350-601 courses - Implementing Cisco Data Center Core Technologies (DCCOR) Updated: 2023

With a nearly $60 billion revenue run rate, growing at 14% and throwing off more than $5 billion in operating cash last quarter, Cisco Systems Inc. has an awesome business.

But customers are vocal about the complexity of Cisco’s portfolio and, if their concerns are not addressed head on, the company risks encountering friction beyond just economic headwinds. We believe Cisco’s challenges are most decidedly not product breadth and depth. Rather, the company’s mandate is to integrate the piece parts of its intricate offerings to create more facile and seamless experiences for customers.

In this Breaking Analysis and ahead of Cisco Live in Las Vegas June 4-8, we dig deeper into Cisco’s business and double-click on three key areas of its portfolio: 1) security; 2) networking; and 3) observability. We have spending data from Enterprise Technology Research and a guest appearance from SiliconANGLE contributor and market watcher Zeus Kerravala, principal at ZK Research.

Stocks of pure-play competitors outperforming Cisco year-to-date

Let’s start by doing some stock market comparisons.

The chart above shows year-to-date comparisons among Cisco, Palo Alto Networks Inc., Arista Networks Inc., Extreme Networks Inc. and the Nasdaq Composite. As you can see, the pure plays, as well as the NAS, are outperforming Cisco by a wide margin. That’s despite Cisco’s double-digit growth last quarter, 65% growth margins and a $200 billion market cap.

The reason is Chief Executive Chuck Robbins set modest expectations for 2024, which, when modeled out relative to Cisco’s longer-term outlook, suggest slowing momentum in the near- to mid-term. In addition, we believe the breadth of Cisco’s portfolio, while a key strength, also creates adoption challenges for the company’s customers.

What follows is a summary of how Kerravala interprets this data.

Kerravala sees this as a nuanced comparison between Cisco, a behemoth with an impressive cash generation capability, and smaller companies such as Arista and Extreme. Despite acknowledging the somewhat fair comparison, he suggests that Cisco is handicapped because smaller entities may capture the benefits of a market trend more swiftly, Cisco’s broad scope often hampers its ability to do so. But Cisco throws off more operating cash in a quarter than these companies generate in annual revenue.

He used the example of Zoom Video Communications Inc. and RingCentral Inc., noting how Cisco’s performance paled in comparison two years ago, but the tide has turned since then, with the unified communications sector waning, but Cisco thriving in relative terms.

Kerravala believes Cisco’s breadth and stability make it a safe investment bet, but its size prevents it from realizing the rapid growth that smaller, more specialized companies can. The broad spectrum of markets that Cisco operates in implies a reduced likelihood of success across all these fronts simultaneously.

Watch Zeus Kerravala comment on the comparisons between Cisco and the pure plays.

Cisco’s complex business remains anchored in core networking

The table below represents the contribution of Cisco’s lines of business as reported in its financials. As we said at the top, 14% revenue growth is pretty astounding for a company of Cisco’s size. With tough comps ahead, it’s unlikely Cisco can keep up this pace.

Networking makes up more than half of Cisco’s revenue, but the company is growing its software contribution, which is just under 30% today, and its annual recurring revenue accounts for more than 40% of revenue, which gives the company better visibility on the future. This all helps prop up Cisco’s alluring 65%-plus gross margin model, which unlike many of its large incumbent competitors has held up well over decades. Moreover, Cisco’s shift to a recurring revenue and subscription model has been executed quite well compared with many firms (some much smaller, such as Splunk Inc.), which have struggled with that transition.

To break this down further, examining Cisco’s 10-K provides the following added context:

Secure, Agile Networks comprise core networking, switching, routing, wireless and compute. This includes products such as Catalyst, Nexus, Meraki and Cisco’s software-defined wide-area network products.

Internet for the Future includes optical networking, 5G, in-house silicon and optics solutions. This includes products such as the Cisco 8000, NCS 5500 and ASR 9000 series.

Collaboration includes Webex and call center solutions.

End-to-End Security comprises network security, cloud security, endpoint, threat management and zero-trust solutions.

Optimized Application Experiences includes AppDynamics, ThousandEyes and Intersight.

Here are Kerravala’s thoughts on Cisco’s portfolio, the challenges they face and what’s needed going forward:

Watch Zeus Kerravala unpack Cisco’s vast portfolio and how they can simplify.

Spending data underscores the macroeconomic impact on Cisco’s overall business

The ETR spending data for Cisco, at a high level, shows what virtually all tech companies are facing: a decrease in the percentage of customers that are spending more relative to last year.

The candlestick chart above shows the granularity of Net Score, ETR’s proprietary spending metric that measures customer spending patterns. Of the 1,700 information technology decision makers in the most latest ETR survey, more than 1,000 are Cisco customers – so we have a nice sample. The lime green is the percentage of those customers adding Cisco new, the forest green represents those spending 6% or more relative to last year, the gray is flat spend, the pink is spending down 6% or worse and the bright red is churn. Subtract red from green and you get Net Score, which is the blue line.

You can see the steadily declining trajectory because of the gray and the reds increasing. The brown line is the pervasiveness in the overall data set, which has actually held up well. Cisco has a massive installed base and it is stable, although more customers are leaving than are being added within this survey. Remember, this survey doesn’t measure spending amount, only the percentage of customers in each bucket.

We asked Kerravala if this accurately reflects his view of the market and is the deceleration a function of economic headwinds, complexity or both? What follows is a list of his key takeaways:

• The competitive dynamics in the networking industry have significantly shifted, with Cisco now facing more formidable rivals such as Arista, Fortinet Inc., VMware Inc. and Extreme Networks.
• The entry of cloud companies and Aruba into the networking market introduces additional competitive pressures.
• These industry changes necessitate sharper sales execution from Cisco, as it can no longer rely on competitors’ missteps to retain its advantage.
• In light of this more complex competitive landscape, Cisco’s strategy must evolve to distinguish itself effectively and maintain its leading position.

I do think a lot of what you’re looking at there is more credible vendors are in market and that has forced sharper sales execution than it did before. In the old days, Cisco could just show up and be assured that its competitors would mis-execute. That luxury is no longer in play.

Watch Zeus Kerravala comment on Cisco’s spending momentum data in the ETR survey and the changing nature of the competitive dynamics.

Cisco’s center of gravity starts with core networking

Let’s drill into the segment data, starting with networks.

The chart above shows Net Score or spending velocity on the vertical axis and pervasiveness in the data set on the horizontal axis. The red dotted line at 40% indicates a highly elevated Net Score. We’ve highlighted Cisco overall and Meraki, a company Cisco bought in 2012 to help better control network devices.

As is evident, Cisco stands out as the clear leader here in both presence (X axis) with very respectable customer spending velocity on its products (Y axis). In fact, we saw earlier a 29% year-on-year revenue growth figure from last quarter in networking. That is amazing for such a large business. As Cisco works through its backlog, it creates uncertainty in the forecasts, but underlying demand for Cisco’s networking products is sound.

As well, you can see a number of other companies here, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s Aruba, Arista, VMware with NSX and a number of others, including Cloudflare Inc., which all are hovering near the elevated 40% line.

Kerravala laid out his thoughts as follows:

He is somewhat critical of Cisco’s approach to its Meraki and Catalyst product lines, not on the merit of their features and value but on the lines between them. He asserts that customers should not have to choose between them. He suggests a unified hardware line that offers customers the flexibility to manage it either through Meraki or the command-line interface, or CLI. Currently, a switch from Meraki to Catalyst necessitates a complete hardware overhaul, a problem that could be resolved by a common set of hardware compatible with both management methods.

Further, Kerravala notes that Cisco’s potential to integrate data center, campus and Wi-Fi certifications to Improve the user experience has yet to be fully realized. While some integration has occurred at the campus level, the data center side remains separate. He concludes that networks should deliver applications and experiences as a single, unified entity instead of being sold as separate silos, an approach that contributes to unnecessary complexity.

His key analysis points include:

• He believes Cisco should offer a unified hardware line for customers, which could be managed either through Meraki or CLI, mitigating the need for a hardware overhaul when switching between the two.
• By integrating data center, campus, and Wi-Fi certifications, Cisco could enhance the overall user experience.
• The current siloed approach to network products adds unnecessary complexity, which, while non-trivial, will be addressed by treating the network as a single, unified entity focused on delivering applications and experiences.

Watch Zeus break down the Cisco’s networking challenges and thoughts on how it can simplify.

Security is perhaps Cisco’s best upside opportunity

Let’s shift gears and look into the all-important and exceedingly crowded security sector.

Above we show the ETR spending data in the security market – same dimensions – Net Score on Y and Pervasion on the X. Microsoft Corp. is in the upper right and skews the data, but you can see Cisco has a major presence. As do Palo Alto Networks and Splunk. All credible on the vertical axis.

The leaders in presence are below the 40% line, but that’s expected for such large companies. The squiggly line represents Cisco’s path over the past 10 quarters. There is no debate that the company is very strong in security, but we believe it needs to do a better job consolidating the piece parts and simplifying customer outcomes.

Note that Cisco doesn’t have the spending velocity of the pure plays such as CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., Okta Inc., Zscaler Inc., CyberArk Software Ltd. and SailPoint Technologies Inc. — or even Cloudflare – but its Net Score is respectable. Cisco also just purchased Armorblox Inc., which uses artificial intelligence to reduce email and other risks.

In many ways we think Cisco could be a leader in the security supercloud, bridging on-premises, multiple clouds and edge security experiences.

The following summarizes Keravala’s thoughts:

Kerravala claims Cisco has succeeded in cybersecurity despite itself but has a great opportunity if it can address some of the stovepipe challenges.

The emerging observability opportunity

Let’s now dig into observability, which is sort of the confluence of log analytics, application performance management, monitoring and related fields. Cisco has a major stake in this business through its acquisitions of AppDynamics and ThousandEyes.

Before we look at the spending data, here’s what one customer said in an ETR roundtable about this topic:

This is a head of engineering… a customer who says I’m sticking with AppD. This person references the value of the ThousandEyes acquisition along with AppD and security. The application-centricity is an attractive dynamic to this Cisco shop. SecureX is Cisco’s integrated security play, which admittedly needs more and better integration. But basically in the second quote this person calls out the attractiveness and value of a single platform. If you’re a Cisco shop. And if not it’s a “free game” – perhaps implying a free-for-all of complexity.

AppD perhaps presents the biggest opportunity for Cisco since they’ve acquired it. I really expect AppDynamics to become the tip-of-the-arrow sale for Cisco… and I would like to see AppD become a lead sales tool across Cisco’s portfolio. I think it must (and will) happen -Zeus Kerravala

Watch Kerravala’s commentary on Cisco’s observability play with ThousandEyes & AppD.

Comparing key observability players’ spending profiles

Let’s get into the ETR data. ETR doesn’t have a full-stack observability category, but through this next view below we’re able to bring in various companies that are hovering around the space to see their relative positions.

It’s a similar chart above where we show Net Score against pervasiveness in the data. And we’ve plotted Splunk, Datadog Inc., Elastic N.V., Grafana Labs, Dynatrace Inc. and New Relic Inc.. You can see AppDynamics, which Cisco bought in 2017 for almost $4 billion. And it introduced Intersight shortly thereafter as a visualization and orchestration tool. But there were still holes in the portfolio as the market moved to full-stack observability, so Cisco bought ThousandEyes during the COVID pandemic for about $1 billion. Then it sort of strung them together with an overlay, but the story is not over.

Cisco has an opportunity to really take these pieces and integrate them across the portfolio in a potentially game-changing way. At least in the manner that one customer described earlier – especially for Cisco shops.

Kerravala’s primary argument is that the industry needs to to deliver on the vision of full-stack observability. Cisco has an opportunity to lead by streamlining its many panes-of-glass solutions into a unified, intuitive dashboard. The diverse range of visibility tools it currently offers could be more effectively utilized if they were integrated into one comprehensive system, with AppD serving as the principal lens. Operational specifics could then be accessed through drill-down features, allowing for a more organized and efficient user experience. This could be game-changing for Cisco.

Kerravala’s key takeaways on observability:

• Cisco must make good on its promise of full-stack observability.
• The current multitude of Cisco’s single-pane-of-glass solutions should be streamlined into a unified dashboard.
• AppD should be the main view, with the ability to drill down into the other specific tools.
• He recognizes that Cisco already has all the necessary components; the challenge lies in integrating them into a cohesive system.

Kerravala comments on Cisco’s many panes of glass.

What to watch at Cisco Live 2023

Kerravala just published a “Know before you go” post on SiliconANGLE, outlining his thoughts on what to expect at Cisco Live. Let’s review that and what we’ll be looking for next week.

Whither AI for Cisco?

A key question is how Cisco will handle AI. These days, brands run the risk AI washing, but if you bury the AI lede, you look less relevant. In our view, Cisco at the very least has to use AI to make Cisco infrastructure run better and more secure through automation and better management.

Here’s a summary of key points from our conversation with Zeus on what to expect from Cisco Live in terms of AI:

• We don’t expect Cisco to brand itself as an AI company like Nvidia Corp. or even IBM Corp.’s attempts to do so. Instead, AI will remain an integral part of their overall toolkit used to build their products.
• AI has been part of Cisco’s portfolio for a while. It underpins products such as intent-based networking and Encrypted Traffic Analytics, which uses AI to detect malware in encrypted traffic.
• The company’s collaboration portfolio is also AI-rich, but it is considered more of an operational tool rather than a product that’s sold separately.
• AI might be highlighted more during keynotes due to current hype, but it’s not the company’s primary focus.
• The use of AI, such as a ChatGPT-like interface, could be beneficial for Cisco’s operations, like using Webex to find information or for network operations to identify areas in need of upgrades. This would essentially make their portfolio more user-friendly.
• Natural language processing can simplify interfaces, relieving the load from high-level engineers and delegating tasks to tier one or two support.

The security opportunity calls for Cisco

We’ll be watching the security space closely. We believe it’s a mandate that Cisco integrate its vast portfolio across on-prem, all the major clouds and out to the edge. Palo Alto Networks has the leg up on consolidation in our opinion, but Cisco has such a major presence that it can do very well in this area, coming at the problem its strength in networking.

Here’s a summary of what we think Cisco needs to do in security and what we’ll hear at Cisco Live:

• Security is important because it offers the most substantial growth potential for Cisco, as it is a single-digit player in a market projected to be worth $75 billion-plus.
• Even a slight increase in market share, such as reaching 10%, would greatly boost Cisco’s revenue.
• The long-term vision is to have Cisco’s security share match its network share, and to have Cisco network and Cisco security working together for improved risk identification and resolution.
• We hope to see more integration of Cisco’s cloud security products to create a more unified and user-friendly experience.
• The security industry often makes the user the integration point, which can lead to confusion and inefficiency. This needs to be addressed by the industry at large and Cisco has an opportunity to attack this problem.
• Cisco is in a unique position to make security more user-friendly and seamless because it owns the network and can embed a lot of security features into it.
• We anticipate hearing more about Cisco’s progress on its vision for security and expect to see more of the product roadmap at the upcoming event.

Can Cisco be the supercloud network?

Core networking is always a the forefront of Cisco Live. I keep coming back to the supercloud concept – a singular experience across clouds in a cloud-native fashion. Can Cisco bridge the legacy world of apps and infrastructure with cloud-native?

• Cisco is not going to become a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services Inc., but it has the potential to be an abstraction layer that enables the concept of a “supercloud.”
• A network supercloud would allow customers to use multiple cloud providers, edge locations, and private data centers seamlessly as one logical cloud.
• Traditional cloud providers will not enable this, as their tools are specific to their platforms. Cisco, however, can provide network transport, security and optimization that transcend individual cloud platforms.
• Cisco can become the bridge between physical clouds and create a logical supercloud thanks to its work with cloud providers, telcos and tools such as ThousandEyes and AppDynamics.
• This process begins with networking, hoping to see more progress with the Meraki/Catalyst integration at the upcoming show. We are also looking for advancements in consolidating different versions of Wi-Fi and other disparate parts of Cisco’s networking story.

Collaboration: Hybrid work is still a big thing

What about collaboration? That business went from rocket ship to rapid deceleration post-pandemic, but hybrid work isn’t going away and it brings real challenges. Is this a game of integrating with your security portfolio to reduce risk? Or creating better and more simplified user experiences? We know that Jeetu Patel wants to make Webex 10 times better than any other platform.

• We believe Cisco’s primary challenge in the collaboration market is Microsoft Teams. Despite having a poorer user experience compared with competitors, Teams is widely adopted thanks to its inclusion in Microsoft licensing plans.
• Teams, however, can prove costly when additional features such as voice and security are added.
• Cisco has accepted the coexistence with Teams, allowing its devices to run Teams natively. This could be beneficial as companies are likely to use more than one collaboration vendor.
• We believe Cisco’s WebEx, loaded with extensive features, can offer a better experience for specific departments and expand its presence within organizations gradually.
• A suggested strategy for Cisco is to manage other collaboration platforms through the WebEx console, offering better management for those platforms and then gradually introducing their own solutions.
• In the context of observability, the application-centric view is crucial. Prioritizing network upgrades and security deployments based on their impact on application performance can provide quantifiable business metrics.
• Cisco’s AppDynamics offers a unique perspective into application performance that other infrastructure vendors may lack. This tool could be instrumental in making such decisions.

Application centricity is the opportunity in full-stack observability

Cisco we think has an opportunity to make some moves in full-stack observability, but the linchpin as Kerravala wrote on SiliconANGLE is the application-centric view of the world. The two main takeaways from our conversation on observability include:

• The application-centric view is crucial. Prioritizing network upgrades and security deployments based on their impact on application performance can provide quantifiable business metrics.
• Cisco’s AppDynamics offers a unique perspective into application performance that other infrastructure vendors may lack. This tool could be instrumental in making such decisions.

Every large tech company has to address ESG

And finally we asked Kerravala if he has ever been to a Cisco Live where Chuck Robbins hasn’t done his part to address environmental, social and governance issues? Here’s a summary of what we discussed:

• Cisco has a corporate goal to positively impact a billion lives by 2025. It’s making significant progress toward this goal through a variety of programs. It’s part of the Global Citizen group, and it conducts contests and provide financial support to entrepreneurs aiming to make the world a better place.
• Cisco’s products also help with sustainability. They are embedded with features such as EnergyWise, which shuts off the network when it is not in use and turns it back on when it is needed.
• Cisco’s custom application-specific integrated circuits are optimized for specific network functions, leading to lower power consumption.
• The company offers Power over Ethernet features to further support sustainability.
• At events such as Cisco Live, it has highlighted these sustainability features, and we expect to see more of this in the future.

We didn’t talk much about edge, but it’s a significant part of the future and we anticipate hearing more about it in the future.

Here’s the full conversation about what to expect at Cisco Live

Finally, theCUBE will be at Cisco Live in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay. We’re on the expo floor across from the Net Vet Lounge, which is Booth 1427. We have a small space so we’re doing the pop-up CUBE and we’d love to see you. By all means please stop by and say hello.

Keep in touch

Many thanks to Zeus Kerravala for stopping by the studio to share his knowledge. Thanks to Alex Myerson and Ken Shifman on production, podcasts and media workflows for Breaking Analysis. Special thanks to Kristen Martin and Cheryl Knight, who help us keep our community informed and get the word out, and to Rob Hof, our editor in chief at SiliconANGLE.

Remember we publish each week on Wikibon and SiliconANGLE. These episodes are all available as podcasts wherever you listen.

Email david.vellante@siliconangle.com, DM @dvellante on Twitter and comment on our LinkedIn posts.

Also, check out this ETR Tutorial we created, which explains the spending methodology in more detail. Note: ETR is a separate company from Wikibon and SiliconANGLE. If you would like to cite or republish any of the company’s data, or inquire about its services, please contact ETR at legal@etr.ai.

Here’s the full video analysis:

All statements made regarding companies or securities are strictly beliefs, points of view and opinions held by SiliconANGLE Media, Enterprise Technology Research, other guests on theCUBE and guest writers. Such statements are not recommendations by these individuals to buy, sell or hold any security. The content presented does not constitute investment advice and should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. You and only you are responsible for your investment decisions.

Disclosure: Many of the companies cited in Breaking Analysis are sponsors of theCUBE and/or clients of Wikibon. None of these firms or other companies have any editorial control over or advanced viewing of what’s published in Breaking Analysis.

Image: mehaniq41/Adobe Stock

Abstract

Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for information systems replacement based on its significant growth potential and its reliance on failing legacy systems. The discussion focuses on where management was particularly savvy in contrast to where it was the beneficiary of good fortune.

Keywords

Citation

The Transformational Tech series highlights Cisco’s grant recipients that use technology to help transform the lives of individuals and communities.

An estimated 37% of the world’s population – or 2.9 billion people – have still never used the internet and are missing out on the wealth of learning opportunities available online.

In addition, when reflecting on the past three years, the effects from pandemic school closures remain and have had a lasting impact on teacher wellbeing, and student learning proficiency levels globally. This situation was particularly true in communities without reliable access to the internet or technologies to aid teachers and families with remote instruction. More is needed to help this population of learners accelerate learning to meet minimum learning proficiency levels country by country. And more needs to be done to inclusively connect these communities and their students to trained teachers and quality classroom resources.

World Possible is a Cisco nonprofit partner who bridges these gaps and connects offline learners to the world’s knowledge with an educational server called RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning). RACHEL is an innovative learning tool for teachers to engage their students and bridge the digital divide and help scale teacher productivity while working with diverse classrooms.

In appreciation of educators everywhere, we want to shine a light on World Possible technology being used by teachers and students in Oceania, Asia and Latin America. In these examples, RACHEL is used to build teacher capacity, increase student engagement, and Improve overall classroom performance while helping students living in remote and disconnected communities build digital skills.

Oceania – Kiribati:  

Kiribati is an island country composed of over 30 atolls with over 17,500 students attending 110 schools. These students and their teachers are spread over 3.5 million square kilometers in the central Pacific Ocean. With such a dispersed and distributed population, education officials address the challenge of providing access to trained teachers with current curriculum in programs like the Kiribati Education Improvement Program.

Kiribati Education officials use RACHEL server devices to store digital media within key training schools. These servers have the flexibility to be solar powered with battery backup support to reach even the most remote areas of this island country. With the high cost of internet, which is primarily only available through mobile phone data plans, access to these resources at scale isn’t sustainable for these communities. But a RACHEL content device changes this dynamic, making professional training and receiving updated content easier.

Asia – Cambodia:

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies and is committed to connecting all the world’s people. Through their work, ITU Data Hub reports indicate that 60% of individuals in Cambodia  are using the internet compared with the world average of 66%. This gap in access to the internet within Cambodia increases in rural and remote populations. World Possible serves as a bridge for this digital divide for teachers and students in rural Cambodia.

At Doris Dillon School, the World Possible RACHEL server is used directly by students in classrooms to learn English, Improve numeracy skills and build digital skills using computers. The RACHEL device also acts as a community digital library, used by families for gardening, health education and computer classes.

Latin America – Guatemala

Within Latin America, access to the internet and technology for use in schools can be challenging. In Guatemala, the same ITU Data Hub reports indicate that 51% of individuals in the country are using the internet compared with the world average of 66%. With a beautiful and rugged landscape, Guatemala has high mountain ranges dotted with volcanos, jungle regions and large urban cities such as Guatemala City or Quetzaltenango in the northern highlands. Within this diverse geography is a school using RACHEL located in Sacsiguán Monte Mercedes, a small village from Sololá, in the western highlands of Guatemala. In this remote and rural area, Elvia Patricia Julajuj Cuxulic, who is an accountant by profession, teaches in the Monte Mercedes Secondary School leads seven classes of students every week in the afternoons serving 87 students from grades 7 to 9.

Earlier this year her school received a RACHEL server that is now being used by students who previously had little access to the internet. As a teacher, Elvia has been actively using the device with her students and reports to the Ministry of Education show over 130,000 logged events, and 66,900 pages visited. As one of four teachers in Monte Mercedes Secondary School, she hopes that her students and her community will all have the chance of having a better life through education.

More to come

Cisco inclusively invests using a portfolio approach in nonprofits to further STEM Education student outcomes, inspire youth to regenerate our climate and develop trained teacher capacity globally. Through investment partners like World Possible we aim to strengthen human capital, inclusively connect people to resources and services with quality platforms informed by education proven practice.

This fall, World Possible will release an upgraded RACHEL server with increased capacity for concurrent device connections, improved device storage, and will leverage a new processor. Through a new server, coupled with the cloud update service called DataPost, education officials can use Android devices to update RACHEL servers in remote locations around the world.  To learn more about RACHEL visit WorldPossible.org.

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Every article we have on Cisco. Cisco Systems is an American multinational corporation that specializes in producing and manufacturing electronics and networking equipment. It was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in San Jose California.

Mother Earth and moms have a lot in common (And by moms, I’m including mothers, grandmothers, aunts, godmothers and more). Moms not only create life but their focus on nurturing their children year after year and ensuring their safety and ability to flourish is unparalleled. Mother Earth does the same. For millions of years, Mother Earth has been protecting us, providing a safe and abundant environment to live and raise our families.

According to the United Nations (UN) report Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2022, “Women play transformative roles in climate change adaptation and mitigation despite many obstacles” with many taking on grassroot efforts to make a change in their own communities. Women are also taking leadership positions in the field of sustainability. At large companies, 58 percent of sustainability executives are female. And according to the 2022 GreenBiz State of the Profession report, the number of women in sustainability leadership roles has expanded. That’s good news for Mother Earth, since we know how innovative, persistent, and driven women can be when protecting their families.

From my own personal experience, I was raised by a mother who was an environmentalist before most people knew what that was. She sold “biodegradable” cleaning products to the neighborhood moms, wrapped our sandwiches in wax paper and insisted we bring that paper home so she could reuse it the next day. She sewed some of our clothes out of left-over fabric (“We can’t let this perfectly good fabric go to waste!”) and made us save our gum in water to rechew later (I know, I wish I were kidding, too). We walked and rode our bikes because gas emitted “that black stuff into the air” and donated all our used toys, books, clothing, etc. to the “Bargain Box” secondhand store down the road. My mom instilled in my siblings and me that we have to live in harmony with the Earth or she will kick us off. I took her on a hike last weekend and at 85 years old she was still “schooling me” on the wildflowers growing on Mt. Tamalpais and why they’re important to the ecosystem.

As a mom myself, I wanted to sit down with another mom at Cisco and learn more about her thoughts on sustainability. Elisabeth Brandasu is a global account manager for Equinor and sustainability lead for the North Theater in Cisco’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. She shares how being a mother has impacted her perspective on the environment and influenced her actions to create a more sustainable future.

How did you get into the field of sustainability?

Elisabeth: I was naïve until a few years ago. I was so busy with building my life, surviving those first few whirlwind years of being a young mom with a full-time job. At some point, I was offered the opportunity for a stretch assignment (which gives employees a chance to explore a different type of role by volunteering some of their time to another team) as inclusion and diversity lead for EMEA. That is where my calling for purpose-driven work started. I am privileged in many ways; I have a lot of energy and I want to use my voice for doing something purposeful. When sustainability came on my path it just really struck home. It’s not just the sense of necessity in accelerating the needed change, but the enormous opportunity the transition provides too. It excites me.

Did becoming a mother change your personal perspective about the work you’re doing?

Elisabeth: My worry for the kids really kicked in when they began school. As you release them into the wider world, you start envisioning their future and the planet we are leaving them. We don’t inherit the planet from our parents, we borrow it from our children. I lovingly pour all my time and effort into the kids being safe and happy, now and for all their days to come. So, how could I stand by and let this monumental systemic transition the world so desperately needs pass me by? How can I push this onto my children’s shoulders to resolve it?

You circle back to yourself, thinking, ‘what can I do?’ As a mom, you don’t just sit by, and watch tragedy impact your kids. You step up and do whatever you can.

What does working in sustainability mean to you?

Elisabeth: Working in sustainability means so much more than ‘just a job’. It is continuous learning, giving back, amplifying the reach of our experts by spreading their word, scaling the community of ambassadors, training people to incorporate sustainability as a first thought in doing business. You don’t necessarily need a formal education or background in sustainability to make a contribution. I believe I have found my own way of contributing and I know others can too. I am proud of the Green and Blue sustainability community at Cisco. It emerged from the internal Green and Blue Innovation Challenge in EMEA to stimulate as many ideas as possible, with green representing sustainability and blue representing the digital transformation. It is a force to be reckoned with and we have together accomplished so much. I want to be part of this movement of change for the better, because what we all wish for our children is the very best.

How did you start the conversation about sustainability with your kids?

Elisabeth: They’ve learned some very simple concepts about sustainability in school. They do not yet understand that if the world continues as it does, there will be some serious consequences.

When speaking about a sustainable future, it’s important to put a sense of hope into it, rather than risk paralyzing people with devastating outlooks. Hope activates! It’s not about being perfect, it’s about pledging yourself to do better all the time. I am also an optimistic realist. I choose to believe in our collective power to make amazing progress, steering us toward less devastating outcomes.

The way I speak to my kids about it is that the world has been using more than it can replenish. The system is broken, so we are trying to build a new system and that is really complicated because everything is intertwined. Do I think they get it yet? No, but that’s okay. They don’t need to have it all figured out. But they’re the type of kids that think about those things and are curious to learn more and it will eventually mature in their minds. For now, I just want them to be kids.

Do you have any advice for actions that parents can take to help create a more sustainable future?

Elisabeth: For me, there is a big focus on circularity. I try not to buy new things. So, everything I buy with the kids or for the kids I try to buy second hand. We’re also focused on reducing waste, especially around food. We don’t throw away food. When you have leftovers, you eat it again the next day. If they didn’t eat their lunch, that’s fine, but they need to have their lunch for dinner. My kids have very few toys and prefer to go outside to play.

Also, I have been focused on energy minimization in the house and using energy at the lowest possible price and load balancing throughout the day. I don’t cook while I have the washing machine on, and I don’t charge the car while the dishwasher is on.

Sustainability is a bit like exercise. Don’t overdo it from the get-go. Allow yourself to embrace it and make it a habit. You don’t need to save the world on day one. Educate yourself and understand the impact of your lifestyle. Decide what you are going to integrate into your normal routine and identify the things that you’re going to step away from. Whatever you decide to do, it is okay because you’ve been conscious about the decision. Every day, there are probably at least 200 moments where you can make the decision to do the more sustainable thing. Are any of the individual actions that I take enough on their own? Definitely not, but it is about doing what you can do and keep on pushing to do better. It’s a journey.

We also need to stop passing judgement on people that aren’t moving as fast when it comes to sustainability. It’s counterproductive. Rather, meet them where they are, and inspire them to keep moving forward.

Thirty years from now, I’m going to be retired. My kids will be the age I am now and will decide if they want to become parents. I don’t want them to have existential worries and I don’t want to look back on my own life thinking ‘I didn’t do enough for the planet when I had a chance.’ We can’t defer action any longer, it’s the responsibility of our generation, the ‘elders’, to do what we can.

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Cisco has renewed its partnership as the USGA’s official technology partner. The two sides will collaborate in forming an Innovation Committee to further explore tech-driven advances in golf and introduce the USGA ShotCast Powered by Cisco in 2023, enabling users of the USGA app and website to receive real-time shot tracking data and 3D hole imagery for the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open. Every shot shown in the TV broadcast will be archived for fans to view, which is a first for the U.S. Women’s Open.

Through this relationship, Cisco debuted the first “Connected Course” -- Wi-Fi covering all 18 holes of the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach -- while enhancing the fan experience with Webex video sharing during the height of the pandemic and introducing 4D volumetric swing capture in broadcasts. Cisco will increase its support of the U.S. Adaptive Open while continuing to back other initiatives to make golf more diverse and inclusive.