Key takeaways from Cisco Live 2025

Analysis by Zeus Kerravala for Silicon Angle

Jeetu Patel, Cisco Systems Inc.'s president and chief product officer, told me before last week's annual user event that it would be "the most consequential Cisco Live of the past decade and perhaps longer."

There were a few reasons for Patel's bullishness. The first is artificial intelligence. The core tenet of my research is that share shifts happen when markets transition, and Cisco's ability to articulate its strategy now will allow it to rise when the AI tide does. If it's crisp with its execution, it should benefit disproportionally. Cisco missed on cloud computing, but the company is laser-focused on AI and it's not going to be left on the outside looking in.

Also, it has been just under a year since Patel became chief product officer, and it was time to unveil what the company has been working on. In my conversation with Patel, he indicated the payload of products would be the largest from Cisco in recent history. Last year Patel boldly stated, "Cisco would unrecognizable a year from now, in a positive way," with respect to product, and it was critical the company demonstrate that this year.

True to his word, the company did roll out a massive number of new products across the board, from network equipment to Wi-Fi to security, but the product updates are a small part of the Cisco transformation story. 

Here are my top five takeaways from Cisco Live:

• The network is a core component of AI.
• Cisco growth is uncapped.
• Silicon One creates a competitive advantage.
• CX transformation is aligned with product.
• Cisco has embraced multivendor. 

Over the years, Cisco has been accused of building closed, proprietary systems to "lock in" customers. This was true a decade ago, but recently, the company has embraced multivendor. One proof point for this is that collaboration rivals, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, can run natively on Cisco Collaboration endpoints. Also, at Cisco Live, the company talked about its support for Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike and Microsoft in its XDR solution. Supporting competitors is something Patel has hammered home even though it initially it made people at Cisco uncomfortable. I recall a conversation with him a couple of years ago when he mentioned, "If there is a vendor that was acting as a headwind, we need to figure out how to make it a tailwind. That's good for the customer and good for us." At Cisco Live, I talked with Joe Berger, vice president of digital experiences for World Wide Technology, one of Cisco's biggest partners. "We appreciate Cisco's openness to supporting multi-vendor environments — it's a win for companies like ours," he said. "Our customers increasingly expect integrated, best-of-breed solutions, and Cisco's support makes it easier for us to deliver on those expectations."