Wes Noonan’s Post

Hi Wes, I have been following you for while now and could not agree more. Being a customer and engineer of Cisco products for several organizations, I have benefited and learned from many Cisco SE's over the years. I would often joke, "Never been fired for knowing Cisco". I have had the fortune of meeting and learning from some of the brightest minds in technologies within collaboration, switching, routing, SDWAN, wireless and as you said, "Leaving network vendors in the dust", security. Respectfully, I would like to add one more often overlooked quality, personality. Every SE I have engaged with are some of the finest people I have ever met. Let's not forget the value of relationships as this also matters in every engagement. Business is not always about IQ as EQ is an equally or arguably more important skill that all engineers must posses. Tagging just a few SEs I have had the fortune of working with over the years. I have great respect for all of them as they helped me become a better engineer myself. Thank you guys. Lawrence Tanguilig David Zember Nick Travis Clark Rutledge We are all in the people business first and no one buys from consultants they do not like. 🙏 BTW, I love your homestead man. 👊

Hello gals, I'm lazy to TL;DR all that post and reactions, so side reaction is (not-only-) One and biggest mistake somewhere Cicko done is Learning and Certification in/for Cisco - as in past CCNA/CCNP etc. was a Bible for WHOLE f'.. Networning world, now it is - as in many other fields - a dying dog excuse me. Me starting in 2006 with first certs, done them hm maybe hundred alltogether (incl. fails now), Here need to mention I was doing Trainers track sometimes, I have just a 50 Cisco books, some of them ordered from US (and believe me going trough customs 3-5weeks for books is pain) ... like spent 10.000 bucks from my own etc. ... ... This year I should recertify, I think for CCSP+CCNp/Dp for 5th? times altogether, ... but after thinking and rethinking and *a broken heart* I've Not Done it, skipped it= more-less lost the whole track, I'm telling myself next year-two I will go for CCIE, but will I? I don't know.. :(( 5x more time spending witn other brands than Cisco - who's fault it is?

Cisco needs to take a lesson from a lot of vendors and have silos of consultants teams can draw on whenever you need to go deep on a technology. The base level solution engineer should have enough knowledge to describe the technology but whenever you need to go deep you pull in a specialized consultant.

Wes - truth! One of Cisco's secret sauces (there are many) is its specialist org and how they are integrated into the field, because no one at Cisco isn't focused on the customer, which makes all the difference in the world. Those who consider SEs to be "less technical" misperceive the SE's role. With a portfolio like Cisco's, no one can or will be an expert in every technology area, but I bet they understand the business or mission just as well as their customers. They will get the job done. Judge them on whether they help you achieve your mission...and I bet you'll find they're pretty good at the tech stuff too.

reseller SE's are the one's who actually install ALL their stuff and make it work ?

Topic request: what are your thoughts about quantum networks ?

Have I personally benefited from being a tech specialist? Yes. But it’s a dangerous idea to assume that generalizing expertise = not technical. I’m not guiding customer decision across a whole ecosystem of technologies.

Agree, but are you saying Cisco has too many portfolio list than it can handle? I love Cisco and had my first router that I ever configured was Cisco 2500 series more then 20 year ago. From then had experience with their network devices, security devices and even identity management devices till today. Cisco as define itself is more a Sofware company with foot print in almost every industry and IT espect, and with this great power comes the responsibility to have best in class products, services and even SEs. From my experience in the past Cisco Products were more reliable and even TAC engineers were more experienced and knowledgeable, but those days I can’t say the same unfortunately, and to backup my wrods you can see the proof of other many companies that able to take more and more foot print in the ex-dominant Cisco areas, and in the past companies were learning from Cisco how to do stuff but today other companies can teach Cisco.

Great audio in an outdoor setting, Wes Noonan! What's your audio setup?

Love it. I was running a mental checklist as you were running through the security stack. Only a couple needed to be added I think: Identity intelligence Multi-Cloud Defence Cloud App Security Goes to highlight the huge depth of the Cisco portfolio though!