Cisco Live Newbie

Cisco Live US is June 4-8th this year in Las Vegas, NV. Are you a first-timer? Not sure what to do or where to start? We have you covered! Pat is a first-timer this year and so we discuss the dos and don'ts of Cisco Live. Are you going to Cisco Live US this year? Come hang with us! 

Transcript

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Pat 0:30

Hey everybody. Welcome back to this week's position of Breaking down the Bites. As usual, I'm your host Pat. You can find me on Twitter at layer8packet. That's the number eight. Kyle's on Twitter as well at Danath256. You can find the show on Twitter at breakinbytespod. We're pretty active on Twitter. Some weeks are better than others, but we are pretty active or we try to stay active. So come say hello. So, don't forget if you like the show don't forget to subscribe on your streaming platform of choice. We are everywhere. So pick your poison and hit that like, subscribe and all that fancy stuff they make they make you do nowadays to just enjoy something you like. So, come on and come hang with us. So it is just Alex and I this week. Kyle got his schedules mixed up with the Memorial Day holiday, so he is off doing his thing, which is cool. Alex and I are here and this one is a specifically timed episode due to an event that is coming up next week. Alex and I are both headed to Cisco live here in the States. It is June 4th through the ninth. Actually. Yeah, it's fourth through the ninth. I'm flying in Sunday, leaving Friday, and that's gonna be cool. It is in Vegas. I think it was in Vegas the last couple years, if I'm not mistaken. It used to be in Orlando or they change it up every now and then, but the last couple years it's been in Vegas. So we are traveling there to say hello and take in all the things that are Cisco Live. What's up Alex? How you doing?

Alex 2:03

Well, doing well. Glad to be back. I know we've been out a few weeks and just like you mentioned, I'm excited for Cisco Live. Excited

Pat 2:11

breached your contract. You can't miss more than two weeks, or I have to stipend

Alex 2:15

I know

Pat 2:16

we don't make anything, I ain't stipending shit. So That's all right.

Alex 2:20

That works.

Pat 2:21

So, yeah, man we're pumped. I'm pumped for Cisco Live. It is my first time. I've been working with Cisco gear for 20 years and I've never gotten to go to Cisco Live, so, it's a cool moment for me, so I'm looking forward to that. So, totally ready and raining to go and Packing a bag this week and hopping on a plane from Philly. So I think it's like a five or six hour flight, something like that. So I'll land in Vegas local time Sunday at noon. I'm supposed to land, so we'll see what happens there. But I know a bunch of people that are going and vendors are all lined up. Everybody wants to take me to dinner, so I'm all about that. So you mentioned a few weeks ago that your goal was to have a vendor or somebody pay for your meal ticket the entire week. Have you gotten that yet? Have you secured that bag?

Alex 3:07

I don't have anything scheduled, but I feel like I have enough people that have offered that I shouldn't have any issue doing it. There's also the C C I E party I just got told is at Top Golf, which is one of the coolest places that I know

Pat 3:21

Ice.

Alex 3:22

And this is one where I don't know if like you and Nate have to arm wrestle for this, but I can take one person.

Pat 3:29

Ah, yeah, I'll see if I can. So the illustrious group of Cisco champions that we are, that we belong to, there's a bunch of ccis in there, so maybe I can drag one of them to get to, to have me be their date. So we'll see what happens, but that's gonna be, that's gonna be cool as well. So there's actually a couple Cisco champions things that they've carved out for us. So I think Monday night is bans and beers and there's a couple different things that we that US champions have access to. So we're looking forward to that. A night or two out happy hours and yeah, they carved out their own space for us, that kind of thing. So, I'm trying to get to, trying to hang in that space there as well in between sessions and that sort of thing. So really looking forward to that. I think our vendor has taken us to Topgolf one, one night, I think that's on my calendar. There's just so much on my calendar. I didn't even know what, like, what I'm doing. I just like every invite that I get, I just accept and then I'll figure it out later. It's just like, okay,

Alex 4:24

Yeah, that's probably the

Pat 4:24

this, I can scratch this, kinda. So I'm really looking forward to that. I've never been to a top golf at all, so I'm looking forward to that. Fun fact, they're actually putting one here probably like 15 minutes from where I live. So, that, that's being developed as we speak. So I'm hoping to get a little top golf action here in the next couple of months when the thing's built. So it's gonna be cool. So, yeah, I gotta, I got it planned. Most of the nights are planned and somebody's either feeding me food or putting a beer in front of me. So it's all good.

Alex 4:51

Yeah, that is definitely good. So I've been there a few times haven't been there since the pandemic, so it's been a while. First time for you. know we joke about food, but realistically that's, that is something to look forward to. But I have to ask you, as someone that's never gone before, is there anything that's exciting you more than anything else?

Pat 5:15

I don't think so. Just cause I don't really know what to expect, so it just feels like it's a huge party and a bunch of stuff going on. So I'm just looking forward to getting there and like whoever's gonna, let me tag along like a sad little puppy. I'm all about it, so it's gonna be cool. So I, I don't really know if I have anything. That sort of sticks out. Like obviously, you pick your sessions, you go and, you sit in on schedules or I should say sit in on sessions and things of that nature. So I'm looking forward to a couple sessions, but there's other things that are outside of those, learning hours that you know, and from what I've, from what I've read other blogs and whatnot of people that have gone first time, like they, they really like the camaraderie of the people that they meet and that kind of thing. So I'm really looking forward to meeting some folks and and for me growing up on. CCNA stuff and going all the way through ccmp and all those video instructors through C B T Nuggets and a couple other platforms. So, looking forward, I mean, I grew up on guys like Keith Bark and Anthony Secu and all those guys. When to load him with his books and things of that nature. So if they're hanging out I'd love to meet him. And it's kind of like a full circle, moment for me. So that's kind of cool. So looking forward to that.

Alex 6:28

Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting for a few real networking geeks, like, I guess we are, I kind of devoted our careers to it. Some of these guys that we kind of cut our teeth on listening to and reading when we first got into this game are almost like many celebrities to us. And I think I mentioned this one point, but when I was at Cisco Alive in Orlando, which is four or five years ago you mentioned Keith Barker. Scott Morris is another person that I, back in 2006 and when I was studying for the ccna, he was one that I was reading his books. But yeah, I was in line getting food at the C C I E party and I just heard something in, in the background, two guys talking and without turning around, I was like, oh my God, that's Scott Morris. I know it is. And I turned around and he is right behind me and he is right behind me talking. And then sure enough he's talking to Keith Barker and I was like, wow, I listen to you guys all the time and you're just right here.

Pat 7:25

That's

Alex 7:26

It was almost like a little, almost, I don't wanna say I'm ashamed, but man, it just really hits home that you're a nerd when, I felt a little awestruck

Pat 7:34

to total fan girl in it right there. Yeah.

Alex 7:36

and I'm thinking like, can do I ask them to sign my book or,

Pat 7:39

crazy. It's crazy. So I guess I'll reverse that same question to you. You have something that you're looking forward to now? You've cut your teeth on Cisco live a couple years now.

Alex 7:49

yeah. Well, I mentioned it a few times already. As a golfer and someone who has gone to the c c E parties, I am looking forward to top golf, which

Pat 7:59

Nice.

Alex 8:00

I know it's not really work related. I'm not sure work would prefer I say something else, but I guess that's in my head. I, as far as sessions go, I mean, I'll probably ask you the same question if you wanna take a gander through your schedule. We've been talking about it almost every week now. We bring up ai and so I'm really interested in a few of the sessions that I schedule that are really kind of focused on AI for, but AI for network engineers. So there's actually a session I have on Wednesday that is artificial intelligence and machine learning for network engineers.

Pat 8:36

Hi.

Alex 8:37

That's one that I'm pretty interested in. And another one that kind of goes a little hand in hand with that is predictive networks are the future. That's another session that's on Tuesday, but um,

Pat 8:52

that on Tuesday?

Alex 8:54

that is at 1:00 PM

Pat 8:57

Nice.

Alex 8:58

so that one is similar. The whole idea is we've heard of self-healing networks before and just, maybe gets a little scary for some people cause they feel like they're not gonna be needed anymore. But the whole idea where you'll be able to just automatically spin things up based on just use cases. Like if a server starts using more traffic and then is accustomed to your network can dynamically build itself to accommodate it. And machine learning and AI is really important with that. It just gets a, an idea of, what your habits are and can. Essentially build your network on the fly as you grow. And yeah, that'd be really interesting. So, as far as sessions goes, I think those are the two that I'm looking forward to. Outside of that, I have several others that are kind of focused on automation and programming and stuff, but for people that are bit beginners like me, so not very original, I think a lot of people are interested in that, that are classic network engineers that don't wanna get left behind. So I have several of those.

Pat 10:04

I get it. I totally get it. I have. I have two as well that I'm really kind of looking forward to. One, the first one being end-to-end visibility and actionable insights using Thousand Eyes DNA Center east and SD wan. So, obviously the big Cisco shop that we are. I'm kind of looking forward to that, to kind of tie all those together with the the thousand I and the the Sdwan stuff. So that's really gonna be cool for me. Like I like that one. And then the other one I had was the software defined access solutions, the fundamentals. So again, it's more of a, it's more of a beginner slash early intermittent, early intermediate course. But it basically goes from, software defined access kind of, intent based automation, that sort of thing. So looking to, for scale and, et cetera, et cetera. So, looking forward to that one and seeing what what happens there. And I have one that's infrastructure as code for Nexus and using Ansible. So, again trying to get that automation and the usability in there as well. So looking forward to a couple of those. So, but I guess my question then is, cause I've read a few things different opinions on it. I'll get your thoughts on it too. And I actually took out a couple of sessions in my schedule because I literally had session upon sessions. It's like, there's other things to do there. So, do you, so what's your rough number of sessions that you're going to, like, do you spread 'em out? And I've also heard that like, you really should only attend the sessions that you like actually have questions for, cuz it's a little more enjoyment that way and it's, interactive, et cetera, et cetera. So, is there a sweet spot for a number of sessions and what does that look like?

Alex 11:43

Yep. I think we were planning on later in this episode maybe going through some tips that people have that, that I have, that'll be my number one tip for people is don't go in there assuming that all Cisco live is just these breakout sessions and you have to schedule from eight in the morning till six in the evening every single day. Cuz there's a lot more to it. I mean, that's a big portion of it and there's certainly fun to be in those. But you mentioned a good point. The ones that you plan on asking questions or the ones that might be a little bit more hands-on and actually may have equipment that you can follow along those you should focus on because I think all of these get recorded, so you, if there's anything that you're interested, you could go back and look at them and it does get a little exhausting. I mean, Cisco live is a good time and if you're. Doing nothing but these breakout sessions, I can see people getting a little tired of it. So I do book, I pretty much go through the entire session catalog every single day. And I do book everyone that I'm interested in, which some people will probably get really upset at me because I think there's finite amount of spots and once they're filled, you have to go on like, the wait list while you're phys.

Pat 12:54

a few that I had a wait list for. Yeah.

Alex 12:56

yeah, you get almost no one, they almost never get fully booked up. You just have to show up there. And then after like the scheduled time, like, if something starts at 10:00 AM and then at 10:00 AM then it's fair game for anyone who just shows up can just walk in if there's seats available, which is usually there is. But yeah, having said that right now, just the ones that interest me, it looks like I roughly have five or six a day. I would say there's. Under no circumstances am I gonna do more than three. And I'd probably say that's my sweet spot is three and try to break them up too. Again, there's so much to do there and and we could talk about it from more detail. But yeah, I would avoid back to back sessions. So one in the morning, one after lunch, and then a late one. So, pretty much I have something scheduled at 8:00 AM every day. I'll probably do all those. Then I have one every day that's right around one or two, and then I have one every day that's around four o'clock. So that's probably gonna be what I end up doing, unless there's one that really just, strikes a nerve with me, or if someone convinces me that I have to attend it.

Pat 14:07

Yep. Yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat. I actually, like I said I took away a couple of sessions just to break up the schedule a little bit cuz I did, I, it was back to back and like I, you, I would think you have some sort of mental fatigue as you start to get later in the week, Thursday and Friday you're you're spent, that kind of thing from a, oh, how do I retain all this knowledge and, whatever. But yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat. Eight 30 most days. And then I have actually I have a 10, so I have a 10 30 all days and then late ones three o'clocks, things of that nature. So, tried to spread them out as much as I could. They're, and like I said, I'm not completely done. Maybe I'll drop one or two of them, but the ones that I do have are the large blocks. They're like an hour and a half sessions. So those are the big boys. So, really, looking forward to those as well. But I was just curious on, what that looks like from how much shoes should be taken, that sort of thing. Cuz like the world of solutions, from what I'm hearing, is a cool place to hang and meet people and just, network, quote unquote, no pun intended with other people and hey, how are you? And blah, blah. And what I like too is being in the second year of this, Champs program, shout out to the champs. They become real people for the week. Cause you meet them in person and then, so that's always interesting to me to meet these folks that you talk to, in their, in our WebEx space. And you various podcasts that you either listen to or take part of from the Cisco Champions Radio. But check those out if you haven't. But yeah just meeting those folks from a in-person perspective is always a good time. So looking forward to that and putting names with faces and it's gonna be, it's gonna be really cool. So,

Alex 15:41

A hundred percent. I agree. All right. That's actually something I probably should spend a little bit more time with. I haven't really looked into exactly what's going on for the Cisco champions. I know that seems like there's quite a few things they have going on for us, but at this point haven't really taken advantage of that designation yet. So maybe I should spend some time

Pat 16:02

Yeah, like I said, I just accepted everything that Amy Lee threw at us, and then I'll be like, I'll figure it out later, but at least want it on my schedule. And then I could weed out, what's what doesn't jive or whatever. So it's it's always interesting to fill what you can and kind of go from there. So, the other thought is I'm staying at the Luxor, which is attached, I guess to so Cisco Live is at the mgm MGM Grand. So, And so Luxor is is the hotel that is one of the hotels that is connected to that. But I, from what I'm reading, it's like a mile walk. Like it's all inside. Like you don't have to go outside right? Where whatever in the Las Vegas heat, but it is all inside, but it is a mile or roughly around a mile to and from. So that's interesting as well. So I'll be wearing some comfortable shoes and some lightweight clothing that not to drag me down. So what is the attire there, Alex? Is people like polos or I know a lot of people think like dress for comfort sort of thing cuz you're doing a lot of walking and swag and all that kind of crazy stuff.

Alex 17:01

A hundred percent. You want to dress for comfort. Yeah. No one's gonna be in there with a suit and tie on unless they're trying to impress somebody. No. So I'm short T-shirts most comfortable shoes I have. That's what I'm dealing with. Cuz you're gonna do a lot of walking for sure. There's a lot to see. Just the what do they call it? Is it the world of solutions or the, whatever that main showcased area is huge. It's, and going, just making your rounds around that is gonna, you'll probably take miles as by the time you go up and down, everything. So yeah, be comfortable for sure.

Pat 17:42

I gotta charge my Fitbit. I'm gonna get all those steps in. Baby. I gotta see, I gotta see my results. I'll come back like 10 pounds lighter. The wife won't even recognize me. Yeah. So from what I'm reading there's actually a space, depending on what package you sign up for, a lot of people take I think it's the full explorer or whatever they call it. But basically it's you can take a, you can take any of the Cisco exams that's part of your package. So, I actually do have that package. I'm trying to take the ccna, although I gotta contact them because I never got the enrollment for the, to actually schedule it through Pearson View. So I gotta contact them and say, Hey can I get that link? And I'll sign up or whatever and kind of, complete that last hump. So, but I'm interested to take cna, ccna, as most of you know, all my Cisco stuff expired back in 2020 when I really wasn't using it for the job I was at, and I just didn't see putting all the time and effort to something I didn't use day to day. But but I'm gonna start teaching in the fall here at our local community college. So they, at the Cisco Networking Academy, that they have the program. So, they do require you to be certified. So I'm gonna try to get back to my ccna. And then I had the I actually have the ccmp security with the ice track that was planned. So the CCNA is actually just a bridge to that to get me teaching in the fall. So, yeah, definitely wanna take the CCNA at Cisco live to free crack. I might as well. I don't expect to fail, but see what happens. But this is the first time at the new version of the test, so I interested to see how my skills have evolved and what that looks like. Cause it is a little different than when the one you and I took, Alex, I took mine in 2013, and you took yours before that. So it's definitely been through a couple revs, since then.

Alex 19:21

Yeah, I took mine in 2007. It's probably so foreign right now.

Pat 19:25

So yeah, I'm looking to get that, see what kind of spots are left to go get me to go get me a ccna. So that's gonna be cool. So, what else do you bring in Alex? You bring in like a notepad an iPad for notes like usb, like ch like a charging pack. Keep your phone, juiced up or Advil, Tylenol, any kind of crazy medication.

Alex 19:46

I probably should come more prepared, but yeah. Backpack, notepad, laptop, headphones, and charger from my phone. I pack late. I'm taking budget air, so whatever fits in a backpack and maybe three changes of clothes for four

Pat 20:00

Heck yeah.

Alex 20:01

And yeah, that's pretty much it. Again, you're gonna be walking there long days and really don't want your backpack holding you down. Depending on the sessions I have that day, there's probably even times that I won't even bring the backpack. Like if I know that there're gonna be a couple sessions that I'm doing that day that I doubt I'll need to take notes for then yeah, I think I'll just go with just to close my back and that's it. Make it

Pat 20:26

Cool.

Alex 20:27

a bit of a relaxing day. And I think there they'll prob, based on the schedule, there might be a day where I intentionally choose not to do any sessions or maybe just the one in the morning. Because there's a few things that I like to do when I'm at Cisco Live and that, that are just both informational and just fun. They almost always have some sort of game trivia games. And I mentioned before, I think in another one of these podcasts, I hadn't escaped the room challenge the one year I went where you escaped the room by doing networking related challenges. That was kind of

Pat 20:59

That's cool. Yeah.

Alex 21:01

They have real time demos which are really interesting sometimes, especially if you can really correlate it to something you're doing at work. So you can actually go and watch a realtime demo. And I'm sure they're even more interesting with everything related to AI and machine learning and automation, what stuff can do. But I, the first Cisco Live that I went to, this stuff was still kind of in infancy. And I remember seeing a demo where somebody was using the. Embedded event manager and anyone who's not familiar with that, it's kinda like a built-in scripting thing that Cisco has. And this was before, every Cisco device could do Python scripts and things like that. But what they were able to do was so simple and an to explain but it was just really interesting to see it being done. And what they did was based on a log message, they were able to send out an API call to ServiceNow and automate it, automatically make a ticket. And back then, that was really interesting to me. Like, I mean, we're so far beyond that at this point, but for someone when that kind of stuff was really in its infancy, the idea that a log message could immediately trigger a ticket to be generated, not only did they trigger the ticket to be created, they also sent the output of several really relevant show commands. So not only did. The network on call would potentially get a structured ticket in their ticketing system, but they'd also have, the four or five commands that they were just bound to use anyway. And it's already there in a ticket. You can see it on your phone before you start doing anything. And I bring that up just because, that was years ago. Can't imagine what they're gonna be showing in some of these demos as things that aren't quite hashed out yet, that it's gonna be amazing. I think I told you that I was doing the I forget what that session's called. Predictive networking, I think is what

Pat 22:58

Oh yeah. Predictive networks. Yeah.

Alex 22:59

Right? I would love to see a demo of that, of maybe an idea. They have a network and they tell you to break it intentionally and then see if this thing can automatically fix itself. Something like that would be really neat. Pull cables, power something down, try to put in a routing loop. See if this thing can figure it out. And. Cracked it. That's the kind of stuff I'm looking forward to

Pat 23:23

Cool.

Alex 23:24

for sure. And I mean, having said all that, I know you're new, but I'm sure you've been kind of googling things and reading about stuff. Is there anything like that might not be obvious, like a session that, peaking your interest?

Pat 23:40

I don't know. It's just there's just a lot to take in, especially for the new guys trying to work, gals trying to, kind of do it right and whatnot. I just think there's so much there that, you just kind of, hang with somebody that's kind of been there before and, a little bit of the ropes and kind of, get you, gets you moving. But a lot of my sessions are sdwan based. That sort of thing. I'm hearing some things too as like part of the part of the Cisco Champs things and whatnot, so, that are coming, or that are supposed to be and that we have access to them. I'm excited about, but yeah, it seems like a cool thing that I'm hearing, like that world of solutions, there's just, it's just so massive and there's just a bunch of stuff to look at. So I'm looking forward to just kind of getting my teeth into that and meeting everybody I can. And who, who knows, and I'm always curious of like, the downtime, not downtime, but like how much time you have outside of the Cisco realm. Like, like the combination of, okay, you get there at eight, you're gonna leave at five, or whatever it is. And then like, depending on the nights you have or the vendors are taking you out, you're going to happy hour and boom. Like, is there like a day that you just. That you just have to like hang in Vegas, like on Fremont Street or just do something touristy in Vegas? Or is it all Cisco All the time? Just cuz you're in that world.

Alex 24:57

Well, you said you're leaving Friday. It things really die down after Wednesday. I think they have a kind of a limited schedule on Thursday.

Pat 25:06

Huh?

Alex 25:07

like if you look at your schedule right now, I'd probably be surprised if you have a real late Thursday thing, cuz I mean, things are starting to, people are, shutting down exhibits and things like that. So Thursday's

Pat 25:17

Yeah.

Alex 25:19

the day where you might have a, an early morning session and by then, since people are already packing up, that's kind of like your day to, all right, let's unwind, let's explore before. So,

Pat 25:33

Yeah. Thursday I have a one, my last one is one to two 30.

Alex 25:38

okay. Yeah, I think that's, I have a one two as well. So. And don't be shocked if come lunch, you don't go back for that one o'clock and you're like, yeah, I'm done.

Pat 25:50

Yeah,

Alex 25:50

time to go gamble.

Pat 25:52

Yeah. Throw a couple bucks in the machine or whatever. Yeah. That's awesome.

Alex 25:57

The Vegas donations. Sure. Here.

Pat 25:59

That's it. Yeah, for sure. I'm not a big gamblers. I don't know, but like I, I'm a huge hockey guy and the Vegas Golden Knights are in the play. They're literally in the finals for the Western conference. So I'm curious to see, cuz I think they played the T-Mobile arena, which is like right there. So I'm interested to see if the if a game comes back there, if I, if that would be awesome if I could grab a ticket. But that's gonna have to be an act of God to line up correctly like that. But we'll see what

Alex 26:26

if you network of the right people. I'm sure somebody has tickets.

Pat 26:29

That'd be so cool if anybody's out there that's going to Cisco live and there's and there's the Golden Knights are coming back and playing the game at T-Mobile, holler. They're at your boy dude needs to go.

Alex 26:41

You know that the Gwen Stefani is the headline actor at Legion Stadium. We

Pat 26:48

And I heard I heard her husband like, Shelton is coming along,

Alex 26:51

Yep. And I don't know how this is gonna work out, and I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but Jim Gaffigan is one of the keynote speakers

Pat 27:00

yeah,

Alex 27:01

on Thurs or

Pat 27:02

that.

Alex 27:03

Yeah. So I'm gonna go to that and I

Pat 27:05

Hell yeah.

Alex 27:06

I mean, does this guy know anything about networking or care about technology in the slightest?

Pat 27:12

I like Jim Gaffigan. He's funny.

Alex 27:14

Yeah. Yeah. So that'll

Pat 27:15

dude.

Alex 27:15

interesting. And,

Pat 27:17

I'm interested to see what other Vegas life that I can kind of at least add my, cause it's my first time in Vegas ever, not just for Cisco Live. I've

Alex 27:24

so that's a double whammy.

Pat 27:26

Yeah. Yeah. Total double win. So I'm looking forward to that. So, yeah, it's gonna be cool. So I'm interested to see what what else is out there at least people, different people tell me different things that they like and whatnot. Obviously the Hoover Dam is out there and, all these museums and for a couple years I was into the show, pawn Stars, and on the history channels it's super popular. So they're, they're in Vegas, so who knows. I'm just looking to do some cool stuff. So see what happens.

Alex 27:52

Yeah, for sure,

Pat 27:54

I'm interested to see. So Cisco has their I guess this year they're focused on like sustainability. So from what I hear, there's not gonna be a whole lot of swag or at least a massive reduction of swag that's gonna be given out this, it's gonna be given out this year. So,

Alex 28:12

You can't close on that. Better note,

Pat 28:14

I know, just curious to see what what what they give us and or what's out there and whatnot. Cause from what I've read, like you throw away over 90% of what you, of what they give out there. So, just unless you can't wear it or if it really isn't serve a purpose, a lot of people are throwing it out. So, shout out to my man Julio, who works with me. He's a voice guy where I work. That guy is like the king of swag. He comes back with literally suitcase, full of swag. He gets everything. So he's coming with me again this year. So, or I should say he's going again this year. He went last year as well. So I'm curious to see what kind of swag he gets. Cuz he is the notorious king of swag in our. In our department. So I'm curious to see what happens there, but nah, just totally into the networking side of it, the people networking side of it. Talk to as many people as I can. Some really bright minds there to see what they can what I, well what rubs off on on me and make me a little smarter. So who, who knows. But totally looking forward to it. And so does the, for those of the, for those of us that are coming from a different time zone does that really kind of come into play of like, you get some jet lag the first day to kind of get on Vegas time? Or is it just a adrenaline thing? You just rush rush.

Alex 29:26

Well, since you're coming from the East coast you're gonna make up sometimes. So that'll probably work out well cuz 8:00 AM sessions it'll feel like 11 to you, so you'll probably be pumped, already beaten breakfast maybe checked out the. Luxor is gym, get the blood flowing. So, no, I think you're probably better off making the trip and I think just about everyone's going the day before. I'm gonna be there Sunday as well. I think I'm landing at like six o'clock or something like that. So,

Pat 29:56

Let's see. It's 6:00 PM Local time there.

Alex 29:58

Yeah. It's only an hour flight for me and I couldn't check in until four, so I just like, all right, well I'll just wait for, look for the flight that gets me there as soon as after I can check in. Yeah. So we'll have to make sure we do that then. Yeah, just bank on seven o'clock. We'll go do dinner somewhere.

Pat 30:15

That's to be cool. Yeah. I mean, also I wanna mention for those of you that are going for the first time Sunday at four o'clock out there, there is an actual session going on. It's actually new to Cisco live. It's like an orientation. So it's, their tips, their tricks, their, their experiences. Shout out to my boss, Evan, who is one of the presenters there. So he'll be on stage given his spiel. And there's three other, three other folks that are with him. Just trying to, get you used to Cisco live, if you're a newbie, if you're a first comer, that kind of thing. So, don't be afraid to join that as well. Like I said, Sunday, four o'clock I'll be landing there at noon local time. So I have that on my schedule. I'll be joining and it'll be ready to rock and roll. So I'm looking forward to that. And yeah, just looking forward to taking it all in and I'm sure the week will fly by. They usually do so.

Alex 31:12

And I know we already talked about it already, but this is probably be a little shorter than normal podcast episode, so I thought maybe we could even close with we kind of just discuss our, just our sessions that we have booked in its entirety real quick and maybe that way people can comment and say no, you gotta make sure that you join this one. Or if, hey, let us know if you're gonna be joining the same sessions.

Pat 31:38

one man. We'd love to meet you for sure.

Alex 31:40

because I'm curious too, it's one that I've been wi meaning to ask you, and now I know too that you're gonna be joining. But I'm curious, did we happen to overlap at all? And then after we share our schedule, I guess we can bid a do and hope we meet some of the listeners over there.

Pat 31:58

That's it, that's gonna be cool. So I guess, I guess I'll start, I'm the newbies. So, Monday I got a eight 30. It's an introduction to campus wired campus wired land deployment using Cisco validated design. So, it's a breakout session. More of like an intro to say, Hey, these are some of the Cs that, we recommend from a wired perspective, branch that sort of thing. So looking that one 10 30 is the software defined access fundamentals. So again, more of a newbie when it comes to the SD access stuff. So, looking forward to that one. It's got a lot of zero trust stuff built, baked into it. So, zero trust is something we're exploring as well, or, getting better at. So getting through the phases of, so, that seemed to be interesting and at least right up my alley of what I'm working on day to day. So that's gonna be cool. One o'clock is a SD access to the external world. So the flexible, secure way of deploying wire to wireless campus network stuff using DNA center automation, things of that nature. That's more of an intermediate kind of thing. So, looking forward to that one as well. I have a little, I have a short one here, a short half hour. But again this may be good dropped just to me to go walk, but more zero trust zero trust next gen sassy solution, that kind of thing. So, it's like zero touch zero touch, zero trust, that sort of thing. A lot of acronyms here. So, and then the last one on Monday is en and enterprise and WAN architecture. So a lot of SD wan, a lot of thousand I stuff in there. Lar you know, stuff that's kind of geared towards larger organizations. Again, SD WAN thousand i's DNA n A center N P L S ed, data center edge, that kind of thing. So anything end to end from a away. Architecture perspective is that, that's a, that's gonna be a cool one too. So looking forward to that. And that's it for Monday. What do you got for Monday?

Alex 33:51

Well, surprisingly, doesn't look like we overlapped. And,

Pat 33:55

Damn it.

Alex 33:56

Be honest, you ha you didn't sell me on anything. So I don't know if I'm gonna be switching over.

Pat 34:00

Understood. Understood.

Alex 34:02

I'm starting off my Cisco live week with something that's probably too introductory for me. So maybe I won't end up doing this one first, but it's introduction to VX Land. This is one that Nate's doing or was interested in. So I think that's part of the reason that I did it. We use it heavily at Disney. So I'm already pretty familiar with it. So

Pat 34:24

Yeah.

Alex 34:24

have some more advanced topics later in the week. They're probably gonna be a bit more interested, but sometimes when you get in the weeds and you go into environments that already have things built and they're working. Sometimes it's not a terrible idea to go back to introductory principles and then figure out if you're not actually doing some

Pat 34:44

make sure you're doing it right.

Alex 34:46

It's just like, yeah, just cuz it works doesn't mean you did it the way they think you probably should. So maybe I'll gain gain something there. The next one is pretty interesting. It's just called Unleashing Innovation. When I mentioned about a few themes of the sessions that I've taken, I mentioned automation, machine learning, ai. Been lucky enough with the last few positions that I've had that they've had some pretty impressive budgets. So we've been able to kind of be on the bleeding edge of technology. So I'm also really interested in just, what the next five years and tech are gonna look. Not just things that are here, things I can't even buy yet. So this unleashing innovation. Is really just about the future of Cisco technology. So I'm just interested to see if there's anything that comes out here that just might, kind of blow my mind. Talks of quantum networking is in there and some other things that are really farfetched, but I think that'll be pretty interesting. After that I have Ansible network automation and get outs for network operations.

Pat 35:49

Cool.

Alex 35:49

I said, anything that has to do with automation. Ansible, this is an intermediary course. I'm hoping that I'm strong enough now to maybe be able to handle an intermediate automation course. So we'll find

Pat 36:03

Yeah. Right? Yeah. Hoping you could hang. Yeah.

Alex 36:07

Yeah I keep getting more and more of it, so I'm hoping that I can get to it.

Pat 36:11

Cool.

Alex 36:12

How to seamlessly automate. Nexus OS and cloud networks through the Nexus dashboard. That is also on Monday. Again, that's new seeker. We use Nexus a lot and again, just kind of falls in line with automating and the Nexus dashboard is really just gonna be a gooey that's think's gonna simplify that for people that aren't programmers by trade or code Python daily. I think that putting these front end gooeys in front of it, you're gonna allow you to accomplish the same things that you could but give you a means to do it. That's slightly simpler. So I'm interested to see if I can maybe even come back from one of these sessions with something that I can suggest that we push forward at work. Cuz we talked about the Nexus dashboard at work

Pat 36:58

Yep,

Alex 36:59

No plans to use it

Pat 37:00

did we. Yeah. So did we.

Alex 37:03

maybe it'll convince me on one of these, which is, I mean, that's why Cisco has these events, right? If you leave going, I need this technology,

Pat 37:09

Right? Yeah. They wanna sell you something. Sure. I get it.

Alex 37:15

next is streaming telemetry on Cisco Nxs Nx os again, another Nexus Cisco thing. Streaming telemetry, just the more data you pull. And again, with the whole AI machine learning, the more data you have the more cool things you can do with it. So this is just how do I pull data? So hoping that I'll learn something simple and also kind of, hoping that this'll I'll leave this with something that I can, put forward is in motion at work. The other thing, note in, I hadn't been mentioning it, but in a lot of these sessions that I'm taking, they are, they qualify for continued education credit. I don't, that's probably something we should have talked about earlier. For anyone who doesn't know Pretty much every course in here that has a very specific technology, it's almost always gonna be something that is going to provide Cisco learning credits, which, you can avoid Pat's fate and Allow you

Pat 38:20

yeah. Avoid mine. I do the wrong things,

Alex 38:23

avoiding your certs expiring. And then the final thing, which I think I can convince you to do this it's not even a breakout session. It's in the Cisco U and they're having CCNA trivia in the Cisco Youth Theater. And, There'll be some prizes and things like that. So,

Pat 38:42

Cool. What time is that?

Alex 38:44

it's five 30, so it's one that, so wrapping up the day with it. So yeah, that'll be fun.

Pat 38:50

cool. That's cool.

Alex 38:52

so that's my Monday, so hopefully I convinced you of one or two of those, but if not, so be it.

Pat 38:58

That's cool. Yeah, no just a note for sis, Cisco U is now open to everybody. So that, that's that was just this past week. So Cisco U is Cisco's new learning platform. So, go and check that out if you have not done so already. I did. So we'll see if that comes across my schedule start to use that a little more heavily. But yeah, Cisco U is now live for everybody that chooses to to take advantage of, so that's gonna be cool. So, Tuesday is where the keynote starts, right? The keynotes are Tuesday and Wednesday. So eight 30 on Tuesday is a keynote vision for the future. So I'm curious to see what that holds and what they kind of talk about. So that's a, that's an hour and a half or 10 30 is where I have that one. I was really interested in the end-to-end visibility with actionable insights using Thousand Eyes, DNA Center, ice, and SDWAN. So, basically using DNA Center integrating with ice and Sdwan to all sort of work together. So, DNA Center uses or I should say thousand eyes. You can deploy thousand eyes agents with DNA Center that uses N Bar and all kinds of crazy actionable insights that you can get to date. Get all that data and all those stats on what you're what you're doing end to end. So that's gonna be cool looking forward to that. It's centered around iot devices as well kind of securing those and again, bringing those into the DNA umbrella and that sort of thing. So that's gonna be cool. And then obviously as it makes its way out to the SD wan, you're seeing You're seeing it end to end through the sdwan fabric. So always look, that's gonna be cool as well since d since SD WAN is is an ongoing thing for us. So it's gonna be, that's gonna be cool too. So again, hop by hop, visibility, performance metrics, et cetera, et cetera. So that's one I'm really looking forward to there since that Pushes a lot of buttons, or I should say checks a lot of boxes for, a lot of my day to day. So that's gonna be cool. So, and then I don't really have anything until three o'clock that day. So I have a morning and afternoon there. So I've, I left a lot of space in there, so we'll see see what happens. So, that's gonna be the infrastructures code one for the Ns nx o s using Ansible. Right? So, Ansible and Python seem to be the two big ones that are used in our space. They're not exactly the same, but they're, they're they get automation done, right? That sort of thing. Ansible using what they call playbooks and then Python being an actual language. A programming language that you can use. So this basically does you can use, your script, your infrastructure and, splash it out to N Sox using Ansible playbooks and things of that nature. So, again, infrastructure's code Alex, you said, VX land, that sort of thing. Vxlan, e ev, p n, fabric, et cetera, et cetera. So it gets all into that into those weeds for that particular session. So that's gonna be cool. So, that is my Tuesday. So Tuesday's kind of light, but I mean, well light on sessions, but I'll be cruising the floor, hanging with Champs, whatever. I'll find some, there's always something to do. So that's my Tuesday.

Alex 41:47

All right. You'll see me a little bit more on Tuesday it seems like.

Pat 41:51

All right. Yeah.

Alex 41:52

I'll definitely be there for the keynote after the keynote. How to be a network engineer in a programmable age. So again, there

Pat 42:01

Yeah, there's

Alex 42:02

programming and there's a theme. In addition to helping myself as a manager of people that are kind of like your classic network engineers, I'm hoping that I'll come out of that with just some more info to, figure out how I can help transition some of these guys on my team to be more aligned with what's coming in the next five years. That's probably another one I should have mentioned is one I'm interested in. Yeah, so definitely interested in that. I mentioned it earlier on Monday. With the Monday sessions I have for Tuesday, I have a VX Land BGP E V P N multisite

Pat 42:35

Ooh.

Alex 42:37

That is another technology specifically E V P N multisite that we use. And this is a much more session, so, this is one that'll be very interested in. I I'll definitely take my notebook here. So hoping to gain something there that same day. I also have the predictive networks thing that I mentioned. Really interested to see like how far they've gotten to, at this point, how close they are to really making true self heal healing networks. That'll be interesting. Then I'm heading over to the DevNet Center. I don't know if you had a session over there yet.

Pat 43:12

I am not,

Alex 43:13

I have network automation start here. That's the name of the session.

Pat 43:17

Oh, no way.

Alex 43:19

get an opportunity to follow along and actually do some network automation tasks. So, I've done a few of these in the past, so these are always fun. I always forget what I've learned, so I really interested in learning these again. But yeah, this will be things like writing some basic Ansible playbooks to do things like set NTP on all these devices, like the most rudimentary things you can do. So if you have n if you've never done anything with Ansible, this is a great one. Then Joe, the to join cuz you'll actually accomplish something that might end up being one of the first things you do if you ever did use Ansible, which is push out a very simple change to watch of devices. So

Pat 43:59

What time is that? One,

Alex 44:00

two o'clock

Pat 44:01

two. Okay.

Alex 44:03

in

Pat 44:03

Well, I have an opening, was that, is that an hour or what?

Alex 44:06

45 minutes.

Pat 44:07

Okay,

Alex 44:10

Yep.

Pat 44:10

I might have to do that.

Alex 44:12

yeah, that's a good one. And I think it's yeah, it's first come, first serve, I think is what it is. Yeah. First come, first serve. So this is when you just put on your calendar. Well, I think it's by default because it's first come, first serve, they don't give you, like, you just have to show up. And

Pat 44:29

I gotcha.

Alex 44:30

if we don't have anything going on that afternoon, maybe we can walk by around one 30 and see if if there are already any people waiting for that. Then at three o'clock, I have the same one that you did, the infrastructure as code for N X O S with Ansible. So,

Pat 44:44

Yeah. Cool.

Alex 44:45

Those two go hand in hand pretty well with each other.

Pat 44:48

Cool.

Alex 44:49

And Wednesday, up to you, then back to you.

Pat 44:53

All right. Back to you, Johnny. All right. I actually just started I signed up for the network automation, so I'm on a wait list, so that's cool. There. Wednesday's a little heavier. The key, there's another keynote it's called Let's Go. So curious to see what that does. Then at 10 30 I have the Cisco ice. So ice ice design deploy and best practices. So, looking forward to that. Obviously that's all setting around Cisco ICE and the Zero Trust and all that sort of thing. So, really I don't have a whole lot of experience with ice. I mean, I've been in places that use it but it's really kind of not my forte, if you will or, it's kind of just been this thing that just runs. Again, you don't really know if you're doing it like right, or if there's a better way to do it or whatever. So it just kind of runs. So, looking forward to that. Getting, digging into ice and that will certainly help for the CC m p security ice specialty that I'm striving towards later this year. So that's gonna be cool. Then Let's see what make sure my days are lined up here. Then I have advanced Dusty WAN policies troubleshooting. So again, heavy Esty wan. It's a session that's very, tack case driven sort of thing. It's a, demonstrate failure scenarios and common pitfalls and things of that nature of the of the SD man fabric or whatever. So, but it touches on, centralized control policies, data policies, application aware routing, things of that nature. So looking forward to that one as well. Since SD WAN is obviously a big part of my day to day. And then The last one I have for that day is the Cisco Secure hybrid, s w g. So it's a first step into like a sassy journey. So, kind of moving towards the sassy infrastructure and how all that fit ins from an architecture perspective. So, looking forward to that. Secure services, edge, things of that nature which I, earlier in the week I had a session on that as well. So this is a, ties right into that nicely. So, again, flexibility secure it's meant to introduce Cisco secure, hybrid security gateway, that kind of thing. So, practical, approaches and, things of that nature. So umbrella secure web appliance, things of that nature. So looking forward to that. As well. So that is my Thursday, or I'm sorry, my Wednesday.

Alex 47:10

Wednesday. All right. Let's see here. Doing the keynote again. That one is gonna be interesting. The, they have the chief security officer from the NFL is one of the speakers, and that's also the one, or Jim Gaffigan is talking Some point. So, we'll see what that is. I'm

Pat 47:29

Cool.

Alex 47:30

After that I have deploying Nexus Dashboard in your organization. Hopefully by then I've already got some info from my, from a couple other courses. And then I have a pretty good break there for a few hours until I do the artificial intelligence and machine learning for network engineers to close my day. So that's actually

Pat 47:52

Look at that.

Alex 47:52

day.

Pat 47:54

Nice. Good deal. Last day, Thursday, like I said, this was kind of the the one that kind of wraps up earlier, kind of, Cisco Live. I don't say Dives di dives off after Wednesday, but the Thursday schedule is considerably lighter, what you could pick. So it does seem to kind of, sort of try to wrap up early. So, eight 30, bright and early. It's called one to 100 Master all steps of deployment, seamless integration and migration of large s d and SD wan networks. So again, heavy SD wan. That's seems to be the world I'm living in. So again all about scale in the sd, SD access, ssd, wan network space, things of that nature. The details, the small minute details seamless integrations how they sort of work together, et cetera. Yeah, I'm interested to see how that works and see where that goes. So, yeah, getting heavy s d s D and SD wan, that works for me all, pretty much all week. So, again, another one s st access migration tools. So if you're, you're not on SD access now, what does it take to kind of get you there? Some real world migration tools and strategies to kind of, kind of get you there with some best practices that sort of thing. So, what else is here? It's yeah, so just kind of what that sort of looks like from a, I don't have anything now to what can we do, what can we do for that? And kind of go go from there. So, and the last one I got is this is the one you said, ah, Thursday after lunch. You may or may not get there, you just may bag it. So we'll see. But the the last one I got is the connecting data centers and branch offices to the Cisco Sassy platform. So again, more sass driven things like that. So, Again, branch offices, data centers, anything in the wan client or clientless remote access, vpn, tunnels, things of that nature. So, how, how that all looks high availability, throughput, routing, get all that kind of stuff in there. Basically just, it covers everything. It do you need to do to successfully design to, deploy your IP SEC tunnels to the SaaS, solution or platform. So, looking forward to that one as well. That's more of a deep diver. So, but that'll end my Cisco live from a sessions perspective and kind of, go from there. So what do you got for Thursday?

Alex 50:02

Well, only two sessions cause closing up pretty much at lunchtime for me. Keeping up with Zero Trust.

Pat 50:09

Cool.

Alex 50:09

this is just going over what they claim is the current I guess, the current go-to solutions revolving zero trust and demos of those use cases. And then I have preparing for the new DevNet Associates certification. Been talking about it for a while. I really do think in the next say, six months, I will get my DevNet associate certification. So I'm

Pat 50:37

You heard it here first.

Alex 50:38

right? I'll keep you guys update on my progress, but

Pat 50:42

That's it. Now you have to do it now, cuz now it's on the internet for the rest of our lives. So it's all good.

Alex 50:47

a fact.

Pat 50:49

So yeah that, that's it. That's our schedule. So if you guys or gals are out there, come say what's up. If you have any sc, any tips for us that we didn't cover here, or any classes that you're like, oh, you guys need to take this. Let us know, hit us up. We'd love to rearrange schedules and see if we can fit things in. So, if you're in any of those classes or sessions we'll see you there. So, we'll, don't be afraid to come say hello and hang out and we'll be all over. So it's gonna be cool. So I actually tried to do like a actual podcast out there and just like, but little, I think logistics will be a little hard, so probably won't, but, we'll leave with a lot more education and guidance than what we came from and maybe some guests line up and get some dates on calendars. So that's

Alex 51:34

Oh yeah, I didn't even

Pat 51:35

see, see what happens

Alex 51:37

Line up some guest speakers.

Pat 51:39

Yeah. So that's gonna be cool. So hopefully, so if you wanna be a guest on the show, come hang and let us know too. So that's gonna be real cool. So, Alex, I think that was it. That really filled out the hour, right around the hour, so that worked perfectly.

Alex 51:51

That works for me. Yeah, I think that's enough. We'll have a follow up one, so I'm ready to leave with that.

Pat 51:59

On what we learned, so. Yeah. Sounds good. So we will get outta your hair. Like I said, we're right around that hour mark, so we appreciate you joining on this very timely episode of breaking down the Bites. So we will, we it's a week from week from today actually. I'll be flying. So yeah we'll be on planes a week from today. And actually at this time we'll both be out there. So it's gonna be cool. Yeah, it's gonna be really cool. So again, thanks for joining. As usual, appreciate everybody taking time outta their day and listening to us to ramble on. And hopefully you get some valuable insight out of this. So make sure you visit our website, breaking bys pod.io, or you can subscribe to the show on your platform of choice. Apple apple Podcast Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher wherever. You just need an RSS feed. What is up there as well. So you'd never miss a show. Throw us a reading on Apple Podcast. That would be great. Fools with the algorithms and gets more people, more eyes on our show. That would be cool. Leave us a review as well that always helps. We look at those, so we appreciate everybody that's taking time and said There are nice words and nice things about us. So, that always welcome there. I was simply tell a friend as well, right? So we'll be telling a lot of friends in a week that we have a podcast out there. So hopefully we get some more traction out there at Cisco Live. So it's gonna be cool. Follow us on all of our socials. They're all in the show notes LinkedIn, Twitter Facebook Discord server the survey, the listener feedback survey's still out there. So, that's a living, breathing doc. So, again, we don't know who you are. It's all anonymous. Just a couple of questions. It just gives us pretty charts and percentages in p graphs. So, just to keep on keep the pulse on what you guys and gals wanna hear. If you like this, you don't like this, blah, blah, blah, let us know and we can adjust the show as accordingly and go from there. So Alex, man, we'll see you in the flesh in a week. Rock and rolling. But for everyone else, we will see you out there and anybody's going to Cisco Live. Hit us up and we'll certainly we'll meet and greet and shake hands. So, all right, anybody. See you next time.