.png?width=40&height=40&name=search%201%20(1).png){kind=small}
Cisco Live. San Diego, California. 30th anniversary. Sure boss, I’ll go!
Last week I was part of the Garland Technology crew that attended Cisco Live 2019. Garland exhibited in the World of Solutions to talk to attendees about why Garland is the best TAP and network packet broker manufacturer in the world. But I will spare you our brilliant sales pitch and save it for a future blog. Today, I want to share my thoughts on Cisco Live 2019.
It was easy to get lost in the vastness and marvels that inhabited every inch of the San Diego Convention Center. There were countless experiences to indulge like sitting on the “throne of code,” taking a selfie with Ron Burgundy (the flute playing sold me on the portrayal), enjoying fresh-baked brownies, tasting an IPA beer sample or two, solving for a way out of an escape room, collecting any number of swords (I wondered how TSA reacted BTW), or simply people-watching. However, the never-ending amusement was the coastal fog that greeted me every morning and quickly dissipated as I consumed more and more of the content that Cisco and fellow exhibitors were presenting.
Live demos from Accedian, Plixer, and cPacket were informative and easy to grasp the value they offer. I was delighted to see technology being used for altruism during a VR presentation from Cisco Connected Conservation about protecting elephants and rhinos from poachers in Africa. Domino’s Pizza teamed up with Cisco to completely transform its business. (I attended the Gartner “Tech Growth & Innovation Conference” earlier in June and one of the presenters stated that Domino’s is a technology company not a fast food chain. Now I see why.)
Most of all, I enjoyed talking with fellow attendees because this was where the true value of being part of Cisco Live was realized for me. I learned more about the IT and security challenges facing businesses today. Three themes stuck with me as I stuffed conference swag into my carry-on to avoid the baggage check fee.
IT professionals have multiple projects going on at the same time and are looking for vendors that deliver on time and within budget. Prioritization is an ongoing challenge so businesses appreciate transparency on lead-times and release dates. Pricing is seldom the first or second discussion point.
The sheer number of new products and services in the World of Solutions was impressive. Compatibility with the Cisco portfolio is a key requirement and helps businesses choose between options. Visual references of a joint solution in a real IT environment is sometimes the best way to communicate how the pieces work together.
I am not overly concerned that technology or robots will replace humans after attending Cisco Live. Human collaboration is a necessity to act creatively and produce results. The conference theme of “You Make Possible” implies human endeavor. With 1B new IoT devices added each year in enterprise environments, we will have more time to apply human ingenuity to solve the most daunting problems facing us today.
The Garland Team’s efforts at Cisco Live were solid, but now the hard work begins for me and my teammates. We will be following up with everyone we chatted with to continue the conversations about the solutions we offer and look to expand our network of tech and reseller partners. We pride ourselves in being a people-focused tech hardware manufacturer and look to prove to prospects and customers that you can make possible with Garland’s help (I saved the shameless plug until the end).
Kudos to the Cisco team for this year’s San Diego event. Events of this magnitude are complicated and the care showed. I am glad I attended. Cheers!
If the inline security tool goes off-line, the TAP will bypass the tool and automatically keep the link flowing. The Bypass TAP does this by sending heartbeat packets to the inline security tool. As long as the inline security tool is on-line, the heartbeat packets will be returned to the TAP, and the link traffic will continue to flow through the inline security tool.
If the heartbeat packets are not returned to the TAP (indicating that the inline security tool has gone off-line), the TAP will automatically 'bypass' the inline security tool and keep the link traffic flowing. The TAP also removes the heartbeat packets before sending the network traffic back onto the critical link.
While the TAP is in bypass mode, it continues to send heartbeat packets out to the inline security tool so that once the tool is back on-line, it will begin returning the heartbeat packets back to the TAP indicating that the tool is ready to go back to work. The TAP will then direct the network traffic back through the inline security tool along with the heartbeat packets placing the tool back inline.
Some of you may have noticed a flaw in the logic behind this solution! You say, “What if the TAP should fail because it is also in-line? Then the link will also fail!” The TAP would now be considered a point of failure. That is a good catch – but in our blog on Bypass vs. Failsafe, I explained that if a TAP were to fail or lose power, it must provide failsafe protection to the link it is attached to. So our network TAP will go into Failsafe mode keeping the link flowing.
Single point of failure: a risk to an IT network if one part of the system brings down a larger part of the entire system.
Heartbeat packet: a soft detection technology that monitors the health of inline appliances. Read the heartbeat packet blog here.
Critical link: the connection between two or more network devices or appliances that if the connection fails then the network is disrupted.