>> Male Announcer: Live from San Diego, California, it's the Cube. Covering Cisco Live US 2019. Brought to you by Cisco, and its eco-system partners. >> Hey, welcome back to the CUBE! We are here at Cisco Live on day three of the event. Our third day of continuous coverage. I'm Lisa Martin, with Stu Miniman. Stu and I have a couple of guests joining us right now. (Lisa) We've got to my right, Joe Gorecki, the senior lead product manager for Advanced Network Managed Services from CenturyLink. And Danny Rising, Meraki Product Specialist-Global Service Provider, Cisco. Guys welcome to the CUBE! >> Thank you very much, Lisa and Stu. >> So here we are in the DevNet Zone day three, this is the busiest day so far which I didn't expect it to be as crazy busy but I guess the IoT takeover is going on right now. So the appetite, the enthusiasm for this event, and the DevNet Zone is huge. Danny we'll start with you, talk to us a little bit about the Meraki Portfolio and then we'll get into what you guys are doing with CenturyLink. >> Yeah, so it's been a really exciting conference for us so far, we're seeing a lot of, um, ya know excitement from our customers and our partners. And, um, what you guys have probably seen is a lot of the new products that we've come out with recently, whether it's our new Wi-Fi 6 capable access points, our SD-WAN products and now have the cellular (Danny) embedded in them, as well as our video surveillance cameras. So, we're seeing a lot of, uh, excitement from our customers around that, which really kind of adds to the message around simplicity that we try to bring to the market, and are excited to be working closely with Centurylink on how they deliver that to our customers. >> So, Joe, we've heard a lot about Wi-Fi 6 from Cisco. Talk to us a little bit about, you know, are your customers as excited as Cisco is for this? And, get us into the solutions that you're offering with Meraki. >> I think the customers, once they understand what Wi-Fi 6 will bring to the table for them, they'll get excited about it. I was in a meeting, two years ago with a large big box retailer, electronics that has numerous IoT smart devices in this and 95% of the bandwidth requirements in the store, is for upgrading iOS software and things of that nature and these devices. And they could not get enough Wi-Fi bandwidth, and they could not get away from the signal. Wi-Fi six is going to be to me a deal breaker, game changer for the customers because it's going to give them the opportunity to get more density, and more capabilities out of their Wi-Fi signal which plays right into the Meraki Portfolio goods because they were embedded and started as Wi-Fi. >> Oh my God, Danny I needed a two new t-shirts that says 'Wi-Fi 6, I am your density.' (Laughter) >> That's phenomenal. Joe, talk us a little about you know, we're quite familiar with Centurylink on our program, but you know the Meraki piece, how does that fit into your portfolio and general offerings? >> We've been partnering Meraki for about four or five years. Centurylink in general was the first, very first Gold Partner in the world, with them and we've been a long standing partnership since then. And then when we took a look at the Meraki Portfolio, and when Cisco procured them, we saw a great opportunity. Although they talked about the simplicity of development for their customer base. We took a look at it and says we can benefit from that for our customers to provide that, because it's simple in a way. But we have 24-7 eyes on glass. We provided as a managed rapper, where we do everything from help them design their needs based on their business outcomes, we build it for them, and we will run it giving them a flexible way of securing it. And we support the entire portfolio Meraki opportunities, and it's given us the opportunity to go in there and simplify the solution for the customer. The Meraki MX67C and 68C which Danny brought in, allows you to insert a SIM card for wireless backup into the device creating a true SD WAN capability with one simple elegant device. Which, when you're talking about small retailers and things of that nature, size is critical because they don't have the space. So it gives them something that they can deliver in a simple unified device. >> Okay, let's actually talk about now that customer experience. Danny, from the feet on the street field perspective. When you're going into a Meraki opportunity with a customer, where you were saying, Joe, that that big box retailer example where Wi-Fi 6 is going to be a game changer. And also, I think you said deal breaker really, but for those customers who are, and companies, who are able to take advantage of it, it probably will be a deal breaker. The amount of video, that's going to be offloaded from cellular networks to Wi-Fi in the next couple of years is massive. As is the amount of mobile video data that's being generated, so, that being a game changer. When you go into customer opportunities, Danny, talk to us about some of the challenges that they're facing today. Some of the trends that you're seeing, and the opportunities that Meraki and CTL can bring to them. >> Yeah, great question. And you know, um, you know as you as people you know, see everywhere in the, in the booths and our new messaging, uh, around work simple. And our mission at Meraki has always been around simplicity, and I think Centurylink really adds another layer of that, on how our customers can consume the technology. So, while we make it very easy to see and read in the dashboard, they make it even easier for our customers to consume and view all of that in a managed fashion. So some of the trends that we're seeing, which are pretty interesting, um, is over 60% of our largest Meraki deals are all being sold through our service providers like at Centurylink. So our largest of large enterprise customers, are really seeing the value in a fully managed service. Not just from what Meraki can bring, but what our service providers can bring too. Whether it's, you know, the additional transport services, the managed services, the installation services. Um, and so that gets us really excited because we can partner like great, uh, folks like Centurylink to really enable our customers to consume the technology the way that they want to consume it. >> And what are some of the business outcomes, that you're saying you're seeing this trend there from a service provider perspective. Joe, let me ask you, what are some of the business outcomes that this managed service is enabling customers in any industry to achieve like, that would maybe go all the way up to the top line? >> Well, to the top line, that's what it really is they want, more for less. The companies around the world now with the advent of SD WAN are looking for pushing network costs out of their business. But, uh, interestingly enough, at the same time, they're saying, 'the network is our life blood.' So you think that's a little counterintuitive. So, what Meraki allows us to do, is be able to have dual circuits, multiple capabilities in there, and a very cost effective device with our security they need. But it also, then, what I call it takes the SD WAN and takes it to the land. Because many many many of a non-Meraki type of solutions, you have different switches, you have different AP's, this consolidates it puts it into a common platform. We take that over for them and offer their becoming an extension of. So they can focus on their business, which has been an outsourcing talk for decades, but it's no different. But then we're able to tie it with a network. And us taking care of that for them we can, ya know, provide the uptime that they need, the cost reductions that they're looking for, or providing more for the same cost, and that's where the benefits are. >> Alright, so Danny, I heard security mentioned in what Joe was just talking there. But bring us into, okay, where security fits into the Meraki Portfolio? >> Yeah, so um, you know, the Meraki SD-WAN product was built on top of our security appliance, the MX, and so, we view security as the key foundation to any SD-WAN uh, you know platform, right? Especially as customers are looking to drive traffic out to the open Internet, connect to all the cloud applications, you really need to have security embedded in that. And so we focused on that, and that's why we decided to drive um, our SD-WAN features and functions around our security platform. So, all of our SD-WAN or across all of our, uh, MX platform, which is based around security. So, we see that as a key pillar to the whole SD-WAN story. >> The security business within Cisco grew double digits in Q3, 2019. You guys just announced another impending acquisition at Century, oh last week, so really, you can tell that there's a focus that Cisco has on expanding their security breadth and portfolio. That continues to be a topic that we talk about at every event, with every technology, in any business, security is table stakes. You can have the speed, but at the not at the expense of security. So, from what Joe we'll start with you. From your perspective, what Meraki is doing to build Integrated Security, what does that enable you guys to do from a Centurylink perspective? What opportunities does it open up? >> Well, at Centurylink, we take the same approach. We see security as something that we do. It's embedded in our network, and network based security is critical, and mission critical, so we do that. What Meraki allows us to do then is it takes a secure platform, puts it there. It does allow us to have a secure environment through the open Internet. Which is always scary because it's insecure, but it provides the secure ability to be able to do that, reducing the customer cost bringing it back to our network where we have all the security enabled in there. So, security, when we first launched Meraki there is we thought it was wireless was the key, because that was their foundation. And we looked at and said, 'No, the MX security appliance is the key because that is the secure engine that connects us to our network, brings it back to a single pane of glass and we can provide that solution.' But then it goes into the same portfolio or the portal, into the network, into the land so that we have visibility and it provides that experience for the customer. >> All right, Joe want to give you the opportunity here, Cisco's got a lot of partners out there. So for those out there watching, why Meraki plus Centurylink? >> Well, Meraki and Centurylink, we've been working together since the beginning to be able to provide the solution when we were the first cloud managed security provider in the world. We got that designation last year on the security of the Meraki platform. So we have this embedded, it's embedded in our DNA, we have the appropriate resources. And we have learned, and, trained engineers in the field for feet on the street, and our sales engineering platform and our design engineering platform. That gives us the unique ability to be able to provide that what we call build, plan, build, run. We help them plan their network from the ground up, including into the land. We will build it for them in an orchestrated, controlled fashion, rolling it out with their upgraded network, and we will run it for them in a very flexible badger that makes us an extension of their customers. That coupled with Meraki and the relationships that we've had for 25 years, really brings a good solid solution to our customer base. >> Yeah, and I'll add on to that too, um, you know, don't just you know, we always like to say don't take our word for it. Um, Centurylink was actually the first and currently only Global Service Provider with a Cisco designated, um, Cisco DNA Certification across both SD WAN network access and security which is audited by a third party company. That's all based on their Meraki offering. So, um, they got that certification back in 2018. Uh, and again, we're the first globally and are still currently the only service provider with those designations. So, just kind of represents the amount of work effort and partnership that we've all done together. That's even proven by, you know, an auditing company to get those certifications. >> And those certifications give us and the resources that we have at our disposal. What we like to say is it eliminates the risk. We mitigate the risk because we have the resources, we have the skills, and we have the flexibility to deliver a solution and their needs. >> So, as we look at the evolution of the partnership, the evolution of certifications, and the evolution of Cisco, going from what was traditionally hardware only to now hardware and software. Danny, your perspective on how Meraki is being integrated into Cisco as we look at Meraki, it's been around for about 12 or so years. Talk to us a little bit about the integration of Meraki is really kind of foundational to Cisco's current evolution. >> Yeah, that's that's been really exciting to see and um, for those are the folks that are actually at the show here, you can actually see, you know, before Meraki would have its own booth, and we were, you know, still kind of a one off product family. Um, this year, we're actually integrated into all the different Cisco solutions across the floor. So you'll see us in the service provider booth. You'll see us in the iOT booth. You'll see us in branch in a box. You'll see us over in Wi-Fi. So we've really kind of integrated and Cisco's really embraced a lot of the Meraki technologies, um, from an architecture standpoint. Um, and even you know, all the way up to Chuck, you'll hear him say, you know, we're trying to Mareki-phi, a little bit of everything. So that's been really exciting to see at the show here just kind of where Mareki sits even on the show floor, which has been pretty fun. >> And what's been some of the feedback downstairs across the convention center with prospective customers, seeing and feeling this Meraki integration as a really bonafide substantial part of Cisco's foundation? >> Yeah, you know, I think it just validates, um you know, the investment that Cisco made in Mareki back in 2012, when they acquired us and just really the growth that we've seen over the years and just how we've been able to integrate with all the rest of the Cisco products and solution sets. And our customers are excited to see that, because, you know, while you know a lot of our customers have, you know, tons of Cisco products already embedded, how does Meraki fit into that? I think our story is becoming a lot more clear, uh and we can see it out on the floor today, so our customers are looking forward to seeing that up from us. >> Excellent, Joe, last question for you as we look at. I mentioned a minute ago, Cisco's evolution Cisco's transformation from 30 years ago, this conference started as called conference called Networker and 150 people. And now it's evolved as Cisco Live with 25,000 or so people, as has Cisco evolved from a hardware network, your providers that's mentioning to shifting into software subscription service provider. Your thoughts from Centurylink's perspective on watching Cisco's transformation and how will that enhance the partnership with CTO going forward? >> Well, when Danny had mentioned that Cisco is becoming more Mareki-fied. We look forward to that because when they were more the baseline heights of the networking routers, switches and network as they morphed we've morphed with them, because we kept that, you know, gold designation, masters and everything through the process. So we encourage this type of environment because we see this going away from hardware more to a dumb x86 box out there doing routing and switching, adding more capabilities on there. So moving the software, something that is one we knew it was coming, so we are gearing up to be with them. We see that becoming more simple and elegant solutions from the company with more flexibility. Because in back in the day, you would have a Cisco solution, but you would have four or five different operating systems, as they mentioned. Now, that's a common platform, now it's more unified. And those types of things not only help us deliver a solution better for our customers, but it also creates a more seamless integration and solves more problems. So we look forward to the continued morph that we're going to morph with them. >> Simple, seamless, Mareki-fied, I like it. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining Stu and me this afternoon, we appreciate your time. >> (IN UNISON) Thank you very much for having us. >> Our pleasure. From Stu Miniman, I'm Lisa Martin. from Cisco Live, in San Diego.