BTA Series

The Synthesis: How the Storylines Converge in Amsterdam

After months of deep dives, the picture is clear: Cisco’s architecture is real, but the hardest parts—automation, cross-domain operations, trust—are still forming. Amsterdam will determine whether this becomes the new baseline or stays a bold hypothesis.

BTA Series

Networking Cloud: When Meraki and Catalyst Finally Speak the Same Language

Every Cisco Live for five years: "This is the year Meraki and Catalyst speak the same language." Every year, reality was messier. November 2025 brought timelines. By Amsterdam, we'll know if it's real transformation or better co-existence.

BTA Series

Security Cloud Control & Identity Intelligence: When Identity Becomes the Correlation Layer

Most companies think they've solved identity security with MFA and SSO. They've only solved authentication. Real identity security happens when who you are, what you're doing, and where you're doing it from get correlated in real-time across every domain—not just at login.

BTA Series

Secure Connect & SASE Evolution: When "Meet You Where You Are" Becomes Strategy

Cisco's SASE strategy evolved from "our way or the highway" to "we'll meet you where you are"—supporting single-vendor, dual-vendor, and hybrid deployments. That shift reveals more about market reality than any product launch. Here's why pragmatic flexibility might be their smartest move.

BTA Series

The Numbers Don't Lie

Cisco's Q1 earnings reveal the gap between transformation vision and current reality: $1.3B in AI infrastructure orders validates Silicon One, but Security revenue down 2% and AgenticOps absent from discussion. We're at a checkpoint—three months before Amsterdam shows what's actually ready.

BTA Series

AgenticOps & AI Canvas: When AI Actually Understands Your Network

Generic AI knows networking theory. Domain-specific AI knows your network. Cisco's AgenticOps is built on unified telemetry—and that changes everything about how infrastructure gets managed.

BTA Series

Splunk: The $28 Billion Bet That Finally Gives Cisco a Data Operating System

Cisco spent $28 billion on Splunk—half their annual revenue—because they had best-in-class tools that couldn't talk to each other. This isn't just an acquisition. It's the data operating system that makes everything else possible: AgenticOps, unified observability, AI-driven automation.

AI

Hypershield: Cisco's Bet That Security Belongs in the Data Path, Not Bolted to the Side

Cisco Hypershield challenges a core assumption: that security happens at the perimeter. With eBPF-based agents, DPU offloading, and enforcement embedded in smart switches, it moves security into the data path itself—where AI workloads actually need it. The question is whether Cisco can execute.

BTA Series

Silicon One: Why Cisco's Ethernet Bet Might Be the Smartest Play Nobody's Talking About

Cisco's Silicon One follows a proven playbook: make Ethernet "good enough," win on operational simplicity. InfiniBand leads AI training, but if workloads fragment toward inference/edge, Cisco's positioned for the larger market. Amsterdam 2026 will show if the pattern holds.

BTA Series

Building Toward Amsterdam: Why I'm Making the Bull Case for Cisco's Transformation

I'm building the bull case for Cisco's transformation. In public. With full awareness of my bias. The market treats every announcement as discrete news—but I think there's a coherent narrative nobody's connecting. Let's test if the optimism holds up.

Chasing Consistency: Why You Can't Rehearse Collaboration Alone

There's a particular frustration that comes from knowing you're good at something—but only sometimes. This week, as I prepare for a complex video project, I'm confronting a truth that's been nagging at me for years: I can't consistently deliver

wwt

Stop Spending Millions on Museum Pieces: Why Legacy Modernization Can't Wait

Legacy systems cost millions annually just to maintain the status quo. Battle-tested modernization tools now exist to transform these applications safely and automatically, often reducing costs by 70-90% while unlocking decades of trapped innovation.

wwt

The Cloud Wild West (And How to Tame It)

Cloud bills exploding? Teams working in silos? The problem isn't the technology—it's your operating model. Learn how to shift from infrastructure owner to service broker, optimize for value over cost-cutting, and build the foundation for true cloud control.

VQ

When Cloud Security Meets Geopolitical Reality: A Framework for Digital Sovereignty

When cloud security meets geopolitical reality, even the most sophisticated systems can be undermined by legal and jurisdictional pressure points. Learn how the Trust Descent Triangle maps your real vulnerability and the Sovereignty Ascension Pyramid charts your path to digital control.

Automation Priorities 2025

Why Your Automation Fails: The Missing Foundation

Robb Boyd and Nick Thompson dig into why your automation efforts keep stalling—spoiler alert: it's not the technology, it's the foundation. Nick breaks down the hard truth that you can't automate what you don't know exists.

wwt

Why Your Million-Dollar AI Infrastructure Sits Idle 40% of the Time

Something my guest said stopped me cold: "Without automation, you are guaranteeing yourself to consume more GPU resources than you thought you were gonna consume." We've been thinking about AI infrastructure completely backwards.

wwt-2512

The 80% Rule That's Killing Your AI Dreams (And the Four-Step Recovery Plan)

More than 80% of AI projects fail before the first model runs. The reason? Organizations skip the boring stuff—data quality, security, proper cloud infrastructure—and jump straight to the transformative part. Here's the four-step recovery plan that actually works.

wwt-2508

The 25x Problem That's Bankrupting Your IT Budget (And the Three-Step Fix)

Something Mark Wall said stopped me in my tracks: "Most organizations are spending twenty-five times more effort maintaining their infrastructure than deploying it." That's when I realized we've been obsessing over the wrong part of the IT lifecycle.

wwt-2510

Full Context Operations: The Final Automation Priority

Just wrapped our automation series with Tree from WWT's AI Ops team on "full context operations" - why your entire IT org needs to work in lockstep. His reality check: good automation looks like AI, but it's actually thoughtful architecture that understands how your business makes money.

VQ

Cisco Live Reflections: The Power of Specialized Partnerships

Great conversation with Giles Adams (VQ Communications) and Helen Briggs (Cisco) about secure communications partnerships at Cisco Live San Diego. 500+ joint projects in 4+ years - that's solving real problems at scale.

ciscolive

Behind the Broadcast: Memory Lane Edition

Backstage at Cisco Live Amsterdam, between camera checks and comms tests, early IP phones and UCS systems in the 40-year showcase transport me through time. As we prep tomorrow's broadcast, these technological ghosts remind me how each innovation built the foundation for what comes next.

wwt

Strategic AI Implementation: The Key to Empowering Every Employee

Transform your AI approach from scattered experiments to strategic success. WWT experts David Rosenblatt and Mike Davis reveal key insights from our 2025 Digital Workspace research on scaling AI implementation across your enterprise.

Edge Computing: Where Real-Time Decisions Can't Wait

Here's a number that should grab your attention: 55 billion. That's how many connected devices we'll have by 2025. Together, they'll generate 80 zettabytes of data. And just to put that in perspective – if you started downloading a single zettabyte today on

BeyondRed Featured

Data Driven Restoration: RocketPlan's Approach to Recovery

Discover how RocketPlan's innovative technology is transforming property restoration, from AI-powered emergency response to smart field documentation.

webex

Cisco's AI Play: Less Skynet, More Swiss Army Knife

Cisco's WebexOne 2024 showcases a comprehensive AI integration across their product suite, from the new Webex AI Agent and Studio platform to intelligent ceiling microphones. Cisco delivers practical enterprise solutions that solve real business challenges.