The Niagara team has returned from an incredible Cisco Live in Orlando and is reflecting on the fantastic experience for all who attended. It was a lot of fun to meet other network professionals who deeply understand how networks operate and are happy to discuss their day-to-day challenges at levels far more technical than other events. It’s always a pleasure to meet with others who care deeply about technology and how it can address and assist them in detecting, understanding, and resolving everyday network challenges.
Much of the focus of CISCO was looking at current and future technologies, and how their impact is evolving and continually taking on a new shape – especially around the hot topics of IoT, Cloud Computing, and Artificial Intelligence. In fact, CISCO has branched even further this year to cover a comprehensive spectrum of tracks suitable to a multitude of industry professionals from the cloud, to security, to mobility and much more!
As a long time network engineer, it was exciting to see on the one hand new solutions that have made significant progressions in complexity and functionality, and on the other hand, it's just as surprising to see that some network challenges continue to follow us year after year. The MAC is still there, IP is still there, and so is VLAN... :-) Other VoIP protocols whose premature death has been announced for a decade are still being used and supported, and are challenging new generations of network engineers.
Here are some of our top highlights and takeaways from the show:
Booth #1529 – Niagara Networks!
We had the pleasure of demonstrating how to implement end-to-end visibility for enterprises needing to adjust to current network challenges, and for those who are positioning themselves to scale and ensure they are prepared for future obstacles.
One of the primary goals of our booth was to demonstrate the simplicity of implementing end-to-end network visibility, at any point in the network to ensure optimal performance of critical monitoring and security tools.
GDPR & PRIVACY MATTERS!
We had a chance to listen in on a fascinating session with Michelle Dennedy. We learned about the relationship between GDP and privacy, and how “the integrity of your networks will be the integrity of your data.”
Having the visibility of where data is located, and how it moves through your network is an elementary step needed to ensure even the most basic data and privacy protection. As technology becomes increasingly embedded in our lives, data and privacy concerns will not stop increasing, and it’s vital that your network is optimized to meet any regulations and requirements relevant to your enterprise.
Customer Appreciation Event
It's almost a guaranteed good time when CISCO puts on an appreciation event. This year we spent the day at Universal Studios and had an absolute blast!
IoT is here to stay
While IoT promises to deliver increased revenue, better customer experiences, and optimization, many people do not consider the security vulnerabilities that can arise alongside. In the keynote by Liz Centoni the critical foundations required for a successful IoT implementation – she touched upon one of them: the need for pervasive visibility into the assets that are connected to your network.
From everyday objects all the way through to embedded smart cities, there is no question that IoT is gaining more and more prevalence in our everyday lives. It was fascinating to hear from technologists about the incredible impact and disruption that IoT is enabling over a multitude of capabilities and use cases.
The Golden Age of Networks
Today’s modern networks need to deal with all sorts of challenges including multiple public and private clouds, mobile users, SaaS applications, encrypted traffic, and more sophisticated cyber threats. As humans continue to consume more and more data and services from external sources, networks, and private data centers are seeing continued investment and growth to cater to this explosion in usage.
“This requires us to think differently about how we build networks in the future” stated Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco, in his opening keynote for CISCO Live Orlando 2018. Enterprise executives are highly focused on lightning execution and achieving the results set out by their strategy. This means that mission-critical functions such as network security need to become enablers for this strategy execution, and must be baked in at the core and contain features such as complete network intelligence and dynamic flexibility.”
CISCO events always do an excellent job of emphasizing that learning and education are critical pillars for ensuring that industry professionals in the network space are armed to face the many challenges in the ever-changing network landscape. Niagara Networks takes pride in sharing our knowledge and expertise for networking solutions and implementing end-to-end network visibility.
Be sure to contact our expert network consultants to learn more, and be sure to see our resources page for in-depth information about a range of solutions and offerings.