Read my top cloud takeaways from Cisco Live Cancun.

I recently wrote a previous blog about Starbucks Digital Transformation to highlight that, it is really happening and that there are actual business results out of their strategy. It is not only a marketing campaign nor a crazy idea but a vision and a strategy to drive business outcomes. As part of Digital Transformation, Cloud, permeates everything we do and powers digital transformation. Its impact on customer experiences, business processes and models, and workforce innovations, is undeniable.

I spend most of my time educating channel partners, most of them Value-Added Resellers (VARs) on how Cisco CloudCenter can help them help their customers with a hybrid cloud strategy. What I’ve noticed in my first year at Cisco after being part of the CliQr acquisition is that selling cloud services is very different than the traditional VAR box sale.

Berlin. Europe’s Europe. Where someone thought of doing this so you can smile when paying to park your car: Where this was also happening the week before

Millennials are often judged as being ‘lazy, impatient and self-entitled.’ We want it all and we want it now (myself included!) But is that really a bad thing? Look at all the innovations that our impatience and need for convenience has sparked. The moment we wake up, we check our mails, read the day’s news and pay our bills all from the convenience of our smart phones. We ask Alexa to book us an Uber, grab our morning cuppa on the way to work, and pay for it all with our phone or even our watch. If there ever was …

On a recent trip to Silicon Valley, I stayed at a Marriott near the office. Although it was my first time at this particular hotel, I generally knew what to expect; comforts of the room, consistency of friendly staff, pervasive wireless internet access, and a simple bottle of water upon arrival, having stayed at other Marriott properties in the past. I count on this familiarity, this experience, to keep my work/life balance in check while I travel. Many well-traveled IT Pros can relate to this scenario as it plays out many times a day, across multiple industries all over the …

Cisco Live is about you. This is your time to learn, network, share insights and acquire hands on experience with our solutions in the DevNet Zone. Cisco Live features distinct programs enabling you to build a personalized agenda mapped to your individual interests. And .. as you would expect, one of the many technology tracks we feature is about Cloud.

As highlighted in IDC’s recent CloudView Survey post, almost 78% of organizations use some form of cloud today, yet only 3% of the companies IDC surveyed have optimized cloud strategies in place. The most mature cloud organizations are defined by their use of DevOps, hybrid and multi-provider clouds, micro-services, and containers, and they consume cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) and security applications. In fact, greater cloud maturity leads to millions of dollars in annual benefits per cloud-based application. ($3M in additional revenue and $1M reduced costs.)

It is all about security, isn’t it? Take every other customer survey and ‘security’ bubbles up at the very top of most respondents’ concerns. One of the latest data points I can share is part of an IDC cloud study in which security was cited as an important concern.

Learn about the new IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Cisco, Cloud Going Mainstream. All Are Trying, Some Are Benefiting; Few Are Maximizing Value.

Just as we are beginning to think that the latest cloud news may have become quite predictable, you run into an article that causes you to pause: “Dropbox

By Robert Mahowald, IDC Program Vice President, SaaS and Cloud Services We recently surveyed more than 3,450 executive-level IT decisionmakers in 17