Scenes from Day 1 at Cisco Live 2019 #CLUS

by Paul Davenport on June 11, 2019

The opening keynote from Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins started by pointing out that this was the company’s 30th year hosting a version Cisco Live, emphasizing just how much has changed in the tech world since the conference was born in 1989 as “Networkers.” (Shoutout to our intern @JarrettLee828 for leveraging that bit of knowledge for a prize during the show)

But aside from adopting some new branding, the biggest changes that have impacted Cisco -- and, by proxy, the tech industry as a whole -- have been the widespread switch from hardware-driven networks to software-powered platforms. And while many had predicted that the onslaught of SaaS and the widespread adoption of cloud computing may have hurt historically hardware-centric tech companies like Cisco, the tech giant has never been stronger.

That isn’t to say that reckoning with cloud migration and the growth of software-defined networking is an easy feat for all businesses.

During our CEO Matt Stevens’ Solutions Theater presentation, he picked up on the track that Robbins started by discussing how modern enterprise networks require new software solutions -- specifically, network monitoring tools -- to help support increasingly hardware-light network architectures.

We continued echoing this refrain at Booth 3115 throughout the show, where Seth Differ talked about the challenges of managing networks with a wealth of branch locations and workers -- a growing trend as enterprise networks embrace remote work

John Tewfik expanded on Matt’s presentation to discuss the challenges of managing DIA and SD-WAN network management tools, including demonstrating how AppNeta can bridge visibility gaps in action.

Our own VP of Products Sean Armstrong tackled SaaS and Web apps, and how network monitoring solutions like ours are important for gaining a local perspective into user experience.

And Alec Pinkham took on the larger trend of cloud migration, and how important it is for teams to be monitoring performance before, during and after any network restructuring.

Day 2 of Cisco Live 2019 in San Diego is now officially off to the races! Swing by Booth 3115 during the show and be sure to book some 1:1 time with the team before our calendars fill up!