Great to be in Detroit this week for the Cisco Automotive and Manufacturing Innovation Summit.
228 people in the room, strong industry participation, and a practical conversation on where automotive manufacturing is going next.
A few takeaways from the day:
- Wes Sylvester framed the discussion around the customer outcomes we need to drive across automotive and manufacturing.
- Matt Price connected the dots on the secure connected vehicle and the need for visibility, control, and security across the full vehicle lifecycle.
- Jeremy Foster showed how AI is moving onto the factory floor, and why manufacturing needs the right compute, networking, security, and observability foundation.
- Ruben Lobo made the case that OT cyber defense has to move from visibility to protection as AI changes the speed of attacks.
- Erika Franco connected software-defined automation to predictable networking, security, observability, and flexible workload placement.
- Seth B. highlighted why observability becomes critical as factories virtualize controls and bring AI, edge computing, and predictive analytics into operations.
- Matthias Falkner showed how unified wireless access can support factory modernization across private 5G, Wi-Fi, and Cisco URWB.
- Denise Lee Yeh brought the energy dimension into the discussion, from powering modern infrastructure to rethinking how factories produce, move, and store energy.
A big thank you to Jorge Ramirez, Kerry L. Paskell and Joe Parambo for sharing real-world insight from the industry panel.
And thank you to GM for the site visit. Seeing where the team is innovating, and getting close to the Corvette lineup, was a great reminder that all of this technology connects back to real products, real plants, and real teams.
And yes Jorge Ramirez, I am taking my wife to the dealership for a test drive.
Thank you to Ray Cushman for initiating this and Wes Sylvester for leading the sales motion.
#Cisco #IndustrialIoT #Automotive #Manufacturing #OTSecurity
