Cisco Live 2025 San Diego: Technical Deep Dives, Tacos, and The Killers
Year Two, Different Approach: Quality Over Quantity
This was my second Cisco Live in three years (missed 2024, whoops!), and I went in with a completely different strategy than my rookie year in 2023. Instead of trying to attend every possible session and burning out by Wednesday, I focused on what really mattered: hands-on labs, Meet the Engineer sessions, and actual human connections.
Spoiler alert: This approach was way better.
Saturday-Sunday: The Warm-Up
Badge Pickup and Friend Reunions
Landed in San Diego Saturday afternoon and immediately felt that familiar Cisco Live energy. There's something special about reconnecting with people you only see once a year – that mix of "Hey, how's your network doing?" and "Remember that disaster we talked about last year?"
Sunday's Game Changer: DMVPN to SD-WAN Deep Dive
Sunday kicked off with a 4-hour technical lab on converting DMVPN to SD-WAN, and honestly, this session alone was worth the trip. As someone working at a shop currently running DMVPN and planning our SD-WAN migration, this was exactly the deep dive I needed.
The Technical Goldmine:
Here's what blew my mind – you can actually enable SD-Routing on your existing DMVPN routers and onboard them into vManage to get all that sweet SD-WAN visibility without a full hardware refresh. We're talking about getting those analytics, path selection insights, and centralized management features on your current infrastructure.
The really cool part? You can flip these routers into "controller" mode to go full SD-WAN, but since we're running older hardware, the plan is to ride them until we're ready for 8K series replacements. This gives us a migration path that doesn't require forklift upgrades – music to any network engineer's ears (and budget).
Cisco Champs Backstage Access
Being part of the Cisco Champs program has its perks. Sunday afternoon brought backstage tours that most attendees never see:
World of Solutions Early Access: Walking through vendor booths before the crowds hit is like having a tech candy store to yourself
Cisco Booth Behind-the-Scenes: Seeing how they set up those massive demo environments
TV Studio Tour: The production setup for Cisco Live broadcasts is seriously impressive – full professional studio right there on the conference floor
Monday: Conference Mode Activated
You could feel the energy shift Monday morning. The conference was officially live, and the hallways went from "comfortable networking conversations" to "holy cow, where did all these people come from?"
ThousandEyes: The Unsung Hero
My first official session was ThousandEyes-focused, and I'm convinced this is one of the most underrated tools in the Cisco portfolio. For anyone dealing with hybrid environments or trying to troubleshoot application performance across multiple sites, ThousandEyes gives you visibility that's hard to get any other way.
Meet the Engineer: Jason Gooley
Had my first "Meet the Engineer" session with Jason Gooley, and this was exactly what I hoped it would be. Jason was incredibly helpful in getting me started on my network automation journey – something I'd been putting off for way too long. Sometimes you need that expert nudge to finally dive into Python and Ansible.
PS. He was kind enough to rock my BBQ side gig, The Amateur Pig, sticker on his laptop!
Monday Night: Tacos and Networking (The Human Kind)
Megaport hosted a happy hour at the taco place across the street (shoutout to Kevin and Alexis for organizing!), and honestly, who doesn't love tacos? Met up with coworkers, vendors, and some folks from where my dad used to work – small world in networking.
The night continued with the Cisco Champs "Banters and Beers" event. Nothing beats shop talk over appetizers with really smart people who actually understand why OSPF area design matters. Sidenote: Thanks to Jeff Kish of CBT Nuggets fame for hanging and snapping a picture!
Tuesday: DevNet Zone and Harbor Cruises
Capture the Flag: Learning Through Gaming
Spent significant time in the DevNet Zone tackling Capture the Flag challenges. Pro tip: focus on CTFs that give you Continuing Education credits – you're learning and maintaining certifications at the same time. The gamification approach to learning network security and automation concepts actually works really well.
Another ThousandEyes Deep Dive
Doubled down on ThousandEyes with a second session. The more I learn about this platform, the more I realize how much visibility we're missing in our current monitoring setup.
Tuesday Night: San Diego Harbor Cruise
One of our vendors took us on a harbor cruise, and this was absolutely incredible. Nothing like discussing networking with other network folks while watching the San Diego skyline at sunset. The hospitality at these vendor events continues to amaze me.
Wednesday: Keynotes, Exam Attempts, and Hybrid Cloud Architecture
The Keynote Experience
Wednesday morning's keynote was packed with announcements (I'll cover the technical details in a separate blog post), but the energy in that room with thousands of network professionals is something else.
CCNP ENCOR: The Humbling Experience
Decided to take my CCNP ENCOR exam at the testing center on-site.
SPOILER ALERT: I didn't pass.
But you know what? That's okay. Cisco Live testing centers are convenient, but the exam is still the exam. I didn’t know I was going to the conference until 2 months ago, so I didn’t have a long time to study; it was almost a throwaway exam (since it was free). My CCNP expired in 2020-ish and I don’t need it for my career at this point. I think I’m going to refocus on my Azure AZ700. I might revisit the CCNP, but there are other certs on my list for the immediate future.
Hybrid Multicloud Architecture: The Technical Highlight
One of my favorite sessions covered architecting hybrid multicloud environments. The presenter walked through connecting multiple public clouds via SD-WAN with security principles wrapped around the entire architecture. This is exactly the kind of real-world scenario planning that makes these sessions valuable.
Key Takeaways:
SD-WAN can effectively tie together AWS, Azure, and GCP environments
Security policy consistency across clouds is critical
Centralized management through vManage scales even in complex hybrid scenarios
Wednesday Night: Petco Park and The Killers
The Customer Appreciation Event at Petco Park and the Gaslamp District was absolutely incredible. Cisco really knows how to throw a party:
Food: Top-notch catering throughout the venue
Entertainment: Old school arcade games (I spent way too much time on Pac-Man)
The Main Event: The Killers absolutely killed it (pun intended)
The hospitality at these events is genuinely impressive. It's one thing to attend sessions and learn, but these social events are where the real networking happens.
Thursday: Winding Down with ThousandEyes and Brazilian Steakhouse
Final Technical Sessions
Thursday brought my last Meet the Engineer session on ThousandEyes and a final ThousandEyes/SD-WAN integration session. By this point, I was convinced that ThousandEyes integration should be part of every SD-WAN deployment.
Team Dinner and Departure
Ended the conference with a team dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse (so. much. food.) and flew home Friday morning, completely stuffed and technically satisfied.
Lessons Learned: Conference Strategy 2.0
What Worked Better This Time
Fewer Sessions, More Depth: Watching sessions online later is fine. Being present for hands-on labs and Meet the Engineer sessions is irreplaceable.
Technical Labs Are Gold: That 4-hour DMVPN to SD-WAN lab taught me more than a dozen vendor pitches.
Meet the Engineer Sessions: Direct access to product experts who can answer your specific implementation questions.
Vendor Events: The networking (human kind) at happy hours and dinners is as valuable as any technical session.
The Real Value Proposition
Cisco Live isn't just about the latest product announcements or technical deep dives (though those are great). It's about connecting with people you only see once a year, learning from engineers facing the same challenges you are, and getting that inspiration to tackle projects you've been putting off.
Whether it's finally starting that network automation journey, planning your SD-WAN migration, or just remembering why you love working in networking, Cisco Live delivers on multiple levels.
Looking Ahead
Already planning for next year's event. The technical content was solid, the networking was invaluable, and honestly, watching The Killers at Petco Park while surrounded by thousands of network engineers was pretty surreal.
What about you? Any Cisco Live veterans have tips for making the most of these conferences? Drop a comment and let me know what sessions or strategies have worked best for you!
Want more technical breakdowns from Cisco Live 2025? Stay tuned for upcoming posts covering the major announcements and my CCNP exam experience. Subscribe to get notified when they drop!