Small Business, Big Solutions: Is SASE Killing the Firewall?

Kat and Ian are FRESH off of an AI training, but first we obviously have a couple detours: Kat's dad's fear of the government (he's okay); Oura ring might be selling our data (they still haven't); and the ocean (Ian's not about it.) After we cover the hard hitting news, Kat and Ian recap their AI training and (surprisingly) drop a little knowledge. Check out 11:06 for tips on how to structure prompts into your GPT and 13:51 for notes on creating parameters for responses. And finally, Ian educates Kat on the actual name of Cisco's AI Tool (yikes) 16:08. Learn more about Cisco's AI solutions for SMBs: www.cisco.com/c/en_uk/solutions/…mall-business.html

Tune in for a deep dive into the November 18 Cloudflare outage that impacted multiple services including X, OpenAI, and Anthropic—and explore key takeaways for ITOps teams.    For insights on the other recent outage that Cloudflare experienced on December 5, see this blog post: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/cloudflare-outage-analysis-december-5-2025    ———    CHAPTERS  00:00 Intro  00:55 The Nov. 18 Cloudflare Outage  02:34 Configuration Changes & Outages  03:45 Diagnosing the Fault Domain  05:47 Why Outage Recovery Can Take Time  10:43 Are Cloud Outages Increasing?  12:09 ITOps Best Practices  14:01 Outage Trends: By the Numbers  15:35 Get in Touch  ———    Explore the Cloudflare outage further in the ThousandEyes platform (no login required): https://ahhplivtvmhdmbduwcuonefullpkkohp.share.thousandeyes.com/ 
  For additional insights, check out The Internet Outage Survival Kit: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/the-internet-outage-survival-kit?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep4_podcast    ———    Want to get in touch?    If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X.   ———    ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT  This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why.     Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue?    Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more.    Catch all the episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform:    - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773    - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report

We’re talking cookies today – both kinds. Kat harkens back to her digital marketing days to share her knowledge on first- and third-party cookies, and more importantly why you keep getting asked to accept them when you visit a landing page. We also clear up if your phone is listening to you, and if the internet will get even better at predicting your buying decisions. We then spend the last 5 minutes going in-depth on cookies (the kind you eat). From our favorites, wildcards and how wild Oreos have gotten, we give a comprehensive breakdown of them all... Weigh in with your takes! If you haven’t already, and want to help us keep making sure this podcast gets funded, please check out Cisco’s solutions for small and medium businesses: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

In this episode, Venkat Kirishnamurthy, a principal Architect at Cisco, explains what are the ins and outs of designin an AI datacenter. How is it different from another datacenter ? What kind of scale are we talking about ? What is the throughput required to connect 1000 GPUs together ? Learn more about CX Services and how we can help you design your datacenter: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/services/index.html

Get an inside perspective on how autonomous AI agents are reshaping the Internet, and what that means for the future of data, resilience, and digital innovation.    We’ll chat about the new requirements for agentic AI success that call for a significant shift in priorities for NetOps teams.    CHAPTERS  00:00 Intro  00:56 About Agentic AI  02:41 Data Quality Matters  10:17 Service Resilience  10:06 End-to-end Capacity Planning  14:22 NetOps Best Practices  15:13 Get in Touch    ———    For more insights, check out the links below:    [PODCAST] Beyond "Break-Fix": Assuring Performance in the AI Era: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-assuring-performance-ai-era?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep3_podcast  [EBOOK] Delivering Assurance at the Speed of AI: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/delivering-assurance-at-the-speed-of-ai-ebook?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q2_internetreport_q2fy26ep3_podcast  ———    Want to get in touch?    If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X.   ———    ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT  This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why.     Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue?    Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more.    Catch all the episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform:    - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526    - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773    - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report

Kat's out of town, so Ian is joined by Brad Oliver, Director of the US Commercial Collaboration SMB & Midmarket Sales Organization at Cisco to talk hobbies, work/life balance and fighting off burnout. You have to be able to bring your best self everyday, but how do you go about doing that? Just two bros talking life, love and pursuit of happiness. Truly an episode for the people. If you came for Cisco information...sorry, but click here so our boss doesn't fire us! id.cisco.com/app/ciscoid_aemcloudprodsaml_1/exk14lk1xf6SKDANc5d7/sso/saml

We are joined by our producer extraordinaire, Alex Giroux the Associate Director of Brand and Customer Experience at Agital to talk all things marketing from the brain of an ad agency leader. From how direct mail is so cool that Kat keeps hers (but somehow is responsible enough to develop disposable camera pictures) to AI content creation, Alex has us covered on the latest and greatest marketing trends for both B2B and B2C. Whether you are in marketing or in business, this episode should resonate for you! And if it doesn't, you can just watch the YouTube with the sound off like Ian. If you enjoy the pod, and want to keep our bosses happy, please click here: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html

Cisco SE Talks: Conversations on AI - Episode 6 is LIVE! We're thrilled to welcome in an expert panel from the AHEAD team—Heather Dimovski (Client Solutions Engineering Manager), Mark Sweeting (Senior Solutions Architect), and Chris Knox (Senior Solutions Architect)—joined by Cisco SE Pradnya Vichare! As part of the episode, we dive deep into game-changing manufacturing AI Use-Cases that are unlocking massive operational gains. We uncover the unique Cisco + AHEAD partnership and how we're solving the biggest customer challenges head-on! Don't miss the conversation that shows how Cisco stands as the key infrastructure leader in the AI revolution! Watch the full episode now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1itKNwstQ4&list=PLFT-9JpKjRTBR60Rlx_nt_u6S6_YDjELi

The demands of AI workloads are reshaping Internet infrastructure, giving rise to a more distributed model and resulting in an increasingly complex service delivery chain for NetOps teams to manage. Tune in to the full episode to learn more or use the chapters below to skip to the sections that you find most interesting. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:53 How Internet Infrastructure Is Changing 02:24 Converting Legacy Central Offices & Telephone Exchanges 06:46 Neoclouds 10:06 Hyperscalers & a More Distributed Model 12:11 NetOps Considerations 13:26 Key Takeaways 14:54 Get in Touch ——— For more insights, check out the links below: [PODCAST] Beyond "Break-Fix": Assuring Performance in the AI Era: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-assuring-performance-ai-era?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q1_internetreport_q2fy26ep2_podcast [EBOOK] Delivering Assurance at the Speed of AI: https://www.thousandeyes.com/resources/delivering-assurance-at-the-speed-of-ai-ebook?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fy26q1_internetreport_q2fy26ep2_podcast ——— Want to get in touch? If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on LinkedIn or X. ——— ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why. Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue? Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more. Catch all the episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform: - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773 - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report

WHERE IS THE MONEY? The million dollar question that Kat and Ian cannot answer. Please leave a comment after minute 6 if you can answer this question for us. From here, your favorite duo hits the highlights on SMB pain points with marketing. From cost to time consumption, Kat and Ian debunk allll the myths for SMBs. AND if you're more interested in exactly what Cisco is selling, check it out here: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html#tabs-a107e9a621-item-6caff3e5bb-tab