Walking the show floor at Cisco Live, it's impossible to ignore the rising volume of conversations around network resilience. But what does resilience actually look like in today's distributed, AI-driven enterprise environment? To explore this, I sat down with Patrick Quirk, President and GM of Opengear, right at their booth near the center of the event.

In our conversation, Patrick explained how Opengear has become a platform focused on proactive infrastructure management. As AI workloads expand into both data centers and edge environments, network reliability is now a critical part of business operations. Patrick shared how their approach with the phrase "First Day. Worst Day. Every Day." helps ensure continuity even in the most challenging conditions.

What stood out during this discussion was Opengear's impact in practical situations. From supporting major retailers during service disruptions to helping organizations recover quickly from incidents similar to the CrowdStrike event, they deliver more than basic monitoring. We also discussed Lighthouse, their fleet management platform, and how it enables zero-touch provisioning at scale. This concept clearly resonated with many attendees at the event.

Patrick also talked about findings from a Cisco report that estimated global losses from network outages reached 160 billion dollars last year. He explained how attitudes are shifting at the leadership level. Network resilience is no longer treated as a secondary concern. Risk mitigation, compliance, and consistent service delivery are now at the core of business conversations.

Whether you're managing thousands of switches or preparing your infrastructure for the growing demands of AI, this episode provides insights that apply directly to today's connected world. How are you preparing your network to stay up and running when it matters most?