It’s been a very busy month or so. June is always like that, it seems. There’s ARRL Field Day, which is always the last rainy weekend in June. This year, Cisco Live was in June, and that typically includes Tech Field Day activities. Right before that, we had the whole family in town for a family reunion. There was all sorts of stuff going on. Now that most of that has blown over, I’ve collected my thoughts and wanted to talk about Cisco Live this year.

Put it on your calendar.  Cisco Live US is June 25 - 29, 2017, in Las Vegas.  This is the largest conference I go to every year, and it’s the highlight of my professional year.  I’ve been going for a few years now and enjoy it for the content and camaraderie.  What are we doing this year?

We’ll fly in on Friday again and do something.  No idea what, but I imagine we’ll throw out an invitation for dinner to the public and meet somewhere.  If you’re going to be in town, let me know, and we’ll meet up.

I wrote this post during Cisco Live and said “I’ll just give it a once-over tonight and publish it.”  That was something like 6 weeks ago now. What a loser I am.

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Yes, really. QoS has actually gotten some attention this year. After how many years of living in the dark and being feared by junior and senior engineers alike, we’re seeing some really cool technologies coming out for it.

It seems that Cisco Live is about the only thing I blog about in the last…well, few years.  At least I’m still writing, even if it is twice a year.  :)

Here’s a summary about Cisco Live for those who live in a dark hole.  It’s July 10 - 14, 2016, in Las Vegas.  If you do anything with Cisco, you should go.  If you do anything with technology that isn’t Cisco, you should go.  Bring your significant other.  There’s plenty to do for everyone.  Anyway, on to the details for this year’s show.

You should know by now that I always find something to complain about.  Is that a bad thing?  Probably.  Does it help improve things?  Absolutely!

Again, I love going to Cisco Live every year.  Without question, it’s my favorite event of the year.  It’s a great event with great people and great things to do.  With that said, let’s look at what could have been a bit better this year.

Another year, another Cisco Live.  Boy, was it a good one.  San Diego is a great city, and convention center there is plenty big to take care of all 25k attendees.  On top of that, the city itself is equipped to handle groups of 40 roaming the streets looking for food and entertainment.

This year’s event had the usual stuff that everyone talks about - breakout session, keynotes, exams, etc. - but Cisco stepped outside of technology this year by helping others.

I don’t think I’m going to give a direct review of Cisco Live US this year.  The conference was great with lots of stuff going on, but I really can’t contribute any more than the vast library of other posts on the subject.  What I will do, though, is give my take on where I think the conference is headed.  These are all my thoughts and have little to do with reality in some cases.

Everything is in order for my trip to Cisco Live 2014 in San Francisco.  Conference passes are purchased.  Hotels are reserved.  Flights are booked.  It’s going to be a great event, and I can’t wait!

Note:  My wife will be with me again this year, and she is trying to get a tour group going to look around the city while others are in sessions.  If you want to be in on the tourist action, contact her via Twitter.

I was just reading through Bob’s blog post from today and wanted to give a rebuttal of sorts.  In his post, Bob tells us that’s he’s going to be at Cisco Live US in San Francisco this year but he won’t be coming on the Full Conference pass like he usually does.  He’s going with the Social Event pass this year, which is actually a great, great way to attend.  I know several people who are thinking about scaling back to the Social Event pass as well, and there’s nothing wrong with doing it like that.  There are some things that it doesn’t get you, though.

Do not tell anyone I told you, but I heard a rumor today.  It looks like the attendees will be in for quite a treat for the 25th Anniversary of the Customer Appreciate Event.  It seems that we’re all going to be shipped off to AT&T Park for the show!  It’s the home of the San Francisco Giants and a beautiful stadium.  And guess who’s going to be there?  Yes, me.  And my wife.  And about 984572 of my friends.  But so will Lenny Kravitz and Imagine Dragons!

We all know what Cisco Live is, right?  Networkers?  The Cisco users’ conference?  If not, then educate yourself, friend.  It takes place every year in different parts of the world.  I try my best to go every year to the US event and am lucky to be able to go this year.  It costs a bagillion dollars and a week of my time; why am I so excited about going?  Easy answers in no particular order.

Cisco Live is obviously the biggest networking event of the year, and Cisco likes to use all the attention to show off some of their new gear.  I must say I was impressed with some of the Enterprise offerings including the 6807-XL, the 6880-X, the 4451-X, and the Sup 8-E for the 4500-E (check out the Nexus 7700, too, even though they aren’t Enterprise class).  Those boxes definitely gave me a bit of a tingle when I was checking them out, but my eyes opened up when I saw the 3850 in one of my sessions and on the show floor.

Yes, I went to Cisco Live and survived.  It was the social event of the year, but the main focus is learning about the cool, new stuff.  One of the booths I visited was a demonstration of Cisco Active Advisor.

This is a cloud-based (BINGO!) application that keeps an eye on the lifecycles of your IOS devices.  Using the web interface, you can scan a range of IP addresses from your machine and have your gear automatically added to the service.  Once in there, you can see, among other things, the warranty and support contract information for your device.  If your contracts is about to expire, it’ll let you know via email.   It also tracks any vulnerabilities that may apply and emails you if any are detected.  This beats trusting your reseller to send you renewals or watching an RSS feed for PSIRTs and field notices.

I’m all set up to go to Cisco Live in Orlando this year.  Good thing, too, since I couldn’t make it to San Diego last time. It’ll be a great and fun time as usual, and I’m quite excited.

As it turns out, ARRL Field Day happens to be the weekend leading up to the festivities.  I’ve been in contact with the local Orlando club, and they say the attendees are more than welcome to join them.  They are meeting at the City of Orlando Emergency Operations Center, which is about 20 minutes away from the Convention Center.

For the first time ever, I’m headed to Cisco Live - the big Cisco users conference in Las Vegas! I usually don’t go to these things since I wind up just hanging out by myself, but I’m meeting all sorts of people there - from bloggers to Tweeps to personal friends. It should be a huge blast, and I can’t wait to get there.

For those interested, here’s my schedule.