Top 5 Takeaways from Cisco Live US 2016

Cisco Live US 2016 outdid itself this year. Just like our host city, Las Vegas, Cisco Live was action-packed and one of our best conferences yet.

For 26 years, partners and mutual customers have gathered under one roof to experience and learn about Cisco’s newest innovations and solutions. This year, the message was clear – the time is now to drive digital transformation and succeed together.

I’ve had a few days to catch my breath (and some sleep!) and reflect on my experiences and conversations with partners and customers. Here’s what stood out the most for me:

Security. Security. Security.

From CEO Chuck Robbin’s keynote to our major announcements, security was a main topic running throughout the week. We are dead set on becoming the most formidable player in the security space.

To that end, we announced enhancements to our security portfolio and digital ready network, Cisco DNA.

Our goal is to be the most trusted technology player in the market. With our recent acquisitions, innovations, training, and maniacal focus on pervasive security, we’re proving it.

DevNet Zone Continues to Flourish

Cisco’s developer program, DevNet, provides tools to help produce Cisco-enabled applications. The DevNet zone at Cisco Live is typically one of the busiest areas at the event. As Cisco continues to focus more on software, Cisco Live has become a premier developer networking event with live activities. This year, more than 100 Hackathon participants focused on developing collaboration-enabled mobile and enterprise applications to help save the world’s honey bees. Our winning teams were awarded $8,000 in prize money!

Not Just for Our Customers

Back in the day, Cisco Live was all about customer engineers. Partner engineers, technical leaders, and even C-suite executives attended the conference in droves. This clearly shows the various, important roles our ecosystem partners have in delivering technical solutions and business outcomes. Our partners are a force multiplier for Cisco and deliver compelling solutions to our joint customers.  They are essential to us now, and will be even more important in the digital future.

Learn more about our trusted ecosystem of partners and how to become a Cisco partner here.

Apple and Cisco Partnership: It’s Coming

Every corner you turned this week had something impressive waiting on the other side. But, the demos of what we are delivering in collaboration with Apple truly blew me away. The Apple and Cisco partnership was announced almost a year ago at our GSX sales conference, and the momentum that’s been building since is now coming to life.

Apple and Cisco are creating an exponentially better mobile enterprise experience on iOS devices. After seeing the demos this week, we should all be excited for what’s coming this fall. Learn much more here.

New Opportunities Drive Record Attendance

Cisco Live had a record-breaking turn out with more than 28,000 in attendance. There were also 165,000+ online broadcast views and more than 70,000 #CLUS hashtag mentions. With the huge opportunity that digitization brings, it’s no surprise we had such impressive overall attendance and engagement!

After listening to partners and customers throughout the week, there’s definitely a desire to grow their skill sets where digital opportunity presents itself: security, Internet of Everything, application development, and hybrid cloud design. The excitement was particularly visible throughout ‘the Hub’ where workshops, testing, and development took place.

That’s a Wrap

It’s appropriate to see the Cisco fiscal year come to a close soon after Cisco Live US. In the end, it’s all about our mutual customers and the Cisco technology that can drive their success. As I look ahead to Cisco’s FY17, the opportunity our partners and Cisco have right now to drive that success together is more apparent than ever.