CTS 169: Just The Tech

Rowell and François were invited to Cisco Headquarters, along with many others, as part of the #JustTheTech event which was planned in coordination with the Wi-Fi 6 announcement that happened on April 29, 2019.



It was a jam packed day of discussions with key people from Cisco.



The folks in attendance for #JustTheTech were:



* Rowell Dionicio* François Vergès* A.J. Murray* Sam Clements* Evan Mintzer* Hayden Andrews* Shaun Bender* Kevin Blackburn* Amy Arnold* Network Chuck* David Bombal* Phillip Gervasi* Dave Benham



We kicked off the event with a tour of the Customer Experience Center. Taking a look at the possibilities using Cisco solutions. It’s an impressive facility on the first floor of one of many Cisco buildings. There’s an entry way with a large Cisco logo on the wall. On the other side of the wall is the beginning of the Customer Experience Center.



Big Cisco logoHop aboard the Cisco busVirtual ConciergeIndustrial switchesThe Customer Experience WallCisco’s first product, the AGS.BGP on a napkin



During our tour we ran into Todd Nightingale who is an SVP, General Manager of Meraki. It was a delightful surprise but he was able to talk to us for a bit and even tour with us.



So the main purpose of #JustTheTech was to take part in the coordinated announcement of Wi-Fi 6 products from both Cisco and Meraki. But instead of marketing material, we were able to speak directly to engineers.



This means taking a look at the new Wi-Fi 6 access points up close



* Catalyst 9115, 9117, 9120* Meraki MX55, MX45



The actual event started off with Sacha Gupta, Senior Vice President, Product Management – Cisco Enterprise Networking. He talked about Reinventing Access, Unplugged and Uninterrupted.





Reinventing Access, Unplugged and Uninterrupted by Sacha Gupta



Next, Jérôme Henry, Principle Engineer, Office of the CTAO, talked about OpenRoaming which is an interesting concept in today’s world where 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will converge.