Cisco Podcast Network

What if growth isn’t the problem—revenue quality is? This is the moment before the Shift. Jeff Edwards sat down with John Roger, Founder and Managing Partner of Southern Technology Partners, around the holidays to break down the real economics behind partner success. From recurring revenue and managed services to lifecycle engagement and the Cisco 360 Partner Program – on the heels of its launch, this episode gets straight to what actually drives predictable, durable profitability. Why listen 👇 • 💰 Why not all revenue is created equal—and what to prioritize instead • 🔁 How recurring services reduce risk and fuel long-term growth • 📈 What top partners do differently to scale without chaos Less theory. More truth. Real-world partner lessons you can act on now to make Shift Happen!

In this episode , Tristan takes us through a tour of what Cisco is doing to make all network devices more secure, not just the new products. Security concerns are not just about security vulnerabilities, your base configuration has the biggest impact actually ... Resilient Infrastructure overview: ⁠https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/trust-center/resilient-infrastructure.html#~overview⁠  Feature Deprecation details: ⁠https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/doing_business/trust-center/docs/cisco-resilient-infrastructure-feature-deprecation-and-removal-details.pdf⁠  Alternatives:  ⁠https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/doing_business/trust-center/docs/cisco-infrastructure-resilience-feature-removal-and-suggested-alternatives.pdf⁠   Additional links on threat landscape in 2026: ⁠https://blogs.cisco.com/news/doubling-down-on-resilient-infrastructure⁠  ⁠https://blog.talosintelligence.com/salt-typhoon-analysis/⁠

Kat and Ian are back—and this time, they’ve brought in Steve Guillman, Cisco’s US Distribution Partner Sales Leader and the mastermind behind (joking) Cisco's new partner program, Cisco 360. Together, they unpack what partner programs are, why we should care and the buzz around Cisco’s big partner program update, tossing out the jargon and serving up the real story (we think). Curious why Cisco decided to revamp a 25-year-old program? Wondering if all this change is actually a good thing? Steve lays it all out—from why partners should care, to how Cisco 360 is designed to reward partners for the awesome work they’re already doing (yes, there’s a little math, but we promise it’s worth it). You’ll get honest takes, a couple of groan-worthy analogies (grocery stores, anyone?), and the kind of channel banter that only comes from years in the trenches. If you’ve ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes with Cisco’s partner programs—or just want to hear someone explain this to Kat “like she's five”—this episode’s for you. Want to support the show (and keep the analogies coming)? Check out Cisco’s solutions for small and medium businesses: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

Join us for a look ahead at some of the emerging outage trends for ITOps teams to keep in mind for 2026 and beyond. ——— CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 02:30 Monitoring for Component and Interaction Health 05:14 The Rising Scope of Automation 07:20 Real-World Scenarios 09:05 Observability Challenges 11:05 Getting Ahead of Interaction Failures 13:24 Outage Trends: By the Numbers ——— For additional insights, check out The Internet Outage Survival Kit: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/the-internet-outage-survival-kit?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep130_podcast ——— Want to get in touch? If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at InternetReport@thousandeyes.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X. ——— ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why. Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from recent weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue? Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more. Catch all the episodes on your favorite podcast platform: - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773 - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCewXUwLMfn7Y69C6vGRVwyw

Every major transformation needs a backbone—and for Cisco partners, that backbone is the Partner Experience Platform (PXP). In this episode of Shift Happens, Jeff Edwards sits down with Patrick Heenan, leader of PXP strategy and development, to explore how Cisco is redefining partner experience through co-design, simplicity, and AI-powered insights—all in support of the Cisco 360 partner program. From turning complex data into clear actions to giving partners real-time visibility into growth, performance, and opportunity, this conversation shows how PXP is becoming the central intelligence platform for partner success. Why listen: • 🤝 How co-design with partners is shaping PXP • 📊 How data becomes insight—and insight becomes action • 🤖 How AI is powering smarter, faster partner growth 🎙️ Insight. Momentum. It’s time to make shift happen.

Ian and Kat finally let an actual expert onto the pod with their first external guest, technical recruiter Ann McCreight of Find Great People, for a wildly honest chat about AI in hiring, resumes that try way too hard, and why you absolutely should not list “English” as your programming language. Along the way, we cover keyword stuffing, Canva crimes, interview prep with robots, four-mile interview runs (??), and the shocking revelation that Ian’s old resume… isn’t that bad. Equal parts career advice and group therapy, this is the episode for you whether you are actively looking for a new job, or your resume is collecting virtual dust in a shared drive somewhere. If you came here to learn about Cisco SMB, we still got you here: cisco.com/content/cdc/login.html?referer=/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

In this month’s episode of The Cisco AI Insights Podcast, hosts Rafael Herrera and Sónia Marques welcome Giota Antonakaki, a Cisco leader in machine learning engineering, for an illuminating deep dive into a recent academic research shaping AI agent technology. Together, they unpack “The Illusion of Diminishing Returns: Measuring Long Horizon Execution in LLMs”, a paper challenging the common belief that scaling large language models (LLMs) results in only marginal gains.   The conversation explores fresh concepts like “long horizon” and “self-conditioning,” revealing how even small improvements in LLM step accuracy can dramatically boost performance in complex, multi-step tasks. Giota breaks down the difference between planning, reasoning, and execution in LLMs, and why reasoning-focused models outperform even the largest standard LLMs for long-running AI agents. We also extend a special thank you to Akshit Sinha and his team of researchers for developing this month's paper. If you are interested in reading the paper yourself, please visit this link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09677.

🚨 This wasn't a tweak. It was an identity shift. This is the shift that happened. In this episode of Shift Happens, Jeff Edwards goes behind the scenes of the Cisco 360 Partner Program with Tim Coogan and Elisabeth DeDobbeleer to unpack the human story behind the biggest partner transformation in Cisco's history. Less framework, more truth. Less polish, more courage. Why listen 🎧 🔄 From "partner-first" to partner identity - what had to change (and why it was uncomfortable) 🤝 Co-design at scale: humility, trust, and partners shaping the outcome 🚀 Durable growth decoded: simplicity, outcomes, and why this is only the beginning This isn't about a program launch. It's about reinvention, trust, and building the future-together. 🔥

Ian and Kat are joined this week by their white whale, Ian's mentor and Cisco's Vice President of Global Channel Marketing and Mid-Market/SMB, Stephen Tessitore. Stephen is on a mission to mentor 100 new leaders (he's WELL on his way), and shares his insights with us on how to find a mentor, how to be a mentor and how to come prepared to get the most out of the relationship. Kat and Ian then spend the last 4 minutes roasting Ian for his Chipotle habits. Maybe something he can work on with a mentor? If you want to learn more about Cisco's solutions for small and medium businesses (which we definitely did not talk about this week), check them out here: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html#tabs-35d568e0ff-item-4bd7dc8124-tab

What does it take to redesign a partner incentive program after more than 20 years—without losing trust, predictability, or momentum? In this episode of Shift Happens, host Jeff Edwards sits down with Fred Farges, Senior Director of Cisco’s Global Partner Incentive Program and a key architect of the Cisco 360 Partner Program, to unpack one of the most significant transformations in Cisco’s partner ecosystem. They explore how market forces like AI, subscription-based revenue, and customer adoption are reshaping partner profitability—and why Cisco made the decision to co-design its future partner model with partners at global scale. This conversation covers: ● Why legacy partner incentives had to evolve ● How Cisco 360 balances innovation with predictability ● What partners can expect at launch and beyond ● The role of growth, adoption, and lifecycle in long-term success Whether you’re inside Cisco, part of the partner ecosystem, or leading change in enterprise technology, this episode offers a clear, candid look at how transformation happens.

Join us for a recap of some of 2025’s most notable Internet outages and incidents, with key learnings for ITOps teams to take into 2026. ——— CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 03:16 An Important Nuance 05:16 Global Impacts 07:44 Architecture and Failure Modes 10:05 When DNS Is The Culprit 13:05 The Importance of Looking at Combined Signals 15:54 On Configuration Change Issues 19:23 Key Takeaways ——— For additional insights, check out the links below: Blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/the-top-internet-outages-of-2025-analyses-and-takeaways#google-cloud-incident?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep1_podcast?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep129_podcast The Internet Outage Survival Kit: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/the-internet-outage-survival-kit?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep129_podcast ——— Want to get in touch? If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at InternetReport@thousandeyes.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X. ——— ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why. Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue? Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more. Catch all the episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform: - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773 - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCewXUwLMfn7Y69C6vGRVwyw

New year, new us? Probably not. But we ARE talking all things about resolutions - from Kat's witchiness and vision boards to Ian's list of goals we share our process and take a look back at our 2025 resolutions and year-over-year (YoY) improvements - including Ian drinking less soda...shock! We then dive into how to go about making good resolutions (~6:20 in) before devolving into Kat mocking Ian once again. Feels like this should be a resolution for her? Short and sweet this week! If one of your resolutions is to learn more about Cisco's solutions for small and medium businesses, check them out here: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

In this episode of Cisco SE Talks, we dive deep into the practical applications of AI with many of our financial and high frequency trading customers. We’re thrilled to also bring in Sudheesh Subhash – VP of Innovation & Emerging Technologies at EPlus, Zeki Yasar - Principal Architect focusing on AI and Jake Perakis, Cisco SE - as we talk through customer financial pain points and challenges, as they embark on their AI journey. We also take a deeper dive on how cloud with AI can sometimes be the easy button but comes with significant security challenges and cost restraints. Join us as Cisco SEs lead the way as Cisco re-defines the AI market transformation with our customers and partner! #Cisco #CiscoSE #CiscoEPlus #AI #SELed #CiscoAI #SETalks #CiscoSETalks

Dig into recent outages at Cloudflare and Venmo, and the growing challenge of maintaining reliability and resilience in a world of increasingly interdependent Internet infrastructure. ——— CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:50 Cloudflare Outage 06:54 Venmo Outage 12:01 The Challenge of Layered Dependencies 13:36 Outage Trends: By the Numbers 15:28 Get in Touch ——— For additional insights, check out the links below: - The Internet Report’s latest blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-cloudflare-venmo-outages?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep5_podcast - The Internet Outage Survival Kit: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/the-internet-outage-survival-kit?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep5_podcast ——— Want to get in touch? If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at InternetReport@thousandeyes.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X. ——— ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why. Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue? Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more. Catch all the episodes on SoundCloud or your favorite podcast platform: - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773 - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinternetreport_official

In this episode, Kristopher Gabrielsen, a CX Principal Engineer, is telling us about his most critical network down situations and high-profile cases. From healthcare to critical infrastructure, sometimes you really have only 30 minutes to fix a problem before lives are at stake or the president gets a call.

Kat and Ian are FRESH off of an AI training, but first we obviously have a couple detours: Kat's dad's fear of the government (he's okay); Oura ring might be selling our data (they still haven't); and the ocean (Ian's not about it.) After we cover the hard hitting news, Kat and Ian recap their AI training and (surprisingly) drop a little knowledge. Check out 11:06 for tips on how to structure prompts into your GPT and 13:51 for notes on creating parameters for responses. And finally, Ian educates Kat on the actual name of Cisco's AI Tool (yikes) 16:08. Learn more about Cisco's AI solutions for SMBs: www.cisco.com/c/en_uk/solutions/…mall-business.html

Tune in for a deep dive into the November 18 Cloudflare outage that impacted multiple services including X, OpenAI, and Anthropic—and explore key takeaways for ITOps teams.    For insights on the other recent outage that Cloudflare experienced on December 5, see this blog post: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/cloudflare-outage-analysis-december-5-2025    ———    CHAPTERS  00:00 Intro  00:55 The Nov. 18 Cloudflare Outage  02:34 Configuration Changes & Outages  03:45 Diagnosing the Fault Domain  05:47 Why Outage Recovery Can Take Time  10:43 Are Cloud Outages Increasing?  12:09 ITOps Best Practices  14:01 Outage Trends: By the Numbers  15:35 Get in Touch  ———    Explore the Cloudflare outage further in the ThousandEyes platform (no login required): https://ahhplivtvmhdmbduwcuonefullpkkohp.share.thousandeyes.com/ 
  For additional insights, check out The Internet Outage Survival Kit: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/the-internet-outage-survival-kit?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep4_podcast    ———    Want to get in touch?    If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at InternetReport@thousandeyes.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X.   ———    ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT  This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why.     Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue?    Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more.    Catch all the episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform:    - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773    - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report

We’re talking cookies today – both kinds. Kat harkens back to her digital marketing days to share her knowledge on first- and third-party cookies, and more importantly why you keep getting asked to accept them when you visit a landing page. We also clear up if your phone is listening to you, and if the internet will get even better at predicting your buying decisions. We then spend the last 5 minutes going in-depth on cookies (the kind you eat). From our favorites, wildcards and how wild Oreos have gotten, we give a comprehensive breakdown of them all... Weigh in with your takes! If you haven’t already, and want to help us keep making sure this podcast gets funded, please check out Cisco’s solutions for small and medium businesses: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

In this episode, Venkat Kirishnamurthy, a principal Architect at Cisco, explains what are the ins and outs of designin an AI datacenter. How is it different from another datacenter ? What kind of scale are we talking about ? What is the throughput required to connect 1000 GPUs together ? Learn more about CX Services and how we can help you design your datacenter: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/services/index.html

Get an inside perspective on how autonomous AI agents are reshaping the Internet, and what that means for the future of data, resilience, and digital innovation.    We’ll chat about the new requirements for agentic AI success that call for a significant shift in priorities for NetOps teams.    CHAPTERS  00:00 Intro  00:56 About Agentic AI  02:41 Data Quality Matters  10:17 Service Resilience  10:06 End-to-end Capacity Planning  14:22 NetOps Best Practices  15:13 Get in Touch    ———    For more insights, check out the links below:    [PODCAST] Beyond "Break-Fix": Assuring Performance in the AI Era: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-assuring-performance-ai-era?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep3_podcast  [EBOOK] Delivering Assurance at the Speed of AI: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/delivering-assurance-at-the-speed-of-ai-ebook?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep3_podcast  ———    Want to get in touch?    If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at InternetReport@thousandeyes.com. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X.   ———    ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT  This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why.     Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue?    Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more.    Catch all the episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform:    - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773    - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report