The 10 Boldest Statements Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins Made At Cisco Live 2017

Robbins Takes Center Stage

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins is not only confident that Cisco's new Intuitive Network will change networking as we know it, but "solves some of the world's greatest problems at scale," he said on stage in front of around 28,000 customers and partners during Cisco Live 2017 on Monday.

Last week, the San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant unleashed what Robbins dubbed as "the new network" – an intuitive networking system that anticipates actions, stops security threats and continues to evolve and learn.

Here are the 10 boldest statements Robbins made during his keynote address at Cisco Live in Las Vegas which runs from June 26- 30.

"The Premier Enterprise Switch In The World"

"I took a picture hugging the new Catalyst 9000 [switch]. It's a beautiful box … The Catalyst 9000 starts with programmability. We actually built new custom ASIC that is programmable with a new operating system that's programmable, that allows us to deliver services and allows you to deliver services on top of the 9000. It is the premier enterprise switch in the world. It's IoT-ready because you can dynamically deliver segmentation of new connections through the 9000. It's mobile-ready, supporting both wired and wireless, and it’s cloud-ready."

"General Purpose Compute" Now Core To Cisco's Strategy

"We implemented what is now a core part of our strategy in future networking devices; we put general purpose compute in this device so that you can run third party applications. You can run extensions of cloud-apps at the edge on this box. You can build third party applications on this box – [Virtual Machine]-based, container-based, whatever you like – run them on the box and allow this fast processor to stream data into the application with a performance that only we can do. This is a breakthrough for all the work [Cisco] has been doing through DevNet."

Reinventing "The Pace Which You Can Move"

"We are going to build the secure, intelligent platform of which you can run your digital business of the future. This is allowing you to reinvent and think differently about the pace which you can move, about the speed that you can go to take advantage of all that's possible. It will allow you to reinvent your future … We needed to reinvent networking. That was the first thing that we needed to do. We needed a new network of the future."

"Scale Like We've Never Done Before"

"If we're going to make this work … we have to do this at scale like we've never done before. We've added 15 billion [to] 18 billion connections – that was easy. We have 8.4 billion connect things to the Internet today -- there's probably 100,000 of those in this room right here – but 3.1 billion of those devices are already being used by enterprises to change their business model …. Every organization on the planet is going to want to move with greater speed and take advantage of what's possible from all of these connections."

Rewriting "25 Years-Plus Of Software'

"We had to take 25 years-plus of software, and rewrite it. We had to rewrite IOS to a modern data model, API-structured operating system. That was no small feat. The good news is they've already finished, but that was foundational for us to do any of this. Think about that. How many years have you been working on IOS? It was a huge undertaking. Then that allowed us to launch DNA Center which is fundamentally the command center of the network."

"Revolutionary [Security] Innovation" Only Available Through Cisco

"One of these services that we built through this programmability is encrypted traffic analytics. You have to understand what the power our teams built. This is revolutionary innovation that's only possible through a combination of all the threat intelligence we have with our Talos security platform, the programmability of the silicon, 30 years of understanding packet flow dynamics and the context that we see on the network. Our teams launched the encrypted traffic analytics … that can determine when there's malware inside encrypted traffic without decrypting it, really threading the needle between privacy and security."

"Help You Defend Everything You Do"

"This is artificial intelligence, machine learning in the cloud at scale that gives us the ability to help you defend everything you do, particularly in this world where everything is going to be moving faster, and your world is going to be incredibly distributed. This platform that goes from the edge to your private data center to the public cloud to your SaaS providers. There's an intelligent, secure platform that can navigate all of that for you."

"It Can Actually Adapt Itself"

"This creates an adaptive system that understands your intent [and] has a level of trust built-in that then gets informed by context and constantly adapts. Over time, it can actually adapt itself based on what it knows your trying to do and the context that it sees flowing through the network."

"Automation At Scale"

"Everything about this intuitive network starts with intent. This is automation at scale. [If] you want to deploy a security defense mechanism, you can enter it once and have it deployed at scale across thousands of devices as oppose to the way you have to do it today – either manually or through scripts."

S olving "The World's Greatest Problems At Scale"

"The opportunity we have is to build a secure, intelligent platform that solves some of the world's greatest problems at scale. That's what's possible with hundreds of billions of connections and the capabilities that we can deliver together. We have worked together for a very long time – we have built the Internet. We've done amazing things over the last 25 years, and today, I believe we are embarking on a new era. And the same success that we have had together over the last 25 years, I know all of you are going to partner with us to help drive that same success in the future."