Together with about 20 Benelux NetAcad Instructors and the Hackathon winners our ASC Advisor Nico Declerck explored CiscoLive2019 at Barcelona. Here is Nico's report, and indeed Nico crossed and explored the famous 3D Bridge, not a bridge too far.
There's no other place in the world you could go and have a conversation with these people, talk to them, and learn so much more than what is possible in books or webinars.
Save the Date for Cisco Live 2020, Barcelona January 27 - 31, 2020
More pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fBriaLVnX2e7tguy8
What would I do if could do it all over again??? That question just struck me in February of 2018, after visiting CiscoLive! in Barcelona. It was an overwhelming experience. I had learned so many things in just a few days, and it completely changed my insights in networking and security. A report by Nico Declerck
If the Internet and security were the main evolutions in the previous two decades, then virtualization of the network certainly was the key change for the last decade. At last the network world was a mature world, leaving the traditional lines between hard- and software as a very blurry area. Software Defined Networking had entered the traditional network. Now SDN offered a mature solution across many technologies. Your data center, wired and wireless network infrastructure and security were going in the same direction: the SDN-way. The big innovation of 2018 really was the introduction of assurance in the Cisco SDN circle of life.
In 2018 - my first ever visit to CiscoLive! - I learned how much networking had matured. From hobbyists that explored the Internet in 1998 to a mega-industry that had impact on every step in our daily lives in 2018. How could I ever have a more mindchanging view on networking than those 5 days in Barcelona, and how could a visit to CiscoLive! 2019 be even just half as interesting to me? If I visited CiscoLive! again, would it be a big disappointment?
I just didn't know, but I didn't worry, because I thought the opportunity for a second visit would not present itself. However, it did! And immediately I said YES. So what did the 2019 edition have to offer? Well, basically it comes down to two very important things: networking and learning. At the “World of Solutions” at CiscoLive! I've met so many people from so many different industries, all using so many different technologies, and combining them in so many different ways. The only reason I'm able to just offer a glimpse of that to my students, is because I experienced it all myself. Here I met so many people from so many companies (Belgian and international), that my view on the industry is changing, evolving with what really happens in IT. I'm no longer a teacher, now I'm becoming part of it, or to explain it better: I became more part of IT.
These contacts with people from the workplace are helping me. I've seen many alumni from our own school, but also from many other schools in Belgium, all eager to stay in contact with education, because they have learned that if IT does not connect to education, there is no way we will find enough people to handle the enormous growth in networking and security that is caused by IoT and many other evolutions or - dare I say it? - revolutions. I've met many engineers that were so eager to share their knowledge, that I would never have learned those things in a regular training - commercial or otherwise. At CiscoLive! it's great to see technology in action, without any commercial activities at all.
My ticket granted me access to a huge catalogue of Walk-In Self Paced-labs. It's a great and unique way to learn about the technology. Every lab has a proctor, and very often, that is the very person that invented or helped invent the technology you are learning about. There's no other place in the world you could go and have a conversation with these people, talk to them, and learn so much more than what is possible in books or webinars.
During the event there are many sessions about a number of topics, but of course the emerging technologies are everywhere. The datacenter is undergoing a new revolution, caused by two major evolutions: many large companies (like Google and Amazon for instance) are using Cisco datacenter technology, and the importance of edge and fog computing in IoT is bigger than ever. The microcontainer revolution that was a hot topic last year is still very important, but it has become just a normal part of life in the datacenter and all the way down to IoT-sensors. Here, I'm just one of many thousands of visitors. I had one of the cheapest tickets you could get for this event, and yet it gives me so much insight, that I'm asking myself the same question. Is there any way that this could be topped by the next edition? This time, I'm convinced
it will be, and that's why I certainly will visit CiscoLive! 2020 again in Barcelona.
Between being an instructor and creating a fantastic high quality new workforce.... there is a bridge. The bridge to possible.
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