Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Breaking Barriers in Connectivity – Exploring the Latest Advancements in Cisco High-Density Wi-Fi Solutions with Wi-Fi 7
• YouTube: Breaking Barriers in Connectivity – Exploring the Latest Advancements in Cisco High-Density Wi-Fi Solutions with Wi-Fi 7

Personnel: Jim Florwick, Matt Swartz

See the latest in high-density Wi-Fi from Cisco with their newest outdoor wireless solution. Cisco is addressing the significant challenges of high-density Wi-Fi deployments in large public venues like stadiums and convention centers. These environments present complex issues, including environmental factors, regulatory compliance (especially for 6 GHz indoors/outdoors with Automatic Frequency Coordination), unique architectural layouts impacting line of sight, and the need for flexible configuration and optimization. The diverse range of client devices and evolving specifications further complicate deployments. To overcome these hurdles, Cisco is releasing the CW9179F, their fourth-generation antenna designed specifically for such venues, which is the first Wi-Fi 7.1 solution capable of ubiquitous coverage.

The CW9179F boasts several innovative features for flexible and reliable deployment. A key advancement is its ability to operate as either an indoor or outdoor AP using a unique “environment pack” with a specialized chip and gaskets, eliminating the need for separate SKUs and simplifying inventory. This ensures waterproofing for outdoor use while allowing full 1200 MHz spectrum access indoors. The antenna also offers switchable 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz low-band/high-band radio placement on the back for localized coverage, complementing the primary 6 GHz radio directed to the masses. Furthermore, a “Quick Connect” accessory allows for off-ladder installation, improving safety and efficiency for deploying these large antennas at height by enabling technicians to pre-assemble and seal sensitive components on the ground.

Performance-wise, Cisco advocates for line-of-sight (LOS) deployments in high-density environments over under-seat solutions, as LOS offers more consistent performance, lower co-channel interference, and better bandwidth distribution. The CW9179F features improved “hyper-directional” capabilities with minimized side lobes, which significantly increases throw distance and performance in challenging environments by reducing interference. It also offers simplified configurable beam steering with fewer modes (narrow/wide) for ease of deployment, and an accelerometer that provides tilt angles for precise installation and monitoring. Real-world testing at events like BottleRock has demonstrated the CW9179F’s superior performance, especially with 6 GHz, achieving high throughput even in dense crowds, solidifying its role as a robust solution for breaking connectivity barriers in high-density Wi-Fi.

Presented by Matt Swartz, Distinguished Engineer, Cisco Wireless, Jim Florwick, Principal TME, Cisco Wireless. Recorded live at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live in San Diego, CA on June 10, 2025. Watch the entire presentation at https://techfieldday.com/appearance/cisco-presents-at-tech-field-day-extra-at-cisco-live-us-2025/ or visit https://techfieldday.com/event/clus25/ or https://Cisco.com for more information.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Automatic Frequency Coordination Updates from Cisco
• YouTube: Automatic Frequency Coordination Updates from Cisco

Personnel: Manmeet Kaur

Hear the latest updates on 6GHz indoors and outdoors and how to deploy it with Automated Frequency Coordination. The release of the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use was a significant milestone for Wi-Fi, tripling available spectrum with 59 new channels and enabling higher speeds and capacities, while relieving congestion on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. However, this band is also occupied by thousands of licensed users, necessitating regulations to protect these incumbents from Wi-Fi interference. Global adoption varies, with North America and South Korea embracing the full band, while Europe and Australia use only the lower half. Additionally, regulations differentiate between indoor and outdoor use: indoor use is permitted at Low Power Indoor (LPI) levels (5 dBm/MHz PSD), but outdoor deployment or higher indoor power requires Standard Power (SP) and Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC).

Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) is a cloud-based service that facilitates the use of the unlicensed 6 GHz band at Standard Power levels for indoor, outdoor, and external antenna deployments. This service coordinates spectrum sharing with incumbent users. Cisco’s AFC service resides in the cloud, where access points (APs) send requests containing their location (latitude, longitude, height) to the service. Cisco’s service then queries an AFC service provider (e.g., Federated Wireless) which, using a regulatory database, determines and returns the allowed channels and power levels to the AP. This response is valid for 24 hours, requiring APs to periodically send new requests to continue operating at Standard Power.

Operating at Standard Power offers significant gains, typically 3 to 6 dB (24 to 28 dBm) compared to LPI, extending coverage outdoors. While AFC ensures protection for licensed users, a potential concern is service availability; if the AFC service is unavailable for more than 24 hours, outdoor 6 GHz radios will cease operation, falling back to 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz, while indoor APs can still operate at LPI. Design considerations for Standard Power deployments include identifying appropriate use cases, checking channel availability beforehand, assessing client device penetration, accurately determining AP location (latitude, longitude, and manually entered height), and configuring through Cisco’s management platforms such as Meraki and Catalyst Center.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Beyond Visibility: The Age of Intelligent Assurance with Cisco
• YouTube: Beyond Visibility: The Age of Intelligent Assurance with Cisco

Personnel: Nikitha Shashidhar

Is your network reliable? Answer the question with Cisco Network Assurance. Cisco’s vision for network assurance is to unify experiences across Catalyst, Meraki, and ThousandEyes platforms, building smarter, end-to-end capabilities. The goal is to provide a consistent troubleshooting experience for IT administrators, regardless of the Cisco networking solutions they employ. While acknowledging current differences in dashboard complexity, the company aims for simplicity at the core, leveraging popular features from each portfolio, like Meraki’s intuitive flows and ThousandEyes’ path visualization. This unification will eventually lead to a single, consistent assurance score that reflects network health across all platforms, even in hybrid environments.

Cisco’s assurance strategy involves a phased approach: baseline and detect, localize and diagnose, mitigate and remediate, and finally, predict and optimize. Significant investments are being made across all these stages, moving beyond mere visibility to provide actionable insights and intelligent remediation. Recent advancements include org-wide assurance visibility, a feature providing a quick, critical analysis of network health across hundreds or thousands of networks based on a dynamically changing proportional weighted average score. This score considers various network components like clients, devices, infrastructure, and applications (with data from ThousandEyes), allowing for quick identification of problematic areas and contextual drill-downs into specific network health details.

Further enhancements include detailed client visibility, allowing administrators to troubleshoot specific client issues in real-time or historically, identifying connection paths, problems (e.g., DHCP server not responding), and suggested resolutions. The platform leverages root cause analysis frameworks that incorporate knowledge base articles and best practices to guide remediation. Customizable alert profiles help prevent alert fatigue by allowing organizations to set thresholds matching their SLAs. Looking ahead, Cisco is integrating an AI assistant that will enable faster troubleshooting by intelligently processing queries and suggesting actions, streamlining the entire assurance workflow. This AI assistant, along with ongoing improvements to the underlying assurance framework, aims to provide comprehensive and intelligent network management.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Unified Data Center Network Operations with Cisco Nexus Dashboard
• YouTube: Unified Data Center Network Operations with Cisco Nexus Dashboard

Personnel: Joey Ristaino, Sunil Gudurvalmiki

Ensure proper network operations for your enterprise with Cisco Nexus Dashboard. Cisco Nexus Dashboard is being reimagined and rebuilt to unify and simplify data center network operations, particularly for diverse deployments of Nexus 9K switches that have evolved over the past decade. These deployments span traditional two-tier and three-tier architectures, large-scale HPC and AI/ML clusters, service provider edge data centers, and secure data center interconnects. Historically, these deployments relied on two distinct architectural options: Cisco NX-OS (supporting classic Layer 2/3 and VXLAN overlays) and Cisco ACI (controller-driven with VXLAN underlays). The Nexus Dashboard aims to bridge these architectures, delivering consistentcy in areas like zero-trust networking (ZTN) with micro-segmentation, advanced service chaining, third-party interoperability, CI/CD pipeline integration, and administrative multi-tenancy, effectively unifying data, control, policy, and management planes.

The re-architected Nexus Dashboard 4.1 (expected in July) moves away from a standalone application model to a fully integrated, modular single application, designed to support the Nexus ONE unification vision. This platform provides comprehensive lifecycle automation for Nexus and MDS product lines, and in certain cases, even extends to Catalyst products for VXLAN EVPN automation in campus environments. Nexus Dashboard’s capabilities are categorized into four core areas: provision, secure, manage, and analyze. Provisioning allows users to bootstrap and build various fabric types (classic LAN, VXLAN EVPN, AI/ML clusters, DCI, media, BGP routed, data broker) from scratch using a fabric builder, and manage incremental configurations. The secure aspect offers compliance dashboards, security advisories, CVE mitigation plans (via Tetragon agent), critical bug alerts, audit logging, and micro-segmentation capabilities.

For managing data center networks, Nexus Dashboard facilitates fabric upgrades, including hitless upgrades, pre/post-upgrade snapshots, and change control with approval workflows integrated into systems like ServiceNow. The analytical capabilities provide extensive network visibility, from global topology views down to link-level details, and advanced AI/ML job visibility to correlate network performance with GPU workloads. Troubleshooting is enhanced with connectivity analysis (showing flow paths and potential hotspots), delta analysis for configuration comparisons, and traffic analytics that go beyond traditional flow records to provide scaled NetFlow-type insights into top talkers and application-specific bandwidth consumption. The platform also promises future support for third-party VXLAN fabrics for a truly unified management and visibility experience.

Presented by Sunil Gudurvalmiki, Senior Director, Product Management, Data Center Networking, and Joey Ristaino, Technical Leader, Technical Marketing, Data Center Networking. Recorded live at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live in San Diego, CA on June 10, 2025. Watch the entire presentation at https://techfieldday.com/appearance/cisco-presents-at-tech-field-day-extra-at-cisco-live-us-2025/ or visit https://techfieldday.com/event/clus25/ or https://Cisco.com for more information.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Conquer Complexity – Cisco Unified Branch with Lee Peterson
• YouTube: Conquer Complexity – Cisco Unified Branch with Lee Peterson

Personnel: Lee Peterson

Learn more about the latest routing and secure branch solutions from Cisco. Cisco is introducing a unified branch approach designed for deploying branches at scale with optimal reliability and security. This strategy emphasizes leveraging a cloud platform for consistent management, centralized intelligence, and streamlined assurance across both owned and unowned infrastructure. A core challenge in branch deployments is their widespread nature, lack of on-site IT staff, and inherent complexity, which often leads to configuration drift and increased security risks. To combat this, Cisco is advancing its branches as code initiative, treating network configurations like software, storing them in Git for version control, and integrating them into standard CI/CD pipelines.

This “branches as code” methodology, powered by a Terraform provider developed by Cisco, enables rapid and consistent deployment of new branch locations. The workflow demonstrated involves using GitLab to manage network configurations as code, allowing for pre-defined defaults, automated testing, and easy rollbacks if issues arise. This approach significantly simplifies the on-site deployment process, transforming it into a plug-and-play experience that can be handled by non-network engineers, reducing deployment times from hours to minutes. Complementary to this, Cisco is providing validated designs and blueprints for small, medium, and large branches across various verticals, ensuring best practices are embedded in deployments.

Cisco is also launching new hardware, including the Cisco 8000 series secure router, an extension of its existing Catalyst portfolio. This new router features a Cisco networking processor (merchant silicon with Cisco IP) specifically optimized for cryptographic workloads, ensuring high-speed IPsec and SD-WAN performance, and is positioned to be future-proof for a post-quantum cryptography world. It addresses security at multiple levels: secure boot, crypto, management plane, and data in transit. While the 8000 series continues to run IOS XE, maintaining continuity with existing Catalyst deployments, Cisco is also introducing an MX-based variant, the 8455-MX, which will operate with a cloud-native OS. This dual-stream approach, offering both IOS XE and MX operating systems, provides customers with optionality to choose the right tool for their specific needs, whether prioritizing traditional CLI-based management or cloud-native simplicity, with a future vision for greater normalization between the two.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Cisco Industrial IoT with Ruben Lobo
• YouTube: Cisco Industrial IoT with Ruben Lobo

Personnel: Andrea Orioli, Ruben Lobo

See the newest Industrial IoT Solutions from Cisco in this presentation. Cisco’s Industrial IoT Business Unit focuses on providing consistent network architecture for connectivity outside traditional office spaces, covering rugged environments from manufacturing to mines. With two decades in the industrial space, Cisco has grown to be the largest vendor, driven by increasing IT involvement in operational technology (OT) environments, primarily due to cybersecurity and AI readiness. The key is fostering IT/OT collaboration, as these networks serve different use cases but require joint effort for digitization. A recent survey revealed that 48% of customers expect generative AI to significantly impact their industrial environments, leading to new use cases like machine vision, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and edge-to-cloud integrations, all of which have direct implications for network demands.

These evolving industrial use cases present conflicting network requirements. Machine vision systems, now moving towards networked AI-driven models, are driving a rapid increase in PoE port consumption and a demand for 10-gigabit uplinks to handle large data volumes from high-resolution cameras. Concurrently, the emergence of virtual PLCs, where control is decoupled from physical devices and centralized or moved to general-purpose compute on the factory floor, introduces a need for deterministic, ultra-low latency, and jitter-sensitive control traffic. The challenge lies in enabling these diverse demands, such as large video frames and critical control traffic, to share the same network links efficiently and reliably.

To address these challenges, Cisco is launching a new portfolio of industrial switches and redefining wireless support. The new IE 3500 switch, for example, features significantly amped-up PoE budgets, 2.5-gigabit downlinks, and three 10-gigabit uplinks to support vision systems. Crucially, it incorporates Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) frame preemption to prioritize latency-sensitive control traffic, ensuring deterministic performance alongside high-bandwidth video. In wireless, Cisco is integrating Wi-Fi and ultra-reliable wireless backhaul technologies into a single access point and management system, targeting Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, and industrial portfolios. This unified approach allows for both IT and OT wireless use cases, offering seamless roaming and near-zero packet loss for critical applications like automated guided vehicles, enabling industrial automation and reducing the need for separate, dedicated networks. Additionally, new Industrial IoT solutions include 19 new switch SKUs, including IP67-rated models and a rack mount switch, all moving towards unified management via the Meraki dashboard, alongside security enhancements utilizing AI for automated asset grouping and segmentation in flat industrial networks.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Cisco N9300 Smart Switch and Hypershield Security for AI Scale
• YouTube: Cisco N9300 Smart Switch and Hypershield Security for AI Scale

Personnel: Jacob Rapp, Javed Asghar, Maurizio Portolani

Learn all about the new Cisco N9300 Smart Switch and its role in the data center. Cisco has launched Nexus Smart Switches designed for data center environments, featuring a 24-port, 100-gig switch currently shipping and a new 48-port, 25-gig top-of-rack switch becoming generally available in August. Both switches integrate 800 Gbps of services throughput, primarily offloaded to Data Processing Units (DPUs) that run Cisco HyperShield security. These Smart Switches aim to consolidate traditional networking and security devices into a single unit, with the Silicon One NPU handling network processing (routing, switching, VXLAN, multicast) and the DPUs providing dedicated firewall services. This architecture facilitates a complete isolation of management, with NetOps teams managing the network processor and SecOps teams directly controlling HyperShield software on the DPUs through separate dashboards for enhanced security and operational clarity.

The Nexus Smart Switches are designed to address key data center use cases including cloud edge, zone-based segmentation, and data center interconnect, with the top-of-rack use case being a major focus for future implementation. The switches provide a “before and after” consolidation view, illustrating how a single Smart Switch can replace multiple traditional switches and firewalls, streamlining infrastructure and reducing complexity. Provisioning involves activating DPUs with a simple command and establishing connectivity to the HyperShield public cloud controller. Traffic can be selectively redirected to DPUs for firewalling based on VRF or VLAN policies, ensuring that only necessary traffic is subject to deep packet inspection. The system also supports high availability with state synchronization between Smart Switches for Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols, and integrates with Cisco Live Protect for rapid vulnerability remediation via EBPF policies.

HyperShield, initially conceived as a distributed advanced firewall, represents a forward-thinking approach to security by distributing enforcement points directly inside the kernel (via EBPF and the acquisition of Isovalent) and deeply within the network via the Smart Switches. It utilizes an intent-driven policy model, allowing security policies to be written once and enforced across both kernel-level agents and network guardrails. Key use cases for HyperShield include zone segmentation, autonomous application segmentation, and distributed exploit protection. By fingerprinting known good behaviors and detecting multi-step anomalies, HyperShield moves beyond traditional IDS/IPS signature matching to a more dynamic, graph-based anomaly detection. A “Digital Twin” capability allows for safe testing of firmware and policy updates, providing a confidence score before deployment. This innovative approach offers a consolidated, high-throughput Layer 4 security solution, complementing existing perimeter firewalls, and integrating with third-party firewall policies for comprehensive security management.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Preview of Cisco Cloud Delivered Campus Fabric
• YouTube: Preview of Cisco Cloud Delivered Campus Fabric

Personnel: Alex Burger, Nico Darrow

See the future of Cisco’s Cloud Delivered Campus Fabric in this preview. The presentation detailed Cisco’s efforts to extend cloud management capabilities to more Catalyst platforms, particularly with the 17.18 release, which introduces support for the Catalyst 9500 and the rest of the Catalyst 9200 portfolio. This aims to address the challenges of traditional networks, such as management sprawl, troubleshooting difficulties, configuration inconsistencies, and security complexities, by creating a unified, cloud-managed campus fabric. The focus is on enabling larger environments with features like VRF support, BGP, routed interfaces, and RPVST, while also simplifying the integration of existing networks into the fabric.

A key aspect of this cloud-managed fabric is its seamless integration with existing network infrastructures. It allows for the gradual migration of network segments into the fabric, minimizing disruption and the need for extensive hardware overhauls. The underlay is designed to accommodate existing subnets, which can be moved into the fabric and selectively deployed across different leaves. This approach supports distributed wireless configurations and optimizes network topology by controlling broadcast traffic replication. Security is also a central theme, with full integration of adaptive policy and access manager to ensure granular control over endpoints, irrespective of the fabric topology.

The setup process is streamlined into five steps, three of which are critical: creating the fabric, assigning roles, and configuring border routing. A staging function allows for the review and approval of configurations before deployment, enhancing change control processes. The presentation also demonstrated the user experience, highlighting tools for troubleshooting and verifying fabric deployment. This cloud-orchestrated EVPN fabric aims to simplify network management, enhance security, and provide a flexible path for modernizing campus networks without requiring a complete infrastructure replacement.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Cisco Silicon One ASICs: A100 and E100/K100
• YouTube: Cisco Silicon One ASICs: A100 and E100/K100

Personnel: Shawn Wargo

Tune in for this overview of the newest additions to the Cisco SiliconOne lineup, the A100 and the E100/K100. These new Network Processing Units (NPUs) represent a second generation of Silicon One ASICs specifically designed for campus environments, prioritizing features and high scale over just raw speed. Unlike previous generations, these ASICs are built for a feature-rich environment, supporting large tables for MAC addresses, Access Control Lists (ACLs), and NetFlow. This new design is crucial for enabling advanced capabilities like application hosting for containerized environments, AI/ML models, and HyperShield, a containerized distributed firewall, directly on the switch hardware. The intelligence behind this is rooted in cloud-native IOS-XE, which seamlessly integrates with both Meraki Dashboard and Catalyst Center, offering a unified and automated management experience without the need for special commands or reboots.

The A100 and K100 ASICs boast significant advancements in memory and table management, critical for modern network demands. They feature enhanced Longest Prefix Match (LPM) for highly efficient routing table entries, achieving over 90% utilization for millions of routes. A key innovation is HCAM (Hash-based Algorithmic TCAM), which combines a reasonably sized TCAM with fast, cost-effective SRAM to deliver massive scale for ACLs and NetFlow, a crucial requirement for campus networks. This hybrid approach allows for flexible allocation of memory based on specific needs through customizable SDM templates. Furthermore, these ASICs include hardware-based MACsec and IPsec for line-rate data encryption, and support for Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and Audio Video Bridging (AVB) to address latency-sensitive traffic. The A100 and K100 can scale from 400 Gigabit Ethernet all the way down to 10 Megabit half-duplex, accommodating a wide range of devices, from high-performance uplinks to legacy printers.

The presentation also highlighted the architectural benefits of the new switches, particularly the next-generation StackWise. This redesigned stacking capability utilizes a Linux kernel with separate processes for bootstrapping and cluster management, enabling in-service software upgrades (ISSU) and minimizing disruption during updates. The cluster remains operational even if an individual switch process is interrupted, preventing catastrophic link downtime. This standardized, VXLAN-based stacking architecture provides dynamic link additions and ensures consistent management across both the C9350 and C9610. The underlying hardware improvements, including latest-model Intel X86 CPUs with higher and faster DRAM, are fundamental to supporting these advanced software capabilities and the demanding requirements of AI, security, and high-density network environments.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Cisco Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Cisco

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Introducing Cisco C9000 Series Smart Switches
• YouTube: Introducing Cisco C9000 Series Smart Switches

Personnel: Kenny Lei, Muhammad Imam

Join Cisco as we introduce the Catalyst C9000 family of switches featuring Cisco SiliconOne. This new series represents a significant evolution from the highly successful Catalyst 9000, introduced in 2017, which has been widely adopted by hundreds of thousands of customers. 2025 presents new challenges and opportunities, including the proliferation of AI-powered devices, the widespread adoption of multi-gigabit Wi-Fi 7, and the increasing relevance of quantum computing, especially concerning network security. These changes necessitate a new generation of networking hardware capable of handling evolving traffic patterns, such as the reverse flow of data driven by AI applications, and addressing the threat of “harvest now, decrypt later” from future quantum adversaries.

To address these challenges, Cisco is introducing the C9000 series smart switches, starting with two primary devices: the Cisco C9350 stackable switch and the Cisco C9610. The C9350 is a next-generation stackable switch, while the C9610 is a 10-slot chassis designed as a successor to platforms like the Catalyst 6500 and Nexus 7700. Both leverage Cisco Silicon One ASICs (K100 and A100) for high performance and come with an enhanced IOS-XE operating system, which includes microservices architecture, improved application hosting, and a roadmap towards quantum-safe compliance. A key innovation is the unified management approach, allowing customers to manage these switches via Meraki Dashboard, Catalyst Center, or traditional CLI/API, offering unprecedented operational flexibility.

The C9350 features a Silicon One A6 capable of 1.3 terabits of bandwidth and 1.6 terabits of stacking bandwidth, with significantly higher ACL and routing table scales compared to its predecessors. Its new stacking architecture utilizes standard Ethernet-based VXLAN for greater flexibility and improved resiliency against cable failures. The C9610 chassis is designed for 51.2 terabits per second, with supervisors supporting 25.6 terabits, and incorporates a centralized cable backplane for efficient front-to-back airflow. Both C9000 series switches are built with post-quantum cryptography compliance in mind, featuring secure unique identifiers (SUID) at the hardware level, and are ready for future security enhancements like HyperShield and Cisco Live Protect for rapid vulnerability remediation. The enhanced application hosting capabilities with faster CPUs, increased memory, and internal data connections further solidify their readiness for the AI era.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: VIAVI Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: VIAVI Solutions

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Assessing the Current State of AI-driven Packet Analysis with VIAVI
• YouTube: Assessing the Current State of AI-driven Packet Analysis with VIAVI

Personnel: Chris Greer, Ward Cobleigh

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: VIAVI Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: VIAVI Solutions

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Enhancing Packet Analysis with AI – Smarter Faster and More Effective with VIAVI
• YouTube: Enhancing Packet Analysis with AI – Smarter Faster and More Effective with VIAVI

Personnel: Chris Greer, Ward Cobleigh

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Opengear Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Opengear

Video Links:

• Vimeo: AI-Driven Network Automation and Insights with Opengear’s Production Platform
• YouTube: AI-Driven Network Automation and Insights with Opengear’s Production Platform

Personnel: Andrew Pearce, Matt Witmer

This session will feature live demos showing how Opengear’s Unified Digital Operations Platform (UDOP) uses an Independent Data Management Path (IDMP) to overcome data silos, improve security, and reduce congestion. Attendees will see how UDOP enables resilient operations, enforces governance end to end, and powers proactive, agentic AI to drive automation from day one.

The presentation focuses on the practical application of OpenGear’s Unified Digital Operations Platform (UDOP) in standard network engineering scenarios, encompassing design, deployment, operations, and troubleshooting. The demo highlights how UDOP, enhanced with agentic AI, addresses key challenges in network management. The presentation details various OpenGear solutions, including Lighthouse Service Portal (LSP), Smart Management Fabric (SMF), and Connected Resource Catalog (CRC), emphasizing the extensibility and flexibility of the OpenGear platform beyond traditional console servers. The demo showcases a high level network architecture and a detailed network diagram to illustrate the use of these tools in real world scenarios.

The presentation outlines a scenario where Acme Corporation expands its Utah location, requiring the integration of a new rack into the existing network. The process begins with a network architect creating a diagram, which is then converted into structured JSON data using a custom web application. This data is pushed to the Connected Resource Catalog (CRC), enabling automated inventory management. The demo further illustrates the staging process at an integration lab, where the OpenGear Operations Manager (OM) utilizes LSP for zero touch provisioning. This process automates the configuration of connected devices, including Cisco routers, and reconciles the deployed devices with the reference design. The presentation also covers the operational phase, demonstrating how the system handles vulnerability audits by checking CVEs and generating reports, and how log analytics are used to identify and address network issues like port flapping.

The presentation concludes with a discussion of log analytics and the use of AI to analyze log data for network troubleshooting. Matt Witmer demonstrated how the system can identify potential network issues, such as spanning tree loops, by analyzing log data streamed from connected resources. The AI, while still in early development, shows promise in providing actionable insights, though it requires further training to differentiate between standard functional behavior and actual network anomalies. The presentation also addressed the flexibility of the system, including the ability to swap out AI models and integrate with customer’s private AI systems. The demo underscores the early stage of development but highlights the potential of OpenGear’s UDOP in streamlining network operations and enhancing security through intelligent automation.

Event: Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Appearance: Opengear Presents at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US 2025

Company: Opengear

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Enabling Agentic AI and Securing the Data Perimeter with Opengear SMF and UDOP
• YouTube: Enabling Agentic AI and Securing the Data Perimeter with Opengear SMF and UDOP

Personnel: Doug Wadkins

At Tech Field Day during Cisco Live San Diego, Opengear CTO Douglas Wadkins introduced the Unified Digital Operations Platform (UDOP), a new category of intelligent infrastructure built for AI driven network operations. UDOP builds on Opengear’s Smart Out of Band technologies to deliver a centralized, secure, and intelligent foundation for enterprise grade AIOps.

Opengear, has over 20 years of experience in IT and network management solutions. They are leveraging their established platform to develop a Unified Digital Operations Platform (UDOP) for AI driven network operations. This initiative stems from a recent push into the rapidly evolving AI landscape, which revealed both immense potential and significant societal implications, particularly concerning the future of junior roles in the workforce due to increased AI driven efficiency. The core challenge in developing effective AI agents is providing them with rich, contextual data, which is often fragmented across various siloed business systems.

Opengear’s UDOP aims to break down these data silos by building upon their existing platform’s ability to connect to virtually any sensor or management port, pulling in diverse contextual data and enabling control. This is critical because, as the presentation highlights, siloed data leads to siloed, less intelligent AI agents. The discussion also touched upon the industry shift away from traditional Software as a Service (SaaS) applications towards agent centric models, as evidenced by statements from CEOs of major tech companies like Microsoft and Salesforce. This transition emphasizes the need for new platforms that can secure proprietary domain knowledge when exposed to AI agents.

The presentation then discusses the evolution of AI agents, from simple first generation query response systems to more sophisticated second generation agents that incorporate external data and tools, and finally to the anticipated third generation agents that will operate with a higher degree of autonomy. Opengear’s UDOP is designed to support these advanced agents by providing a secure and governed framework for data ingestion, access control, and a feedback loop, potentially incorporating simulation and digital twins for training. The platform addresses emerging industry protocols like Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) for normalizing disparate data and Google’s agent-to-agent protocol for inter-agent communication, while also emphasizing the critical need for robust security and identity management within these new AI driven ecosystems.

Event: Cloud Field Day 23

Appearance: Signal65 Presents at Cloud Field Day 23

Company: Signal65

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Intel Gaudi 3 AI Performance Testing with Signal65
• YouTube: Intel Gaudi 3 AI Performance Testing with Signal65

Personnel: Mitch Lewis

Over the last few years, generative AI has demonstrated its immense potential as a revolutionary technology. AI-powered applications have demonstrated the ability to enhance automation, streamline workflows, and accelerate innovation. Furthermore, the technology has proven to be broadly applicable, with opportunities for creating new, intelligent applications across virtually every industry. While the value of generative AI is apparent, the powerful hardware required to run such applications often serves as a barrier. As AI is increasingly moving from an experimental trend to the backbone of real-world applications, IT organizations are challenged with balancing the necessary performance with economic considerations of AI hardware, and doing so at scale.

Signal65, a performance testing and benchmarking team within the Futurum group, presented their findings on Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators at Cloud Field Day 23. The presentation focused on AI inference performance, detailing two main projects: on-premises testing and cloud-based testing on IBM Cloud. The on-premises testing compared Gaudi 3 with NVIDIA H100, using the Kamawaza AI testing suite on Meta’s Llama models (8B and 70B parameters) with varying input/output token shapes. The results showcased Gaudi 3’s competitive performance, especially when factoring in the lower cost, resulting in up to 2.5 times better price-performance than the H100.

The presentation then shifted to Gaudi 3’s performance on IBM Cloud, testing against both H100 and H200. The testing included Granite, Mixtral, and Llama models. Gaudi 3 consistently showed better performance compared to H100 and was very competitive against H200, also showing significant cost advantages, with a 30% lower hourly rate than the NVIDIA options. In both on-premise and cloud scenarios, the speaker highlighted the importance of considering both performance and price when evaluating AI hardware options, particularly for enterprises deploying AI applications at scale. The presentation concluded with a call to recognize the growing competitiveness of the AI hardware market, moving away from a singular NVIDIA dominance.

Event: Cloud Field Day 23

Appearance: MinIO Presents at Cloud Field Day 23

Company: MinIO

Video Links:

• Vimeo: MinIO AIStor, S3 Express API, NVIDIA GDS,m and BF3 Overview with MinIO
• YouTube: MinIO AIStor, S3 Express API, NVIDIA GDS,m and BF3 Overview with MinIO

Personnel: AB Periasamy

AB Periasamy, Co-CEO of MinIO, presented at Cloud Field Day 23, focusing on the AI-centric capabilities of MinIO AIStor. The presentation highlighted three key areas: S3 Express API compatibility, integration with NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage (GDS), and the forthcoming integration with NVIDIA BlueField 3 DPUs. These technologies aim to enhance performance and efficiency for AI and data-intensive workloads.

The discussion began with S3 Express, a refined subset of the Amazon S3 API designed for high-performance applications, particularly those involving AI workloads. MinIO has implemented the S3 Express API, offering users the choice between the regular S3 API and the S3 Express API, without requiring changes to data formats. The presentation emphasized that S3 Express eliminates performance bottlenecks, such as directory sorting and unnecessary checksum computations, that limit modern AI applications. It provides faster time-to-first-byte metrics compared to traditional S3.

Next, Periasamy introduced GPU Direct, an NVIDIA interface that allows direct data transfer between storage and GPU memory, thereby bypassing the CPU. The upcoming integration with MinIO will enable this functionality using the S3 API. This is done by utilizing a control plane via HTTP with RDMA as a data channel. The presentation concluded with a discussion of how integrating with NVIDIA BlueField 3 DPUs would enable an ultra-efficient JBOD-based storage solution, also known as JBOF. This new design will result in a low-power solution with high performance due to being a solely smart NIC-based system.

Event: Cloud Field Day 23

Appearance: MinIO Presents at Cloud Field Day 23

Company: MinIO

Video Links:

• Vimeo: AIStor – PromptObject, AIHub, and MCP Demos with MinIO
• YouTube: AIStor – PromptObject, AIHub, and MCP Demos with MinIO

Personnel: Dil Radhakrishnan

Dil Radhakrishnan presented MinIO’s AIStor capabilities at Cloud Field Day 23, focusing on how MinIO is adapting to AI workloads. The presentation demonstrated three key features: AI Hub, PromptObject, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. AI Hub provides a Hugging Face-compatible repository for securely storing private AI models and datasets within the AIStor environment. This enables developers to manage and deploy fine-tuned models without exposing them to the public, leveraging the familiar Hugging Face ecosystem.

The presentation then introduced PromptObject, which enables interaction with objects in AIStor using large language models (LLMs). By integrating GenAI capabilities directly into the S3 API, developers can use the “prompt” function to have the LLM extract specific data from unstructured objects, transforming it into structured JSON for easier application integration. This approach eliminates the need for separate RAG pipelines in many scenarios, as prompt objects simplify the process of interacting with single objects. Still, it can also be used in combination with a RAG implementation.

Finally, the presentation showcased the AI Store MCP server, which enables agentic workflows. The MCP server allows AI agents to interact with the data stored in MinIO. This was demonstrated using a cloud desktop, showing how an agent can list buckets, extract information from images, automatically tag data, and create visualizations of the AI Store cluster. This approach enhances data accessibility and facilitates automation in managing and analyzing data.

Event: Cloud Field Day 23

Appearance: MinIO Presents at Cloud Field Day 23

Company: MinIO

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Introducing MinIO AIStor – Object Storage for AI and Analytics with MinIO
• YouTube: Introducing MinIO AIStor – Object Storage for AI and Analytics with MinIO

Personnel: Jason Nadeau

MinIO’s VP of Product Marketing, Jason Nadeau, introduces the AIStor object storage solution, designed for AI and lakehouse analytics environments, at Cloud Field Day 23. AIStor distinguishes itself from object gateway approaches by being object-native. Nadeau highlights the importance of object storage for AI, as evidenced by its use in building large language models and various data lakehouse tools. In contrast to the complex, multi-layered architecture of retrofit object gateway solutions, AIStor presents a simpler, direct-attached architecture, leading to superior performance, data consistency, and scalability.

Nadeau emphasizes MinIO’s object-native architecture, which provides strict consistency and SIMD acceleration, resulting in significant performance advantages. These architectural benefits translate into tangible storage outcomes, allowing customers to scale from petabytes to exabytes.  AIStor’s architecture facilitates real-time data services even during hardware failures. This object-native approach enables optimal hardware utilization and cost-effectiveness. MinIO offers direct engineer support, bypassing traditional support queues and providing customers with direct access to experts. The company is seeing strong enterprise adoption and growth in headcount.

The presentation features examples of AIStor deployments in various use cases, including generative AI, high-performance computing, data lakehouses, and object-native applications, as well as an autonomous vehicle manufacturer, a cybersecurity company, and a fintech payments provider. These deployments are achieving desired performance and are helping to control costs.  MinIO plans to offer a channel bundle skew, which will simplify the acquisition of AIStor by bundling hardware and software into a single SKU.

Event: Cloud Field Day 23

Appearance: HPE OpsRamp Presents at Cloud Field Day 23

Company: HPE

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Optimizing Networking Performance with HPE OpsRamp
• YouTube: Optimizing Networking Performance with HPE OpsRamp

Personnel: Juden Supapo

HPE’s presentation at Cloud Field Day 23, led by Juden Supapo, focused on optimizing networking performance using the HPE OpsRamp software. The presentation centered around demonstrating the platform’s ability to identify and automatically resolve network issues, specifically excessive traffic flooding.

The demonstration showed how OpsRamp’s dashboard provides network observability, allowing users to monitor the health of critical applications and network devices. By simulating a network issue with a script that generated excessive traffic, the presenter demonstrated how OpsRamp identified the problem through its monitoring of switch interfaces and virtual machine (VM) utilization. The system then generated alerts, which, in this case, escalated to show a task that, upon approval, triggered an automation script to block the offending IP address and back up the network configuration.

Beyond the demonstration, the presentation also touched on the future roadmap for OpsRamp. The key areas of focus are new device integrations (weekly updates), more sophisticated alert correlation, and AI-driven dashboard creation. The platform utilizes AI to analyze metrics and detect anomalies. HPE is also exploring the addition of features such as the ability to recommend dashboard thresholds based on historical data analysis.

Event: Cloud Field Day 23

Appearance: HPE OpsRamp Presents at Cloud Field Day 23

Company: HPE

Video Links:

• Vimeo: Minimizing Application Downtime with HPE OpsRamp
• YouTube: Minimizing Application Downtime with HPE OpsRamp

Personnel: Juden Supapo

HPE’s presentation at Cloud Field Day 23, delivered by Juden Supapo, focused on minimizing application downtime using HPE OpsRamp. The demonstration began by displaying a dashboard that monitored a mission-critical ERP application. The speaker highlighted key performance indicators and the overall health of the application. He then presented a service map, a visual representation of the infrastructure supporting the application, including database nodes, servers, and network devices. The service map enables administrators to quickly identify issues by visualizing the relationships between various infrastructure components.

The presentation then illustrated how OpsRamp handles infrastructure issues. By simulating a database outage, the speaker demonstrated how the dashboard and service map responded in real-time. Alerts were triggered, and the service map indicated the location of the problem. He emphasized the alert correlation feature, which uses machine learning to group related alerts, identify probable root causes, and streamline troubleshooting. This grouping allows administrators to address the primary issue instead of dealing with numerous cascading alerts, thus saving time and improving operational efficiency.

Finally, the presentation concluded by showcasing automation and governance within OpsRamp. When the simulated outage occurred, the system automatically generated a task, including an email notification. Through a low-code, no-code process automation workflow, the speaker demonstrated how the system could trigger a script to attempt to restart the affected service. This showcased the platform’s capability to combine automated remediation with governance through approval processes. This combination of features minimizes downtime.