Thought Leader | Technology Consultant

ZKast

ZKast, is a thought leadership series where Zeus Kerravala interviews thought leaders from the technology community. To be a guest on ZKast, please contact Zeus Kerravala at zeus@zkresearch.com

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The network is now the motherboard of distributed AI.” That was the key takeaway from Colin Bannon, CTO of British Telecom, in his conversation with Zeus Kerravala at Cisco Partner Summit. While 90% of AI headlines obsess over compute and GPUs, the capillary network connecting users, agents, and edge devices is undergoing a massive architectural shift. Here are 4 critical shifts every CIO and CISO needs to track:AI Traffic Has a Completely New Fingerprint. It’s not just data center elephant flows anymore. With swarms of autonomous agents and consumer edge devices uploading continuous context, we're seeing microflows and heavy asymmetric upstream traffic reshaping the WAN. Patch Windows Are Officially Dead. The lag between vulnerability disclosure and automated exploitation has collapsed to near zero. Resilience in an AI world isn’t just uptime; it’s agility—moving to dynamic, infrastructure-as-code models where real-time microsegmentation can quarantine threats without dropping the data plane or taking reboots. Data Sovereignty is Becoming Architecture. Sovereignty isn't just about keeping data inside a geographic boundary; it's about control, priority access during global events, and true failure-plane diversity. The Comeback of Private Networks. The old mantra of "just expose everything to the internet with zero trust" leaves infrastructure visible to automated AI predators. If attackers can’t see your assets, they move on. Expect private, hyper-connected fabrics to play a vital defense-in-depth role once again. You can build the most powerful models in the world, but without an AI-ready network to feed, steer, and protect them, distributed AI simply doesn't scale. What’s your biggest architectural priority for AI readiness heading into next year?#enterprisetechnology #Networking #ArtificialIntelligence #Cybersecurity #Cisco #BT #DigitalTransformation @Cisco @britishtelecoms1394

Zeus Kerravala 32K

2026 ZKast #190-Motherboard of Distributed AI: Why the Network Is the Missing Piece | Colin Bannon

Zeus Kerravala November 8, 2026 9:40 pm

2026 ZKast #190-Motherboard of Distributed AI: Why the Network Is the Missing Piece | Colin Bannon

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2026 ZKast #190-Motherboard of Distributed AI: Why the Network Is the Missing Piece | Colin Bannon

Zeus Kerravala 4.2K views November 8, 2026 9:40 pm

From WebexOne in Austin, Texas, Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research connects with Cisco sales leader Monica Naim to discuss enterprise customer sentiment, key product announcements, and where collaboration technology is headed next. Monica shares on-the-ground insights into why enterprise CIOs prioritize underlying platform security, how Cisco's unified "One Cisco" vision is simplifying solution architectures, and the strategic ROI of modern smart workspaces and intelligent devices. They also explore the emergence of persistent, context-aware contact center agents, Cisco’s open ecosystem approach, and Cisco's ongoing partnership with Covenant House to support youth facing homelessness.Key TakeawaysPlatform Security as the Foundation: While AI tools gain attention, enterprise buyers evaluate where data resides and how it is secured—making Cisco’s holistic networking and security stack a core differentiator. Intelligence-Driven Workspaces: Purpose-built audio tracking and camera intelligence ensure seamless hybrid meetings, while tools like Workspace Designer help enterprises right-size real estate and lower overall facility costs. Pervasive Context in Contact Centers: Moving toward agents that remember interactions across every channel eliminates customer repetition and builds personalized, persistent service journeys. Coexistence & Ecosystem Openness: Acknowledging multi-vendor environments by maintaining interoperability with tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom allows enterprises to standardize hardware without vendor lock-in. Community Purpose: Cisco continues its commitment to social impact through its partnership with Covenant House, encouraging industry participation in the annual Sleep Out to support youth facing homelessness. @webex @Cisco @covenanthouse

2026 ZKast #189 - Pervasive AI, Intelligent Workspaces and Covenant House with Monica Naim of Cisco

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2026 ZKast #189 - Pervasive AI, Intelligent Workspaces and Covenant House with Monica Naim of Cisco

Zeus Kerravala 34K views November 6, 2026 9:20 pm

From Zoom headquarters following Zoomtopia, Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research sits down with Zoom's Kentis Gopalla to discuss the latest innovations shaping customer experience (CX) and contact center technology. They break down Zoom’s "conversations to completion" strategy built on a unified context layer, the evolution of multimodal channels like interactive kiosks, and how enterprises can balance human agents with emerging long-horizon and personal AI agents. Kentis also dives deep into updates across Quality Management, AI roleplay for onboarding, and the democratization of contact center data via CX Insights. Timestamps00:00 – Introduction: From Zoom HQ with Zeus Kerravala & Kentis Gopalla 00:54 – What is the Unified Context Layer? 03:46 – The Rise of Personal AI Agents: Policy, Deflection, and Detection 05:50 – Modern Quality Management (QM): Scoring Bots vs. Humans & AI Roleplay 08:15 – Workforce Planning & Balancing Token Costs with Live Agent Capacity 10:45 – Long Horizon Agents: Context Memory and Task Completion 12:08 – CX Insights: Turning Transcripts into Enterprise-Wide Actionable Data 16:53 – Why an AI-Native Architecture Matters in CX 18:58 – Workflow Orchestrator & Closing Thoughts Key TakeawaysUnified Context Layer: Bringing together cross-system records and conversation history ensures customers never have to repeat themselves, allowing complex multi-system tasks to run to completion. Next-Gen Kiosks & Multimodal CX: Zoom Virtual Agent now powers in-branch and retail kiosks, allowing users to scan items, interact with on-screen avatars, and push directions directly to their mobile devices. Preparing for Personal AI Agents: Enterprises are shifting from basic deflection to governance frameworks, evaluating how contact centers will manage inbound requests originating from consumer AI agents. Democratizing CX Insights: With transcription intelligence and natural language queries, contact center analytics are moving beyond service teams to inform product roadmaps and marketing strategies directly.@Zoom

2026 ZKast #188 - How Zoom Is Transforming CX: Unified Context, AI Agents & CX Insights

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2026 ZKast #188 - How Zoom Is Transforming CX: Unified Context, AI Agents & CX Insights

Zeus Kerravala 32.9K views November 6, 2026 9:03 pm

In this episode of ZKast, Zeus Kerravala from ZK Research sits down live from Splunk .conf in Denver with Corey Minton, Global Field CTO at Splunk. As enterprise data architectures hit an inflection point—with AI agents creating more traffic than humans—Zeus and Corey dive into what "Splunk Reimagined" truly looks like. They discuss the transition from centralized training data to real-time runtime inferencing, how enterprises can regain control over runaway AI costs through tokenomics, and why on-premises AI is making a massive comeback for regulated and air-gapped industries. Key Topics Covered:The Agentic Deluge: Moving past the Splunk index toward a modern data fabric built for agent workloads. Cisco AI Pod for Splunk with NVIDIA: Delivering turnkey, air-gapped AI runtime on-prem via GPU acceleration. Taming AI Tokenomics: Monitoring model costs, Token Meter open-source, and avoiding runaway agent bills. The Agentic SOC: Deploying specialized, small fit-for-purpose models to automate repetitive Tier 1 alert triage. Cisco Cloud Control & AI Canvas: Unifying IT, network, and security operations under a cross-domain control plane. Rapid-Fire Insights: Why ignoring agentic AI is an enterprise's biggest risk, edge computing trends, and building automated video-editing agents. @Splunkofficial @Cisco

2026 ZKast #187-Splunk Reimagined:Agentic AI, Cisco AI Pods & Tokenomics with Field CTO Corey Minton

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2026 ZKast #187-Splunk Reimagined:Agentic AI, Cisco AI Pods & Tokenomics with Field CTO Corey Minton

Zeus Kerravala 34.3K views November 5, 2026 8:41 pm

While large language models (LLMs) and centralized data centers captured the first wave of artificial intelligence, the next major frontier is Physical AI—powering autonomous mobile robots, smart manufacturing, industrial plants, and edge operations. In this episode of ZKast, Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research sits down at Celona headquarters with CEO Rajeev Shah to unpack why treating connectivity as an afterthought threatens physical AI deployments, and how unified, deterministic wireless is closing the gap. In This Episode:The Rise of Physical AI: Why edge automation is starting directly in the enterprise (manufacturing, petrochemicals, logistics) rather than consumer tech. The Deterministic Gap: Why human tolerance for a 2-second Wi-Fi glitch fails when applied to autonomous robots with mission-critical safety heartbeats. Celona Orion Platform: Moving beyond disjointed network overlays to an agentic, converged wireless platform uniting Private 5G and Wi-Fi 7 under one operational umbrella. AirConnect: Celona’s open-source, vendor-agnostic initiative bringing intelligent multi-radio steering directly to edge devices and robotics. Celona Brain & Orchestrator AI: Shifting from legacy AIOps to autonomous network reasoning agents tied directly into the system codebase via MCP. Rapid-Fire Insights: Busting private 5G cost myths, Wi-Fi vs. 5G deployment rules, and why CIOs need a full-stack systems approach to edge AI infrastructure. Timestamps00:00 – Introduction: Zeus Kerravala & Rajeev Shah 02:45 – Why Wi-Fi Glitches Stop Autonomous Robots in Their Tracks 06:24 – The Network as an Afterthought: Bridging the IT and OT Divide 09:15 – Inside Celona Orion: Converging Private 5G & Wi-Fi 7 12:22 – Telemetry, Spatial Intelligence, and Digital Twins 14:15 – AirConnect: Why Open-Source Device Intelligence Matters 18:08 – AI for Celona: Orchestrator AI and Celona Brain Learn more about Celona: https://www.celona.io#Private5G #EnterpriseAI #Robotics #PhysicalAI #Celona #WiFi7 #EdgeComputing #AIOps @Celonaio

2026 ZKast #186 - Why Physical AI Demands Converged Wireless: Celona Co-Founder and CEO Rajeev Shah

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2026 ZKast #186 - Why Physical AI Demands Converged Wireless: Celona Co-Founder and CEO Rajeev Shah

Zeus Kerravala 33.1K views November 5, 2026 7:27 pm

2026 ZKast #185 - Why Traditional SD-WAN Is Obsolete: Inside Zscaler Zero Trust Branch with RC Damle

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2026 ZKast #185 - Why Traditional SD-WAN Is Obsolete: Inside Zscaler Zero Trust Branch with RC Damle

Zeus Kerravala 43.6K views November 5, 2026 4:24 am

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Real-Time, Recorded

The Heard is a weekly talk/chat format where Dave Michels and Zeus Kerravala discuss current topics in enterprise communications.

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Dave and Zeus discuss NICE Interactions and Five9.

Real-Time, Recorded 169

RealTime Recorded: CCaaS June

Real-Time, Recorded June 28, 2024 9:57 pm

RealTime Recorded: CCaaS June

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RealTime Recorded: CCaaS June

Real-Time, Recorded 21 views June 28, 2024 9:57 pm

Dave and Zeus provide updates on 5 recent events: #MWC24, #8x8AnalystSummit, #RingCentralAnalystSummit, #HPAmplify, #Five9AnalystSummit.00:00 Intro00:55 MWC4:55 RingCentral Summit7:40 8x8 Summit13:25 HP Amplify.18:44 Five9 Analyst Summit25:25 EC24 Upcoming27:55 NVidia and AI

Real TIme Recorded Q124 Events

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Real TIme Recorded Q124 Events

Real-Time, Recorded 2.1K views March 19, 2024 6:14 am

Dave and Zeus discuss recent earnings reports in enterprise comms.

Real-Time, Recorded Earnings Reports

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Real-Time, Recorded Earnings Reports

Real-Time, Recorded 42 views February 24, 2024 1:57 am

Real-Time, Recorded - AI

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Real-Time, Recorded - AI

Real-Time, Recorded 131 views January 3, 2024 10:34 pm

Real-Time, Recorded! Zoomtopia 2023

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Real-Time, Recorded! Zoomtopia 2023

Real-Time, Recorded 50 views October 4, 2023 9:42 pm

Dave and Zeus discuss the Zoom Analyst event #ZoomPerspective23.

Real-Time, Recorded Zoom Perspectives 23

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Real-Time, Recorded Zoom Perspectives 23

Real-Time, Recorded 26 views August 8, 2023 5:02 am

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Videos

ZKast

2026 ZKast #190-Motherboard of Distributed AI: Why the Network Is the Missing Piece | Colin Bannon

Real-Time, Recorded

RealTime Recorded: CCaaS June