Looking back at #CiscoLiveEMEA

I’ve been taking some time to reflect on #CiscoLiveEMEA earlier this month in Amsterdam… or maybe I’m just getting old, and it’s taken me this long to recover and compose my thoughts! It really was a tiring but rewarding event and was good to get out amongst it and both see and engage with so many new faces, and especially great to catch up with many who I hadn’t seen, at least face-to-face for over 3 years!

I did want to reflect on some of the key themes and takeaways of the event, and the importance of data and how Cisco and AMD are operating in the following areas associated to this…which I’d very much noted as the key topics and themes of the week:

·??????Innovation

·??????Sustainability

·??????Security

·??????Observability

·??????Hybrid Work

?

Innovation

Of course, the importance of data took centre stage and formed the basis of many of the conversations we had. Data needs are at the heart of most digital transformations these days and digital innovation underpins the portfolio at Cisco, that helps power modern digital experiences.

Cisco and AMD believe that upskilling and re-skilling are key to driving digital transformation so have developed excellent resources to help you start or even continue your journey. Have you considered the UCS and AMD Black Belt Training? You can find out more here. You can also keep up to date with the latest AMD products with training courses and webinars in the AMD Arena, partners can register now! Also, feel free to speak to me or one of the Services | Metsi | Metsi team if you want to understand about new software adoptions and Mentored Installs of New Technology (MINT) in this space.

It was also great to hear that Cisco committed to empowering up to 10 million people throughout EMEA with digital and cybersecurity skills and help with economic resilience and inclusion. Read more about this initiative here.

?

Sustainability

It seems there is a lot of focus on sustainability in any IT conversation right now and it is so much more than a buzzword. Improving our sustainable values personally and in business has never been more crucial, yet modern digital experiences require a huge amount of power and energy. This makes it more important than ever to conduct your business in the most efficient way.

Cisco and AMD have a real focus on Energy Efficiency in our joint solutions, in order to help our customers, achieve their environmental goals. Coupled with reducing rising operating costs by continuing to drive energy efficiency in our offerings, we’re committed to help you in a sustainable way. Do you know your total running costs? ?Why not use our AMD Energy Efficiency calculator to find out your potential energy savings and then talk to us about how you can implement these by utilizing Cisco Intersight?

?

Security

There were probably as many conversations about security as sustainability during Cisco Live, for us it was around the importance of keeping digital innovations and modern data infrastructure safe. Digital innovations are destined to fail if they’re not secure, or if the security isn’t thought through, users of systems can be exposed and targeted.

With that in mind, Cisco and AMD build security into all products and solutions by default to keep data safe. Did you know that through Cisco Intersight, you can control some of the unique industry-leading features of the AMD EPYC Proccessor? Find out more here.

?

Observability

Observability was mentioned a fair bit during the event, but what is it? Put simply, it’s a process that uses software tools to allow organisations to understand what's going on in their complex tech environments. Applying observability to gain an insight into digital business transactions will no doubt be an imperative for many of us in 2023.

Through the power of Cisco Intersight and the features of the AMD EPYC Chipset, we demonstrated how you can enable simplified management at a global scale and optimise faster workloads, whilst at the same time as seamlessly monitoring all aspects of an IT system. Our data management cloud tools operate across business units and provide greater visibility over connecting networks.

?

Hybrid Work

It’s no surprise that the working world has changed in the past three years, with “hybrid working” meaning workforce and workloads are scattered. ?But for businesses to enable the most efficiencies when their staff “work from anywhere”, they need to have great processing and compute performance. With Cisco and AMD, high availability is built into our solutions so you can efficiently process higher volumes of transactions at faster execution speeds.

Learn more about our efficient and high-performing solutions here. At Cisco, we make sure our partners can scale their data center infrastructure without having to increase budget for additional hardware and staffing needs. Read our blog around this topic here to find out more.

?

Were you at Cisco Live EMEA 2023? Do you agree with these common themes? What are your views on them or any of the links I’ve shared. Feel free to let me know in the comments ??