Meraki Unboxed Podcast

In the first of a short series focusing on Meraki Experiences we take a look at how one of our Technology Partners has applied Meraki cameras to help solve real world challenges relating to people in physical spaces. We are joined by Zack Klima, founder and CEO at WaitTime, and Pravin Mahajan, Head of Solutions Marketing at Meraki who help us explore the power of experiences in IT.

Learn more about WaitTime's solutions at http://thewaittimes.com

Today we're in conversation with a tenured leader at Cisco Meraki, Christy Cook Olcese. Join us for an authentic discussion - we talk about how to cultivate your personal brand, build a board of directors, and learn valuable insights about how to pivot in your career. Christy started as a product sales specialist in Texas for Public Sector, working her way up to her latest role as Director of Americas Partner Organization. She is a sharp and genuine leader who doesn't hold back on what it takes to build a successful career.

When you start a business, you never quite know where the journey will take you. In this episode, we talk to Antonio Sapienza of Bizmate, one of the earliest adopters of Meraki APIs, about the evolution of the business from Meraki reseller to Tech Partner. Bizmate's product, V-App, encompasses a wide range of solutions for various industries, and we talk through some of the use cases it supports.

The topic of sustainability has grown to dominate conversation across a wide swathe of industry, and society. With customers increasingly paying attention to how seriously their suppliers are addressing sustainability, it's vital for every business to have a position and to be driving improvements. We can all do better. This episode focuses on the importance of having a sustainability focus, and how Cisco, including Meraki, is moving in a positive direction.

Join us for a conversation with Cisco Public Sector sales leaders Gary DePreta. He’s an engineer by trade, consultant by instinct, and cultural leader by DNA. Learn why Gary truly feels he gets to wake up every day and help governments, schools, universities/colleges, and hospitals. He dives into what gives him that spark to chase his purpose, and we learn more about the incredible culture at Cisco.

Cisco Meraki customers and partners always have a story to tell, and in this episode we're hearing from Service Corporation International (SCI) Director of IT Security Zac Fletcher about what it's like to manage an IT environment comprising thousands of sites. Scale has its challenges, but SCI has successfully leveraged technology from Cisco, including Meraki, to grow its business.

A lot has happened since Cisco Meraki technology evolved beyond networking. In this episode we're looking at ways in which our smart cameras and environmental sensors are addressing modern challenges and changing experiences for businesses, their customers, and their employees.

Join us for a conversation with Cisco Meraki CTO Bret Hull. He's been with the organization since 2010 and discusses the journey along with the changes and evolution of our engineering team through the years. Not only has he built a very successful engineering team in the US, but he has expanded the team globally. Bret’s story is an example of how we invest in our employees.

As offices around the world come back to life, how can we ensure they work more safely and efficiently than before? Technology is ready to help, and PlaceOS is one of the companies working at the intersection of experiences, safety, and sustainability in workspaces. In this discussion with PlaceOS CIO, we look at the Meraki and other technology that's helping ensure we return to better offices.

June is Pride month, and we can't think of a better way to celebrate than to have some amazing Cisco Meraki employees on our episode today. Join us for a discussion with Daniel Jones, Kate Nicholson, and Emily Sporl, who are a part of Meraki’s  QFAM ERO (Queers and Friends at Meraki employee resource organization). We’ll be discussing an array of topics including a deeper dive into our QFAM ERO and the progress of LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) efforts. Also taking time to acknowledge the darker moments and the struggle against discrimination. This conversation is impactful, powerful, and important.

Cisco Meraki VP of Marketing Rebecca Stone and VP of Sales Jason Pernell join this week's Meraki Unboxed to discuss the dramatic pace of global transformation in digital technology, why business leaders need to embrace the changes that are coming, and how the upcoming Meraki Network event will set them up to thrive in the future hi-tech economy. Register for the Meraki Network, happening on June 16th: https://events.meraki.net/merakinetworkevent

Jessica Gilbert (Meraki's head of Diversity and Collaboration) will take us through a conversation about Meraki's D&I efforts and how they play into Cisco's larger story. You'll learn more about our strategic partnerships, how to think more intentionally about inclusive behaviors, and you'll walk away with actionable steps to create a more inclusive team.

Join us for an insightful conversation with Jenna Linskens, Director of Learning & Innovative Technology of Ithaca College, on lessons learned in the last 14 months in higher education.

We hope you've enjoyed the first 50 episodes of Meraki Unboxed. Please keep your episode ideas and feedback coming by messaging our host on Twitter: @merakisimon or on the Meraki Community: community.meraki.com

Seemingly every industry is going through a technology based transformation, and Financial Services are no exception. In this episode we discuss what specific trends are shaping the new financial services world, and how Meraki and Cisco technology are playing their part.

Join us for an insightful conversation with Cisco Canada President Shannon Leininger. March is Women's History Month - and Shannon delivers a powerful message about what it means to truly find purpose in the work you do. She's an absolute master at finding what fuels her, and allowing that to pour over into the work she does everyday. She opens up about the power of vulnerability, discusses the importance of transparency, and gives us all an opportunity to create a more inclusive environment through the power of curiosity.

Join us for a fascinating discussion with IDC Research Director Dr William Lee, who takes us on a journey through our evolving technology landscape, and how we, as humans, are adapting to the changed world around us. This exploration into IT trends touches on many areas we know well, and provokes us to think about how we can use technology to help us confidently move ahead.

We've come a long way from the days of working in the office with the servers in a room next door. Today we're working from anywhere and everywhere, and our servers have been fragmented into myriad cloud based applications, also located anywhere and everywhere. This presents a challenge for IT teams who are trying to provide secure, authorized access to network resources. SASE, pronounced 'sassy', takes on this challenge, and in this episode we introduce the concept, explaining why it's so relevant in our new normal.

Today we're in conversation with Denise Thomas, the Chief Operating Officer at Meraki, with a deep dive into her career, how she landed at Meraki, and discussing why diversity and inclusion are deeply important to Meraki Values, and our framework as an organization. February is Black History Month - we talk about our amazing employee resource group called 'Connected Black Professionals' and why groups like these are so important to our company DNA.

Feeling entrepreneurial? Interested in running a Managed Service business? In this episode we talk to someone who walked that path and built something special, leveraging the Meraki Platform. Our guest is a fan of the podcast who reached out with this episode idea. 

New for 2021, we're starting a series of occasional episodes focused on a specific industry, looking at some of the trends, challenges and technology use cases we see in those industries. To kick off, we're starting with the world of manufacturing, an industry experiencing perhaps its biggest change since the industrial revolution.

Happy New Year! We're kicking off with something special. Holly Dowling is an Inspirational Thought Leader. She has infused her over 20 years of extensive management and leadership experience with her passion for inspiring others to discover their untapped potential and brilliance. Today we sit down with Holly and explore her secrets to untapping your potential, we explore staying connected in this virtual world, and how to create an inclusive work environment.

Here we are at the end of 2020. This is a year we'll probably never forget, as much as might like to. In this final episode of 2020 we invite three guests from the Meraki Community to share their reflections on this crazy year, and look ahead to a new year and new projects. Thank you for listening to Meraki Unboxed in 2020. Stay safe and we'll see you back here soon!

2020 has challenged us all in many ways, and although many aspects of our lives have been disrupted this year, our networks have kept on going and have never been a more valuable resource. Some things never change, and networks need maintaining and refreshing, even when there are practical challenges in the way. In this episode we discuss some of the dynamics around maintaining healthy networks with a special guest with many years of frontline experience, and also the product marketing lead for Meraki switches.

Computer vision has enormous potential to help us see what's important in the world around us, without the need to be physically present. The Meraki MV Smart Camera opens the door to computer vision, especially thanks to its APIs, which allow developers to build custom applications that can exploit the camera's full abilities. One company that's done this particularly well is Everyangle, and in this episode we get into a fascinating discussion about the potential for the technology, as well as some of Everyangle's customer solutions.

As we enter the holiday season we're reminded of the importance of giving, and giving back. Like any other company, we're part of a wider community, and Merakians are always pursuing ways to contribute to the local community, important societal causes, and raising awareness. In this episode we discuss Meraki Gives, our Employee Resource Organizations, and the timely topic of Movember! 

Technology can only truly advance by embracing simplicity. IoT has been with us for years, yet the reality of applying IoT to business challenges too often means point solutions and complexity. That's just not the Meraki way, and so in this episode you'll hear all about how we're taking a different approach with our latest product line, sensors.

Cisco Meraki was born in the cloud, in 2006. Since then the platform on which all Meraki products and features rests has grown beyond all recognition, and today is more capable and efficient than ever. A recent shift to an API-first strategy has set Meraki up for its next phase of growth, and also provides a wealth of opportunity to developers looking to take advantage of network programmability to build custom solutions to the world's challenges. Today's discussion covers all of this and provides pointers to how you can get started on your own Meraki Platform journey.

This week we return to the topic of Meraki APIs, in a discussion with kontakt.io, a technology partner that has found a creative way to unite their beacons with Meraki hardware and APIs to solve some common and emerging business challenges. We also discuss the hub through which developers can share their solutions, apps.meraki.io

We spend a lot of time talking about how Meraki products and features can solve real world challenges here on Meraki Unboxed, but we've never focused purely on the hardware. Today we're putting that right with an interview with our Head of Hardware, one of the earliest employees at Meraki, who provides some fascinating insight into what goes into developing and packaging the hardware we sell, along with some great stories from the early days of the company.

As organizations contemplate a future with more remote working and learning, it's more important than ever to identify efficient ways to support dispersed employees and students at scale. For many years, Meraki Systems Manager has been supporting the management of up to tens of thousands of devices, regardless of their location, so it's more than up to the task at hand. In this episode we welcome back Amelie from our Product Marketing team to discuss some of the attributes and features of Systems Manager that can ease the burden of IT teams tasked with supporting large scale, and enduring, remote working and learning.