Jasper Bongertz attended Cisco Live Europe this year, and also got to attend some Tech Field Day Extra presentations at the event. Cisco focused some of their time on introducing the delegates to their IoT switches and routers. These are ruggedized to survive a life on the edge, run the IOS operating system, and can be controlled centrally from Cisco DNA center. This last point was key to Jasper, as these devices will likely be put in insecure locations, where locking down who can interact with the device is key.
I Once Caught a Fish This Big!!
Tech Field Day bon vivant Al Rasheed was at Cisco Live Europe this year, so naturally he was invited to be a delegate at the Tech Field Day Extra presentations being held at the same time. There he got to hear from Cisco about developments with IoT networking, and what the company is doing to protect this massively expanded threat surface. For Al, these kind of solutions are vital, but just as importance is to consider if the convenience of an IoT device is worth the security risks in the first place.
A Glimpse at Two Approaches to Segment Routing
Networking Field Day Exclusive with Cisco Service Provider provided a unique opportunity speak to an even more specialized audience than a typical Field Day event. Ethan Banks certainly found it interesting. Cisco went into detail about hardware support for Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6), as well as support in IOS-XR 6.1. Cisco seems to be driving this standard, with a message around network simplification. Be sure to get Ethan’s full take in the piece.
Policy Enforcement an End to End Game
Dominik Pickhardt was at Cisco Live Europe this year, where he was also a delegate for Tech Field Day Extra presentations at the event. During one of the sessions, he got a deep dive from Cisco on their policy offerings. This isn’t siloed to one product or service, but rather showed a consistent strategy across their entire portfolio. This allows for administrators to maintain scalable best practices as their infrastructure grows.
Tech Field Day in Barcelona
Orhan Ergun joined us at Tech Field Day Extra a Cisco Live Europe in Barcelona this year. At the event, he got to hear presentations from Cisco on their Cloud ACI release, as well as visiting booths from companies that presented at past Networking Field Day events. Just as important was the networking he did with the other Field Day delegates at the event, whether it was trading technical expertise, or simply sharing stories from the IT trenches. We’re looking forward to having Orhan at more events in 2019!
NFDX – Cisco IOS XR – ZTP
Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) was one of the focuses of the recent Networking Field Day Exclusive with Cisco Service Provider event. In this post, Larry Smith digs into some of the ZTP features built into Cisco’s IOS-XR. He outlines why this is the networking platform that excites him most from the company, namely that it provides a ton of possibilities.
Cisco Live Europe 2019 Barcelona
Gian Paolo was at Cisco Live Europe last month. At the event, he got to network with new contact and old acquaintances, learn about ACI’s embrace of the cloud, the latest with Cisco’s SD-WAN, and get involved with DevNet. But he also can’t wait to watch the videos from Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe. He’ll be catching up on them on his lunch breaks in the coming weeks, be watch along on all the presentations too.
Multicloud : The Buzzword We’ll Keep Hearing in 2019?
Max Mortillaro breaks down the idea of multicloud. It’s a potent buzzword in IT, but who is actually doing it? He looks at some of the stated reasons organization investigate multicloud, the common paths to getting there, and the inevitable issues that arise from the reality of it. He was intrigued by what he heard from Cisco at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe, even if their presentation on Cisco CloudCenter took a while to tease out the really valuable aspects for IT professionals. It made him stop worrying (a bit) and embrace the possibilities of multicloud.
Tech Field Day Extra @ CLEUR19 Recap
Cisco Live Europe is an event big enough that it’s tough to encapsulate in any one post. That’s why it’s great to have smaller, more focused looks, especially when it comes from Ivan Pepelnjak. He wrote up a posting looking at what he saw from Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe. Cisco touched on automating Meraki deployments, new AWS-focus Cisco ACI features, HyperFlex updates, and more. Be sure to read Ivan’s thoughts on what he saw, and watch the presentation video for yourself.
Cisco HyperFlex 2019 Edition: Mixed Feelings
Max Mortillaro attended his fourth Cisco Live Europe this year, and also got to hear presentation at Tech Field Day Extra at the event. All that time has proven Cisco’s commitment to HyperFlex, which received important updates at the event, including improvements from a security and usability perspective, certification of SAP HANA, one-click upgrades, NVMe and more. Max remains convinced that Cisco has a compelling story around HCI, but he still has some questions about the overall strategy.
You may say I’m a dreamer…
Al Rasheed has been to a few Field Day events stretching back into last year. For 2019, he’s very excited to see what’s on tap for Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live Europe. He’ll be joining what he calls the “Dream Team” of delegates for the event (we’ll leave it to Al to tell us which one is Christian Laettner). He continues to be amazed at how participating in Field Day events has opened new doors and opportunities. We’re just glad to have such an insightful and knowledgable delegate around the table.
Cisco SP Nails It at NFDx
John Herbert was at our Networking Field Day Exclusive event with Cisco’s Service Provider business unit this week, and he felt their presentations were excellent. They delved into segment routing, zero touch provisioning, OpenConfig support for their IOS XR platform, and more. If you want to catch all the technical deep dives, full video of the event has been posted. Check it out!
Cisco SD-WAN: On-Ramp to the Cloud
Phil Gervasi always has his radar up to detect marketing FUD from IT companies. But at Networking Field Day last year, a lot of what he heard from Cisco about SD-WAN rang true. The category is hardly new, and Cisco’s acquisition of Viptela is 2017 validated it as an area of focus for the company. For Cisco, they tie mass SD-WAN adoption to cloud adoption, with an overall theme of how to on-ramp to and manage a multi-cloud topology. Phil runs through what they presented and how it enables that for organizations.
New Year, New Post, NFDx!
John Herbert is back on the blogging path in early 2019 and he’s excited! He’ll be starting off the year with a Networking Field Day Exclusive from Cisco’s Service Provider group. You can watch the event along with John on January 15th, or check out his coverage of what he saw afterward. We’re looking forward to both!
Should Cisco reinvent itself? Thoughts ahead of Cisco Live Europe 2019
Max Mortillaro will be attending Cisco Live Europe, and is looking forward to attending Tech Field Day Extra sessions at the event. In past years, he’s focused on Cisco Hyperflex, but this year he has a different focus. He’ll be looking to get more details on Cisco’s strategy this year, especially compared to some of the renewed competitors in their markets.
Cisco Champion 2019
We’re happy to see that Al Rasheed was accepted as a Cisco Champion for 2019. In this post, he directly sites the influence of attending Networking Field Day for this accomplishment. We’re just glad Al was able to attend the event, and we’re hoping to see him back in 2019.
Building More Factors For Security with Cisco Duo
Cisco was one of the companies that presented at our inaugural Security Field Day event in December. Tom Hollingsworth breaks down what he saw at the event from Cisco Duo, their authentication platform. This provides intelligent multifactor authentication. It does this by not assuming endpoints are secure, enforcing the latest firmware, and supporting geofencing and time zone awareness. This allows you to build policy enforcement into your 2FA from the ground up.
Will Cisco Viptela continue to be one of the Leaders in SD-WAN ?
Orhan Ergun looks at Cisco’s SD-WAN efforts, which since acquiring Viptela in 2017 have been recognized by Gartner as Leaders in their Magic Quadrant. For Orhan, the strength of Cisco’s approach to SD-WAN is allowing it to run directly on IOS-based devices, bringing in new features with software updates. He also digs deep into the feature parity with other SD-WAN solutions, and the overall value proposition for enterprises.
Stuck in Traffic – Doug Engelbart
Even though J Wolfgang Goerlich is stuck in traffic, that doesn’t mean he can’t put together some great security content. In this video, he considers the influence of Doug Engelbart, and how we can use collective intelligence to augment cyber security practices, particularly with automation. At Security Field Day, he saw Cisco take this approach with Cisco Threat Response.
Tech Field Day: Day 1
Paul Snyder was one of the delegates invited to the inaugural Security Field Day earlier this month. This was his first time at a Field Day event, he found it to be one of the best professional experiences he’s ever had. He found the event separates itself from others in the industry, because the delegates have total candor and freedom to express how they truly feel about the presenting companies. Maintaining this independence is critical for maintaining constructive dialogues.