Cisco Live 2014: Celebrating 25 Years of IT Insights and Expertise

This year, Cisco Live turns 25. In honor of the event’s 25th anniversary, the Cisco Systems is bringing Cisco Live home to San Francisco, where the company was founded 30 years ago. Attendees from across the country will make the pilgrimage to the Moscone Center to learn from Cisco and its partners from May 18-22.

A year ago — jazzed up by the show’s many speakers, 200 technology and solutions partners, 750 information sessions and numerous product announcements — more than 22,000 happy revelers left Cisco Live 2013 with smiles on their faces.

BizTech was there to keep readers in the loop on the events that took place at the conference and we’ll do the same this year. Here's a quick overview of some exciting things to look forward to from this year's Cisco Live.

Setting the Stage for Success

Starting with the opening keynote by Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers, the company used last year’s Cisco Live as a platform to outline its vision of the Internet of Everything (IoE) and the value of IT to business.

Cisco Vice President of Emerging Technologies and Chief Demonstration Officer Jim Grubb joined Chambers onstage to demonstrate how businesses can gain a competitive advantage by leveraging IOE, the new networking paradigm that is starting to connect the 99 percent of things that are unconnected today.

“That’s being driven by Moore’s Law and the continuing reduction in costs in computing and sensors,” Grubb noted. He then showed the audience a tiny sensor on his index finger that provides IP connectivity and integrated Wi-Fi for only 99 cents. Fast forward five years, and that sensor will go for mere pennies, Chambers and Grubb predicted.

At Cisco Live 2014, Chambers promises to expand on how the IoE has already begun to transform the way people live in our new application economy. It is all about the human face of technology.

Additional keynote speeches from a veritable who’s who of Cisco executives will highlight the company’s vision for business technology, service provider agility, public sector innovation, cloud success, collaboration in the age of the connected user, application centric infrastructure as an extension of software-defined networking (SDN), new security models and more.

Where You Learn from the Best

No Cisco Live conference would be complete without hundreds of breakout sessions, labs and seminars. This year’s education programs are broken down into four tracks: Technical Education, IT Management, Service Provider and Developer Network programs.

The Technical Education track, for instance, is organized into a series of focused sessions that cover core Cisco technologies across such categories as bring-your-own-device and mobility, IT certification, the cloud, collaboration, the networking core, data center, security and service provider.

These sessions will include technical breakouts, case studies provided by Cisco staff and its customers as well as panels, product and solution overviews, and more.

IT Pros Love a Good Show

To give attendees a few hours to unwind, Cisco will present its Customer Appreciation Event featuring Lenny Kravitz and Grammy Award winning band Imagine Dragons at the San Francisco Giants AT&T Ballpark on May 21st.

Those who can’t attend Cisco Live in person won’t be left out in the cold. If you sign up for Cisco Live 365, you can attend the show virtually and view live broadcasts of keynotes, thousands of sessions and more. You can view the complete Cisco Live 2014 online agenda at the conference's official site to start selecting the sessions you might want to watch.

Cisco will also be sharing information and encouraging discussions about the show via a variety of social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram and Flickr. The company plans to give away prizes to onsite and virtual attendees through a variety of social media promotions, such as a scavenger hunt on the show floor and a daily Twitter update contest.

Stay tuned to BizTech for more updates and information from Cisco Live 2014.