Cisco Live 2011 in Photos

LAS VEGAS -- Cisco Live 2011 -- Cisco is taking a beating in the press lately, but a record 15,000 still came out to party at the company's annual customer and partner conference.

OK, we admit: Light Reading didn't stick around long enough for the William Shatner keynote on Thursday or even the Train concert Wednesday night. (We've already got pictures of Train anyway.)

But we saw the really loud opening keynote, played games on the exhibit floor and toured an enormous data center in the desert.



Click the picture above to launch the slideshow, or click here for a thumbnail view.

We also wrote about a few things that happened at the conference:

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading

Going for Scale

Cisco held its keynotes in the Mandalay Bay concert arena. No one yelled "Free Bird."

Don't Mess With Vegas

Lightstick dancers pumped up the energy before John Chambers's keynote. We caught one in a rare non-smiling moment.

Dance Fever

This is what we put up with to bring you the news. You're welcome.

Make a Big Noise

People sure got excited about new improvements to Cisco's network management systems.

Best Buddies

John Chambers stuck around for photos after his keynote.

Bang! Bang!

Cisco's Scott Gainey comes out, finger-guns blazing, to talk about the Catalyst 6500.

Hey, You in Back

Is that a ... Flip camera?

The Pitch

Cisco Senior VP Scott McCool explains the new Catalyst 6500 during a morning press conference.

Speak to Me

Christopher DeJesus of Cigna gets ready to try his dance moves in Cisco's videoblogging booth.

Sweet Ride

Shahzad Ali (left) and Addis Fekadu of DirecTV, with a car that we're pretty sure wasn't theirs.

Big Numbers

Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's CTO, knows all these stats by heart.

Cool Your Heels

Wi-Fi, a power outlet and an orange bean bag. What more could you want?

A Real Commodity Product

Cisco is trying out new markets in case this router thing doesn't work out.

The Ball Bounces

Ricardo Barbosa of Cisco Brazil swore he's not a football player ... while putting on some serious juggling moves.

Yen Sighting

That's former Juniper executive David Yen (center), getting the pre-presentation lowdown from PR folks David McCulloch (left) and Neil Wu Becker (right).

Rock Star

In his talk, Cisco Futurist Dave Evans said he's got 38 items on his home network, including robots. We didn't make this up.

Life Line

Granted, this picture could be from any trade show. Maybe we'll use it again next year.

Big Man, Pig Man

It's not a show until someone breaks out the giant inflatable pigs.

And Don't Ever Do THIS

Cisco's Tim Frias demonstrates the Cius. Hey, that almost rhymes.

Fence Me In

The outside of SuperNAP, a 400,000-square-foot data center, 10 minutes from the Las Vegas strip, owned by Switch Communications Group. Cisco organized a press-and-analysts tour of the well-guarded facility.

Switch Inside

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside SuperNAP, but this artist's conception truly captures the experience.

The End

This picture was meant to show a player valiantly defending the Missile Command cities. It didn't work out for us (or the cities).