Cisco TechBeat explores the people and the stories behind what inspires new possibilities. For more than two decades, host Liza Meak has worked as a broadcast journalist and documentary filmmaker and uses her natural curiosity to tackle technology innovation and how it impacts the world.

Cisco TechBeat

Amit Chetal saw first-hand how difficult it was for his parents to sign up for vaccines, and quickly realized Cisco technology had the potential to make it an easier process. As the Retail Lead in Cisco’s Americas Industry Sales Organization, he gives us unique insight into the role technology plays in an inclusive recovery.

S2 EP4: Talking Vaccine Distribution with Amit Chetal

Dr. Oscar Rico, the Executive Director of Technology Services at Canutillo Independent School District in El Paso, Texas explains how Cisco technology helped bridge the digital divide in his community and power an inclusive recovery.

S2 EP5: Talking Education and the Digital Divide with Dr. Oscar Rico

ThousandEyes Co-founder Mohit Lad never intended to be an entrepreneur, but when his Plan A and Plan B didn’t pan out, he took a calculated risk to start a company that he describes as the Google maps of the internet. Hear how ThousandEyes, which Cisco recently acquired, gives companies more visibility than ever.

S2 EP6: Talking Internet Visibility with Mohit Lad

Craig Williams, the Director of Outreach for Cisco Talos has spent his career educating people on cybersecurity and rooting out the bad actors on the internet. In recent weeks, the Kaseya supply chain attack has dominated headlines, and for good reason. Craig talks about this latest attack, what’s different about it, and how businesses and organizations can take extra precautions to protect themselves.

S2 EP7: Talking Ransomware with Craig Williams

Maulie Dass, the Senior Director of Cisco’s Global Innovation Labs, uses her passion for technology and product design to fuel important changes to promote inclusivity for all. Hear how Maulie’s upbringing laid the foundation for her activism and learn about the ways she’s bringing inclusivity into Cisco products and ideas.

View the full transcript here: https://newsroom.cisco.com/feature-content?type=webcontent&articleId=2192203

S2 EP8 Talking Inclusivity and Product Design with Maulie Dass

Hear from three experts -- Flexjobs VP of Employer Engagement and Strategy, Mika Cross, Cisco’s Chief Communications Officer Stella Low and CIO Jacqui Guichelaar -- as they share insights on communicating with, motivating and managing remote teams during a time of crisis and beyond.

Leading Remote Teams During a Global Crisis - Part 1

Cisco's CIO on managing IT in challenging times 

“If there’s anything this pandemic has taught us,” said Cisco CIO Jacqueline Guichelaar, “it's how important technology is. Technology is the connector. It's what allows the world to continue to function as we all navigate through this situation.” 

Not that it’s been easy.  

Guichelaar oversaw the scaling of Cisco’s own remote working capacity from 20 percent of the workforce to 100 percent — all in a matter of days. “Despite the fact that we have a killer network and robust security,” she said, “it was still really hard.” 

So, she relates strongly to the challenges facing other technology leaders in this unprecedented time.  

In Part Two of our remote work podcast, Guichelaar discusses everything from network and security issues to maintaining the all-important human connection under stressful conditions.   

In case you missed Part One of our series (http://cs.co/9006GFtvg), we focused on remote management and communications strategies with Mika Cross of FlexJobs and Cisco CIO Stella Low. 

See also: The Perfect Meeting: It's Not Just a Myth - http://cs.co/9006GFQBe

Listen in to hear how Cisco is managing “collaboration without compromise” with a keen eye on security and privacy. And read the full article accompanying this podcast here - http://cs.co/9003GFQGv.

See also: CIO Insights with Jacqui Guichelaar Episode #1 - http://cs.co/9009GFQ5F

Leading Remote Teams Through a Global Crisis - Part 2

In this episode of Cisco TechBeat, Kevin Delaney speaks with Tae Yoo, Cisco's Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, about how the private sector can step up to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversation touches on the impacts of working and learning from home and addresses the responsibility of businesses to support their employees, communities, and societies. The digital divide is a particular concern for Yoo, and she discusses how closing the divide will positively impact people, society and the planet, ultimately powering an Inclusive Future.

In the global pandemic, a spotlight on collaboration

Analyst Patrick Moorhead has spent decades studying the impact of technology on life and work. So, without minimizing the hardships of the global pandemic, he’s fascinated with the reality of millions around the world abandoning their workplaces to collaborate remotely. In this “new normal,” technology is key. And getting it right is critical. That means collaboration tools with end-to-end security and the flexibility to meet any kind of creative situation. In conversation with Cisco TechBeat’s Kevin Delaney, Moorhead examines the essential elements for the collaboration tools that keep the world working, learning, and healing. Listen in as he lays out the case for no-compromise collaboration that enables data privacy, business continuity, and ongoing innovation — whatever the challenges.

Collaboration in a crisis

As the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed, apps need to be created, deployed, and updated faster than ever before. But without knowing it, many developers are building in security flaws at the earliest stages of coding. Pieter Danhieux, CEO of Secure Code Warrior, an Australian DevSecOps startup, is determined to change all that. In this podcast and article, Pieter speaks with Cisco Techbeat host Kevin Delaney about his efforts to bring security awareness and strategy to developers everywhere.

In an app-fueled world, embed security at the source

The pandemic is driving rapid transformation and major challenges. But the best CIOs have been there every step of the way, to guide organizations, scale fast, and implement new technologies and solutions. 

But even for the most strategic CIOs, it hasn’t been easy. 

In this podcast, Cisco Techbeat host Kevin Delaney highlights some key insights from a CIO Roundtable discussion from Cisco Live this week, Cisco’s premier education and training event for IT professionals.  
 
Moderated by Michael Krigsman, an industry analyst and host of CxOTalk, the original discussion — “CIO Perspectives: 2020” — brought together three top CIOs: Abhijit Mazumder of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS); Phillip Knutel of Babson College; and Jacqui Guichelaar, senior vice president and CIO of Cisco. 

In a free-ranging discussion available on the IT Leadership Channel, they shared their recent challenges, top priorities, and key insights about the new rising challenges facing CIOs today — along with their thoughts on the elevated status of the CIO role.

'CIO Perspectives 2020’: IT strategies for the new normal

Digital technologies have all but kept the world running through the Covid-19 pandemic.

But it’s not just technology per se. 

Outstanding leadership and trusted partnerships enable cities and organizations to pivot quickly to meet big challenges with digital innovations. 

Take Turin, Italy. 

In this podcast, Cisco Techbeat host Kevin Delaney speaks with the technology analyst Rob Enderlee, and Dr. Guy Diedrich, global innovation officer for Cisco and leader of the company’s country digital acceleration program, or CDA — with additional insights from Agostino Santoni, Cisco Italy's Country Manager. 

Together they share the story of a city — and a Cisco technology partnership — that prevailed against some of the biggest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turin, Italy’s rapid response to the pandemic

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, digital connections were indispensable — for education, social interactions, telemedicine, business continuity and so much more.

But in places where connectivity is limited, the challenges and tragedies of the pandemic were only heightened. This was especially true in Native American communities across America, where infection rates soared, economic opportunity fell, and, for many, isolation deepened.

In this podcast, Cisco TechBeat host Kevin Delaney speaks with Traci Morris, Director of the American Indian Policy Institute (https://aipi.asu.edu/) at Arizona State University. A proud member of the Chickasaw Nation, Dr. Morris has studied the impact of the digital divide in Indian country.

Additional insights come from Emma Broadbent, of Cisco’s Networking Academy (https://www.netacad.com/), about her efforts to build tech skills among the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. 

Together, they provide some real-world solutions that will help to unleash the creativity, wisdom, and entrepreneurial spirit of indigenous communities around the world.

An epicenter of the digital divide: Native reservations

In this podcast, host Kevin Delaney explores the future of education technology aimed at keeping students motivated, teachers empowered, and parents sane — with expert advice from Christine Olmstead, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services at the Orange County Department of Education and Mary Schlegelmilch, a former teacher and school administrator who is now Cisco’s U.S. Public Sector Education Advisor.

Episode 9: Secure Distance Learning

Scaling an Everest peak and running a small business in a competitive, ever-changing market aren’t entirely different. Both demand speed, agility, and fast, informed decision-making. In this podcast, Cisco TechBeat host Kevin Delaney speaks with Benedikt Bohm, a record-breaking climber who is also the CEO of Dynafit, a maker of high-end mountaineering and skiing gear. Additional insights on the power of digitalization are shared by Bidhan Roy, Cisco’s Managing Director and Head of Commercial and Small Business for Asia Pacific, Japan, and China; and Carlos Torales, Managing Sales Director for Small and Medium Business in the Latin America region.

Additional information: The 2020 Small Business Digital Maturity Study, an IDC report commissioned by Cisco. http://cs.co/9009GtAeV

Episode 10: A champion climber finds small business success in the cloud

Today, security is critical not just for large enterprises, but also small businesses, the public sector, and individuals of every race, gender, age, religion, and culture, in the developing and developed world alike. On this episode of TechBeat, we explore the intersection of cybersecurity and inclusion with Cisco’s Global Lead for Inclusion, Trey Boynton, and Cisco security experts Dug Song, Lothar Renner, Kerry Singleton and Alejandra Hernandez-Montaño.

Episode 11: Diversity & Inclusion in Cybersecurity

Learn from influencers and technology executives how SASE is combining cloud security and SD-WAN to support the dynamic secure access needs of digital enterprises, and the factors driving adoption.

Episode 12: Talking SD-WAN and SASE

Daniel Stewart, Cisco’s Senior Advisor for State and Local Governments, has a life story that is truly unbelievable and inspirational. After living for a time on the streets addicted to drugs and alcohol, he turned his life around as a mayor and leading the New York State prison system, before coming to Cisco. Hear how he uses his life experiences to build a connected justice program.

S2 EP1: Talking Connected Justice with Daniel Stewart

Cisco’s Chief Privacy Officer, Harvey Jang explains how he went from working in a huge law firm to pivoting to a career in data privacy, and how the pandemic has shown just how important it is to protect people’s information.

S2 EP2: Talking Data Privacy with Harvey Jang

Linda Tong, the General Manager of AppDynamics which is part of Cisco, didn’t originally set out to work in tech, but she’s all in now. Hear how her diverse background, which includes a stint at the NFL, ultimately led her to AppD, and why she’s so excited about the new Cisco Secure Application.

S2 EP3: Talking Applications with Linda Tong

The Cisco Podcast Network is a collective of podcasts from across Cisco spanning technology to culture and everything in between. Hear from Cisco customers, partners, and Cisco insiders on the topics that matter most to you. Email us with your feedback and suggestions. Discover your favorite playlists today!