By: John Boyle >> Most happenings that go on in Las Vegas stay in Vegas but Cisco Live 2016 was so fantastic Zenoss just has to share with the world. Some of the fantastic highlights were learning tracks on the Internet of Things (IoT), security, network transformation, mobility, celebrity guest speakers such as Kevin Spacey and innovation discussed and displayed in the classroom and on
the conference floor.
This year Team Zenoss again showed up ready to engage with a powerful presence at Cisco Live. Immediately upon her return to our HQ in Austin, Texas, I sat down with Zenoss Vice President of Marketing, Megan Lueders, to spotlight some of her favorite takeaways from Cisco Live 2016.
Cisco Live Tell All Interview
John Boyle: "Megan you are fresh back from Cisco Live in Las Vegas which I hear was a great event. We all know what goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas but you are going to have to share some details with us today even though your voice is going. It must have been a really fantastic event with lots going on. So how was Cisco Live and what was the Zenoss team up to at the event?"
Megan Lueders: "You know it was John…a great show and you’re right I did lose my voice quite a bit because we spoke with not all the 28,000 attendees but a fair number of them. Zenoss had a very strong presence and we were very focused on engaging with our customers and the prospects that stopped by our booth."
John: "That is great! What was Zenoss conveying at the show this year?"
Megan: "It’s a great question! We were particularly focused on conveying the uniqueness of the Zenoss-Cisco relationship. There were five key areas we focused on at Cisco Live. The first one is the Cisco UCSPM solution is actually Zenoss software. We also talked about how Zenoss provides strategic solutions for UCS, ACI and NFV. We mentioned how Zenoss is available for the Cisco Intercloud Fabric and that we are a member and have been a member of the Cisco Developer Network for over 6 years. And lastly we certainly had to highlight that Cisco is a customer of Zenoss."
John: "Fantastic! Well there was a lot going on besides what Zenoss was doing. What were some of the things you saw when walking the show floor that struck you as the hottest tech topics and trends that were either discussed in sessions or on the show floor?"
Megan: "Well my gosh there were plenty of new technologies but everything hot tied back to their words of digital transformation. In fact, they even changed their tagline to talk about “The Time is Now.” The proliferation of these connected devices and applications as they related to this digital transformation. So from intelligent transportation systems to digital ceiling solutions to security solutions, it all represents incredible innovation that is changing the way enterprises do business, but these technologies also create vast quantities of new data and new things to monitor and manage. Working so closely with Cisco puts a company like Zenoss in the driver's seat as far as being the platform for monitoring and analytics for so many of these emerging technologies."
John: "What struck you as the coolest and most impactful solutions this year at Cisco Live?"
Megan: "Certainly we saw a lot and heard a lot about converged infrastructure solutions. They continue to evolve and increase their presence at the show. Unified communications solutions continue to get more interesting. Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and network functions virtualization (NFV) offerings are driving innovation. But one of the coolest things we saw was around the intelligent transportation systems. A Google car generates over 3 TB of data per day, and this is a trend for pretty much all of these and other connected systems - incredible amounts of data to be managed and analyzed. It will take solutions with real horsepower and scalability to manage these going forward. Whenever we see mass data being generated like this, which becomes more common every day, we see an opportunity for a unified platform to manage it."
John: "Who had the coolest booth this year and what made it work so well?"
Megan: "We honestly received great feedback on our own booth. We always strive to do things differently and not just be another vendor following the herd. The airstream trailer was a huge hit - it attracted so many people and I think it also really conveyed the Austin and Zenoss culture."
John: "Being a long-term partner of Cisco what were the key takeaways for Zenoss this year?"
Megan: "They have an entire set of sessions and events for the different types of partners - the Developer Network (or DevNet), the solution partners, collaboration partners, etc. One of the biggest themes of the show for Cisco was the importance of delivering solutions. Because we have a unique relationship with Cisco - we're an OEM partner, a solution partner, part of the Developer Network, in the Intercloud Marketplace - we epitomize the kind of relationship Cisco is relying on for continued growth. Even though we've been a long time partner, the focus on solutions like the joint Zenoss-Cisco offerings is really changing the value Cisco is bringing to their customers."
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