ESG On Location – VMware Explore 2022

Sporting a new name, the long anticipated in-person event, VMware Explore, was back this year with new innovation, new conversations, and a new theme, “Cloud Chaos.” The ESG analyst team was there, on location, and in this video, you will hear from me, as well as Mark Bowker, Bob Laliberte, Paul Nashawaty, and Kevin Rhone, on the most impressive announcements and insights from the event.

Check out the video and hope to see you in person at next year’s event.

CiscoLive returned to being an in-person event this year and customers responded positively, with 16 thousand showing up to the Mandalay Bay Resort to partake in keynotes, sessions, training, and festivities.

This week I flew to Nashville, TN to participate in ExtremeConnect 22 customer event. Despite Covid flare ups here and there, this event was very well attended – in fact it was sold out.

This was my second in-person event of 2022 and it is great to be back, as everyone gets so much more out of these events when together, and not just the ability to attend keynotes to feel the energy in the room, but the ability to attend training sessions, the opportunity for impromptu hallway meetings, getting access to executives and engineering talent, and the ability to interact socially with your peers.

ESG's annual technology spending intentions report for 2022 surveyed 706 senior IT decision-makers at midmarket (i.e., 100 to 999 employees) and enterprise (i.e., 1,000 or more employees) organizations across North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. From an overall perspective, the good news is that 62% of organizations plan to increase overall IT spending. As part of that research, respondents with purchasing influence or authority for networking products and services were asked about their organization’s spending plans in this area over the next 12 months. The data indicates that 52% are expected to maintain the prior year's budget levels and 43% will increase spending. Only 5% will shrink their networking budget.

Citrix recently announced a new App Delivery and Security Service to enable organizations to rapidly and securely deliver applications. This service is well timed and will help organizations that are accelerating digital transformation efforts and expanding their modern application environments in highly distributed environments.

Organizations today are digitally transforming their IT environments to become more agile and responsive to market and customer demands. While this typically includes people, process, and technology, the technology piece underpins many of the new processes and ensures your employees can collaborate and be productive.

Wi-Fi 6E

Wi-Fi 6E is the latest advancement in Wi-Fi technology, and last year the FCC opened up the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use in the US. What makes this so significant is that the amount of usable Wi-Fi will more than double (due to the amount of RF spectrum available for Wi-Fi).

With Wi-Fi 6E, we should expect to experience less network congestion due to wider channels and faster data rates that can support high-bandwidth applications and use cases—providing a realistic means to help speed innovation.

Last week, Extreme Networks held its annual customer event, Connect, virtually from Boston’s historic Fenway Park. The highlights from the event include new product introductions, a collection of customer and partner relationships, a celebration of 25 years in business, and insights into Extreme Networks' vision moving forward.

ESG recently completed its annual technology spending intentions survey of 664 senior IT decision makers at midmarket (i.e., 100 to 999 employees) and enterprise (i.e., 1,000 or more employees) organizations across North America and Western Europe. As part of that research, respondents with purchasing influence or authority for networking products and services were asked about their organization’s networking spending plans over the next 12 months, and the results were published in the ESG brief, Network Spending Trends for 2021 (only available to ESG clients).

This week Cisco held its annual customer event, Cisco Live, for its global audience. With over 100,000 attendees from over 200 countries, this may be one of the best attended Cisco Live events. Despite most organizations having to work from home over the past year, it certainly hasn’t slowed down the innovation and productivity from the Cisco engineers. The theme of this year’s event was Turn IT Up, something that organizations across the globe have been doing since the pandemic hit and Cisco was quick to call out the IT heroes that worked tirelessly to transition to work-from-home environments and enable businesses to continue operations.