Cisco Live US

Haven't seen any threads on Cisco Live U.S. in Orlando, Fl. Hopefully, others will be able to chime in and share their experiences.

Let me preface this by saying, I was only able to attend one day of the event. I planned on going two days but became bed ridden due to a severe allergy attack.

I ended up just getting an Explorer pass, so only World of Solution, Meet An Expert, Keynotes and some sessions were open to me.

I pretty much stuck to the World of the Solutions, which is where the displays were.

There was a Deloreon. The one from Back To the Future.

I ran into Keith Barker. He's a really nice guy and seemed very helpful. He was near the CCIE lounge, which I wasn't allowed near.

CCIEs were a dime a dozen.

There were a lot of floor vendors, including Intel, vmWare, Panduit, Fluke, EMC, Netapp, Cisco, Boson, Global Knowledge, New Horizon, Cisco Network Academy, Solar Winds and other networking vendors.

The buzz words at the event were SDN, 1PK, Internet of Everything, Game Changer.

The big products at the event were the Catalyst 6800 and 3800. You can read the tech sheets to read all the hoopla. The one thing I noticed is the "silver" design influence to their products now versus the old blue colors.

The other big news was VIRL. It's supposed to be the next evolution of IOU. It's multiple components are One PK, a GUI and hypervisor. I think in 2 years this will be a great product. You can simulate virtual IOS, NX-OS, CRS-1000, IOS-XR and a server (but this is just a platform to load a vm on). Sadly, there was no L2, Catalyst IOS included at the moment. There is a lot up in the air like licensing, delivery, pricing models, product support.

For those studying Service Provider and Data Center, this will be the tool to use. Can't really comment on how useful it will be for CCIE Security and Collaboration. You'll still need switches for the R&S until they can include switches. I'd pay $250 - $500 for this product if it included software support (updates).

I have pair few pictures and will upload them tomorrow.

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Comments

VAHokie56

cool input man thanks for the update, wish I could of gone

gorebrush

I went to CL in London in 2012, loved it. I won it as a prize and I got to go for the whole week

VIRL sounds great, but may be too late for me. I think I can get by with GNS and buying some 3550/3560 if the v4 lab is staying (and according to Brian McGahan, it seems it is for the time being) (He attended TECCIE8000)

Priston

spiderjericho wrote: »

The big products at the event were the Catalyst 6800 and 3800. You can read the tech sheets to read all the hoopla. The one thing I noticed is the "silver" design influence to their products now versus the old blue colors.

If I was there I would have asked them why they put the fan trays on the same side as all the ports. They should have done the fan trays like the N7Ks.

Transatlantic

Got to go check it out this tuesday, again on an explorer pass so I didn't get to check out as much as I would have liked. Keynotes were interesting, World of Solutions was fun to stroll through as well - managed to avoid overpaying for anything at the Cisco store.. although I did nearly cave in and buy my baby girl a pink cisco onesie.

Got to see some good demos in the world of solutions, the new 2960 X / XR switches were really nice to see up close, that and I found out that you can stack up to 8 of them now - I sense an upgrade coming for my datacenter. Laughed when half of the vendors there basically patted me on the head and figuratively said "sorry little boy, maybe when you grow up" to me... I work in a small environment 50 or so switches, 12 routers, so not quite in the 10,000 unit + league that they were selling to.

It was definitely worth the trip though, just wish that I had more time to spend there, but I could only get the boss to sign off on a one day visit.

spiderjericho

As promised pictures:

Spiderjericho aka KP aka Gunny at Cisco Live

IMG_2858 by spiderjericho, on Flickr

VIRL GUI

IMG_2854 by spiderjericho, on Flickr

VIRL Display

IMG_2853 by spiderjericho, on Flickr

Deloreon

Back To The Future Deloreon by spiderjericho, on Flickr

Catalyst 3850

Catalyst 3850 Switch by spiderjericho, on Flickr

Catalyst 6800

6800 Catalyst Switch by spiderjericho, on Flickr

CLUS NOC Racks

CLUS NOC Rack by spiderjericho, on Flickr

spiderjericho

VAHokie56 wrote: »

cool input man thanks for the update, wish I could of gone

I wish I could've went more days and met Scott Morris, the Packet Pushers crew, taken the IE lab exam (just to say I did), attended some of the training sessions, the social functions and networked more.

Events like this, VMworld, MS whatever (can't remember what they call theirs), Blackhat, Defcon, etc are all great events to meet people in your field, find out about the latest trends, etc. Behind the Cisco Veil, you're obviously seeing the big push for SDN (and the possible implications of what it could mean for the future), the mobile space (they were pushing Webex and Jabber hard), unified communications, etc.

And I'll tell you guys my embarrassing story. I am not an IE. But it's one of my mid-term goals. I saw one of the wonderful CCIE t-shirts they were selling and decided I'd use it as a motivating tool by hanging in my closet (I wouldn't wear it, just like I wouldn't wear a SEAL, Army, Ranger or Navy shirt). So the sales clerk refused to sell it to me. Suffice, I was disappointed but I understood. This IE comes by (I told you they were a dime a dozen) and allows me to use his credentials to buy the shirt. So my goal is to attend CLUS 2015 (won't be able to go to San Jose next year) wearing the shirt and cheering from my accomplishment. I still have a few cert goals before then, but I know I can do it.

VAHokie56

I think SDN will be here quicker then people think, time start jumping on board if you want a future in this industry

Edit: you got to meet Greg and Ethan ( spelled wrong?) that is flipping awesome , I listen to there pod cast all the time

Snow.bros

Nice pics man. Do you have a room full of shoe pairs? lol

spiderjericho

VAHokie56 wrote: »

I think SDN will be here quicker then people think, time start jumping on board if you want a future in this industry

Edit: you got to meet Greg and Ethan ( spelled wrong?) that is flipping awesome , I listen to there pod cast all the time

No, I didn't get a chance to meet the Packet Pusher crew. I wanted to. If I could've spent the whole week there, I would've tried for one of their meet ups as well as the INE party.

And Snow Bros., I have an okay shoe collection. It's one of my vices.