The annual Cisco Live 2024, to be held June 2-6 in Las Vegas, will boast Elton John as the music artist performing at the Wednesday night celebration event, as well as seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri as special guests. However, while those names create exciting entertainment, the more than 20,000 attendees are there to learn the latest and greatest in Cisco Systems Inc. technology and innovation.
IBM Corp.‘s annual Think event in Boston showed how the company has had a complete facelift in the era of Chief Executive Arvind Krishna. Krishna (pictured) has used the boom in artificial intelligence to reposition the company around Watson and make that the focal point of IBM’s next platform. I left Think 2024 more positive about IBM than I have been in a long time, primarily because the company isn’t just talking about transformation; it’s doing it.
Juniper Networks Inc. announced enhancements this week to its AI-Native Networking Platform, aimed at adding value to its cloud-hosted products. These products use Mist AI to optimize user experiences and simplify operations, as well as network assistant Marvis. The new features detect and fix network, application and security issues, which enables customers to anticipate user needs. The company says this approach can lower operational costs by up to 85%.
Private cloud infrastructure company SoftIron, in a move to try to displace VMware’s vSphere suite, just announced its VM Squared virtualization platform. Recently, I discussed this development with Jason Van der Schyff, Chief Operating Officer at SoftIron. “Our raison d’être has been to deliver a new type of on-premises infrastructure, which we call True Private Cloud,” he told me.
The day after Cisco Systems Inc. announced its third-quarter 2024 earnings, investors are wavering on the results, as the stock was falling 2% this morning, reversing a 5% jump after-hours Monday. The company reported revenue of $12.7 billion, down 13% year-over-year — 16% without Splunk — and $70 million ahead of consensus estimates. Gross margins remain best-in-class for an infrastructure vendor at 68.3%.