographically distributed global infrastructures?17:55 What strategies do you use for disaster recovery?20:35 How do you incorporate AI, ML and automation capabilities into your SOC architecture to enhance threat hunting?23:02 What are your best practices for integrating third-party tools?

What exactly is agentic AI, how is it shaping enterprise networks, and what skills do you need to stay ahead in this new era of automation? Cisco Learning Network Community Manager Matt Saunders and Lead Technical Advocate for Learn with Cisco Kareem Iskander dive into all of these topics as they ask, “What's the Deal with Agentic AI?" You'll hear real-world examples, insights from Cisco Live, and learn how agentic AI can help address challenges like configuration drift and network resiliency. Matt and Kareem also explore the human side of AI—why critical thinking, creativity, and accountability are more important than ever.    Ask Me Anything open forum featuring all things AI and Agentic AI for Enterprise Networking with Kareem: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/question/0D5Kd0000BkfcuLKQQ/ask-me-anything-ai

In this episode from Cisco Live, Maribel Lopez sits down with two Cisco executives, Vijoy Pandey, SVP of Outshift at Cisco and Nathan Jokel, SVP of Corporate Strategy and Alliances at Cisco, to discuss how AI is fundamentally changing enterprise infrastructure over the next year. The conversation explores the evolution from deterministic to probabilistic computing, the emergence of agentic workflows, and practical advice for business leaders navigating the AI transformation.Host: Maribel LopezGuests:Vijoy Pandey, SVP of Outshift at CiscoNathan Jokel, SVP of Corporate Strategy and Alliances at CiscoRecorded at: Cisco LiveEpisode OverviewIn this episode from Cisco Live, Maribel Lopez sits down with two Cisco executives to discuss how AI is fundamentally changing enterprise infrastructure over the next year. The conversation explores the evolution from deterministic to probabilistic computing, the emergence of agentic workflows, and practical advice for business leaders navigating the AI transformation.Key Topics DiscussedThe Three Waves of AI Infrastructure EvolutionWave 1: AI training in public cloud (mostly behind us)Wave 2: AI inference moving to enterprise data centers for control, security, and economic reasonsWave 3: AI moving to the edge with physical and embodied AI requiring new infrastructure for robots and devicesFrom Deterministic to Probabilistic ComputingVijoy explains the fundamental shift happening in computing:Traditional computing: deterministic, machine-speed but limitedHuman intelligence: agentic but slowNew paradigm: AI agents with human-like behavior operating at machine speed and scaleThe Internet of AgentsA collaboration platform where AI agents from different vendors can:Get discovered and authenticatedCompose workflows togetherExecute tasks collaborativelyBe evaluated for performanceReal-world example: Building a sales funnel portal using agentic interfaces from Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, and Cisco security - all working together without manual UI clicking.AI and Energy ChallengesThe Problem: By 2028, projected 63 gigawatt shortfall for new data center capacitySolutions:Invest in diverse energy sources (nuclear, renewables, battery storage)Build data centers near power sources (e.g., Cisco's Middle East partnerships)Develop more energy-efficient infrastructureFocus on smaller, specialized models instead of racing for maximum parametersCisco's Specialized AI ModelsFoundation SAC 8B: 8 billion parameter model specialized for security policyDeep Network Model: Expert model trained on network configurationsOutshift: Cisco's Innovation EngineCisco's internal incubator tackling problems adjacent to core business in:Space: Areas adjacent to networking, security, observability, collaborationTime/Risk: Higher-risk ventures that can't enter at Cisco scale initiallyCurrent Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs):Internet of AgentsQuantum Internet - building quantum networks for distributed quantum computing

As cyber threats grow in complexity and AI continues to evolve, the security landscape is shifting at an unprecedented pace. How can businesses and partners stay ahead of the curve? In this episode, we are joined by Alison Stahl, Director of Partner Security Sales at Cisco, who provides a sharp, practical lens on the current and future state of security. She unpacks the critical intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, offering clear insights for navigating this new frontier. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand the next wave of security challenges and opportunities. In this episode, you will learn about: • The most significant emerging trends in cybersecurity. • Why simplification is a critical strategy for partner success. • How Cisco's AI Defense is actively reshaping security strategies. • Key security announcements from the recent Cisco LIVE event. • The benefits and opportunities of the Cisco 360 partner program for security-focused partners. This isn't just a conversation; it's a survival guide for the AI frontier. Don't get left behind.

Dan calls Jay from Cisco Live and Jay responds from ConCon. They talk about their new fake tech company JUCBx, too. This week's episode is...

In this episode of Shift Happens, host Jeff Edwards sits down with Rakesh Samtani, Senior Director of Partner Networking Sales at Cisco, to explore how AI is transforming network management and how the Cisco 360 Partner program initiative is reshaping the partner landscape. From key innovations unveiled at Cisco LIVE to actionable insights that can drive growth and profitability, this conversation dives into the $43 billion network refresh opportunity and what it means for partners ready to lead with AI. What you'll learn: • Why AI is the engine of next-gen networking • How Cisco the 360 Partner Program is evolving the partner model • The power of new messaging and partner engagement • Big takeaways from Cisco Live • How to capitalize on the $43B opportunity Mic drop moments: “We are investing with our partners.” “AI is moving GDPs.” “It's time to buzz the tower.”

What does modern cybersecurity look like when you're leading a federally regulated financial institution serving Canadians from coast to coast? In this episode, recorded at Cisco Live last month, I sat down with Shawn Spurko, VP of Information and Cybersecurity at Innovation Federal Credit Union. Based in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, but now operating across the country, Shawn Spurko has played a key role in building a security posture that treats laptops as offices and supports a workforce no longer tethered to physical locations. Shawn Spurkoshares his journey from service desk and web design to becoming a cybersecurity leader, and offers a refreshingly grounded view of how to approach regulation, zero trust, and digital maturity. He explains how Innovation CU's move from a provincial to a federal charter transformed their compliance obligations and how solutions like Cisco Secure Access enabled them to scale security seamlessly for a hybrid workforce. We explore why transparent, user-friendly security is no longer optional and how mature implementations of SWG, ZTNA, DLP, and management tunnels are quietly solving problems before users even notice them. Shawn Spurkoalso opens up about the practical realities of working with tools that are constantly evolving, and how his team reviews every new feature not just for capability but for how it maps to regulatory controls like Canada's OSFI B-13. This episode is a masterclass in modern cyber strategy, but it's also a reminder that the goal isn't complexity, it's making things work, everywhere, all the time. So, as the cybersecurity landscape continues to shift and regulators tighten expectations, how are you designing systems that work for both users and auditors? And what lessons can we all learn from financial services as we navigate this new world of anywhere access?

In this episode of What It Means, we dig into fear as a motivator in the B2B buying process, the human-centric future of digital experiences, and what CISOs need to know coming out of Cisco Live.

How do we prepare for a world where AI agents work together, networks think for themselves, and quantum teleportation is no longer just science fiction? I recently caught up once again with Vijoy Pandey, SVP and GM of Outshift by Cisco, live at Cisco Live in San Diego, for a wide-ranging conversation about what comes next at the edge of AI and quantum innovation. We begin with Cisco's evolving quantum strategy and the recent unveiling of its Quantum Network Entanglement chip, a research prototype capable of generating 200 million entangled photons per second over standard telecom infrastructure.  Vijoy explains how this chip, along with new research at Cisco's lab in Santa Monica, brings us closer to distributed quantum computing by connecting compute nodes and scaling quantum capabilities beyond the lab. Even more interestingly, these quantum foundations are already demonstrating value in classical use cases, such as eavesdropping detection and real-time coordination. Our conversation also explores the momentum behind agentic AI. Rather than single prompts triggering single outputs, the future lies in distributed ecosystems of intelligent agents that work together to solve complex business problems.  Vijoy introduces Cisco's vision for the Internet of Agents, supported by an open-source collective called AGNTCY. It is designed to help diverse agents communicate, collaborate, and operate with trust and transparency across cloud environments and organizational boundaries. Throughout our conversation, Vijoy focuses on the practical impact rather than hype. From network automation and SRE workflows to use cases in cybersecurity and infrastructure management, he highlights how these technologies are being applied in real-world scenarios, not just theorized. His team at Outshift is building the connective tissue that brings these innovations to life inside the enterprise. So what do you think? Are quantum networking and AI agents a part of your roadmap? And what steps can businesses take today to ensure they are building on trustworthy, open, and scalable foundations? Join the conversation and share your perspective.

Tania Katan reveals tricks for turning daily drudgery into opportunities for innovation.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why creativity can be an antidote to burnout2) How to find inspiration in the everyday3) Creative hacks to make meetings more human and engagingSubscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1072 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT TANIA — Tania Katan is a global transformational speaker, award-winning author, and co-creator of the viral social impact campaign #ItWasNeverADress; a movement that has inspired over 100 million people to see, hear, and celebrate creativity and diversity. Her visionary way of formulating ideas led to her award-winning book, Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life (Penguin Random House), as well as the award-winning memoir, My One Night Stand With Cancer (Alyson Books).Katan is highly sought after to teach people and companies how to generate unlimited creative breakthroughs in less overtly creative industries, work cultures, and lives. Some of the organizations and major conferences impacted by her talks and workshops include: CiscoLive!, Expedia, Amazon, Talks at Google, Etsy, TED Talks, American Express, and more. • Book: Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life • Website: TaniaKatan.com — RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: Speak and Grow Rich: Revised and Updated by Dottie Walters• Book: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Strawberry.me. Claim your $50 credit and build momentum in your career with Strawberry.me/Awesome• Plaud.ai. Use the code AWESOME and get a discount on your order• Rula. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at Rula.com/AwesomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Recap the highlights of Cisco Live 2025 San Diego in this episode of Meraki Unboxed. From exciting product announcements to the growing impact of AI on the Cisco portfolio, we explore how innovation and customer focus took center stage.  Tune in for insights into the event's dynamic culture, networking opportunities, and what's next for Cisco and its partners.HostSammy Brenner, Virtual Sales Leader, Cisco MerakiGuestsRachel Greene, Inside Sales Director, Cisco MerakiMike Yin is the Global Solution Engineering Director of Secure Network at Cisco. He is an experienced and successful technical sales leader with a proven track record in both startups and established companies. Having joined Meraki in 2012, Mike held sales engineering leadership positions in the biggest growth markets and propelled the business to over 60x revenue growth. Then, as the global SE leader, Mike helped establish Meraki as the primary platform for Cisco Networking and transformed the industry through cloud and simplicity.  Mike is passionate about building a team culture that thrives on a sense of purpose in helping customers achieve their own mission. The team paved the way for many best practices such as demo mastery, API and ecosystem, and MEDDPICC adoption. This has not only resulted in astronomical revenue growth, but also a sustained world-class renewal rate.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Catch up from Cisco Live:: https://cisco.com/Announced at Cisco Live: https://www.cisco.com/?socialshare=video-livestream  Powering the future of secure AI infrastructure: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2025/m06/cisco-powers-secure-infrastructure-for-the-ai-era.html  Unveiling secure network architecture to accelerate workplace AI transformation: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2025/m06/cisco-unveils-secure-network-architecture-to-accelerate-workplace-ai-transformation.html  Transforming security for agentic AI era, further fusing security into the network: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2025/m06/cisco-transforms-security-for-the-agentic-ai-era-further-fusing-security-into-the-network.html  Powering AI-ready data centers, from hyperscale to enterprise: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2025/m06/cisco-powers-ai-ready-data-centers-from-hyperscale-to-enterprise.html  Cisco 8000 Secure Routers: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/networking/sdwan-routers/cisco-8000-secure-routers/index.html  Cisco C9350 Series Smart Switches: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/networking/switches/c9350-series-smart-switches/index.html  Cisco C9610 Series Smart Switches: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/networking/switches/c9610-series-smart-switches/index.html  Blogs:Cisco New Family of Cisco Smart Switches From AgenticOps to Assurance Meet the Cisco Deep Network Model Redefining Branch Networking Wi-Fi for the AI EnterpriseExpanding the Edge of Possibility

I cover another issue related to the June Windows Updates, some known issues facing OneDrive customers, announcements from Cisco Live 2025 and HPE Discover plus more! Reference Links: https://www.rorymon.com/blog/free-windows-10-esu-offer-known-onedrive-issues-changes-for-windows-365/

How do you keep complex digital experiences running smoothly when every layer, from networks to cloud infrastructure to applications, can break in ways that frustrate customers and burn out IT teams? This question is at the heart of my conversation recorded live at Cisco Live in San Diego with Patrick Lin, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Observability at Splunk, now part of Cisco. In this episode, Patrick explains how observability has evolved far beyond simple monitoring and is becoming the nerve centre for digital resilience in a world where reactive alerts no longer cut it. We unpack how Splunk and Cisco ThousandEyes are now deeply integrated, giving teams a single source of truth that connects application behaviour, infrastructure health, and network performance, even across systems they do not directly control. Patrick also shares what these two-way integrations mean in practice: faster incident resolution, fewer blame games, and far less time wasted chasing false alerts. We explore how AI is enhancing this vision by cutting through the noise to detect real anomalies, correlate related events, and suggest root causes at a speed no human team could match. If your business depends on staying online and your teams are drowning in disconnected data, this conversation offers a glimpse into the next phase of unified observability and assurance. It might even help quiet the flood of alerts that keep IT professionals awake at night. How is your organisation tackling alert fatigue and rising complexity? Listen in and tell me what strategies you have found that actually work.

Send us a textWhen automation fails, it fails spectacularly—and at scale. The recent Google Cloud outage that took down over 54 global services for more than seven hours demonstrates this perfectly. A simple error—blank fields in automated policy updates—cascaded into widespread failures affecting millions of users worldwide. This episode dives deep into what went wrong, how it happened, and what it means for cloud resilience in the AI era.We also explore Cisco's dramatic pivot at Cisco Live 2025, where they've committed to refreshing their entire hardware stack and integrating AI throughout their ecosystem. Their new LLM called Deep Network suggests a future where networking infrastructure makes intelligent decisions autonomously. We discuss whether Cisco can deliver on these promises and what the unification of their Meraki and Catalyst lines might mean for customers.The Ultra Ethernet Consortium has finally released their 1.0 specification, establishing a comprehensive standard for high-performance computing environments. This 600+ page document marks a significant milestone in creating viable alternatives to InfiniBand for AI workloads. Meanwhile, Network-as-a-Service pioneer Meter secured $170 million in Series C funding, raising questions about the actual size and sustainability of the NaaS market.On the cybersecurity front, we examine two concerning developments: the mass exodus of leadership from CISA during heightened threat conditions, and a novel zero-click vulnerability in Microsoft 365 Copilot that can expose sensitive data without any user interaction. This "Echo Leak" vulnerability demonstrates how AI systems that automatically scan content create entirely new attack vectors that organizations must defend against.Join us for a fast-paced discussion about these pivotal developments in cloud computing, networking technology, and cybersecurity. What does all this mean for your infrastructure strategy? Listen and find out.Purchase Chris and Tim's new book on AWS Cloud Networking: https://www.amazon.com/Certified-Advanced-Networking-Certification-certification/dp/1835080839/ Check out the Fortnightly Cloud Networking Newshttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1fkBWCGwXDUX9OfZ9_MvSVup8tJJzJeqrauaE6VPT2b0/Visit our website and subscribe: https://www.cables2clouds.com/Follow us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/cables2clouds.comFollow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cables2clouds/Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cables2cloudsMerch Store: https://store.cables2clouds.com/Join the Discord Study group: https://artofneteng.com/iaatj

Have you ever paused to think about how the humble login has quietly become one of the most vulnerable points in cybersecurity? In this episode, I spoke with Matt Caulfield, Vice President of Identity Products at Cisco, to understand why identity is now the prime target for attackers and how Duo is evolving to meet that threat head-on. Matt explained how Duo, once known primarily for multi-factor authentication, is now stepping forward as a complete identity access management solution. He broke down why so many traditional tools built for productivity alone are no longer fit for today's threat landscape, where attackers use everything from simple phishing to advanced AI-driven social engineering to gain a foothold through identity misuse. We explored Duo's shift toward security as the default. Matt described how features like passwordless logins and proximity verification combine user convenience with stronger defences, making it easier for people to stay protected without feeling burdened by endless prompts and complex checks. He also shared how the identity routing engine helps organisations untangle years of layered identity systems, giving security teams a unified front door to safeguard every user, app and device. Finally, Matt offered a glimpse into the future, where the rise of AI agents will multiply the number of digital identities tenfold, raising fresh questions about how to verify, control and trust these new virtual coworkers. It is a conversation that puts identity right at the heart of modern security and shows why getting this right could be the biggest step we take in stopping breaches before they even begin. Where do you see identity playing the biggest role in your security plans? Join the discussion and share your thoughts with me.

Talking wireless at Cisco Live brings you face to face with what tomorrow's connectivity looks like, and my recent chat with Matt McPherson, Enterprise Wireless CTO at Cisco, and Jerome Henry, standards guru and author, did precisely that. When two people this deep in the trenches start describing how our networks cope with thousands of devices at concerts, hospitals, or homes brimming with smart gadgets, it hits you how invisible yet vital great wireless is. Matt walked me through how Cisco's approach has evolved over the years, from the early days when the solution to every problem was to throw more bandwidth at it to now, where Wi-Fi 7 serves as a smarter, more reliable safety net. His stories about the transition from Wi-Fi 5 and 6 to what we have now made it clear that what happens above our heads is anything but simple, yet the result for us should feel seamless. Jerome gave this technical backdrop a human touch by explaining the decisions that went into the new standard. His book, Wi-Fi 7 In Depth, pulls back the curtain on what drives choices in protocols and frequency use. We discussed why multilink operation, which people often hear about, is just one piece of a puzzle that addresses real-time performance and lower waiting times, even in areas where radio waves become unstable quickly. One part that stood out was Matt describing what happens when a venue like Cisco Live fills up with people. Walls go up, exhibitors build stands, and thousands of bodies, each mostly water, flood the space. That messes with signals, but Wi-Fi 7's new scheduling tools help keep things running smoothly despite the chaos. We could not ignore the current buzzword either. AI is being folded into the wireless playbook more deeply than most realize. Cisco has been using AI quietly to manage channels and power levels for years, but now, these tools can learn and adjust without requiring an engineer to intervene. For businesses juggling a flood of devices and constant pressure to operate leanly, this is more than helpful; it is becoming a standard practice. Then there is Cisco Spaces. Jerome and Matt explained how this feature helps companies understand how their offices are utilized. Knowing exactly where an access point is located is more than trivia; it grounds everything from location tracking to indoor maps. Add in new chips that can measure tiny distances with great precision, and you get navigation tools that know exactly where your phone is yet respect your privacy by keeping control of the user. Throughout, one message was repeated: wireless is getting smarter, so humans do not need to babysit it. AI handles routine decisions. Security layers keep new traffic safe. Automation reduces the time spent hunting for issues or second-guessing configurations. Whether it is robots moving in a warehouse, nurses paging each other without drops, or a teenager streaming games while someone else hops on a video call, the backbone is ready to keep up. Before we wrapped up, I asked both guests what excites them most. Jerome wants the day to come when connectivity works without fuss or expert intervention. Matt added that Cisco's goal is to ensure companies can support a growing array of devices without needing a vast team of specialists monitoring every light and graph. If you want to see how this new chapter unfolds, watch the sessions from Cisco Live, pick up Wi-Fi 7 In Depth for a real peek behind the scenes, and maybe keep an eye out for Jerome's next book. I have my copy ready for the flight home, and after this conversation, I know we will have plenty more to talk about next year.  

What does it take to future-proof the modern workplace? In this episode, I speak with Thomas Rowley, Chief Technologist for Networking and Connectivity at Softcat, about the real-world challenges of managing a high-density office and how the company turned to Cisco to create a more intelligent, responsive environment. As more employees returned to the office, Softcat began to notice a hidden problem. Rising CO2 levels were affecting the comfort and productivity of their teams. Rather than treat it as a facilities issue, they tackled it head-on with technology. Working with Cisco, they rolled out a combination of access points, collaboration tools, and Meraki sensors that transformed their workspace into a data-informed, adaptive environment. But this story isn't just about devices. It's about inspiration too. A visit to Cisco's Experience Center opened Softcat's eyes to what was possible, not just in terms of hardware, but in how unified tech strategies can drive better decisions. That visit ultimately sparked the idea for their own internal innovation space, showcasing how operational excellence can become a cultural value, not just a technical outcome. Thomas also shares insight into the evolving role of connectivity in hybrid work, how Softcat supports over 1,500 salespeople with scalable IT solutions, and why the partnership with Cisco continues to shape their global ambitions. From sustainability to scalability, this episode offers a practical look at how two leading tech firms collaborate to solve problems that many businesses are only just beginning to understand. If your office still treats infrastructure as an afterthought, this conversation might change your mind. Are your workplace systems ready to handle both people and performance?      

Walking the show floor at Cisco Live, it's impossible to ignore the rising volume of conversations around network resilience. But what does resilience actually look like in today's distributed, AI-driven enterprise environment? To explore this, I sat down with Patrick Quirk, President and GM of Opengear, right at their booth near the center of the event. In our conversation, Patrick explained how Opengear has become a platform focused on proactive infrastructure management. As AI workloads expand into both data centers and edge environments, network reliability is now a critical part of business operations. Patrick shared how their approach with the phrase "First Day. Worst Day. Every Day." helps ensure continuity even in the most challenging conditions. What stood out during this discussion was Opengear's impact in practical situations. From supporting major retailers during service disruptions to helping organizations recover quickly from incidents similar to the CrowdStrike event, they deliver more than basic monitoring. We also discussed Lighthouse, their fleet management platform, and how it enables zero-touch provisioning at scale. This concept clearly resonated with many attendees at the event. Patrick also talked about findings from a Cisco report that estimated global losses from network outages reached 160 billion dollars last year. He explained how attitudes are shifting at the leadership level. Network resilience is no longer treated as a secondary concern. Risk mitigation, compliance, and consistent service delivery are now at the core of business conversations. Whether you're managing thousands of switches or preparing your infrastructure for the growing demands of AI, this episode provides insights that apply directly to today's connected world. How are you preparing your network to stay up and running when it matters most?

As AI continues to dominate the conversation at Cisco Live, the infrastructure needed to support this transformation often gets overshadowed. That's why I was eager to visit the Panduit booth and explore the physical backbone enabling the shift from cloud to on-prem. I sat down with several Panduit experts including Renee Lang, Mason Khan, Vince, and Mike to understand how their high-density power, fiber, and sustainability solutions are equipping organizations for the AI-powered future. This episode goes beyond surface-level hype to focus on real-world preparation. Renee opened our discussion by highlighting the shift in customer questions this year. AI may be driving the vision, but enterprises are still asking how to take that first step. From gradual upgrades to strategic power planning, the conversation is about progress, not perfection. We looked at how Panduit is helping customers implement solutions today that will still support their goals tomorrow. Mason shared how Panduit's high-density power units are evolving to meet the surging demands of AI servers, with advanced features like cybersecurity compliance and automatic orientation. Vince then walked me through the game-changing concept of fault-managed power. With the ability to deliver significant power safely over long distances using standard pathways, this technology could reshape how we power devices in smart campuses, data centers, and industrial spaces. Finally, Mike brought it all together by showing how fiber infrastructure ties these innovations into a cohesive strategy. His insights into structured cabling and reflective polishing offered practical takeaways for engineers trying to stay ahead of the AI curve. This episode captures the customer conversations, unexpected use cases, and future-facing solutions that make events like Cisco Live so valuable. What steps are you taking now to prepare your infrastructure for the next wave of transformation?