Ever wondered what – or rather, who- it takes to ensure the world’s most complex digital infrastructures run flawlessly?
Behind every seamless connection, every robust network, and every innovative solution, there’s a dedicated team of experts meticulously validating their performance. Cisco Solution Validation Services (SVS) engineers are known as the “architects of assurance”, but if you truly want to understand what we do you should imagine something like this: we are engineers, with deep expertise across multiple technology domains, paid to test the limits of each deployment before customers deploy it. In other words, we get paid to test when things will break.
So now you know Cisco’s secret – that’s how we deliver robust, future-proof solutions. SVS engineers are:
- Designing the blueprints for testing
- Attempting to break things in the labs
- Delivering future-proof deployments
Step 1: Designing the blueprints for testing
Accepting that each deployment is different is key. There is no silver bullet, there is no out-of-the box approach that works for all. We proactively engage in deep conversations with the customer, cisco teams and partners to understand their unique needs. This isn’t just about gathering requirements; it’s about defining validation strategies that align perfectly with their business and technical objectives.
- What are their critical success factors?
- What are the potential points of failure?
- How can we proactively mitigate risks?
These are the questions that inform our validation approach, and trigger conversations with domain experts, leveraging our collective expertise to drive continuous solution improvements. In parallel, we assess the solution feasibility and align testing strategies with customer business objectives right from the outset.
Only then, do we begin developing the validation approach, which involves creating and documenting detailed test plans – the blueprint for rigorous testing that will assess everything from performance and scalability to interoperability and reliability.
Step 2: Attempting to break things in the labs
Unlike field engineers, SVS Engineers spend most of our time in the lab.
We build and maintain complex and secure test environments that meticulously replicate real-world customer deployments. Think of it as a digital twin of a customer’s network, complete with all its intricacies and potential challenges. This isn’t a simple plug-and-play; it involves configuring and troubleshooting Cisco’s vast suite of products, services, and solutions to ensure optimal performance and compatibility.
The lab is where rigorous testing happens, including
- Conducting in-depth tests to assess the solution performance under various loads,
- Evaluating scalability to handle future growth,
- Verifying interoperability with existing systems, and
- Rigorously testing reliability to ensure unwavering uptime.
This isn’t just about ensuring it works; it’s about pushing the boundaries to see where things will break.
Our labs are also a natural extension of Cisco’s latest innovations. For example, we leverage Services as Code automation toolkits. At the same time, our work contributes to the development of reusable digital assets that streamline future validation efforts and enhance consistency. When issues arise, and they inevitably do in complex systems, the SVS engineers act as the de facto experts, whose understanding of the intricacies of the deployments drive rapid problem resolution.
Step 3: Delivering Future-proof deployments
The last crucial part of our job is translating lab findings into actionable insights for customers by
- Providing technical guidance regarding solution integration, optimization, and issue resolution.
- Offering best practices
- Explain the implications of validation findings to the overall customer environment
Solution Validation allows us to optimize deployments, troubleshoot solutions, and ensure seamless integration in a lab environment before the solution ever touches a live production network.
This proactive approach significantly minimizes risks and accelerates time-to-market for new services and technologies. It ensures quality, efficient deployments and guarantees successful outcomes.
Learn more
The next time you experience a flawlessly performing network, think of the multi-domain experts in the lab who tested it against every possible vulnerability.
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