New CTO Steps Into Cisco Systems Spotlight
New Cisco Systems Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior is preparing to take center stage at Cisco Live, a massive customer event that starts June 22 in Orlando, Fla. This is the first time Warrior will grab the spotlight at a big Cisco event. Here’s what to expect, along with five key anticipated trends at the conference.
5. Got Any Talent?: Cisco will spend considerable time talking more about the IT talent shortage, and the steps the company is taking to address the issue. The “talent shortage” theme has been front-and-center for Cisco for more than a year.
Cisco is working on a range of strategies to close the talent gap, including opening new Cisco Networking Academies across the globe.
4. Data Center 3.0: Cisco will articulate “continued momentum” around its Data Center 3.0 strategy, notes one trusted source close to the company.
The data center update, which involves the melding of networking with virtualization, servers and centralized infrastructure, comes at an opportune time. Cisco tactfully announced the departure of Jayshree Ullal, senior VP of data center, switching and services, on May 9.
During earlier events, Ullal was the voice of Cisco’s data center strategy. In July 2007, Ullal noted that the shift to Data Center 3.0 technologies “isn’t a sprint.” Instead, she said, the strategy will play out in five to seven or even 10 years.
In retrospect, perhaps Ullal was suggesting that the Data Center 3.0 push would continue long after her time at Cisco had ended.
3. Green Machines: Yes, the entire IT world is striving to go green. But The VAR Guy hears Cisco will have discuss some real progress points on its green strategy.
2. Here’s Johnny: CEO John Chambers typically steals the show during these events. The VAR Guy hears Chambers will evangelize “the network as the platform” for the second phase of the Internet. No surprise there.
The VAR Guy hopes Chambers will expand on some earlier themes. In April 2007, Chambers described how Cisco expects to increasingly compete with software and Web 2.0 companies such as Microsoft and Google.
1. New CTO Takes Center Stage: Padmasree Warrior made the leap from Motorola to Cisco Systems in December 2007. But this is the first time she will step onto a massive stage and share her vision with Cisco’s customers.
The VAR Guy met Warrior at a MuniWireless event in Silicon Valley, back in October 2007 — roughly six weeks before she leaped from Motorola to Cisco.
Warrior walked attendees through Motorola’s application strategy for municipal broadband networks. But portions of the presentation came off as a product pitch.
The VAR Guy expects Warrior to raise her game — in a big way — during Cisco Live in Orlando.
At Motorola, Warrior was surrounded by executive uncertainty and shareholder displeasure with the company’s performance. At Cisco, Warrior can focus on the job at hand, rather than external distractions.
The VAR Guy will share more as Cisco Live gets started June 22.
Ha. There was NO exec. uncertainty or shareholder displeasure in 2005, early 2006.
She had a chance to impact the most important business of MOT, cell phones. She could have made an impact on their Software and Chip strategy.
And she did what?
Got a lot of good press. And that is ALL she did.
Henry: The VAR Guy is far more familiar with Cisco than Motorola, so he hesitates to say “what went wrong” with Moto in the 2005-2006 timeframe. But a few quick observations…
First, Moto milked the RAZR product line far too long. While companies like INTC and AAPL routinely cannibalize their own products with better products and new innovations, Moto failed to do so.
Second, CEO Ed Zander couldn’t stand the handset business model and never found a way to grab control from the carriers. In stark contrast, Steve Jobs at AAPL invented a better mouse trap (iPhone) and gained leverage with the carriers (ATamp;T) along the way.
There are dozens of additional examples where Moto lost its way. Was Warrior at least partially responsible? The VAR Guy can’t make such allegations because he simply isn’t close enough to the company….
gt;outinely cannibalize their own products with better products gt;and new innovations, Moto failed to do so
What does a CTO do but DRIVE innovation?
How can you consider someone a “good” executive when they made NO impact on a KEY problem area in their domain?
Wait, 2, 3 years – you’ll see what I mean if you are close to CISCO.
I will be at Cisco Live all week and they have a special breakout session discussing MSP’s…..I signed up and it ought to be interesting to see what they are planning to discuss. And yes, the John Chambers speeches are always good but the technology he shows off is sometimes way ahead of it’s time unless you are the CEO of Cisco of course.
Someone who took a job in Dec. 2007 is “new”? That’s quite a honeymoon period, no?
Tropicana @5: Yes, quite a honeymoon. Cisco insiders positioned Warrior as “new” because this is the first time she’s taking the stage at a major CSCO event.