Communication is key, and cloud communications have quickly become a critical component for businesses of all sizes, helping organizations stay agile in an increasingly digital-first world. Yet, many small businesses are still navigating the shift from outdated phone systems to modern, cloud-based solutions that unlock new opportunities for growth.…

Cloud monitoring requires holistic, end-to-end visibility across complex, interconnected environments rather than isolated metrics. Here are best practices CloudOps teams should keep in mind.———CHAPTERS00:00 Intro00:47 What CloudOps Should Focus On13:14 Decision-making16:25 AI17:53 Get in Touch———For additional insights, check out the links below:-…

We're doing hot pilates, but not today...Today we are talking red flags, from two people lucky enough to work at a company with lots of green ones. We have a laundry list of things that tell you to stay FAR away from that company, and Kat definitely works through some past trauma from her first job...Lots to take in, but we definitely missed a few!…

In this episode, we host Dimitar Dimitrov a Collaboration expert in Webex Calling who tells us a story about dead air. All calls are working fine except sometimes, people can't hear each other at all. From a classic problem description, they end up troubleshooting the whole network hunting after the lost packets. Dimitar also works with AI and tell…

We're talking digital marketing, but what does that actually mean? We kick off and dig in on why we think it is too broad of a term. Are social media managers the new real estate agents? Everyone thinks they can be one, but there is a lot that goes into it! Kat gives her hit list of digital marketing best practices (10:50) off the cuff and flexes h…

Just because an outage is subtle, doesn’t mean it’s harmless. Learn how to catch those pesky “stealth outages” that can so easily slip under the radar, and also unpack recent service disruptions at Slack, Microsoft 365, and X.CHAPTERS00:00 Intro00:56 Slack08:16 Microsoft 36511:22 X13:26 Outage Trends: By the Numbers16:26 Get in Touch———For addition…

We're back with an episode we actually did research for! Kat admits she's learning something from Ian? (7:48 if you don't believe it either), and at 9:18, Ian gets nervous deciding 404's niche. On top of the laughs, this week you get Kat and Ian's LinkedIn learnings and best practices - from an emoji in your name to best practices to boost your pos…

Kat got hacked...again? Guys we are not security experts if that was not clear. Both Ian and Kat have been on the road, and they have some takes on people's travel habits and what proper etiquette should and should not be in 2025. From who gets the armrest to how you should sit when you are waiting at the gate, we have you covered (we think).If you…

Journey through the evolution of network architecture and explore what the future might hold in this conversation with APNIC’s Chief Scientist Geoff Huston.Geoff and The Internet Report team will cover how the Internet has transformed significantly over the past four decades, scaling to meet rapidly growing demand. And they’ll also discuss how the …

We're handing out tariffs, but not the kind you think! This episode is all about things we don't like at work, and thus wish we could tariff. From wearing many hats to meetings after hours, we run the gamut of everything that irks us at work. Follow along at home, and let us know what you would tariff! This episode does NOT contain political views,…

Kat is an Oura Ring snob, and thinks Apple Watches are "trash," while Ian is #TeamAppleWatch.We then get into voice memos and how many texts the average person we get each day (turns out Ian needs more friends)! We wrap up talking VR goggles and glasses, and how we think it may be a bridge too far, even if the Webex roadmap has a lot of cool stuff …

In this episode, we receive Regis Baudin, Technical Leader for the CXLabs department in Europe. He is responsible for the operations of the biggest lab of the continent (Cisco has bigger labs in the US and Bangalore) and explains to us what are the challenges of hosting a gigantic lab where hundreds or thousands of engineers come to reproduce custo…

Dive into recent service disruptions at Zoom, Spotify, SAP Concur, and Vanguard UK, and explore what they reveal about troubleshooting best practices for ITOps teams.Tune in now for insights from The Internet Report team or use the chapters below to jump to the sections that most interest you.CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro00:52 Zoom Outage04:40 SAP Concur Di…

Kat is back from her wedding, and everyone is circling back with her, which begs the question: do you reply to sales reps who slide into your LinkedIn DMs? What about cold emails?Ian shares a tip to help filter out spam on LinkedIn, and maybe even make your profile more memorable. We then try to figure out how spam filters work before coming up wit…

Full disclosure: Ian sounds like he is underwater (but is just stuffed up). Not all heroes wear capes.We jump in by discussing how AI is changing the eComm game. Then discuss the need for making eComm in the channel more prevalent and easier, utilizing what we see in B2C. We wrap up with Kat's questionable relationship with sales (and tee up a futu…

Packet loss can be bad news for network flows and customer experience. However, in our experience, NetOps teams tend to focus on major spikes in packet loss, while overlooking smaller amounts like 1 or 2%.This might be a mistake. Tune in for a deep dive into research findings suggesting that even 1% packet loss can significantly impact user experie…

We start with a recap of Ian's trip to Japan (spoiler: it was awesome). We then get to discussing Webex backgrounds with some very serious opinions - are you a virtual background person?We wrap up by identifying ways to create balance at work, especially at a company that is heavy on meetings. Also, we definitely don't want to return-to-office, but…

AB sits down with Cisco’s CIO, Fletcher Previn, to talk about the role IT plays in driving business success. Fletcher shares his thoughts on the skills needed for the future of IT, how AI can enhance human potential, and why individual creativity can drive even better IT experiences and outcomesBy Cisco

In today's episode of the Cisco Leadership Podcast, we speak with Matt Gillies, Chief Architect and Cisco Fellow, Global Solutions Engineering. Matt shares his career journey, insights into how he keeps his skills sharp, and how he navigates an ever-evolving technology landscape.By Cisco

Ian and Kat jump right in on what is in, and what is out for SMBs in 2025. Ian tries to explain the cloud to you like you're five, and in doing so shares an interesting anecdote about his old employer. We also apologize to our own employer on our social media habits...Lots to get through in a short time. It's a fun one! Learn more about Cisco's sol…

Kat flexes her security knowledge. Ian digs in on some issues facing SMBs today, and a state of the union for security as it stands. Also...we share how many of our passwords are compromised, and apparently Kat has been breached before. Not good! Learn more about Cisco's solutions for SMBs: www.cisco.com/c/en_uk/solutions/…mall-business.html…

AI, brought to you by two people who use too much ChatGPT (but not on our work computers). Ian and Kat dig into if AI is making us dumb, how it can be implemented for businesses and where we think it is going, all while trying to not get too doom and gloom. "AI isn't going to replace people, but people who use AI are going to replace people who don…

This is a special episode recorded live at Cisco Live EMEA Amsterdam with the NOC team digging into how they deploy a network in a matter of days.By Cisco

SMB is an entirely partner-driven channel, and yet so many manufacturers miss the mark when it comes to scaling through their partners. Marketing has evolved, yet strategies have not. How do we ensure our partners are getting the right content and resources to effectively create awareness and demand?To answer this question, and dig into trends shap…

Go under the hood of recent service disruptions at X, Workday, and Mastercard—and explore why it’s so important to quickly (and accurately) identify the root cause of an outage.———CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro00:59 X Outage07:08 Workday Outage11:00 Mastercard Service Disruption14:48 By the Numbers16:05 Get in Touch———For additional insights, check out The I…

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.In E…

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.In E…

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.In E…

Dive into the recent Slack outage and disruptions at Microsoft 365, Grafana Cloud, and Otter.ai—plus, explore key takeaways for ITOps teams.———CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro00:48 Slack Outage06:55 Microsoft 365 Outage11:44 A Pair of Otter.ai Outages14:21 Grafana Cloud Disruption15:55 By the Numbers17:58 Get in Touch———To learn more about how to deliver seaml…

AB sits down for a fun, informative, in-person chat with Kelly Jones, Cisco’s Chief People Officer, to discuss a variety of topics ranging from empathetic leadership to wellbeing in the workplace to future trends that could transform the HR landscape in 2025.By Cisco

In this episode, we interview Jonathan Slenders, lead python developer at Cisco who takes us on adventure along his automation tools developped before and during his Cisco tenure. We discuss how terrible networking engineers are at coding and how we can reconcile both worlds.By Cisco

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.In E…

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that AI has been steadily changing the world, but did you know that optics is a key part of its hardware infrastructure? To explain it, fortunately we have a seasoned product manager who knows both the switching side and the optics side. Lucky for us, he sits next to me at the office and agreed to chat about it.In E…

Outages connected to configuration mishaps were a common theme last year, and we’ve continued to see incidents like these in 2025. Configuration changes triggered two consecutive Asana outages in early February, and configuration or update-related issues may also have contributed to recent disruptions at Barclays, ChatGPT, Jira, and Discord.Tune in…

In today's episode of the Cisco Leadership Podcast, we will hear from John Dorval, Senior Vice President of Americas Service Provider at Cisco. In this discussion, JD will share his professional journey through 25 years of leadership at Cisco, his approach to guiding teams through transformative industry shifts, and what it takes to build high-perf…

In this episode of SE Unleashed, we dive into the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence and explore how Cisco is empowering engineers and businesses to harness its full potential. We’ll be joined by an engineer and an engineering leader to discuss the value AI brings, the challenges customers face, and how Cisco is uniquely positioned as…

In today’s episode of the Cisco Leadership Podcast, we will hear from Marcus Moffett, Vice President of Solutions Engineering -Americas. Marcus' story is one of grit, perseverance, and passion for people and technology. Marcus shares his career journey and his leader, leader approach to leadership. Tune in to to hear how Marc has applied his life l…

Video killed the radio star, and SASE killed the firewall. While it may not be as catchy, it might be just as valid. The shift to the cloud changed the way businesses work, and now it is having impacts on how they protect themselves. To dig into this bold statement, and unpack the impact AI will have on small and medium businesses, Ian is joined by…

Wawira Njiru serves as the Founder and CEO of Food 4 Education, a non-profit organization dedicated to combating childhood hunger in Kenya by providing meals to over 500,000 students annually. In this insightful discussion, AB engages with Wawira and Brian Tippens, Cisco's Senior Vice President and Chief Social Impact & Inclusion Officer, to explor…

In this insightful and engaging episode, AB engages in a conversation with Dr. Guy Diedrich, Cisco's Senior Vice President and Global Innovation Officer, to explore the impressive global influence of the Cisco Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program. Marking its 10th anniversary, CDA has played a crucial role in narrowing the digital divide worl…

Richard Yates, Service provider Technical Leader, tells us about his career story. Starting from the air force and analog phone switchboards through all the wireless technologies like CDMA, 3G, WiMAX to 5G. This long episode covers life lessons, technology anecdotes, insane stories and much much more.…

What does it take to deliver successful digital experiences at major events like concerts and conferences? With special guest Dominic Hampton—Managing Director at attend2IT—we’ll explore the dynamic world of event IT and key takeaways ITOps teams at enterprise companies can apply to their own events as well as in their day-to-day operations.We’ll a…

Configuration changes played an outsized role 2024 outages. Tune in to hear more about this and other outage trends—and learn how ITOps teams should plan accordingly in the year ahead.We’ll also share insights from recent incidents at OpenAI and Google Cloud’s Pub/Sub, and dive deeper into a degradation incident that Netflix experienced at the end …

In today’s episode of the Cisco Leadership Podcast, we will hear from Elisabeth De Dobbeleer, Senior Vice President of the Cisco Partner Program. Elisabeth shares her fearless approach to leadership, the lessons from her professional journey, and her invaluable insights on building and inspiring high-performing teams. Tune in to discover how embrac…

We interview Devon Herron, a Splunk support engineer based in the UK. Devon only handles network down P1 situations and he has seen a few doozies during his career.He takes us through storage troubleshooting, hypervisor shenanigans and of course automation going bananas. Follow us on this journey to discover Splunk and how it can change your life a…

With nearly a year of data available, the topline outage trends for 2024 are coming into focus. Tune in to see what the numbers are showing.The Internet Report team will discuss how Internet service provider (ISP) outage numbers are continuing to increase, while cloud service provider (CSP) outages are also becoming more frequent, indicating a chan…

The past few weeks are somewhat of a representative sample of 2024 from an outage perspective, with connectivity issues and updates at the root of the four recent incidents.Both DigitalOcean and real-time payments provider Worldline experienced connectivity issues to data centers that made services unreachable. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Reddit encou…

In this episode, Gladys Kline sits down with John Rivers, Global VP for Service Sales at Cisco and Trustee for the Cisco Foundation. John shares inspiring stories from his family's rich history, his career journey, and his passion for giving back. Tune in for an engaging discussion on resilience, mentorship, and making an impact through service and…

New titles, technologies and routes to market. The partner space that serves small and medium businesses is rapidly evolving. From shifting investments to OpEx, adopting AI and incorporating managed services there is a lot to learn, let alone master. For a look into what the future holds for both partners and customers, Ian is joined by Chris Capri…

At Cisco, partnerships aren't merely a business transaction — they hinge on personal connections that have been cultivated over time. AB sits down with Rodney Clark, Cisco's SVP, Partnerships and Small & Medium Businesses, to chat about the ever-evolving partner ecosystem at Cisco. This great conversation dives into topics such as streamlining the …