Articles

Lessons from Cisco Live Europe: multicloud, automation, integration

Networks are no longer homogeneous, they need automation, and they have to work together as one.

Feb 4th, 2020

The Men&Mice team is back from Cisco Live Europe in Barcelona — and energized with knowledge and things to do.

We’ve had a great time at the trade show, spoke to a lot of people in need of transparency for their networks. And that was the largest takeaway for us, and a confirmation of what we’ve been saying all along: networks are no longer homogeneous, they need automation, and they have to work together as one.

Multicloud

If we had to pick a single topic that was on everyone’s mind, it’d be multicloud.

Almost every booth had something to do with multicloud, and there was even a dedicated section in the solutions theater for presentations and workshops on the topic. In many respects these solutions are still in their infancy, still locked to a single ecosystem or limited in functionality — but they represent a clear sign of imminent change.

True multicloud is more than the sum of its parts, and businesses are just starting to realize the value of that. Feedback for Men&Mice’s focus on unlocking that value has been overwhelmingly positive.

Automation

Going deeper into the network management woes of enterprise businesses, automation was something everyone wanted to learn about.

Recognizing the power and flexibility of API controls was a point that carried many conversations at our booth. Where GUIs are naturally limited to a certain set of workflows, API gives unlimited opportunities for network operators to tailor actions to their specific situation.

Men&Mice’s “multi-cloud, single API” approach was well-received at our booth since it not only affords this flexibility but does so while bridging platform incompatibilities.

Integration

When an enterprise business with a diverse network wants both multicloud and automation, it naturally comes to integration to resolve issues.

Integration presents a conflict of interest. Vendors are reluctant to let customers out of their ecosystems, while those customers are constantly looking to increase value on their investments. On-prem infrastructure still prevails, because of the investment value it represents against the cost of migration to another platform.

It falls to third-party vendors like Men&Mice to resolve these opposing interests. By facilitating communication between platforms and equalizing the value of IP resources, the Men&Mice Suite was applauded whenever we gave a demo.

Men&Mice: multicloud and automation-ready DDI for the enterprise

Our bet on stepping ahead of the curve and unlocking multicloud network management that provides native and simple automation regardless of the underlying technology is paying off.

We’ve received many visitors to our booth due to our agnostic stance on the way they run their networks. It was a differentiator from all our competitors as it addresses the core pain points of enterprise businesses.

If you’d like a personalized demo but missed us in Barcelona, we’re happy to accommodate and answer your questions.