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Michael Morris

Welcome to Cisco Live (Networkers)

By michaeljmorris on Tue, 06/24/08 - 10:31am.
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I arrived at Cisco Live (Networkers) yesterday in Orlando and attended my first techtorial on Wireless. Very interesting topic. We getting ready to do a large WLAN upgrade so I've scheduled a whole week of wireless training.

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Here are some of my first impressions of Networkers this year:

  • There is much more space at the Orlando convention center than last year in Anaheim. Anaheim was cramped and we had to use adjacent hotels for classes and sessions. This convention center has all the rooms and plenty of space for 10,000 people. This is more like Las Vegas.

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  • The area around the convention center is a tourist and restaurant mecca. Easy to get dinner and other stuff. That's nice.
  • There is zero - nada, nothing - mobile coverage in some parts of the convention center. I feel naked without my blackberry working. :-( How is it that this place doesn't blanket every room with mobile signal repeaters?

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  • Snacks are getting cheaper. Maybe it's just the first couple days, but the snacks have been weak. They have worked in some health snacks - like celery and peanut butter packs - but most of the rest are boring and in short supply. Even bottled water has been replaced by water coolers and plastic cups. :-(
  • The Cisco store is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e. $65 for a Cisco polo shirt. I guess it's more than just gas and food prices going up.
  • Support staff - it appears mostly retirees from the area - are very helpful and kind.
  • The World of Solutions opening was PACKED, as usual. If they can squeeze another vendor in there, they will. ;-)

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  • You can get a massage this year right in the main hallway...for a fee....

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  • I ran into someone who recognized me through this blog and said he really enjoyed reading it. Thanks....so you're the one! ;-)

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  Go to Cisco Subnet for more Cisco news, blogs, discussion forums, security alerts, book giveaways, and more.

Cheap

0
By Jim G (not verified) on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 11:25am.

Is the Continental breakfast new? I skipped 2007, but I don't remember the breakfasts being quite so sparse.

BTW, do you know if there is transportation to the CCIE party tonight, or are we expected to find out own way to Universal Studios?

RE: Cheap

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By michaeljmorris on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 6:50pm.

Breakfast went continental last year...yeah, it does suck.

Transpo to CCIE party is on your own.

Mike

Indeed

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By JasonS (not verified) on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 11:24pm.

Mike,

You're absolutely right. The snacks are lame and miserly. And no cell coverage on the first floor is really really weak. You'd think a place like this would have it covered. On the other hand, the wireless networking is much better than years past.

And my colleague and I are eating breakfast at our hotel, which has free HOT breakfast. Continental breakfast is for the birds when you're paying big bucks these days for the registration.

I think the World of Solutions is a little too cramped though. The reception last night was way too crowded. But let's hope they make up for it all with a kick ass party tomorrrow!

Indeed

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By Anon (not verified) on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 10:26am.

Not only are the snacks and breakfast lame, however Cisco seems to be caught up in making money off entertainment and games only. Not once did Chambers mention quality, customer satisfaction or stability of products. His only concerns appears to be to have more products to sell and let the customer figure out how to make it run and deal with the lack of quality control. I'm sure they're making record profits by finding the lowest bid for production but they can't make stable 6500 hardware any longer so try to cover this mess by changing their entire operation structure by forcing over use of any buzzwords they read in the rags. They're more interested in being "cool" in someones eyes than in being good.

New CTO

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By Anon (not verified) on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 10:33am.

Seems like they now have a brainless CTO also who's worried about knowing all the toys to impress her children instead of being a CTO.

RE: New CTO

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By michaeljmorris on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 1:01pm.

Now that's just being mean.

I actually liked her keynote today.

Honestly, how do you be the CTO of Cisco? That's not a "technology" job, that's a marketing job.

RE: Indeed

0
By michaeljmorris on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 5:00pm.

Ouch, that was a little harsh...but probably deserved. ;-)

To defend Mr. Chambers a little, he did mention at the CCIE NetVet Lunch that Quality is now a top 3 goal for the Cisco engineering organization with objective metrics for performance. All management and engineers now have compensation plans tied to quality. I think they've realized the need for stability over new features with some of the recent issues.

Mike

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About From the Field

Michael Morris is a communications engineering manager at a $3-billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos and developing large-scale routing designs. He has worked on networks at government and corporate organizations, including networks at two Fortune 10 companies. In his current role, he leads a team of 10 engineers responsible for large-scale IT networking projects and architectural standards for data networks, storage area networks, IP telephony, contact centers, and security. Michael is CCIE #11733 and recently became one of the first three Cisco Certified Design Experts (CCDE) ever (#20080002). He has 11 years experience in networking and communications, including four years as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He has a bachelor's degree in MIS from the University at Buffalo and is working on his MBA from NC State University. In 2008, he was awarded the Network Professional Association (NPA) Professional Excellence and Innovation Award for his work on network architecture, templates and enterprise MPLS design.

Contact him.