At every Cisco Live, there is a moment when you are queuing, waiting to collect your badge when you see that engineer – the one who built the new tool that changed your workflow, whose name you can’t quite remember – standing next to you. Or you spot that customer, carrying their suit, and realize they are getting ready to receive an award for the project that revolutionized their industry. Or perhaps you notice those first-timers, looking both confused and excited. That moment always gets to me! It suddenly hits you; you are at one of the biggest technology shows, about to learn a lot of cool stuff.
If you missed Cisco Live Amsterdam, don’t expect me to convey that feeling with my words. After all, I am an engineer, not a poet! What I can do is share what we, as engineers, learned this year.
Big thanks to the Cisco engineers – Snezana, Piotr, and Aleksandra – for sharing their reflections. A special thank you to Andrei, our guest writer, who shared his own experience as a Cisco Live attendee via the Cisco Insider program.
Services as Code is a game changer for network management
Among the many good demos in the World of Solutions was the recently released Cisco Services as Code. This is a game-changer for networking management, here’s why:
The Cisco Services as Code framework features an automatic deployment pipeline that streamlines the entire network configuration process. It starts with declaring the desired state of the network infrastructure and integrates automation engines like Ansible and Terraform, executing deployments within a CI/CD pipeline. This pipeline performs pre-checks, applies configurations, and conducts post-change validations to ensure accurate implementation. A set of automated test cases, using the Robot Framework, runs within the pipeline to verify that configurations align with the declared data model. Even further, Services as Code leverages Cisco’s digitized wisdom and learnings earned from thousands of implementations. These learnings are built into the automated checks to prevent errors and ensure that changes are done according to established best practices.
If this is not on your radar, it should be!
Security is an architectural play; integrated and pervasive
Cisco Live should be your yearly reminder that the old ‘one product secures it all’ approach is no longer applicable. In today’s world, cybersecurity should be seen as an architecture that spans from endpoints through the network, cloud infrastructure to applications. Especially with AI in play, a zero trust cybersecurity architecture should be the de facto approach. Any large IT environment must apply this integrated approach with multiple security capabilities deployed across different layers and operated with automation to stay secure.
This year, Cisco has announced exciting innovations, including the launch of AI Defense, and shared insights into the next generation of security technologies offered by Cisco Secure Access and Cisco Hypershield.
If you are exploring how to make zero trust work, read the story of this year’s CX Customer Hero of the Year award winner: Paris 2024 Olympics & Paralympics.
TAC is having a moment – and people are taking notice
It should come as no surprise that the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) clinics, walk-in labs, and expert-led sessions were busy again this year. Cisco Live offers an opportunity to tap into TAC’s unmatched expertise. Customers get face-to-face personalized consultations to help them with the portfolio of 2,700 Cisco products that we cover. This year’s heavy hitters were Cisco Secure Firewall, a firewall solution for all business sizes, and RADkit, a set of ready-to-use tools and Python modules allowing interactive connectivity to remote terminals, WebUIs or desktops.
Through breakouts and technical sessions, we offered deep dives into practical applications, highlighting best practices for deployment, configuration, and management. Moreover, the walk-in labs provided a hands-on experience, allowing participants to interact directly with the technology, and reinforcing theoretical knowledge with practical application.
Cisco Customer Experience has real-world AI strategies, not just futurism
This year’s Center Stage session – Accelerating Infrastructure Modernization and Execution Strategies for AI – was a Cisco Live highlight. It was eye-opening to see how Cisco is helping businesses embrace AI as a co-pilot while rapidly modernizing their IT infrastructure. The insights were practical and actionable; It wasn’t just about futuristic ideas but real-world strategies that can be implemented today to make a tangible impact.
Seeing how AI can transform infrastructure modernization into a strategic advantage left me feeling excited about the possibilities and confident in Cisco’s leadership in this space. I recommend watching the recording or reading Adele’s blog.
Learning beyond Cisco Live
The last day of Cisco Live is always bittersweet. While the World of Solutions is empty, some of us are still in labs, doing vanilla installations of Nutanix, putting up clusters, and deploying virtual machines. Friday is a nearly poetic reminder that learning doesn’t stop. We write about our ‘eureka’ moments all year round.
Catch up with the latest tech blogs on all the topics we covered here.
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