Day 1 of Cisco Partner Summit 2018: ‘The Bridge to Possible’

CISCO PARTNER SUMMIT — In a very product-oriented Day 1 keynote, Gerri Elliott, Cisco’s new chief sales and marketing officer, took the lead by introducing herself to the 2,000 or so partner attendees in the room with her and the thousands more worldwide who were attending virtually. She also introduced the company’s new brand campaign, “The Bridge to Possible.”

Elliott has been a customer, a partner and a competitor of Cisco’s for many years. Now she’s a new face there, in a new role that combines sales, partner teams and marketing under one organization. 

Gerri Elliott

“With our partners, we make the impossible possible for our customers,” she said. “We’re in one of the most opportunity-rich periods in history. Coupled with your expertise, your solutions — the opportunity is breathtaking.”

Although the morning keynote was hosted by Oliver Tuszik, the new senior vice president of Cisco’s global partner organization, partners only got glimpses of him. They’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning’s keynote to get to know the new channel chief a bit better and hear about his strategy for the partner organization

Oliver Tuszik

Tuszik has attended 15 Cisco Partner Summits, but this was the first time he’s been on stage. Introducing Dave Goeckeler, Cisco’s executive vice president and general manager, networking and security, Tuszik noted that ““The agenda will start with the first big highlight, the one I always love and the one that’s at the heart of Cisco — technology.”

Goeckeler discussed how Cisco is building the Cisco Multi-Domain Architecture that securely connects any user, on any device, on any network to any application, no matter where they are.

Dave Goeckeler

The touchpoints for Multi-Domain Intent-Based Architecture include the campus, branch, the WAN, the data center, cloud providers, service providers and security — all previously thought of as individual parts of the network

“This architecture is bringing all of these together to interconnect every domain and make the network end-to-end, like one big software system,” Goeckeler said. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to go back and help our customers adopt this technology.”

Goeckeler later shared the stage with Bob Wise, general manager, open source container services, AWS, to talk about Cisco’s first hybrid solution for Kubernetes on AWS, announced last week.

Cisco introduced the Catalyst 9200 series switches and the Catalyst 9800 series of wireless LAN controllers built for intent-based networking. Cisco has merged its WLAN portfolio under Catalyst brand. The Catalyst 9200 series switches includes three models. The 9800 series of WLAN controllers include, five on-premises models and two software-based offers.

Attendees heard about Cisco’s AppDynamics Visibility Pack, which provides visibility and business context to applications running on Cisco infrastructure, proactively identifies and isolates problems, and mitigates many of the risks associated with migration and adoption.

They also got a demonstration of Duo Security. Cisco acquired Duo for about $2.35 billion, recognizing the fit for its intent-based networking strategy.

Susie Wee, vice president and chief technology officer of DevNet Innovations at Cisco, told partners they should get to know DevNet. It’s free and partners can use the DevNet assets to build the developer skills they need. “It gives partners a new way to innovate and differentiate,” she said.

Susie Wee

Cisco partners who embrace Cisco DevNet, see 10 percent more growth over those who don’t. Wee told them. She also talked about DevNet Exchange, a place where partners can contribute applications and draw on the software.

Wee is the co-founder and lead of the Cisco developer program, which boasts more than 400,000 developers in three years.

Other technology advancements addressed in the morning keynote were SD-WAN and security integration and Cisco’s collaboration news.

While there was no mention of it, Michelle Chiantera, Cisco vice president, global partner marketing and voice of Cisco Marketing Velocity, is out and Boon Lai, is in. Lai, chief marketing officer and general manager digital IoT, technology and consumer previously held the title of vice president, global marketing for the collaboration business. He’s been with Cisco for almost two years. Chiantera, an 18-year Cisco veteran, is now vice president, Americas marketing and communications