December 8, 2024 • 20 mins
Unlock the secrets of the ever-evolving world of technology with Carl Solder, CTO of Cisco ANZ, as we navigate the convergence of IT and OT. Discover how Cisco is bridging the gap between these distinct domains while tackling the challenges posed by integrating OT devices. Get insider insights into Cisco's strategic moves, like the acquisition of Splunk, aimed at boosting observability and enhancing data-driven insights for rapid issue resolution. We'll also highlight the impressive network troubleshooting capabilities of ThousandEyes, providing real-world applications that showcase Cisco's innovative full-stack observability tools.
Ever wonder how the role of the Chief Technology Officer is reshaping in today's tech-driven landscape? We explore this dynamic shift alongside Carl, emphasizing the CTO's rising importance in tandem with the CEO. Learn about fostering a culture of innovation within large organizations, and the significance of continuous learning to keep pace with emerging trends in networking, cybersecurity, and AI. We'll reflect on the joy of mentoring future tech leaders and share tips on maximizing learning opportunities at key events like Cisco Live. This episode promises to enrich your understanding of the pivotal role technology plays in modern business operations.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michael van Rooyen (00:00):
Today we're bringing you part two of my
discussion with Cisco ANZ CTOCarl Solder.
If you haven't listened to partone of the special Cisco live
edition of Securely ConnectedEverything, I recommend you do
so first.
Do you mind just touching onagain?
I know that you've got plentyof coverage, but you know what's
(00:21):
really happening in the IoTspace.
I mean, we we ourselves haveinvested quite heavily into
building an OT practice to helpwith the digital transformation
journey.
Security, because that's SOC-yact and all that sort of stuff.
Can you just touch on a fewminutes on what you're seeing
with customers in that space?
Carl Solder (00:35):
Yeah, so we have a dedicated engineering team
that's focused on buildingproducts for the IoT space.
We've gone through a number ofconvergence cycles.
In my history IBM IP SNA wasconverged, it was then voice.
In the early 2000s it was video.
We're now in the I guess, theIT-OT convergence.
(00:56):
This motion has been around forsome time.
I think the challenge that wehave as an industry is that OT
devices don't necessarily playto the same rules that IT
devices play.
They have different technologystacks, not necessarily always
IP, so you have a slightlydifferent thinking and approach
(01:18):
on how you integrate thosedevices.
There's the more generic thingsaround, like hardened devices
running in harsh environments,which you know iot teams build.
But in terms of being able toidentify, fingerprint, secure,
protect those devices and alsointerrogate, and from a
visibility standpoint it's alittle bit challenging.
(01:38):
So what cisco is doing is thatwe are focusing on three things
the connect how can we connectthose devices, how can we
protect and how we can observe,because anytime you add any
device onto a network itrepresents a new attack surface
for threat actors out there.
To look to compromise and OT, Ithink is the kind of bit of the
(02:02):
wild west where ITpractitioners are still trying
to wrap their minds around howthey can bring those devices in
and protect and observe them inthe same manner they do with
traditional IT devices.
So that's the challenge that wehave as an organization what
can we do?
What innovations can we bringto market that can make that
easier?
Michael van Rooyen (02:22):
to happen.
To round out our technicalaspect here, do you mind just
touching on you, talk aboutobservability.
Can we just talk aboutobservability, because I think
that's so fundamental of one ofyour thousand hours acquisition,
you've got Splunk, of course.
Appdynx all these and I thinkpeople haven't really probably
pieced together, hand-pornedthose.
Even us, we've alignedourselves well with your
observability space into ourplatforms.
(02:44):
Do you just mind talking a bitabout how quick resolution,
provability, all that Is it soimportant?
Yeah, look.
Carl Solder (02:51):
I kind of alluded to it early on.
But in digitizing your businessand this demand by the business
that digital front-end is goingto be available as close to
100% as possible, you need thetool sets to identify and then
remediate.
You want to minimize if there'sa problem.
You want to be able to minimizethat amount of time.
So the more data you have, themore you see, the more you can
(03:15):
act on ultimately.
So the Splunk acquisition wasmade purely for that.
We see data being absolutelycritical to our long-term
strategy.
That observability piece beingable to understand exactly
what's happening end-to-end fromthe user to the application,
everything in between isabsolutely critical.
So Splunk brings in two toolsets right.
There's the observability toolsets and there's also the
(03:35):
security tool sets and the datakind of feeds.
Both of those there's security,incident event management and
there's SOAR applications andthen there's just general
observability platforms.
Cisco had started on thatjourney before we bought Splunk.
We've actually merged thedevelopments we had with our
full-stack observability toolsets with Splunk, so that's kind
of combined.
We've moved our AppDynamicstool sets into Splunk so that
(03:59):
forms part of their APM, theirApplication Performance
Monitoring tool set.
We're now starting to look athow we bring the ThousandEyes
and the other security tool setsand the data that we share, how
we can interoperate with Splunkas well.
So on the security side, forexample, we recently announced
that the telemetry that we canpull from our Extended Detection
(04:23):
and response XDR service we canmake available to users who
might be using SIEM and viceversa.
XDR can also pull so more abouthow we can share telemetry to
provide greater visibilityacross more use cases.
The Thousand Eyes is the otherone.
As a networking guy, I lovethat product.
It is amazing how you canvisualize all the points between
(04:45):
the user and the application,literally from this one endpoint
to another endpoint, and Ican't tell you the number of
times I was in a call.
One time where an engineer wasdoing a demo of Thousand Eyes to
a customer and just at thattime the customer got a call
from one of their teams sayingthis service is down and our
(05:06):
engineer was engineer was likeoh, I can check that and tell
you.
He pulled it up and said allyour problems with this ISP it's
on this device.
And that was golden moment Imean opportune for us, because
it helped the customer there butshowed them the power of what
the customer needed and whatthey needed to do, and these
tool sets can do and thecustomer's like man that's
awesome, absolutely.
Michael van Rooyen (05:25):
I mean for those who are coming from
traditional networktroubleshooting and everything
like that being able to see itis it's just incredible right
trace routes.
Carl Solder (05:32):
You don't have to worry about that anymore
unbelievable.
Michael van Rooyen (05:34):
Unbelievable .
Pivoting a little bit away fromthe technology and knowing that
you've been, you know, leadingteams for a long time and
obviously in your, in your roletoday and being a cto myself,
I'm keen to understand yourthoughts here.
But the role of our CTO isalways evolving it always has
been, et cetera.
But we also see things likechief AI office coming along,
chief these other areas as theindustry evolves.
But with the rapid pace of thistechnology change, how do you
(05:57):
see our roles, or CTO roles,driving innovation and
influencing business strategy?
Do you think it's changing orbecoming more fundamental?
I've seen some arguments thatthe CTO is as important as the
CEO.
Considering we're becoming sucha tech-led world.
I'm keen on your thoughts onthis.
Carl Solder (06:12):
No, I would tend to agree.
I think, as organizationsutilize IT services more, I
think it's becoming morefoundational to running the
business.
I can't actually think of manybusinesses that don't have or
don't use technology to supportthem.
So in that sense, I think beingaware of how technology can be
(06:36):
used to support the business,but also being aware of new
trends, new developments thatcan further potentially drive
differentiation for thatbusiness in the market against
their peers, is absolutelyimportant.
I've seen more CTOs popping upin organizations over time.
If I go back, maybe seven,eight years ago not as many.
(06:58):
It's becoming a more commonrole in organizations.
To your point, chief ArtificialIntelligence Officer, I was
starting to see those things popup as well.
Yes, but certainly I think theCTO role is paramount.
You need to have a goodunderstanding because the pace
of innovation is moving so fast.
If you blink, you miss.
Yes, and it's on the CTO tokeep across all the technologies
(07:22):
and how they might benefit theorganization, and being able to
provide that input into businessstrategies is going to be
foundational to the survival ofbusinesses moving forward.
Michael van Rooyen (07:31):
Yeah, completely agreed and as a
leader within Cisco, what kindof the principles do you believe
are essential to fostering aculture of innovation and
continuous improvement?
I mean, you guys have got amassive team globally and
there's lots of innovation.
You've got a whole skunkworkswhich I'd love to see one day,
but you keep coming up withthese ideas that there must be a
secret room somewhere.
But I'd love to hear what youguys are doing in that space, or
(07:51):
yourself, In terms ofdeveloping people.
Yeah, yeah, and continuousimprovement for people and
innovation, driving innovationright.
Carl Solder (07:57):
Yeah, I think as a leader you should talk fair
enough because I used to lead ateam it was at one point close
to 200 individuals.
Everyone has ideas and I thinkit's important that you give
everyone a voice, because itdoesn't necessarily some of your
more learned engineers.
They might be your go-to people, but sometimes having and
(08:22):
thinking outside the nine dotsand someone not having the
baggage of the way things havebeen done in the past, fresh
ideas is also good and actuallyI can tell historically in my
situation.
There have actually been someinnovations that have been
spawned from some of the juniorengineers who come and say like
why the heck are we doing this?
Why don't we do it that way?
And it's like actually, yeah,you're right, that's a good idea
(08:44):
.
Yes, so I think listening isreally really important.
Open communication, givingpeople that platform or that
opportunity to speak, I think isalso important.
And just respecting otherpeople's ideas as well yeah, not
shutting them down too quickly.
I think that's that's key.
Michael van Rooyen (08:59):
Very important and well said.
Reflecting, then more on theorganization, cisco is obviously
a massive entity, you know, andso fundamental to a lot of the
globe's organizations, et cetera, and the tech industry, as you
just said, really, you know, popup and next thing there's two
things behind you that are newand there's always the what's
coming on the left field.
But how does Cisco themselvesstay agile, you know, being such
a large entity, particularlywith these emerging technologies
(09:22):
and shift in customer demands?
It's tough, it's not easy, it'svery tough.
Carl Solder (09:27):
So again, when I was in engineering, we would
have teams that would be out.
We call them go-to-market teams, so they would go out, meet
with customers, share newsaround new technologies and new
ideas that we've got, but wewould solicit a whole bunch of
feedback.
We've also got R&D teams whoare just coming up with these
(09:48):
ideas and building andprototyping and trying things
out and seeing is this relevant?
We might take some of thoseideas and then showcase them to
a select few customers and say,hey, we've got this thing.
What do you think?
Is this going to be relevant?
Does it have applicability inyour business?
We collectively get a lot ofinformation from the field our
sales teams, account managers,product sales specialists.
(10:10):
We hold these sync-ups a coupleof times a year where we just
ask questions like what are youhearing?
What are you seeing?
What are your customers wanting?
We try to take a whole lot ofinputs.
We also see, obviously, whatcompetitors are doing.
We want to keep up with ourcompetitors.
We're also keeping acrosstrends that are happening in and
across the market.
We have alliance teams.
(10:30):
We have these teams whocontinue looking at what
startups are doing.
Cisco themselves have a fundthat we invest in startups, and
so we have startups coming to us, pitching to us all the time on
new ideas so it's a collectionof all of this that we use to
then synthesize what are wegoing to do, and part of it is
(10:51):
obviously meeting the needs ofcustomers, but sometimes you
also have to create new thingsthat customers are not even
asking.
Right, right yeah.
Michael van Rooyen (10:59):
You've got to drive something brand new.
Yeah, of course.
Carl Solder (11:02):
So it's going to be a mix.
Michael van Rooyen (11:04):
Yeah, yeah, and considering the breadth of
people that you come across, andthere's a new generation of
people wanting to get into theindustry and we've been through
the cycles of.
I want to be a network guy, andthe CCI used to be the thing to
be, and then it became cyber.
I want to be a cyber guywithout doing networking.
That's AI et cetera.
But we also tend to see a newbreed of leaders coming through
that we've got to think about aswe hand the keys over in the
(11:24):
long term.
What advice would you giveaspiring tech leaders who are
wanting to make a significantimpact in the fields of network,
cyber, automation, everythingwe're doing, yeah, look.
Carl Solder (11:33):
I think it's an interesting one.
In my journey, I don't thinkI've ever stopped learning.
So I think if you get into thiscareer, you've got to be
prepared that you're going to bereading, you're going to be
watching videos.
Every time that you learnsomething, you realize that
there's a whole lot more thatyou need to learn.
It can get overwhelmingsometimes.
(11:55):
I've had moments in my careerwhere I thought man, this is
just too hard.
So I think you've got to have apositive attitude.
You've got to have awillingness to want to learn.
You also have to have awillingness to want to learn.
You also have to have awillingness to try to make
mistakes.
You learn by making mistakes,but I think just generally it's
one thing which I I I kind ofstruggle with a little bit right
(12:19):
now is and you kind of alludedto this the when I first
networking was the in thing.
Michael van Rooyen (12:26):
Yes.
Carl Solder (12:27):
That was one of the best, I guess, roles you could
get.
But over time, as we've evolvedinto all these other areas,
cyber for a while was thedarling of everyone.
Ai is now the darling ofeveryone.
You can't forget the basicsbecause guess what, when you
open up your phone and you tryto connect to your Facebook or
(12:47):
your Snapchat or wherever, ifthat connection is not working,
then you're no good.
I remember my son telling meone time he was studying in San
Diego On a hot summer it wasleading into summer the air
conditioning in the dorm wentdown.
The same time the Wi-Fi wentdown, and was everyone
complaining about the airconditioning?
no, everyone's complaining aboutthe fact that they didn't have
(13:10):
their internet access.
Yes, so I actually would arguethat, even though networking
might not be the in thing, it'sso fundamental, yeah, and so
important that that's somethingthat I think everyone should be
at least aware of.
Yes, and it's an area thatstill has a lot of opportunity
to drive innovation.
Yes, so for me, I highlyencourage we used to, in fact,
(13:33):
back when I was in engineeringin the US, we used to run these
graduate recruitment programs tobring prospective students into
engineering.
Right, and you're absolutelyright.
When you went there, start offlike what are you interested in?
it was mostly everything butnetworking yeah but after we
gave them their pitch aroundwhat we do in the networking
space, we'd turn quite a lot ofthose students around and
(13:56):
they're like, okay, actuallythis sounds quite interesting
and I hadn't really thoughtabout that.
So maybe taking the time to goand understand the space might
generate a little bit moreinterest.
Michael van Rooyen (14:04):
You and I are well aligned there.
It's similar to your digitalplumber at heart, and that's
where I started, and I strugglewith people trying to get into
the space without understandingthat fundamental of just
plumbing right.
And on your point, around thewireless, no one thinks about
everything either side of that.
I have actually a saying calledhappy Wi-Fi, happy Li-Fi,
because that's what people want.
They actually don't think aboutwhat's broken on the street,
(14:25):
it's just the Wi-Fi is broken,right, that's the first thing
you hear.
Carl Solder (14:27):
So it's a fun fact and I think you're right study,
and a lot of that generationwould rather lose something else
than internet access orconnectivity, which is kind of
bizarre, isn't it?
It is yeah.
Michael van Rooyen (14:39):
Look as we get closer to the end.
Carl, I appreciate your timebut, reflecting on your career
and you've seen lots and lots ofchange what are some of the
most rewarding experiences thatyou've seen and what continues
to motivate you in what you do?
Carl Solder (14:52):
There's a couple of times in my career I think the
first time that on therecruitment side, yes, the first
set of graduates that we hired,bringing them in pretty green,
not really knowing a lot aboutnetworking, and looking at where
they are now, yes, pretty proudmoment.
Yes, it's kind of like almostlike a parent moment, where you
see these individuals grow, yes,and being able to do c, cisco
(15:15):
lives and present and do demosand you think, man, from where
they came from to where they arenow that for me as a leader,
awesome From a technologystandpoint.
I've been really fortunate to beinvolved in a lot of what's
happened, Like when I firststarted.
There was no internet, it wasmainframes I'm showing my age
here, but PCs were just brandnew.
(15:35):
But I've seen the internet comeinto play.
I remember seeing the webbrowser for the very first time
Netscape Navigator and thinking,wow, that's amazing.
I can remember back in the daywhen the iPhone came out.
From Cisco standpoint, we'vegone through some evolutions.
Through some evolutions.
I can remember we built thevery first mass scalable data
center infrastructure.
In the early days whenMicrosoft, google, amazon were
(15:58):
setting and building their datacenters, they were hitting scale
limits that no one else in theindustry was seeing.
So I was part of an engineeringteam that were trying to figure
out how to solve for that.
I've been involved in bringingproducts to market that have
generated billions of dollarsfor Cisco and I'm super proud of
(16:19):
the part that I've had to playin bringing those products to
market.
I've been involved in leadingsome of the developments and a
lot of my ideas have actuallyfound themselves in the products
that are in use today.
And when I walk into a customerand they say I'm using this
product, I kind of think in theback of my mind.
I think, yeah, I had a part toplay in that and that's also a
very proud moment for me.
(16:39):
So there's a number of differentareas that I kind of look back
and reflect, but I'm super happyand super lucky that I've been
able to experience all of that.
Michael van Rooyen (16:47):
Yeah, absolutely, and you're right.
Sometimes I've walked intocustomers, to customers who
we've done large transformationsfor, and you don't think about
it because it's a project or anitem you're doing at the time.
Then you go back sometime laterand interact with them and you
realize, oh, you were involvedwith that.
And to think about the productsyou've been involved in and how
many lives and things haschanged.
The core, fundamental that youused to say was a way to live,
(17:08):
learn and play, and if you thinkabout how much you've done in
that space, it would certainlybe reflecting and rewarding.
Look, as we wrap up, just twomore for you.
First of all, as we close up,cisco Live, are there any other?
We've talked a lot today abouta bunch of things, but any key
messages that you want to leavewith people listening today from
the event or just in general?
Carl Solder (17:29):
Yeah, look, I think Cisco Live again.
It's a big event.
There's a lot going on.
Michael van Rooyen (17:33):
And.
Carl Solder (17:33):
I think there's going to be many sessions that
people are not necessarily goingto get a chance to go to.
So I would encourage peoplepost Cisco Live, maybe to take a
look at our Cisco Live OnDemand site and just scan
through and have a look at someof the other sessions that they
didn't have a chance to go to,because there's normally some
(17:54):
pearls of wisdom that get throwninto some of these other
sessions that might helporganizations.
That's the first thing, and theother thing too is at least,
while people are here, go in theworld of solutions and speaking
to partners and also going tothe various demos to see what
the technologies are.
I think that's really important,and then following up with
(18:14):
their sales teams that theyengage with to maybe get some
personalized demos and see howthat might play in their own
business.
Michael van Rooyen (18:23):
Last one for you.
The question for all attendeesof the podcast is whilst you've
covered a lot, particularlyaround reflecting on your career
, but can you tell me the mostsignificant technology change or
shift that you've been involvedin or seen over your career?
Now it doesn't obviously haveto be anything you've done, but
even fundamentally more of aglobal level impact.
Carl Solder (18:42):
That's a really good question.
There's actually quite a fewthat I can choose from.
I think for me it would be whenCisco bought Celsius.
Michael van Rooyen (18:53):
Right.
Carl Solder (18:54):
And Celsius was a voiceover IP telephony company
and I remember as a young salesengineer going around with a
laptop under my arm and a coupleof IP phones in my backpack and
going into a customer andplugging these phones into
Ethernet ports and saying pickup the call, and then I would
switch the Ethernet cable fromthis port to that port and the
(19:15):
call would stay up.
My customers are like man, howdid you do that?
What happened?
Yeah, for me I think that's avery significant one.
Yes, that transition from theold pbx style yeah to voice over
ip and you think about now.
I mean, everything is ip enabledfacetime, all the video
conferencing that we do is allip based.
That transition, I think, wasmassive, agreed, and for me
(19:38):
that's probably one of thebiggest ones that sticks in my
mind I agree.
Michael van Rooyen (19:42):
Um, I was fortunate enough that the name
celsius I've heard for a longtime, pre-2000.
Uh, you know, I was luckyenough to be playing with, you
know, as was transitioning fromcelsius to call manager, you
know, in the in the very firstversion.
So I think the Celsus name wasstill a little bit brown but.
I remember seeing thattransition and the tedium world
stressing out that we're notgoing to have jobs, etc.
(20:03):
Etc etc.
But they've all pivoted tobecome data people right.
Carl Solder (20:06):
And now they're cyber people.
Michael van Rooyen (20:07):
So that evolution, as always with our
technology industry, justcontinues to evolve.
Carl Solder (20:11):
Yes, jobs will evolve and change and adapt
based on the technology at thetime.
Michael van Rooyen (20:16):
Yeah, Carl, again really appreciate your
time.
Thanks for coming to see us atour booth.
Carl Solder (20:21):
I appreciate the opportunity.
Michael van Rooyen (20:22):
Thank you no problem.
Carl Solder (20:23):
Thank you, cheers.
Today we're bringing you part two of my
discussion with Cisco ANZ CTOCarl Solder.
If you haven't listened to partone of the special Cisco live
edition of Securely ConnectedEverything, I recommend you do
so first.
Do you mind just touching onagain?
I know that you've got plentyof coverage, but you know what's
(00:21):
really happening in the IoTspace.
I mean, we we ourselves haveinvested quite heavily into
building an OT practice to helpwith the digital transformation
journey.
Security, because that's SOC-yact and all that sort of stuff.
Can you just touch on a fewminutes on what you're seeing
with customers in that space?
Carl Solder (00:35):
Yeah, so we have a dedicated engineering team
that's focused on buildingproducts for the IoT space.
We've gone through a number ofconvergence cycles.
In my history IBM IP SNA wasconverged, it was then voice.
In the early 2000s it was video.
We're now in the I guess, theIT-OT convergence.
(00:56):
This motion has been around forsome time.
I think the challenge that wehave as an industry is that OT
devices don't necessarily playto the same rules that IT
devices play.
They have different technologystacks, not necessarily always
IP, so you have a slightlydifferent thinking and approach
(01:18):
on how you integrate thosedevices.
There's the more generic thingsaround, like hardened devices
running in harsh environments,which you know iot teams build.
But in terms of being able toidentify, fingerprint, secure,
protect those devices and alsointerrogate, and from a
visibility standpoint it's alittle bit challenging.
(01:38):
So what cisco is doing is thatwe are focusing on three things
the connect how can we connectthose devices, how can we
protect and how we can observe,because anytime you add any
device onto a network itrepresents a new attack surface
for threat actors out there.
To look to compromise and OT, Ithink is the kind of bit of the
(02:02):
wild west where ITpractitioners are still trying
to wrap their minds around howthey can bring those devices in
and protect and observe them inthe same manner they do with
traditional IT devices.
So that's the challenge that wehave as an organization what
can we do?
What innovations can we bringto market that can make that
easier?
Michael van Rooyen (02:22):
to happen.
To round out our technicalaspect here, do you mind just
touching on you, talk aboutobservability.
Can we just talk aboutobservability, because I think
that's so fundamental of one ofyour thousand hours acquisition,
you've got Splunk, of course.
Appdynx all these and I thinkpeople haven't really probably
pieced together, hand-pornedthose.
Even us, we've alignedourselves well with your
observability space into ourplatforms.
(02:44):
Do you just mind talking a bitabout how quick resolution,
provability, all that Is it soimportant?
Yeah, look.
Carl Solder (02:51):
I kind of alluded to it early on.
But in digitizing your businessand this demand by the business
that digital front-end is goingto be available as close to
100% as possible, you need thetool sets to identify and then
remediate.
You want to minimize if there'sa problem.
You want to be able to minimizethat amount of time.
So the more data you have, themore you see, the more you can
(03:15):
act on ultimately.
So the Splunk acquisition wasmade purely for that.
We see data being absolutelycritical to our long-term
strategy.
That observability piece beingable to understand exactly
what's happening end-to-end fromthe user to the application,
everything in between isabsolutely critical.
So Splunk brings in two toolsets right.
There's the observability toolsets and there's also the
(03:35):
security tool sets and the datakind of feeds.
Both of those there's security,incident event management and
there's SOAR applications andthen there's just general
observability platforms.
Cisco had started on thatjourney before we bought Splunk.
We've actually merged thedevelopments we had with our
full-stack observability toolsets with Splunk, so that's kind
of combined.
We've moved our AppDynamicstool sets into Splunk so that
(03:59):
forms part of their APM, theirApplication Performance
Monitoring tool set.
We're now starting to look athow we bring the ThousandEyes
and the other security tool setsand the data that we share, how
we can interoperate with Splunkas well.
So on the security side, forexample, we recently announced
that the telemetry that we canpull from our Extended Detection
(04:23):
and response XDR service we canmake available to users who
might be using SIEM and viceversa.
XDR can also pull so more abouthow we can share telemetry to
provide greater visibilityacross more use cases.
The Thousand Eyes is the otherone.
As a networking guy, I lovethat product.
It is amazing how you canvisualize all the points between
(04:45):
the user and the application,literally from this one endpoint
to another endpoint, and Ican't tell you the number of
times I was in a call.
One time where an engineer wasdoing a demo of Thousand Eyes to
a customer and just at thattime the customer got a call
from one of their teams sayingthis service is down and our
(05:06):
engineer was engineer was likeoh, I can check that and tell
you.
He pulled it up and said allyour problems with this ISP it's
on this device.
And that was golden moment Imean opportune for us, because
it helped the customer there butshowed them the power of what
the customer needed and whatthey needed to do, and these
tool sets can do and thecustomer's like man that's
awesome, absolutely.
Michael van Rooyen (05:25):
I mean for those who are coming from
traditional networktroubleshooting and everything
like that being able to see itis it's just incredible right
trace routes.
Carl Solder (05:32):
You don't have to worry about that anymore
unbelievable.
Michael van Rooyen (05:34):
Unbelievable .
Pivoting a little bit away fromthe technology and knowing that
you've been, you know, leadingteams for a long time and
obviously in your, in your roletoday and being a cto myself,
I'm keen to understand yourthoughts here.
But the role of our CTO isalways evolving it always has
been, et cetera.
But we also see things likechief AI office coming along,
chief these other areas as theindustry evolves.
But with the rapid pace of thistechnology change, how do you
(05:57):
see our roles, or CTO roles,driving innovation and
influencing business strategy?
Do you think it's changing orbecoming more fundamental?
I've seen some arguments thatthe CTO is as important as the
CEO.
Considering we're becoming sucha tech-led world.
I'm keen on your thoughts onthis.
Carl Solder (06:12):
No, I would tend to agree.
I think, as organizationsutilize IT services more, I
think it's becoming morefoundational to running the
business.
I can't actually think of manybusinesses that don't have or
don't use technology to supportthem.
So in that sense, I think beingaware of how technology can be
(06:36):
used to support the business,but also being aware of new
trends, new developments thatcan further potentially drive
differentiation for thatbusiness in the market against
their peers, is absolutelyimportant.
I've seen more CTOs popping upin organizations over time.
If I go back, maybe seven,eight years ago not as many.
(06:58):
It's becoming a more commonrole in organizations.
To your point, chief ArtificialIntelligence Officer, I was
starting to see those things popup as well.
Yes, but certainly I think theCTO role is paramount.
You need to have a goodunderstanding because the pace
of innovation is moving so fast.
If you blink, you miss.
Yes, and it's on the CTO tokeep across all the technologies
(07:22):
and how they might benefit theorganization, and being able to
provide that input into businessstrategies is going to be
foundational to the survival ofbusinesses moving forward.
Michael van Rooyen (07:31):
Yeah, completely agreed and as a
leader within Cisco, what kindof the principles do you believe
are essential to fostering aculture of innovation and
continuous improvement?
I mean, you guys have got amassive team globally and
there's lots of innovation.
You've got a whole skunkworkswhich I'd love to see one day,
but you keep coming up withthese ideas that there must be a
secret room somewhere.
But I'd love to hear what youguys are doing in that space, or
(07:51):
yourself, In terms ofdeveloping people.
Yeah, yeah, and continuousimprovement for people and
innovation, driving innovationright.
Carl Solder (07:57):
Yeah, I think as a leader you should talk fair
enough because I used to lead ateam it was at one point close
to 200 individuals.
Everyone has ideas and I thinkit's important that you give
everyone a voice, because itdoesn't necessarily some of your
more learned engineers.
They might be your go-to people, but sometimes having and
(08:22):
thinking outside the nine dotsand someone not having the
baggage of the way things havebeen done in the past, fresh
ideas is also good and actuallyI can tell historically in my
situation.
There have actually been someinnovations that have been
spawned from some of the juniorengineers who come and say like
why the heck are we doing this?
Why don't we do it that way?
And it's like actually, yeah,you're right, that's a good idea
(08:44):
.
Yes, so I think listening isreally really important.
Open communication, givingpeople that platform or that
opportunity to speak, I think isalso important.
And just respecting otherpeople's ideas as well yeah, not
shutting them down too quickly.
I think that's that's key.
Michael van Rooyen (08:59):
Very important and well said.
Reflecting, then more on theorganization, cisco is obviously
a massive entity, you know, andso fundamental to a lot of the
globe's organizations, et cetera, and the tech industry, as you
just said, really, you know, popup and next thing there's two
things behind you that are newand there's always the what's
coming on the left field.
But how does Cisco themselvesstay agile, you know, being such
a large entity, particularlywith these emerging technologies
(09:22):
and shift in customer demands?
It's tough, it's not easy, it'svery tough.
Carl Solder (09:27):
So again, when I was in engineering, we would
have teams that would be out.
We call them go-to-market teams, so they would go out, meet
with customers, share newsaround new technologies and new
ideas that we've got, but wewould solicit a whole bunch of
feedback.
We've also got R&D teams whoare just coming up with these
(09:48):
ideas and building andprototyping and trying things
out and seeing is this relevant?
We might take some of thoseideas and then showcase them to
a select few customers and say,hey, we've got this thing.
What do you think?
Is this going to be relevant?
Does it have applicability inyour business?
We collectively get a lot ofinformation from the field our
sales teams, account managers,product sales specialists.
(10:10):
We hold these sync-ups a coupleof times a year where we just
ask questions like what are youhearing?
What are you seeing?
What are your customers wanting?
We try to take a whole lot ofinputs.
We also see, obviously, whatcompetitors are doing.
We want to keep up with ourcompetitors.
We're also keeping acrosstrends that are happening in and
across the market.
We have alliance teams.
(10:30):
We have these teams whocontinue looking at what
startups are doing.
Cisco themselves have a fundthat we invest in startups, and
so we have startups coming to us, pitching to us all the time on
new ideas so it's a collectionof all of this that we use to
then synthesize what are wegoing to do, and part of it is
(10:51):
obviously meeting the needs ofcustomers, but sometimes you
also have to create new thingsthat customers are not even
asking.
Right, right yeah.
Michael van Rooyen (10:59):
You've got to drive something brand new.
Yeah, of course.
Carl Solder (11:02):
So it's going to be a mix.
Michael van Rooyen (11:04):
Yeah, yeah, and considering the breadth of
people that you come across, andthere's a new generation of
people wanting to get into theindustry and we've been through
the cycles of.
I want to be a network guy, andthe CCI used to be the thing to
be, and then it became cyber.
I want to be a cyber guywithout doing networking.
That's AI et cetera.
But we also tend to see a newbreed of leaders coming through
that we've got to think about aswe hand the keys over in the
(11:24):
long term.
What advice would you giveaspiring tech leaders who are
wanting to make a significantimpact in the fields of network,
cyber, automation, everythingwe're doing, yeah, look.
Carl Solder (11:33):
I think it's an interesting one.
In my journey, I don't thinkI've ever stopped learning.
So I think if you get into thiscareer, you've got to be
prepared that you're going to bereading, you're going to be
watching videos.
Every time that you learnsomething, you realize that
there's a whole lot more thatyou need to learn.
It can get overwhelmingsometimes.
(11:55):
I've had moments in my careerwhere I thought man, this is
just too hard.
So I think you've got to have apositive attitude.
You've got to have awillingness to want to learn.
You also have to have awillingness to want to learn.
You also have to have awillingness to try to make
mistakes.
You learn by making mistakes,but I think just generally it's
one thing which I I I kind ofstruggle with a little bit right
(12:19):
now is and you kind of alludedto this the when I first
networking was the in thing.
Michael van Rooyen (12:26):
Yes.
Carl Solder (12:27):
That was one of the best, I guess, roles you could
get.
But over time, as we've evolvedinto all these other areas,
cyber for a while was thedarling of everyone.
Ai is now the darling ofeveryone.
You can't forget the basicsbecause guess what, when you
open up your phone and you tryto connect to your Facebook or
(12:47):
your Snapchat or wherever, ifthat connection is not working,
then you're no good.
I remember my son telling meone time he was studying in San
Diego On a hot summer it wasleading into summer the air
conditioning in the dorm wentdown.
The same time the Wi-Fi wentdown, and was everyone
complaining about the airconditioning?
no, everyone's complaining aboutthe fact that they didn't have
(13:10):
their internet access.
Yes, so I actually would arguethat, even though networking
might not be the in thing, it'sso fundamental, yeah, and so
important that that's somethingthat I think everyone should be
at least aware of.
Yes, and it's an area thatstill has a lot of opportunity
to drive innovation.
Yes, so for me, I highlyencourage we used to, in fact,
(13:33):
back when I was in engineeringin the US, we used to run these
graduate recruitment programs tobring prospective students into
engineering.
Right, and you're absolutelyright.
When you went there, start offlike what are you interested in?
it was mostly everything butnetworking yeah but after we
gave them their pitch aroundwhat we do in the networking
space, we'd turn quite a lot ofthose students around and
(13:56):
they're like, okay, actuallythis sounds quite interesting
and I hadn't really thoughtabout that.
So maybe taking the time to goand understand the space might
generate a little bit moreinterest.
Michael van Rooyen (14:04):
You and I are well aligned there.
It's similar to your digitalplumber at heart, and that's
where I started, and I strugglewith people trying to get into
the space without understandingthat fundamental of just
plumbing right.
And on your point, around thewireless, no one thinks about
everything either side of that.
I have actually a saying calledhappy Wi-Fi, happy Li-Fi,
because that's what people want.
They actually don't think aboutwhat's broken on the street,
(14:25):
it's just the Wi-Fi is broken,right, that's the first thing
you hear.
Carl Solder (14:27):
So it's a fun fact and I think you're right study,
and a lot of that generationwould rather lose something else
than internet access orconnectivity, which is kind of
bizarre, isn't it?
It is yeah.
Michael van Rooyen (14:39):
Look as we get closer to the end.
Carl, I appreciate your timebut, reflecting on your career
and you've seen lots and lots ofchange what are some of the
most rewarding experiences thatyou've seen and what continues
to motivate you in what you do?
Carl Solder (14:52):
There's a couple of times in my career I think the
first time that on therecruitment side, yes, the first
set of graduates that we hired,bringing them in pretty green,
not really knowing a lot aboutnetworking, and looking at where
they are now, yes, pretty proudmoment.
Yes, it's kind of like almostlike a parent moment, where you
see these individuals grow, yes,and being able to do c, cisco
(15:15):
lives and present and do demosand you think, man, from where
they came from to where they arenow that for me as a leader,
awesome From a technologystandpoint.
I've been really fortunate to beinvolved in a lot of what's
happened, Like when I firststarted.
There was no internet, it wasmainframes I'm showing my age
here, but PCs were just brandnew.
(15:35):
But I've seen the internet comeinto play.
I remember seeing the webbrowser for the very first time
Netscape Navigator and thinking,wow, that's amazing.
I can remember back in the daywhen the iPhone came out.
From Cisco standpoint, we'vegone through some evolutions.
Through some evolutions.
I can remember we built thevery first mass scalable data
center infrastructure.
In the early days whenMicrosoft, google, amazon were
(15:58):
setting and building their datacenters, they were hitting scale
limits that no one else in theindustry was seeing.
So I was part of an engineeringteam that were trying to figure
out how to solve for that.
I've been involved in bringingproducts to market that have
generated billions of dollarsfor Cisco and I'm super proud of
(16:19):
the part that I've had to playin bringing those products to
market.
I've been involved in leadingsome of the developments and a
lot of my ideas have actuallyfound themselves in the products
that are in use today.
And when I walk into a customerand they say I'm using this
product, I kind of think in theback of my mind.
I think, yeah, I had a part toplay in that and that's also a
very proud moment for me.
(16:39):
So there's a number of differentareas that I kind of look back
and reflect, but I'm super happyand super lucky that I've been
able to experience all of that.
Michael van Rooyen (16:47):
Yeah, absolutely, and you're right.
Sometimes I've walked intocustomers, to customers who
we've done large transformationsfor, and you don't think about
it because it's a project or anitem you're doing at the time.
Then you go back sometime laterand interact with them and you
realize, oh, you were involvedwith that.
And to think about the productsyou've been involved in and how
many lives and things haschanged.
The core, fundamental that youused to say was a way to live,
(17:08):
learn and play, and if you thinkabout how much you've done in
that space, it would certainlybe reflecting and rewarding.
Look, as we wrap up, just twomore for you.
First of all, as we close up,cisco Live, are there any other?
We've talked a lot today abouta bunch of things, but any key
messages that you want to leavewith people listening today from
the event or just in general?
Carl Solder (17:29):
Yeah, look, I think Cisco Live again.
It's a big event.
There's a lot going on.
Michael van Rooyen (17:33):
And.
Carl Solder (17:33):
I think there's going to be many sessions that
people are not necessarily goingto get a chance to go to.
So I would encourage peoplepost Cisco Live, maybe to take a
look at our Cisco Live OnDemand site and just scan
through and have a look at someof the other sessions that they
didn't have a chance to go to,because there's normally some
(17:54):
pearls of wisdom that get throwninto some of these other
sessions that might helporganizations.
That's the first thing, and theother thing too is at least,
while people are here, go in theworld of solutions and speaking
to partners and also going tothe various demos to see what
the technologies are.
I think that's really important,and then following up with
(18:14):
their sales teams that theyengage with to maybe get some
personalized demos and see howthat might play in their own
business.
Michael van Rooyen (18:23):
Last one for you.
The question for all attendeesof the podcast is whilst you've
covered a lot, particularlyaround reflecting on your career
, but can you tell me the mostsignificant technology change or
shift that you've been involvedin or seen over your career?
Now it doesn't obviously haveto be anything you've done, but
even fundamentally more of aglobal level impact.
Carl Solder (18:42):
That's a really good question.
There's actually quite a fewthat I can choose from.
I think for me it would be whenCisco bought Celsius.
Michael van Rooyen (18:53):
Right.
Carl Solder (18:54):
And Celsius was a voiceover IP telephony company
and I remember as a young salesengineer going around with a
laptop under my arm and a coupleof IP phones in my backpack and
going into a customer andplugging these phones into
Ethernet ports and saying pickup the call, and then I would
switch the Ethernet cable fromthis port to that port and the
(19:15):
call would stay up.
My customers are like man, howdid you do that?
What happened?
Yeah, for me I think that's avery significant one.
Yes, that transition from theold pbx style yeah to voice over
ip and you think about now.
I mean, everything is ip enabledfacetime, all the video
conferencing that we do is allip based.
That transition, I think, wasmassive, agreed, and for me
(19:38):
that's probably one of thebiggest ones that sticks in my
mind I agree.
Michael van Rooyen (19:42):
Um, I was fortunate enough that the name
celsius I've heard for a longtime, pre-2000.
Uh, you know, I was luckyenough to be playing with, you
know, as was transitioning fromcelsius to call manager, you
know, in the in the very firstversion.
So I think the Celsus name wasstill a little bit brown but.
I remember seeing thattransition and the tedium world
stressing out that we're notgoing to have jobs, etc.
(20:03):
Etc etc.
But they've all pivoted tobecome data people right.
Carl Solder (20:06):
And now they're cyber people.
Michael van Rooyen (20:07):
So that evolution, as always with our
technology industry, justcontinues to evolve.
Carl Solder (20:11):
Yes, jobs will evolve and change and adapt
based on the technology at thetime.
Michael van Rooyen (20:16):
Yeah, Carl, again really appreciate your
time.
Thanks for coming to see us atour booth.
Carl Solder (20:21):
I appreciate the opportunity.
Michael van Rooyen (20:22):
Thank you no problem.
Carl Solder (20:23):
Thank you, cheers.
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