Cisco Live in San Diego – Will You Make It?

“Make it” was one of the first singles released by the the band Aerosmith. Since then these guys have been rocking away for about 40 years. What does this have to do with Cisco Live? Aerosmith will be the band playing at the Customer Appreciation Event (CAE). A good time is pretty much guaranteed. Aerosmith knows how to entertain a crowd.

The CAE will take place at Petco Park, the home of the San Diego Padres. This photo shows the arena in the evening, looks quite spectacular to me.

Cisco Live is much more than just having fun though. If you want to make it in the IT industry, there is a lot to gain by going to Cisco Live. Here are some of my reason why I want to go:

Stay on top of new technologies – Where is ACI going?
Dip my toes into other technologies that I find interesting
Gain deep level knowledge of platforms or features that will benefit me and my customers
Go to sessions that will aid me on my certification path
Connect with people!
Learn a lot while having fun at the same time!
Learn from the experience of others

When you are in the IT industry, there is a lot going on – always! It can be easier to focus on following industry trends while not having to check your phone or e-mail constantly. The keynotes are also great to hear what is coming and what the vision of the technology is.

At Cisco Live you will find deep dives into the architectures of platforms and how to troubleshoot platforms. As an example I have a few Catalyst 4500-x showing high CPU, how do you troubleshoot that? General troubleshooting is easy but how do you go beyond that? Cisco Live is perfect for that. If you’re lucky will even get to ask a few questions during or at the end of a session relating to your specific case. And the person answering will be a real expert and you might even get to have contact with that person after CLUS.

I’m moving towards the CCDE. When you go to CLUS, normally you get to take a free exam. If I haven’t taken the CCDE written by then, I might do it. More importantly, I will try to go to sessions that are design related and attend a techtorial or labtorial related to the CCDE, if I can.

One of the best things about going to CLUS is that you will meet a lot of people. Just hanging out and talking with these people is a great experience. I have gained a lot of friends and contacts which have proven to be very very valuable when I need to bounce some ideas or get some input into a project.

Going to Cisco Live is fun! It’s learning and relaxing at the same time! You have to go there to experience it.

If you are interested in going to Cisco Live, I am including some links. The first one is to the main page and the second one is for the registration packages.