Cisco Live 2017 – Las Vegas gets ready to play host second year in a row

As Las Vegas glows in the intense June summer sun, another glow is appearing on the horizon. Cisco Live 2017 is arriving in town a week from now, and the city is already getting prepared.  Cisco Live US 2017, Cisco’s premier education and training destination for IT professionals worldwide, kicks off next week in Vegas.  More than 25,000 customers and partners converge to network and share their experiences, and potentially meet new peers onsite.

Like you, I am eagerly awaiting the keynote set for Monday, June 26, 10.30 AM local time.  Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins will discuss new innovation that is changing how we design and manage networks for those who want to transform to drive future success. Big changes are on the horizon and only you can bring these new capabilities to your organizations because you’re it.

There are several other additional keynotes, from Rowan Trollope, David Goeckler, Chris Dedicoat and four-time Emmy award winner Bryan Cranston. So prepare your agenda in advance to get a broad exposure.

Cisco Live offers a vast collection of technologies and innovations to its attendees, and I would not be able to do justice covering them all. For the remainder of this blog I will focus on Tetration Analytics and Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) highlights. The logical place to start is with Ishmael Limkakeng’s Innovation Talk on the topic “Taking Advantage of Pervasive Data in Your Data Center Session ID: INSDCN-1515” which is scheduled for June 27, 1.00 PM.  From Ish’s session you can learn how to take advantage of the ability to see everything in your data center from Spectrum Health, and how Tetration and ACI together are improving their overall performance and security.

Let us now segue into ACI and the Tetration Analytics Breakout sessions. Numerous sessions are dedicated to Tetration Analytics this year at the show. I’d recommend Tim Garner and Remi Phillippe’s session titled “Tetration Analytics – Industry’s Powerful Analytics Platform” as a must-attend. I also recommend Mike Herbert’s session BRKACI-2040, for a close peek at machine learning and Network analytics and how they enhance Data Center security and operations.  Plus there are many more, and you can pick and choose from the session catalog?

Likewise, several ACI breakouts feature prominently among a large collection of 1,000 plus breakout sessions this year with several experts addressing hot topics in container networking, operations, deployment, ACI App Center and demo sessions featuring Tetration and ACI eco-system. I recommend a few PSO breakouts I consider relevant to current Data Center trends.

Daniel McGinniss, Senior Director, Data Center Marketing, is presenting a business session and explores the top strategies companies can factor into their planning cycles in building their next-generation data centers over the next 3 to 5 years. Danny is an amazing story-teller, and in this session he’ll discuss how you can navigate the Hybrid IT transformation with Cisco ASAP Data Center architecture. This session will also introduce solutions to your key challenges as you evolve toward a Hybrid-IT model. I have seen Danny present last year in Australia, at the F5 Agility conference, and he is a gifted speaker. So, do not miss his session.

There are a few others presenting business focused PSO sessions along with Danny. Adam Ozkan, Sultan Dawood, Tony Antony, Joe/Corey complete the well-rounded PSO sessions.

Also, Cisco MDS sessions (with the recent 32G launch) has been a hot topic this year. There are several insightful breakout sessions, and I recommend all of them if you are a SAN expert. Check the sessions catalog for details.

Most of you by now will be raring to make a beeline to the world of solutions as it is where exhibitors and subject matter experts from various partners and customers of cisco throng to gather insights on what’s new and exciting.

This year, we are showcasing a big collection of solution demos spanning multiple architectures including UCS, ACI, Tetration Analytics, Security etc. It will take me several blogs to cover them all, so I will stick to my focus areas, ACI and Tetration.  Solutions from hundreds of cisco partners are on display in the world of solutions.   This is your opportunity to explore the broader Cisco Partner eco-system, find answers for your specific networking challenges, and hear unique perspectives from Cisco engineers and partners, Monday-Thursday, throughout the day.

Our ACI and Tetration Analytics solutions and demo showcase focuses on typical customer care-abouts. The demos include Multi-Pod ACI, ACI Security,Cloud Orchestration with ACI, Tetration Analytics, and Cisco CloudCenter.  Tetration Analytics is getting rave reviews with Partners and Customers and features prominently, with demos on Automatic Policy Enforcement, Application segmentation and Ecosystem Partner solutions. There’s more, so please stop by our Cisco booth for a detailed engagement with one of our subject matter experts.

Also, this year we’ll be premiering the use of Cisco Tetration Analytics Platform to visualize applications running on the live Event Network. The NOC team, in collaboration with both the Advanced Services and the Cisco Business unit, were able to deploy a brand new Tetration Cluster. Come to the Cisco Live Network Operations Center, in the World of Solutions, to see this exciting new exhibit.

If you have some time, please plan to attend the Cisco DC and Campus Theater presentations – it runs every 15 minutes. Many of these are condensed breakouts and cover customer top of mind topics.

These short duration presentations give you an overview on key topics such as how Tetration and ACI’s open API have enabled a broad L4-L7 eco-system with Citrix, F5, Splunk, ServiceNow, Tufin, AlgoSec et al.. There are several others you can choose from in the agenda planner.

I am personally leading several ACI/Tetration presentations in Partner Theaters (Citrix, Splunk, SevOne, Intel, Tufin, CA technologies), Monday-Thursday. Check the respective Partner Theater lobby for timings and schedules.

Another highlight at the WOS is The DevNet Zone, Cisco’s software developer resource and community brought to you live. It is here, we help developers and network engineers innovate using Cisco technologies and platforms. I am sure most of you developers will benefit from the Innovation talk, earlier on Monday, by Cisco VP&CTO, DevNet, Susie Wee, in her session titled “innovations with Cisco APIs”.

One of the key pillars that made Cisco ACI phenomenally successful is the Open and Secure eco-system of 65 plus leading partners that have built joint, integrated solutions with ACI.  And in past 6 months our Tetration ecosystem has grown to a significant 15+ partners.

Let me start with our key strategic ACI/Tetration ecosystem partner Citrix. All Citrix-Cisco excitement awaits you in booth #2329. Learn how to provide superior performance for end users over any cloud or network and transform your data center through true cloud-service automation, deep network and application-level intelligence, fast service deployment, and simplified networking services with Citrix NetScaler and Cisco ACI. Discover how to securely deliver apps and desktops over any network with Citrix XenDesktop, XenApp, and NetScaler on Cisco UCS/HyperFlex virtualization infrastructure that result in increased productivity, business agility and differentiation for your business. Check out sensational news on Cisco ACI and Citrix NetScaler winning the Best of Synergy award for 2017. For a quick summary of how Cisco and Citrix have been expanding the solution momentum, check out the Video recording featuring Ravi (Cisco) and Raj (Citrix).

Looking for kryptonite prevention?  IT Superheroes do not miss these Citrix sessions:

Solutions Theater booth #4223 presentation on Monday, June 26 @ 1:30pm (Session ID: SOLCLD-1003): “Enabling secure delivery of apps and desktops to accelerate digital business with Citrix and Cisco.”
Superhero Speaker:  Orestes Melgarejo, Sr. Director App & Desktop Delivery, Citrix

World of Solutions Think Tank at The Hub presentation on Wednesday, June 28 @ 3:30pm (Session ID: TNKACI-2002): “Delivering business agility through secure application delivery networking with Cisco and Citrix.”
Superhero Speaker:  Dave Potter, Sr. Solutions Architect, Citrix. Stop by booth #1601 to enter to win a Drone! Citrix Superhero mini figurines will be given away to all visitors of booth #2329.

World of Solutions Cisco Campus Data Center Education Zone presentation on Tuesday, June 27 @ 2:40pm: “Accelerate your workforce with Citrix and Cisco secure delivery of apps and desktops.”

F5, another leading ACI/Tetration ecosystem partner, has a big booth presence  this year as an Emerald sponsor. Visit F5, Booth #1728 and meet F5 engineers and solution architects for technical demos and discussions on the latest F5 and Cisco solutions that automate and orchestrate up and down the stack—from layer 2 through layer 7. Attend F5 in-booth theater to learn:

Application Analytics Using F5 BIG-IP

F5 SSL Orchestrator with Cisco FirePower Next-Gen Firewall Solutions

Securing IoT with F5

Cloud-Ready with F5 BIG-IP iSeries

Cisco ACI and F5 BIG-IP/iWorkflow Integration

Automate BIG-IP Configuration with Ansible and Puppet

Deploy F5 BIG-IP using Cisco CloudCenter

Visit Splunk booth #2807 in the World of Solutions for live demos of how Splunk + Cisco help you get end-to-end visibility across your application and underlying networking and IT infrastructure and detect and deter advanced threats. Stay for in-depth presentations and sneak previews of new Cisco security integrations and Splunk for Cisco Contact Centers. Meet one-on-one with Splunk security specialists, IT Ops experts, business analytics gurus and industry specialists in the Splunk Engagement Suite.

There are also several other important partners in the ACI/Tetration eco-system. Tufin is a founding member of both eco-systems.  As organizations are under extreme pressure to quickly respond to network security changes, while keeping up with ever-changing business demands, Tufin and Cisco can help.  The Tufin Orchestration Suite integrates with Cisco firewalls, routers, SDN platforms such as Cisco ACI and Cisco SD Access, and public cloud platforms to provide Cisco customers with visibility and control of security policies across heterogeneous networks to ensure security and compliance and boost agility of network security teams.  With Cisco Tetration and Tufin, customers have the ability to discover, monitor, modify, and validate application connectivity across a multi-vendor infrastructure, in the data center and the cloud, all in compliance with their security policy. Stop by Tufin booth #1414 to see a private demo or join one of our in-booth presentations for the chance to win a JBL Clip Portable Bluetooth Speaker!

A key member of the ACI eco-system, AlgoSec extends ACI’s policy-based automation across customers’ heterogeneous enterprise network infrastructure, to deliver unified, automated security policy management. This integration provides users with visibility and control, risk and compliance insights, as well as extends the range of 3rd party devices that Cisco can manage.

Additionally, as a member of the Cisco Tetration Analytics eco-system AlgoSec will be showcasing the synergy between Tetration’s powerful application discovery capabilities and AlgoSec’s business-driven security policy management and application connectivity mapping which provides customers with unprecedented visibility into security risks and vulnerabilities in the context of business applications. AlgoSec will be showcasing the joint solution, as well as its long-standing support for Cisco firewalls and routers at Cisco Live, booth #1036 – Make sure to stop by!

Among the exciting demos at CLUS will be the analytics demos in our partner’s Avi Networks booth, #2637. The power of Tetration network analytics and Avi’s end to end application analytics delivers insights, security and control that will transform your networks.

ExtraHop is a new Tetration Analytics partner and is showcasing cool demos at their booth #329. Key activities at their booth include:

Live ExtraHop demonstrations including Cisco Tetration and AppDynamics integrations

“Show Your Data Who’s Addy with Machine Learning” presented by Matt Cauthorn in the Solutions Theater – Monday, June 26 at 5:30pm

Stop by Turbonomic booth #4633 when you have a moment. Turbonomic is Cisco Tetration Analytics partner and has lots of exciting activities on showcase. Read Turbonomic blog for details.

Corvil will be exhibiting at Cisco Live this year (Booth #2700A). Having earned the top critical capabilities score of 17 vendors in this year’s Network Performance Management and Diagnostics (NPMD) report, Corvil will demonstrate the unequaled richness of insight at the network level as well as into the application (L4-L7) to help operations teams gain improved visibility into their environments, diagnose and resolve complex problems faster.  At their booth, Corvil is particularly excited to be demonstrating capabilities featuring integration with Cisco Tetration Analytics.

CA Technologies is very excited to be presenting and exhibiting at Cisco Live this year. Stop by CA booth CL 10. Top highlights of Cisco & CA at cisco live:

CA Technologies Theater Session: Five Strategies for Maintaining Resilient Cisco Software-Defined Architectures, Monday, June 26, 3:00 pm – 3:15 pm
Day 1 Theater (Located on Level 3)

CA Technologies in the Cloud/Data Center Partner Village for solution demonstrations of: Application-centric network visibility, End-to-end SDDC and SD-WAN monitoring, closed loop service validation through network synthetics, and one-on-one time with Cisco, Netrounds and CA Technologies subject-matter experts

We also want you to have lots of fun amidst your busy schedule. Cisco customers will be in for a treat at the Customer Appreciation Event this year, and T-Mobile arena will be the setting for this spectacular celebration on Wednesday, June 28, 7:30 p.m. Multi-Grammy winner Bruno Mars will take the stage to give us a night to remember.

There are several other highlights to report, and I will exceed the guidelines for a blog if I were to describe each one of them.

I hope you enjoy the event, and paint the town red.  And for those who are new, don’t feel overwhelmed.  I have been there.  Our Cisco ambassadors will meet and greet you, and make you feel at home.  Do not hesitate to ask Cisco staff what you are looking for, and enjoy the show!

Related Links

http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/choice-and-flexibility-in-deploying-l4-l7-services-with-cisco-aci-and-cisco-cloudcenter-an-in-depth-journey

www.cisco.com/go/aci

http://www.ciscolive.com/us/

https://youtu.be/MBz_HNpZmoM

Vnomic and ACI bring Agility to CenturyLink Cloud hosted envt: https://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/cisco-aci-and-vnomic-bring-agility-and-simplicity-to-centurylink-cloud-hosted-managed-services