What 25 Years with Cisco Taught Vladimirs About Building Trust & Long-Term Vision

Episode Transcript
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Tonya J. Long (00:07):
Welcome home, friends.
I'm Tonya Long and this isReset where purpose meets
possibility.
We're broadcasting from KPCR LP92.9 FM in Los Gatos and
KPCR-LP 101.9 FM in Santa Cruz.
Each week, we shareconversations with thought

(00:29):
leaders and innovators, dreamersand doers who are reshaping the
future of work, technology,longevity and purpose.
Let's explore what happens whenpurpose meets possibility.
Hello everyone, and welcome toReset with Tonya from a fabulous

(00:54):
location in gorgeous San Diego.
It actually beats the sun inLos Gatos, so I'm missing home,
but this is beautiful.
I am here at the Cisco LiveUser Conference.
20, 25,000 people have joinedme for this wonderful party
celebrating technology and wherewe're headed, and so I thought,
while I was down here, I had tospend time with one of my dear

(01:18):
friends for the last couple ofyears, Vladimirs Sazonovs.
Okay, so I can edit that.
Say it for me.

Vladimirs Sazonovs (01:24):
Vladimirs Sazonovs.
That's pretty good.
Can edit that.
Say it for me, VladimirsSazonovs.

That's pretty good, I did it right All right.
Well, Vladimirs and I have beenpartnering together on several
entrepreneurial things for thelast couple of years hitting the
networking scene.
We've spoken together at GTC, wespoke with a City of San Jose
panel during the NVIDIA show,and now we're both in San Diego
for the Cisco show.
Vladimirs is responsible forthe Cisco Global Investment Fund

(01:49):
.
He's had a long history.
Back in the early 2000s helaunched the Baltics for Cisco
and then moved over to theStates and has held several key
finance and business roles andnow he is focused on the Global
Investment Fund and thepartnerships in that fund.
So I think that, with hishistory opening countries and

(02:10):
then bringing partners into theecosystem to support Cisco
service of so many millions andmillions of customers he knows
all about partnership and heknows a lot about resets, which
is the framework for what wetalk about here on this podcast.
So, Vladimirs, I am tickled todeath to be here to use my

(02:31):
southern term, to be here withyou today.
Welcome, say a little aboutwhat you're doing here at the
conference yeah, first of all,thank you very much for having
me.

Thank you very much for the invitation.
It's obviously the fabulousCisco live and I've been with
Cisco for 25 years, but, Tonya,you're pushing me into the new
areas.
I've done little, very littlepodcasts, so I'm excited to be
with you on this.

And I probably didn't do your role justice with
the investment fund, with Cisco.
Do you want to say somethingabout the project, not specific
projects, but what your group isresponsible for?

Yeah, so I'm part of the Cisco corporate
finance.
We are a team called GlobalInfrastructure Funds.
We build investment-backedpartnerships.
We use the private equity moneyto invest into the Cisco
customers and partners so theycan grow faster.
And by growing faster we canadvance all our businesses
together.

Yeah good, so you don't have to build it all
inside Cisco.
Other places can build it andthen Cisco leverages that.
So it's wonderful, and youguys't have to build it all
inside Cisco.
No Other places can build itand then Cisco leverages that.
So it's wonderful, and you guyshave done that with hundreds of
companies over the years andyou have a really nice program
for success.

Yes, Cisco is a technology company.

Yes.

We develop, innovate, create new products,
new technologies.
But then we have a partner toactually work with the customers
understanding, designing,deploying and supporting the
solutions.
So it's always an ecosystem.

Excellent.
So you opened the Baltics forCisco back in the early 2000s.
What was that like?
What gave you the experience toset you up to do such an
interesting task?

So I was the first employee of Cisco in
Latvia, in the Baltics, so itwas a very exciting role and at
the time it was a canon Far outin the field, so to say on the
main ship.
It was a very exciting role.
And then it's long to become acountry manager running the
management team for the Cisco inLatvia and the Baltics and it's
small countries, there's noother way around it but it was

(04:23):
very exciting being a countrymanager responsible for
everything For the big customer,for the small customers, for
the large enterprises, for thegovernment, ideas, initiatives
and supporting people justcalling with the questions.
Yeah, Yep.
And Cisco at the time in early2000s was quite a hip company.
Networking internet was justpicking up a pace.
After the 2000 year bubblecompanies really said, ok, dot

(04:45):
com is not everything, ok, whatcan we do with the networking?
And back then it was a quiteexciting way to look at this.
The companies were looking andsaying, hey, now I can connect
this, my device with this device, with this data set.
It's going to betransformational for me.
It's very much for that early2000s.

Got it.

It reminded me of what's happening today
with a high-performance computerand GPU and AI.
People look at what they can dowith AI.
Yeah, so that early 2000sreminded me of what's happening
today with AI andhigh-performance computing.
People are looking at thosetechnologies and think, oh my
God, we can do such things nowwith this technology around, and
that was a feeling back in theearly 2000s.

Yeah, because everything was so new and just
unthinkable.
Unconnected better, better Iwas looking back, things were
unconnected, yeah, Okay.

It was what seven years before iPhone?
It was probably five yearsbefore Google.
Okay.

You should remember Years before Google.
Yeah yeah, it's hard to thinkabout life before.

Google.
Many people don't remember thistime but it was there yeah
absolutely people doesn'tremember this time, but it was
there.
It was alive before Google.
It was alive when email wastaking a while to send out it
was a time when you design yourinternet connection so you can
send an email and this and thatthere was, you know,
advertisement for the telecomproviders for the tv.
Hey, now you can do your audiocall without concern that
somebody else doing somethingelse in the house in your wi-fi.

(06:01):
Yeah, these things was early2000s.
Yeah, the companies back thenwere like, hey, what we can do?
So that was back then.
So it was very exciting.

Very, and Europe was already opened for Cisco.
You opened Latvia, is thatcorrect?

So the Cisco had a business, obviously in
the US, headquartered in SanJose.
We had business in Europe, inlarger countries in Scandinavia,
like Finland was ourheadquarter, if you wish,
geographically.
So we've been working veryclosely with Finland.

Got it.

And started to build up our team in the
Baltics.

So it seems to me that you would have, knowing
you, you would have leveragedpartnerships inside Cisco in
Europe as you built all thebest-in-class practice.
Yeah, and is that?
It Was that partnership.

On multiple dimensions.
So the country was small, right?
Yes, so you have, we have oneperson and two Hold it.

Cisco was small.

No, the country is small.

The country.
I thought you said the company.
The country and Cisco wouldhave been much smaller back then
.

Yeah, there was one person and there was two
then there was like a three andfive, et cetera.
Have all the people, all theexpertise, all the talent
in-house.
So, to work with other peoplewithin Cisco, to pull the people
to travel to the country, tellus how it's possible.
One or another thing Educateyeah, you need to work with the
partners.
We're a two-people,three-people company.
You cannot do everythingyourself.

(07:15):
You have to build a partnershiphere.

Cisco back then and still now 95% of our
business is done through thepartners.

Again, we're a technology company Partners
actually design, build, supportand operate.

It's a substantial part of the business
.

I mean Cisco does have a fair share of
innovation and development andmanufacturing of the products.
Of course it shows it's a veryimportant piece, manufacturing
of the products, diversity ofsupply chains but then somebody
brings it to the customer, workswith the customer for the
deployment.
Let's go If you don't deploy,if you don't operate technology
properly it's not them Now.

as I recall, you grew the business to 30% CAGR
during your time as a leader,what did you think was the
secret to your success inbuilding partnerships?
Were there any principles thatyou found that maybe you even
realized later were foundationalfor how you built partnerships?

It was going for the long term.

Oh, a long-term vision.

Yeah, I'm still prioritizing kind of
long-term results over like youknow transactional outcomes.
Long-term over-transactionalyeah some battles need to be won
right, but you shouldn't forgetabout the outcome of the war.
That's one.
The second thing is probablybeing a little bit of a
perfectionist.
I want to do something that Ican be proud of.
Yeah, yeah Would it be a smallproject.

(08:35):
I want to be proud of how itwas done.

Yes.

If it's difficult to do and looks ugly,
in the end outcome is not good.
Maybe customer asks somethingwrong.

Yeah, yes, I don't want to deliver wrong.

Yeah, I don't want to know after this
done, after five years later,open the doors.
Yeah, that was not ugly yeah,I'm I don't know, I guess I'm
like steve jobs on that.
Yeah, even if you don't see thepart of the product, it needs
to be good and I had thisexperience in the past I would
like to do, I would like to do agood job.
I would like to look I'm happynow speaking to any customer in
the past yeah, and they know Idid a good job.

(09:08):
So did they want every deal?
No, but what I want I'm happyto speak about.
Yeah, was it well done?

That's foundational for doing good
business.
I know you applied it topartnerships.
I totally appreciate that.
But doing a good job, doingsomething that you're proud of,
helping people grow all thosethings are, I think, what make
businesses overall succeed.
I think sometimes leaders losesight of that because they're
just chasing the near-term win,and thinking long-term is

(09:37):
something that I think sometimeswe're not encouraged to do.
I find I've done a lot of workin Asia and I find in the States
we're always chasing the end ofthe quarter and in Asia they're
thinking about hundred legacieswith their businesses in Asia.
So the long term thinking issomething I think we should all
try to get back to.

Yeah, Okay, in Cisco world there is a
pressure quarterly and nooutcome.
Result revenues done.

Where the company needs to.

It needs to be delivering results where the
company needs to be deliveringresults, but not at any cost.

Even today, Cisco has certain principles at work.

We rather it's literally a quote from our
policies we rather forego thebusiness if it's conflicts
without ethics and policies.
I'm projecting this to my ownpersonal performance.
I'd rather not do the deal if Idon't feel comfortable about it
.
Okay, and then yeah.
So why would you fool somebody?
Yeah, if things don't lookright, let somebody else burn
there.
Yeah.

So your instincts come into play, your intuition
even, with how you buildpartnerships.

Character, flaws, perfectionism.

Yes, okay, I think everything is not in the
numbers.
Some of it is in connection,commitment, seeing how teams
work together, and those thingsaren't empirical.
You can't measure those thingsbased on units or based on
revenues.
Those are based on chemistry.

Yeah, and sometimes it's not about numbers
.
When you invite me to speak,you ask a bunch of questions
from my long past.
I start remembering, rememberthings.
There was an interestingopportunity in 2003.
Eurovision Song Contest.
I don't know if that rings abell for you, so there's like a
big song contest based out ofEurope.
It's a three-hour event.

Oh, wow.

Have you ever seen that?
No, I haven't.

So it's a three-hour music contest.

It's like a three-hour Okay, but it's all
like 40 countries participating.

Wow.

It's a live broadcast.
It's the largest non-sport livebroadcast event.
Yeah, yeah.
And why is this a three-hourevent?
It's not two and a half daysactual rehearsals and
repetitions and translations andabout two-hour sorry, two-week
happening on site.
Got it week happening onon-site.
It's happening every year ineurope, and 2002 lots of only.

(11:51):
So we hosted with 2003.

Oh, okay, and it's 4 000 people coming from
different countries, musiciansand people.

Yes, and 4 000 press people yes, okay and
then, like in about four or fivemonths, before the event to
happen.
We're looking in the newspapersit looks like our country was
2003.
Yes young democracy is notgoing to make it, just a's the
havoc of the planning.
Okay, so a partner of ours whois embarrassing should be
another one.
Either Ferris or Colm may saywe're going to F this up.
It's going to be embarrassingfor the country.

(12:16):
Let's sit together and try tomake it happen.
So myself, from a Ciscoperspective, one of our
companies, telecom provider andthe system integrated, we pull
our forces together, go to thegovernment say, hey, we can make
it happen.
And we made it happen, made atelecommunications network,
Cisco put there like a severalmillion of equipment on the
ground.
No, no cash here to make ithappen and it was a stretch.

(12:37):
It was very interesting exactvery interesting journey, yeah
there were quite a number ofpeople from the local system
integrator was working on theground to deploy it all and
operate it Protect from thecyber threats already in 2003.
And we made it an excellentevent.
We had a breakthrough of IPtechnologies in there.
And that was not for money.
It was like, hey, we need tomake it happen for the country

(12:58):
to look good on a global arena.

For our products to look good, for people to have
a chance to shine.

Yeah, it's a very valuable experience.
The next year the NATO summitwas coming to the Latvia and
they just said hey, we've seenwhat you have done, Do it again
for us.
So it's had a businessimplication, but it started.
Hey, it needs to be done, let'sdo it, whatever the cost.

When you catalyze that many people from that many
different dimensions.
I think trust is a huge part ofaligning people to a common
goal.
What do you think makesbuilding trust one of your sweet
spots?
Because I think it is a sweetspot for you.

You get those challenging situations.
You go together with thepartners, you succeed, you build
trust.

You can rely on the person.
Success does build trust.

You can rely on this company.
You can rely on these people.
They deliver what they say theywill do.

That's very important.
Simple.
It is that simple.
Do they do what they say theywill do?
Yeah, and then you do it overand over with bigger, more
important, more risky things,because you can count on those
people.

And not everybody do what they say they
will do.

Yes on those people, and not everybody do
what they say they will do.
Yes, yeah, yeah, I love it.

So you opened a country for a telco
back then Cisco was more of atelco, maybe telecom focused
company and then what broughtyou to the states?
Well, there was a journey yes Icannot say I did everything I
can.
I wanted a lot there, but it'sl interesting.
Again, it's a small country,yeah.

Did you grow up in Latvia?
Yes, okay, that was home foryou.

You can only do as much as you can do from a
business-size perspective.
You never outshine Germany.

Yeah.

You can outshine Germany as an example
in excellence in a kind of astructure for business you build
.
We built a, the beautifulbusiness there, yes, balanced
across a different segment, adifferent type of business.
So it was very interestingjourney, 39 quarters, yeah.
But I know I wanted to getsomething else.
Okay, bigger pond if you wish,okay.
So I moved gradually to uk andthen to us okay, so you?

I forgot that you had a hop to the uk first for
eight years, for eight yearsthat was not a hop, that was a
stay that was the chapter ofyour life, chapter.
Yes, what did you do in the UKfor Cisco?

I've been working with the telco providers
across the larger Europe largerregion, More partners Europe,
Middle East Africa Morepartnerships.
Yeah, I was working with thoseproviders to build up a business
service Service creation RightCreating community within Cisco
people.
How to work with this type ofpartners.

(15:31):
We created what we call theservice creation community to
fund something Cisco people whowork with the telco partners all
over the region.
So we created educational pathsfor them how we approach it,
how we qualify for it?

what kind of?

business opportunities are there how we
can help partners to buildsolutions together with the
Cisco products, because Ciscoproducts is as exciting as we
are.
It's not a complete solution.
There's always some other bitsand pieces of the ecosystem.

And look at the evolution you've seen in
technology.
There's a lot of technologybuilt around communications
between businesses.
I started in the ACD world,actually workforce management,
then ACDs and that was way oldtechnology.
What's ACD?
But it keeps, did you say?
But it's ACD.
What ACD?
Aspect, Aspect Communicationsthey were the Cadillac of ACDs

(16:16):
when the world was driving a lotof Honda, Accords, Billion
dollar company, 2,000 employees,global account base.
I opened Daly in China.
I led India, I opened DalyanChina for Aspect.
So that's my history.
Yeah, so I started in very muchthis environment long ago and
to see how technology hasenabled big businesses because

(16:39):
big businesses have a lot ofpeople on the phones, whether
it's business being transactedby phone or just the
interworkings of the company,and what we've seen through to
today with AI and what we'reable to do with artificial
intelligence in the workplace.
We haven't just sat still onphone lines per se.
We are moving into how we getinsights on business based on

(17:02):
the communications that occur.

I think in 2001 or 2002, john Chambers,
then CEO at Cisco, famously saidvoice will be free.
I think in 2001 or 2002, JohnChambers, then CEO at Cisco,
famously said voice will be free, I think at Cisco Live keynote
thing.

Yeah.

The voice will be free, and that's 2001.

John was such a visionary.
I love John.

People are like no way.
Yeah, yeah, never, never, noway I mean it's not only voice
video is free, and same energyat nvidia gtc this year.
Yes, when jensen wang showingwhat's possible yes people like
oh my god, no way, yeah, so Ithink the buzz of the energy, I
think the same, it's an oppositethe very next generation of

(17:36):
technology and it is moving sofast for us.

It's, I think, our role is we, because we've
seen a lot of these resets andchanges in technology.
Our role is to help companiesthat are uncomfortable with it
understand their path, to getthere to advise and even comfort
them that our technology canmake it seamless for them to
make that transition.

(18:00):
I think that's part of buildingtrust.

I think the speed of change right now is
very fast.
And it's across the whole kindof technology stack.

Yes.

We started with the hardware.
What's NVIDIA and other GPUproducers are doing on a
hardware level?
Yes, the pace of developmentthere is mind-blowing.
It's mind-blowing interesting,but it's also quite a challenge
for those people who want tobuild on this.
People are getting intobuilders and funding and
investors.
How are you going to build ontechnology which is being

(18:30):
refreshed every year?
How are you going to build thetechnology stack on Topofit or
data centers?
Yes, for the technology whichevolves every 12 months.

Oh, but now it's faster Different footprint,
power requirements.

They build applications later on Topofit,
which now relies on technologywhich evolves every 18 months.
And now you look at theenterprise customers.
Hey, exciting outcome for me.
Six months later, it's evolved50% up with a different set of
hardware and requirements.
Six months later it's going tobe 2X again.

It's a very dynamic environment and it
involves people.
Transformation involves peoplebecause the technology enables
more things, but then workflowsand processes change, and that,
to me, the technology is easy.
The change management and thepeople part is where you have to
really pay close attention.
Speaking of people, we'd liketo do a quick public service

(19:23):
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(19:45):
ongoing offerings we presentfrom Pirate Cat Radio.
So for the last 30 years,you've done transformation.
What do you think is changingabout how transformation within
technology works for theworkforce?
I think, how we leadtransformation.

(20:07):
I've phrased that poorly but,how we lead transformation
because it is so fast.
What do you think is changingabout how we enable?

companies to change.
I will quote John Chambersagain.
You look at this with thecustomer in the middle.
You listen to the customer,understand where the problem is
and make a customer to you ininnovation, okay.
So, with all this massive,dramatic developments in AI, I
think developing GPUs ismind-blowing, it is Building up

(20:35):
a data center is mind-blowing,right, yes, but ultimately, I
think our focus should be here.
Is a customer?
Would it be education,healthcare, research?
Yes, or manufacturing we shouldlook at them.
Or finance.
We should look and say, okay,so what do you do?
What are you trying to solve?

That's right.
That's right.
Fundamental question that'snot… the baseline.

That's not the kind of ultimate outcome,
right, who is going to use thattechnology?

Yes.

How are they going to use it?
Because people cannot makedecisions right now, maybe
because technology evolves.
So an outfit Just fix certainmoving parts, focus on something
.
Where is the core?
Where is the contextapplication?
Go for this.
I think that's a complex tomanage.
There are so many moving partsthat separate into the separate
problems.
Fix what you cannot control.
Focus on something which isimportant for you, solve for

(21:19):
that, find an outcome importantfor the customer, and then build
everything else around it.
I think we talked about thisbefore Core versus context.
For the enterprise, customers,for the businesses to decide
what to do about all of this.
They need to follow, take astep back and assess what's
possible.
How does AI will impact them?
Is it a cost saving?
Is it a different process?
Is it automation oracceleration of what they do?

(21:41):
Or it's maybe acceleration ofthe revenue stream or maybe some
other impact for them?
Understand that and then kindof understand what do you want
to focus on?
What don't they care about?

And for me, what you've just said is why
technology is more than justwriting code.
Technology is aboutunderstanding business
understanding how to learnbusinesses fast that you know
nothing about, so that you canask the right questions to help
bring out from them where theywant to go, so that we can help
build them something that getsthem there.

Yeah, but that's an ecosystem, yeah, yes,
imagine a healthcare researchcompany.
They don't know about GPUs?

No goodness knows , they don't know about data
centers.

They don't know about power density per
rack, they don't really knowwhich whatever.
Llm management framework theyneed to worry about.
They know the research thing.
Yeah, they have not, me too.
They have to imagine right nowwhat these developments can
bring in their work what kind ofdata they can pull together and
what can be done, then it'sokay, this is what we're going

(22:44):
to focus on, and then theyprobably should focus on writing
the software for that layer.
Let's say, somebody elsedelivers us AI platforms,
somebody else?
delivers us this piece ofmiddleware or software.
Somebody else finds us a placeto work around the whole thing.
We don't really worry, whatever.
Whose servers are there, so Ithink that's the kind of thing
Companies should focus on wherethey call business, on what

(23:08):
differentiates them, yes, andwhat doesn't.
What's the complex?

Yeah, because the what doesn't part is important
too.
Yeah, because so many companiesI work with are trying to be
everything, to keep up witheverybody else, and I encourage
them no, be the best thing, whatdifferentiates you, because
when you try to be everything,else're gonna become so deleted
and you're just gonna be awannabe for everybody else, let

(23:33):
me make another name drop, steveJobs, famous as sad.

It's not only what you do is important,
it's what you don't do.
Yeah, it's little bits, yeah,but those are kind of sticks
there.
So what you don't do is veryimportant.
Again, it's the same thing,core, versus contacts.

I love it when you name drop all the way at the
top.
I love it John Chambers, SteveJobs.
We got a little bit more time,so what's coming next?
Your current role is you buildinvestment-based partnerships
for Cisco.
Yeah, as you do that.
Part of building trust for meis about creating win-win

(24:06):
partnerships.
So building trust for me isabout creating win-win
partnerships.
So what's your approach tocreating win-win partnerships?
As you find all these differentparts of the ecosystem that you
bring in to partner with Cisco,how do you create win-win
partnerships?

Yeah, so again, I'm looking for the long
term.

I appreciate that I'm lucky to be in.

Cisco for a long period of time, for many
years ahead, yeah, yeah.
And I'm lucky to look at thelong being able to look at the
long term.
So I'm understanding Ciscodoesn't do the whole thing.
I'm lucky not to be necessarilyto sell products right away
From saying, hey, here's theoutcome our customer is looking
for.
This outcome consists of Ciscotechnology, no, Cisco technology

(24:52):
partners integrated alltogether software application
providers, possibly Now in AIspace, data center providers or
maybe even power providers.
Yeah, so it's like the wholeecosystem and each of these
companies exist, but puttingthem together is not a easy task
, putting them together at thesame time, putting them together

(25:13):
into the single conversation,but for the customer outcome is
a power.
And there are new businessmodels may show up, let's say
let's speak about AI datacenters.
There are NeoCloud providerswho build the infrastructure.

Now, what does NeoCloud mean For those who are
listening?
Welcome For those who arelistening who don't understand
the term NeoCloud.

It's like a new cloud provider, new, very
good we're almost hyperscalersVery good.
Aws, Google need those type ofguys.
There is a new providers inthis world the smaller startups.
Some of them is one year old,some of them is five year old.
Some of them are five year old.
They are featured twice in thisalready.
So the new cloud is the newcloud providers.
New cloud providers which seethe opportunity to serve the

(25:55):
enterprise customers andbusiness customers In a
different way.
Yeah, with a custom built anddesigned solutions.
They differentiate themselvesfrom the hyperscalers with a
custom design, what we at CISOcall managed private cloud
deployments Working with thecustomers to understand what the
customer needs Design of thehardware, design of the software
stack, locations to theirnetworks and other data sources,

(26:15):
privacy and securityconsideration.
Build this and operate it forthem.
Again, core versus context.
When enterprise customers donot want to own and operate this
is when Neocloud provide a stepscene and do it for them.
So, that was Neocloud.
So what we're saying is that wework with some of these
customers and they obviouslylook at the most economic and
efficient way to deploytechnology and operate it with a

(26:36):
variable customer demand.
And now, for example, we cansee we work with data center
builders who can make their costof technology cost of a data
center align with the demand ofdata centers, therefore maybe
participating in the revenuesharing of a cloud provider.
It's, on one hand, it's goodfor the cloud provider.

(26:57):
They don't have a fixed cost.
Their cost becomes variable.
It's also good for the datacenter provider they participate
not only in the downside butalso in the upside of a cloud
provider.
It makes the whole system alittle bit more efficient and we
not only in the downside, butalso in the upside of a cloud
provider.
It makes the whole system alittle bit more efficient and we
can do something which was notpossible before with the help of
funding a little bit moreadventurous investors with the
parts and the leaderboard.

Before we move on I want to do a quick station
identifier for KPCR-LP 92.9 FMin Los Gatos, california, and
Sister Station KMRT LP 101.9 outof Santa Cruz.
We are broadcasting from theCisco Live user conference

(27:40):
Getting ready to come to CiscoLive.
I did a little research onCisco, as I should and for this
conversation, as I should, and Isaw a lot of verbiage in Cisco
public-facing leadership abouthelping to augment efficiency

(28:00):
with the term human flourishing.
Are you hearing that as?

an employee, that's Cisco term.

Yeah, it's all over the Cisco thought
leadership printed work aboutenabling and to me it's about
enabling human achievement,human potential.
They use the word flourishing,which I think is a little
flowery, but still I think theintention is fantastic.
This technology is not for thesake of technology, it's for the
sake of advancing mankind andthe partnerships around.

(28:30):
That's super important becauseyou're able to extend the value
of what your teams do intoverticals that you wouldn't
elect to go into, other than youhave the partnerships that
enable that yeah, it's stilllike focus on the customer of
course, on the outcomes.

We deliver as a Cisco technology company.
We deliver technology stack,which is a data center multiple
data centers.
Me build on my early example ofa healthcare provider, a
healthcare or a resource company.
We can build a data centertechnology for them, which would
some cloud provider operate, inwhich this resource company

(29:07):
will put their data applicationand because of the power of this
high-performance computer datacenter, they will research
faster, yep, they will find newdrugs faster, they will create
new cues faster and they willreduce the mortality of some
diseases.
Can have our serversinfluencing the outcome.

It's not a direct line, yeah, but we should not
forget about that theinfrastructure cannot be
forgotten.

Yeah, so when we speak about hey, faster
servers, back to theJameson-Wang city discussions he
presents a faster GPU.
You will never see the GPU whenhe thinks about new drugs, but
this is what drives it theinnovations in the cancer
research and all that is poweredby the high-performance compute
and NVIDIA invents, puts intothe Cisco servers, wrap up in a
Cisco network and security.

(29:55):
Make sure it's there with afinancing partner to actually
find the whole thing going.
With the cloud providers likeMassComputer, actually With a
financing partner to actuallyfind with a cloud provider like
mass computing, bleedingevaporating for somebody else,
and then the research companydoes data center.
So it's a long cycle, but youshould not lose sight of the
impact.
It is Because for the researchcompany they're already there,

(30:19):
but in many developing countrieshe's not.
This once possible.
So that's why the thirdleadership of what's possible is
very important.
Yes, yes, it is what's possiblewithin the inter's.
Why the third leadership ofwhat's possible is very
important.

Yes, yes, it is.

What's possible within inter-throats?
What's possible if you connectthem bad?

What's possible if you withdraw high-performance
that pick in the problem whichwas unresolved, yes and I think
our opportunity is to helppeople see that possibility and
not let technology be a barrier.
We can simplify technologywhere they don't have to worry
about the type of GPU or thespeed of the GPU.

(30:55):
We can figure out with themwhat their goal is, what those
outcomes are, and they don'thave to worry about technology.
They need to be domain expertsat what they're solving for the
world and that is, to me, thathelps mankind flourish, because
we'll handle the back end techstacks.
They need to be the best atwhatever healthcare app they're

(31:18):
creating or whateverproductivity process app they're
enabling.
And I think it's a tremendousopportunity for us to enable so
many people, because you and Iare always on the partnerships.
People end of helping peoplesee what's possible, and I just
think that's a very excitingspace right now with all that's

(31:39):
happening with AI.
Now, all that's happening withAI.
You posted a week or two about abig buildup in Dubai for the
one gigawatt power plant.
Five gigawatts, five Okay, forthose of you who are not data
and data center people on thiscall, five gigawatts is unheard

(31:59):
of for a data center.
Do you have a comparison?

It's a little bit more than Latvia can
choose today.

Okay, so more power consumption than the
country of Latvia consumes in ayear just to power the data
center for the technology thatwill come through this
particular installation in Dubai.
I think it's in Dubai.
So what do you think?
That is a project ofincomprehensible scale for me.

(32:28):
Bringing partnerships togetherfor those projects, what do you
think is the secret sauce tohelping all the teams that have
to align on something soenormous, not done before?
What do you think is importantfor those partnerships to be
successful at that scale?
and I'm not a Cisco speaker inthat specific opportunity and we

(32:50):
say my point of view, butyou've got perspective of 30
years.

Let me share my point of illness.
Yes, I was posted on LinkedIn.
Obviously, the Gulf states hasenormous opportunity to invest
into a new evolving AI yes.
And they did.
They evolved, yes, they, yeah.
I think about data center goingor, I think, saudi giving
everybody access to chat.
Gpt yes, 4.5% of patients, thatsays everybody is a GPT yes, 4%

(33:16):
of the population is very easy.
That says everybody is atransnational.
Yes, but opportunities are notonly there, opportunities are
everywhere else.
And then just last week therewas a news in the Economist Act
highlighting that working hoursin Europe is all over the place.
Okay, germany works, I think,1,300 working hours a year.

Oh, wow, okay.

US 1,200, in the US, yeah, yeah, and Greece
1,800.
Okay.
Yet productivity between US andGermany is very similar.
Productivity in the UnitedStates, While they work longer.
Yes, yeah, half of the product.
Yes, germans work less than theUS for the market product for
this.
If you think about the growth,if Germans work more, they will

(34:01):
achieve significantly betterresults.
But if we increase the Greekproductivity by 25%, this will
be mind-blowing a lot.
So, just like a small example,enabling productivity will have
an impact on the life of thecountries outside of Gulf.
And if Gulf is lucky, luckythey have funding.
Yes, okay.
Many other countries does nothave limited funding, then the

(34:23):
private capital can step in.
This is where we are focusing alot, but scoring what we can do
with the sovereign funds.
Sometimes, governments take inand provide some baseline
funding that very often privatecapital is.
In Seeing that, seeing what'spossible it needs to be done by
the governments and by theenterprise companies, private

(34:43):
capital can step in and helpfund initiatives, build up data
centers, build up aninfrastructure, because with the
cloud providers like MasterPoolactually deploying at the PEC,
Okay, when are they bringingthat data center online?

Have they projected a timeline?
I don't remember.

Okay, it did just start.

It did just start .
Everybody in this industry istalking about the.
I love that you used the wordbold, because it is a bold thing
.
I think we'll look back in fiveyears and we'll just see it as
the first.
It won't be bold anymorebecause that's the scale that
we'll look back in five yearsand we'll just see it as the
first.
It won't be bold anymorebecause that's the scale that
we'll need to build at for thefuture.
It's just the first, so I loveit.

It's like first computers, yeah.

And now it's common.

So it's the same thing.

I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it.
So in your LinkedIn profile,you emphasize structured
decision-making and challengingthe status quo, and I think
those things are opposite,because lots of times when you
challenge the status quo, you'rehaving to change the structure.

(35:53):
How do you apply those twocompeting philosophies when
you're helping enable largetransformations like you're
involved with I?

don't think they're competing.
Okay, what I'm saying is theway they change the status quo.
Essentially, I believe inchange.

I'm gonna make a button with that.
I believe in change.
That's a great button.

If you don't disaffect somebody else,
they're going to decide.

Yep.

John Trampas was repeating this again and
again.

Yes.

We are a big company.
That's a C-score, yeah, butwe're always looking at what's
going on in the industry, whatstartups are doing.
Yes, yes, we are changingourselves, and so I think change
is important.
If you don't change, if youdon't look what's going on, what
are you doing to the Americaneconomy?
How do you monetize everything?
What is the opportunity?
If you don't change yourself,you will get more.
Many companies did so.

(36:45):
I'm making always for thechange and I'm challenging the
status quo, turning every stoneto see am I in the right path?
Time For every time, every day,but all we do is again can we
do it then?
That's one.
Yeah, any games, statutorydecision making with problems,
with always the idea centerbuild up.
You know it's probablymultifaceted.

(37:06):
A lot of moving pieces,separating people's second
problems.
You know, even with manystakeholders they have a
computing technique.
Put those things aside.
It's time.
What are we trying to solve forwhat's important question?
What's the sequence of gatedecision Catching, decision
making?
Yeah, otherwise we'll neverboil the ocean.

Yeah, this show is about resets, transformations
, pivots, and Cisco has had alot of pivots.
You have had a lot of pivots.
You have had a lot of pivots.
What do you think is?

the next big pivot as a generality, for you
and for Cisco.
What do you think that lookslike?
And for me personally, I did acouple of turns in my one
company, many careers.
My motto was nothing ventured,nothing gained.

Yeah, yeah.

And a couple of those moves was like and if
I look risky?

I think they've worked out well.

A couple of them pay out and for the company
for the future.
I'm not a sister supportersfalse person, but the value of
the importance of networking andAI is being understood and
being evaluated.
Thanks, because again if allthis high performance computing
is exciting, it doesn't sit inthe air.
It has to sit in somebody'scloud.

Yes.

In somebody's cloud.
That's the cloud.
It's somebody's data center.
The more compute capacity isthere, the more data is
processing, the more network itneeds to be.
Well, okay, and I know we are abig networking company yes, of
course we're still powering alot of data.

That's foundational.

The network is going to be there.
People don't fully understandit.
A lot of the AI today is drivenby the startups, yeah, or the
research, the our front amazing.
But it's all newly built ideaswith early networking build-ons.
We believe since that launchthere will be a lot of the
enterprises getting into the AIapplications and they will look

(39:07):
how do they connect new AIapplications to their existing
data and make sure that securityis under control, the data
compliance with the privacysecurity and the patience.
There are a lot of networks.
So I think, from the networkopportunity perspective, the
path is very open for us.
Okay, okay, great.
There will be a lot of casesfor assist again.
Does it change for us?

(39:28):
Yes, with network patternsslightly different, I think so.
Application design is differentthe way the technology has been
consumed there.
This with a lot of change forit multiple dimensions
absolutely well among thosewithin this changing way me.

Did it before, like that again I'm sure someone
famous said that once too,right, I'm not sure who, but it
sounds like it and someone didVladimirs says zonos said that.
Love it, love it.
I think I want to move to myfavorite part of this podcast.
I've done it, like the lastthree or four episodes, but I do

(40:04):
a lightning round of fastanswer questions.
They're not meant to go deep,they're just, and I look at your
list and some of these are kindof meaty, so feel free to take
a minute or two on the ones thatmake sense for you, but it's
just top of mind.
What do you think?
So lightning round forVladimirs?
What do you think is AI'sbiggest threat to humanity?

It is tempted and maddened.

In 30 seconds or less, I know no, take the time
you need.
What do you think?

I think it would be less interesting how it
works.
Well, even today there's a lotof discussions.
If it works, it's overpoweringus.
It's like a pushback on the oldshutdown they can't see again A
few days ago.
It's just an artery.
Yeah, it's a sophisticatedartery.
Yeah of course.

Ultimately, it does work again, yeah, yeah, of
course that's worth repeating.
It's a tool.
It does what we ask it to do.

Yes, yes, it's amazing in so many things
Yep, creating pictures, but it'svery hard, not in the hand.
Yeah, you're right, it'samazing in writing poems.

Mm-hmm.

In a style of writing a real sex work yes,
it's a very hard.
Poems in a style of whatever weas experts.
Yes, it's a very practical look.
It may become amazing in addingwhatever, managing to lighten
it or something else you do orCatholic lights, but it's going
to do what it's designed to do,right, it's true.

Yes.

When people get panicked and it's scary what
it can do.
I don't think there's anyrationality for that.

I don't think they understand just how much it
is what we make it yes.

Yeah, agreed , and until they put a weapon in
the tank, we probably don'tneed to worry.

Yeah, yeah, the other side of the coin for the
next question, because I askedyou what is the biggest threat
AI has on humanity.
So what's the biggestopportunity AI has on humanity?

I think it's productivity.
As simple as it sounds, it'spretty more with less.
Do fasting.
You're saying time to do moreIn our lives.
It professionals, ai helps usdo research to the white-ups,
googling faster and exposingmore and more distinctions.

(42:20):
Sometimes these are thetangents easily bosses start to
get better traffic lights smartand the future would be
different.
Healthcare companies will dothat.
You see, that is something else.
Good, good, good Companies willdo that.
That is Canadian.
We're deploying something else.
Okay, that will be thebeginning.

Good, good, good.
So what's one technology?
Get your magic wand.
What is the one technology thatyou wish existed today?

Very large capacity batteries.

Larger batteries.

My phone dies very fast.
Mine too.
Mine too.
Is there any implication fromthat?
It cannot survive a day.
That's happening.
Better batteries are coming,I'm sure of it.
I think it's going to survive asmall spring and battery is
getting a problem.

My answer to this it used to be time travel, but
I think there's a realcomplexity with time travel,
with the social implications ofredoing history, but I think,
but I really want teleportation,like Star Trek beamed me up,
scotty.
If I could just wake up onSunday morning and hit a button

(43:33):
and land in San Diegoimmediately, if I could just
teleport from here to Bangalorefor a trip to see my teens, then
I think that would be thetechnology I would want to see
happen.

Their wish list is very simple.

You want a battery.
You want yourself a battery.
I want to get to India without25 hours of flight time.
You want a better battery.
It want to get to India without25 hours of flight time.
You want a better battery.

It depends how much life will change.
We will have a lot of things inthe very policy that is.

You're right.
Honestly, people probably wouldlaugh at the battery answer
because it's simple, but it'strue.
Batteries I'm appreciatingBatteries affect everything
that's happening out on thatfloor behind us and if we got
better and more efficient.

There's a big motion right now, yeah, with
the different form of planetshaving their own batteries.

Yeah, oh, I didn't know that that's a trend.
Yeah, I did not know thatInteresting.
Okay, before we finish ourlightning round, I wanted to do
a public service announcementfor the KPCR FM Signal Society.
We have a new program at PirateCat Radio that enables our

(44:42):
listeners to donate, become partof the Signal Society and get a
card to give discounts on areabusinesses.
One of the benefits, inaddition to the card with local
business discounts, is theability to do your own radio
show within kpcrorg along withone of our hosts.

(45:02):
We are also giving studio toursand working on a line of
musical performances, withpriority tickets going to our
Signal Society members.
So if you'd like to join theSignal Society, go to kpcrorg,
slash, donate, okay, so what doyou think is the?

(45:27):
most overrated.

AI application Overrated, overrated
, image creation phase, thatkind of thing Fancy, but I don't
know.
Anyway, it just looks fancy.

Did you say image Image?
Yeah, I think it's just notperforming yet like we want it
to be simple and effective atthe same time.
Okay, so you think that'soverrated?

I think at this point of time, yeah, okay,
what was interesting is that Ithink in movie creation getting
into the interesting stage, yeah, we post-applicate in movie
issues getting into theinteresting stage.
Yeah, we post-applicate thatfor movie issues.
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of company startups coming through
in that personalization ofmovies.
You put yourself into thescript, your dog, your neighbor,
and create these personalizedstorylines that become movies.
There's a startup doing that.
It's pretty crazy work yeah.

Okay, yeah, it was an interesting story.
Again I have lost speaking innews and different stories.
There was the AuschwitzMemorial Museum.

Yes, yes.

They have created a digital twig.

Oh, of someone who was presumably went through
Auschwitz.

The Auschwitz Museum created a
digital twin of the Auschwitzconcentration camp.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The reason for that is thatthere was a lot of movie
parodies.
Okay, they had to make a movie,yes, yes, and they cannot
accommodate them to filmconnection on location.
That makes sense to me Mosttimes in logistical ones.
They have created a digitaltwin, scanning the facility and

(47:02):
creating digital twin of thefacility from outside, and they
build it up.

Yes.

They did find it.

That's history preservation enablement.

They all had that digital twin for the
filmmakers.
Wow, for the future generationof movies.

Of stories to be told.

Yeah, to tell the stories, and sober
stories are there.

I love it.

It's an interesting tool it is you think
about the idea of a digitalscreen of this and that and it's
all business-appropriate.
This is a different dimension.
Yeah, get a digital screen ofthis thing, which has been
immortalized in it, being ableto create a more new not new,
but a more fashionable andemotional narrative in a
perpetuity.

(47:42):
It's always, I think, a veryinteresting example.
I love it.
Using AI and future AI,utilizing vanishing physical
evidence.

And to enable and simplify the ability for people
to get factual information in avery streamlined way, and it
enables the creative process,which, to me, is still a very
human process.
There's so much dialogue aboutAI taking humans out of the loop
, but I just think it makeshumans more creative because we

(48:12):
can get to the information wewant, to build the stories
around it, to show differentperspectives that we would never
get to without those kinds oftools.
So I love it.
Very cool.
I want a digital twin.
I've been working on that.
Have you got a digital twin yet?

No, Okay, I think this noise is them.

No, it's not.
It's too complex and it's oneof those things that I'll put a
bunch of hours into and then Samwill come through with a new
feature and that'll make it likeautomated and push a button.

But the idea is obviously very interesting
Imagine I have a kind of e-datato use myself?
Yes, All the written, for atleast all my messages, all my
emails.

Absolutely All my writings, all my LinkedIn work,
my books Even more for me inthe corporate environment.

Yeah, absolutely.

All the corporate data.

Oh, I know All my presentation documents,
email Communication Discussionswe've had before Meeting notes.
Yes, the digital twin can seepatterns across multiple
customers.
Yeah, yeah, the theory cancommunicate with the digital
twins of my colleagues.
I have a big and powerful goodidea how many security and
communication charges ispreserved.
Yeah, we have access to thecore data.

(49:21):
We need to process all of thatwithin the security parameter.
Yep, is that really effective?
With my digital ring, does itget access to my personal
information?
The security and privacycontrol is enormous.
Yes, and that's back to theenterprise adoption of weather
technology.
It's very intersecidious.
If you know the star cascadingright now, you can look at it
from there.

(49:41):
But not all of them, maybe justvery few of them, can actually
walk in the interperson land.
They need to live within thesurface and the powers and data
control pyramids.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you.
Yeah, I think it's going to bevery interesting for me too.
I can't help but think of ourown personal ownership of that
information, because youmentioned it from a corporate
perspective all of your writings, because you have 25 years at
Cisco.
But I think a lot of that is mypersonal work in the last 25

(50:13):
years and I would want that tobe portable, because in today's
workforce most people don't stay25 years, they stay 25 months.
So I but I would still wantthat that, that knowledge of me,
who I am, the profile of mydata for history to be available
.
So I think portability withthose kinds of digital twins is

(50:35):
going to be important.
It can't just be a corporatepart of the tech stack for a
company.
I think it's going to be partof the tech stack for
individuals, for productivity,and that will get into some
really interesting things.

So speaking about 25 years.
So yeah, 25 years ago when Ijoined CISME, in one of the
events I met that we jettisonedfrom IBM.
His name is Olivier Patey, whowas the IBM manager of the labor
and work in the.
Baltics.
And when he introduced me, hesaid I'm 20 years with IBM and
I'm one year, two years, oh myGod.

(51:08):
Yeah, oh, my God, okay, keepgoing 25 years of murder and 25
years of CISME.
Oh my damn.
Yeah.
And look him up today inLincoln.
Yeah, 47 years in aviation,he's still there.
He's not anymore.
But he was 47 or 48 years inaviation.

He did 47 years before.
Wow, oh my God and I know we'vegone through ebbs and flows of
thinking that when people reachan advanced state of age and
experience, they're no longer asvaluable.
I personally think we're cominginto a time where wisdom and
experience and the history thatwe have of failing failures are

(51:47):
important.
So a failing and the things wefigured out how to do that we
inherently, just intuitively,know, I think in the future
we're going to move so fast thatskill set is going to be super
important.
So maybe you'll hit 47 years.
We'll see.
Oh, we will sit down at thistable in another 22 years, just

(52:08):
left what a clinic.

What do you think?

yeah, 22 years.
Yeah, oh, my goodness.
So it's right here and I'll buythe cappuccino, all right.
So a couple more, let me.
We got time for a couple more.
Let me see what's a betterinvestment infrastructure or
talent well, they're differentinvestments they are.

(52:31):
We're not going to choose.
It's either, or sometimes youget both, but lots of times in
my M&A yeah, okay, fine, Iaccept that.
I accept that.
Here's an interesting one.
What country do you think willsurprise everyone when it comes
to AI?

Yeah, with your global view and outlook,
steve.

Quantum is going to be huge for China, yeah.

Amount of investment, those kind of
obvious candidates for theleadership, the one who will
surprise.
There is very few choices here,so there is probably a couple.
I would think, okay, the onewould be in India.
It's an interesting candidate.

(53:36):
So they have done sometremendous progress on a
government network.
It's a very big nation 1.2billion, if I'm not mistaken.
They have created digitalidentities for everyone.
They have transformed thecitizen interactions with the
government Ahead of many other,much smaller states, yes, okay,

(53:57):
ahead of many other Europeans.
They made a transformation ofcreating a digital identity for
citizens and that's a platformfor everything else created in
the government.
You can create any otherbuild-off from the point of view
if you have a digital identity,authentication of users.
So I think India may have amajor breakthrough.
Okay, they are lessantagonistic.
I think India may have a majorbreakthrough.

(54:18):
Okay, they are lessantagonistic and go back to the
US and China.
They may actually go ahead.
We have our own politicalhassles.

Right, we all do, every organized country does.

In breakthrough perspective, they
may breakthrough Okay.
So I think that, based on theirability to get agony from the
same perspective, I think someof the European companies may
have a breakthrough.
Skype is out of Sweden, fromother companies out of Germany,
we made a breakthrough in acertain sense, so there is a

(54:50):
potential for a smaller Europeanbreakthrough.

Ipsic is China just, it's a fairly small small
smaller funding, so there is aparticular for this have you
looked at manas out of china?

whoa okay, we'll talk about point being so
I'd probably think in ai spaceyou can take three small days.
Yes, yes, talent, that is ofresources.
Make this talent to the basics.
So I think there is aparticular nothing can really
predict the combination ofinnovation, talent, funding,
given the city of Congolese, butbreakthroughs are possible

(55:26):
everywhere.

I love that.
I love that Because I do lovemy Silicon Valley life and my
network, and it's a bubble of anecosystem, but to think and
know that breakthroughs canhappen anywhere because of the
technology that we built afoundation for in our decades of
doing this is something to beproud of, and you said in the

(55:49):
beginning that you wanted to dowork that you were proud of, and
I think that you have a longhistory of that work.
Thank you, so, yeah, so thishas been so much fun with you,
speak a lot.
We spoke at GTC and then weboth spoke at the AI Infra
Summit at the Microsoft campus amonth ago.

(56:10):
If people wanted to follow youto see what your thoughts are as
things evolve, how would theybe able to watch what's going on
with Vladimirs?
You're guessing linkedin?
Yes, perfect, okay, so I'll putthat in the show notes
Vladimirs sezonos.
But I think for people tofollow you and see what are you
thinking about, what's top ofmind for you, would be wonderful

(56:30):
.
As you challenge me, you're onthe cutting edge of what we
partner to build, and so I thinkit would be very wise for
people to see what you're on thecutting edge of what we partner
to build, and so I think itwould be very wise for people to
see what you're thinking.
So good, thank you.
So Vladimirs Sazonos and TonyaLong here wrapping up Reset with
Tonya at Cisco Live, there's acappuccino machine about 12 feet

(56:51):
below us calling my name for anafternoon coffee.
It has been absolutelydelightful to spend time from
Cisco Live.
You see that logo right in thebackground.
It has been a wonderfulconference.
Good to see old friends, thankyou.
Thank you for joining us todayon Reset with Tonya.
All right, take care everyone.
Thanks for joining us on reset.

(57:19):
You've been listening to ourshow from kpcr, lp 92.9 fm in
los gatos and kmrt, lp 101.9 fmin santa cruz.
Remember transformation is ajourney, not a destination.
Until Until next time, keepexploring what's possible.

(57:41):
I'm Tonya Long and this is home.
This is Reset, thank you.

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