Efficient IT Management with AI | Tech Unscripted

Ian is flying solo BUT is joined by LinkedIn expert Darren McKee this week—founder of 531 Social and Darren McKee Co. Darren's been posting on LinkedIn almost every single day since March 2020, and yeah, he's got the receipts. He walks us through his journey from mail carrier and pizza guy to building a sales career that actually stuck, and spoiler: the daily posting thing actually worked. But here's where it gets weird: sometimes carefully researched posts tank while a random rant about a key fob blows up. We're talking hundreds of thousands of impressions. Why? And more importantly—why do comments help more than posts? Darren breaks down the cold DM playbook (hint: don't be that guy), and explains why he treats content like a rap album: most tracks won't chart, but you keep making them anyway because you never know which will be a hit. If you've ever stared at a LinkedIn draft and thought "Does anyone actually want to read this?"—this one's for you. If you liked this episode, and are interested in signing up for Darren's next cohort you can sign up here: https://darrenmckee.co/

Host and guest Evan Mintzer (Director of Production Infrastructure, Customers Bank) discuss how banks build digital resilience through network design, redundancy, data visibility and governance. The episode covers practical challenges around third-party services, AI-assisted monitoring, and making sure critical systems keep money flowing. Key topics include the balance between automation and human oversight, the importance of shared ownership of data across teams, regulatory pressures (FFIEC, DORA), and the need for accurate documentation and tools like machine data lakes to gain context and control. The main takeaway: protect customer trust by combining the right technologies, operating-model integration and people — focusing on visibility, quick reaction, and sensible investments in security and automation.

This episode explores how AI agents, network sensors, and cloud-managed Meraki solutions are transforming workplaces across industries—from stadiums and events to critical infrastructure. Leaders share real-world use cases on security, hybrid work, real-time visibility, and practical deployments that balance automation with human oversight.

This week, Kat is speaking Spanish, Ian is preparing to run an ungodly number of miles, and they’re both making fun of men with guitars—so naturally, it’s time to talk about onboarding. With Ian’s new hire starting this week, he shares his plan for helping her learn the role, navigate Cisco, and survive the truly unreasonable number of acronyms that Cisco has. They get into what actually makes someone feel supported in a new job: shadowing everything, meeting the right people, documenting processes, and knowing when to step in versus letting someone figure it out. Kat shares what worked when she joined field marketing, Ian explains his “I do, we do, you do” approach, and they somehow compare onboarding a new employee to coaching a gym class, raising a child, and teaching a dog to sit—all with varying degrees of success. Your usual chaos and coupled with career advice - just another 404. Give us a click, please: https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html#tabs-9da71fbd27-item-1288c79d71-tab

In the pluggable optics industry every next generation is led by countless presentations and proposals at standards bodies meetings along with lots of lab development and testing behind the scenes. Right now the industry has its sights set on 3.2 terabit transceivers with 400 Gb per electrical lane. All those meetings and all that testing are happening as we speak. Today I am joined by John Calvin, Strategic Planner and Datacom Technology Lead at Keysight. John has been bridging the measurement science gaps of emerging telecom and datacom development efforts for 20 years. He has chaired multiple physical layer interoperability working groups and is currently serving as a contributing member to IEEE 802.3, OIF-CEI, InfiniBand, and PCIe development efforts. John holds a BSEE from Washington State University, and his graduate level studies are in signal processing from Stanford University. In Episode 65 we continue our conversation with John. We get into the tradeoffs between IEEE standards, MSAs, interoperability, and the race toward 3.2-terabit Ethernet. John has very generously made himself available for your follow-up questions. You can find him at IEEE 802.3 technical forums or you can email him at [email protected]. Please follow the Cisco Podcast Network on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! Better yet, leave a review on Apple podcasts. Remember you're listening to the Cisco Optics Podcast, which is part of the Cisco Podcast Network where you can find other great Cisco podcasts too. If you want to listen on a website, go to optics.podcastpage.io. We also have educational videos on youtube. Just go to youtube.com and search on Cisco Optics. Related links Cisco Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/ Cisco Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix: https://tmgmatrix.cisco.com/iop Cisco Optics Product Information: https://copi.cisco.com/ Additional resources Cisco Optics Podcast: https://optics.podcastpage.io/ Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics Intro music Music by Sergio Prosvirini from Pixabay Outro music Dreamers by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com Royalty Free Music by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Our best friend (and career coach) Sammy Brenner is back with a new role, a new language to learn, and approximately six months before she’s ready to teach any of it to us (her words). Sammy and Kat share what it’s really like to start over in a new part of the business: drinking from the fire hose, rebuilding trust, and reminding yourself that you were hired for a reason, even when doubts creep in. They also get into how to know when it’s time for a change, why networking should start long before you need a new job, and how to advocate for yourself without feeling like a professional kiss-up. Sammy shares her best advice for building genuine relationships, creating an “About Me” deck, and approaching your first few months with equal parts curiosity and blind optimism. Meanwhile, Ian bravely attempts to lighten the mood with a story about his Chrome tabs and learns no one cares. You know the drill, give us a click! https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/solutions/small-business/index.html#tabs-7edb32179e-item-d43da2dc1e-tab

In this episode Robin Olds interviews Tom Footitt, Cisco Senior Director of Product Management for Crosswork Assurance, about how AI — especially agentic systems and faster LLMs — is changing network traffic patterns and why observability and assurance are critical. They discuss new KPIs like time-to-first-token and inter-token latency, passive behavioral analysis of encrypted traffic, predictive AIOps, and the importance of security, sovereignty, and performance for service providers offering AI services.

This episode explores how AI agents, network sensors, and cloud-managed Meraki solutions are transforming workplaces across industries—from stadiums and events to critical infrastructure. Leaders share real-world use cases on security, hybrid work, real-time visibility, and practical deployments that balance automation with human oversight.

Across Cisco's partner ecosystem, AI adoption isn't new — it's already happening at scale. So how do partners turn that momentum into trusted, real-world outcomes for their customers?  In this episode of Scaling AI in the Enterprise, we bring together an all-star partner panel featuring Trace3, Worldwide Technology (WWT), and Presidio to tackle the real challenges of scaling AI: the shift from dashboards to semantic layers, the discipline of clean data and governance, the balance between automation and human judgment, and why adoption is as much about culture and trust as it is about technology.   Host: Emma Carpenter, SVP Recurring Revenue Acceleration, Cisco Customer Experience    Guests:   Josh Lindstrom, Sr. Director, Data and Analytics, Trace3   Surbhi Kaul, VP CX Product Management, Cisco Customer Experience     Kevin Corace, SVP Software and Services Lifecycle, Presidio    Laura Kuehner, VP Customer Experience, WWT    Learn more about Cisco Customer Experience; read our blogs and visit Cisco.com. 

Deal registration isn’t paperwork. It’s partnership—and a powerful lever for growth. In this episode of Shift Happens, Jeff Edwards is joined by Tim Coogan, Gary DePreta, and Raminder Mann, CEO of ANM, Cisco’s 2025 Security Partner of the Year, for a candid look at what happens when Cisco and partners stop competing with each other and start competing together. From a $10M+ opportunity closed in under two weeks to $25M in competitive takeouts, hear how registering early creates the trust, investment and shared focus needed to win—and unlock what comes next: adoption, expansion and renewal. Why listen? 🎯 See deal reg differently: It’s not about protecting a deal—it’s about creating a foundation for mutual investment and customer value. 💰 Hear the real-world impact: Get inside the deals where partnership helped turn stalled opportunities into wins and competitive takeouts into future growth. 🚀 Think beyond the PO: Discover why the biggest value may come after the deal, when Cisco and partners have the resources and trust to drive adoption, expansion and long-term success. Because when you sell together, you don’t just win the deal—you build what comes next. 🎧 Tune in to the latest episode and let’s make shift happen. #CiscoShiftHappensPodcast