The Future of Connectivity with Jodi Duva & Chris Whelan of Cox Business

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You want tech and tacos? Tacos in tech you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keep accountants counting beans Contador Quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a crappy my coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos El gordo, the taco stand in puesto lucha libre and sombrero Got a shout out to cost angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside to Tijuana Estee be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon hashtag SD TechOS with your host, Neil Bloom. Come on.

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Welcome to the Tacos and Tech podcast where we interview tech leaders in the San Diego tech ecosystem. We also read the latest tech news on this Week in San Diego Tech news. Follow us and subscribe online to your favorite podcast network. And welcome back to the Tacos and Tech podcast. I'm your host, Neil Blum, and I'm thrilled to have my favorite friends from the Cox business and enterprise team. Jody Duva, vice president from Cox Business, and Chris Whelan, Director of Enterprise for Cox Business San Diego. Hey, guys, thanks for joining us.

Hey, Neil. Great to be here.

Hey, Neil, thanks for having us.

Yeah, no, it's great to have you guys here. Great to see you guys again. It's always this time of year around this time of year is top tech time in the San Diego region, which we love for nominating some of our favorite companies. And then, you know, a few months down the road, we get to celebrate those companies, which is always a fun time. What's. What's top of mind for you guys right now, this time of year for you, Jody?

Wow, that's a trick question. So I will say right now, top of mind for me is that I have a son graduating from high school, so that's crazy. And it's all things graduation and getting ready for college, so that's probably personal wise. And then lots of things I could say on the business side, but I'll let Chris add some Commentary there. What's top of mind for him?

Yeah, so top of mind for me. I'm fairly new here with Cox business. I'm about three months in. So what's top of mind is hitting the ground running, really getting in touch with the customers here in, in San Diego. Really excited to work and work with and evolve our, our team and, and keep the, the tradition of Cox excellence alive.

That's awesome. Cost has got a long history of that which we'll talk to a little bit. I mean, 125 plus years. I say plus because I think it's like 26, 27 years at this point. Incredibly deep legacy, that's for sure, in bringing innovative solutions to companies large and small, like all over the place. Right. Jody, take us through a little bit of like, what is your purview of kind of managing the relationship with a business customer today?

Sure. I mean that's definitely evolved. I think that it's become so much more complex. So as Cox business and members of the team have seen, we come from the world of selling high speed connectivity, making sure that our customers can connect quickly to the Internet and that's evolved so much over the years and really become so much more complex. And we've really worked hard to stay relevant for our customers and to make sure that we are ready to help them simplify it. Things like getting them to the cloud. Right. I think the cloud is a big name right now and everybody's doing something in the cloud whether they realize it or not. Right. Whether it's storing, backing up your pictures on your phone or everything from cloud storage on your phone to how businesses store data, protect data, cybersecurity. So so many different things. So our focus is really helping our customers understand that full portfolio of what we can do for them and make sure that we are a resource for them. As a lot of businesses are migrating to the cloud.

Huge. I think everyone thought it would just like snap your fingers and happen during COVID And obviously people are still working on it and will continue to work on it, which means we've all been seeing this migration to the next tech horizon for a while. Like Jody, how did you get into, into the kind of the tech landscape in there originally?

Yeah, that dates me quite a bit. When I first got into telecom, I was, you know, fresh out of college, went to UCLA and then dabbled a little bit in different sales roles and got into telecom sales at a company about Geez, 25 years ago, I guess. And I guess what kept me there was it was really exciting to learn about technology and to continue evolving and learning as technology changes, as you know, very quickly. I've always loved being a woman in technology, which is not as common as you may think. I think it's evolved a lot. Right. Like 25 years ago, I was probably one of very few women in technology and that's definitely changed over the years. But for me, it's fun to learn. It's fun to go into a room probably full of men and show that I can sit at the table and have meaningful dialogue and have really good input and help customers find ways to use technology differently, to know what's going on trend wise, to know what's going on in the world around them. So I've enjoyed it and I've been with Cox 20 years and that has been quite a wild ride. Lots of changes over that 20 years, as you can imagine. And it's a great company, great field, great industry. I love being a resource for my customers and my teams, watching my teams grow and succeed and learn different new things and moving into much more complex spaces of the IT world like managed services and cloud.

Yeah. I mean, it's made you have to learn and keep up as well. So that since people look to Cox business as these relevant experts in that regard. Like anything that kind of jumps to mind on just some trends recently that you've kind of kept up on, especially anything unique to Southern California there. Jodi.

Sure. So, I mean, I think I mentioned it, but I think that we're seeing a lot more customers migrating to the cloud. And I think that what a lot of people don't understand, while they know that they need to do that and they need to go there, we're seeing survey results that say, reveal that the promise of that enhanced efficiency can definitely be hampered by the complexities of the migration. You're hearing IT leaders saying, oh, we anticipated it would lower our costs. And what we realized is, well, it did. Eventually it took us longer to get there than we thought it would or that they underestimated the task. And so I think that's, that's great for companies like Cox where we're investing in that type of infrastructure. We bought a couple of cloud companies, Rapid scale and logic works, which is really exciting for us. As you mentioned, we need to keep learning and make sure that we're staying fresh, but that expertise allows us to just be that much more of a resource for our customers. I mentioned earlier, we started out selling data pipes and phone lines and things like that. And we've really evolved into selling A full suite of managed services and really helping our customers simplify it, helping them with strategic planning and understanding what is out there for them that will give them greater scalability and reach and cost efficiency and things like that. I think again, the trend at a high level is moving to the cloud. Right. A lot of things moving to the cloud and both public and private. And for us, it's just staying ahead of that and making sure that we're equipped, that our sales teams and our people are equipped to help our customers through that migration.

That's great. Super helpful and needed. Chris, why don't you take us through a little bit of your background, kind of your journey through the tech landscape?

Yeah, absolutely. So I've been in the communications, cloud and managed services space for the better part of 20 years as well. I guess when you start counting decades, you really feel like you. You're aging yourself. But I've had a great run. I think the thing that I love about the communication space, first of all, it's the lifeblood of the organizations that we work with. So, you know, no matter whether it was back in the day that Jodi was mentioning, when we were really connecting to the outside of the building and walking away, even those services were evolving in the way that those were delivered and how important it was to the businesses that we, that we work with, it's critical that they have the connection to their. Their customers. And I love how serious our responsibility is to that. And now you fast forward to where we are today, like Jody mentioned, really getting on site with the client, sitting down with them, helping them make true business decisions with the decision makers of where the business is going today, tomorrow, and in several years. So now we're in the seat with business leaders, getting an understanding of how they're running their business in many respects, how they're making a living, how they're earning revenue and growing revenue and how they protect their data and then how they're using that data to make more money on top of just protecting their business. So it's been a long ride. And I think in some respects, you get into this business and you. And you stay there. You know, there are nuances of that responsibility, but the, the fun and the evolution and that constant change, that constant ability to do more and meet clients where they need to go and be on the cutting edge is my favorite part of being in technology.

Yeah, I think, you know, the community at large during COVID realized the things we took for granted in technology. That's for sure. Right. And the same with Businesses have taken, we've talked about actually on the pod with other Cox like security experts and small business experts about taking your safety and security for granted as well. And I'm glad you highlighted that piece because it's one piece to run a business that utilizes technology to do the things they do. The other is to make sure you can't. You're keeping yourself and your business safe and revenue running right in that regard. Another theme that we've talked actually with other COX leaders on is kind of the interest of like hospitality and connected other areas. Southern California, specifically San Diego, seen a lot of new arenas actually from like Snapdragon arena and now this brand new Front Wave Arena. I wonder, Jody, if you've got, you know, kind of led the team and some of these efforts and bringing a new sports team and new arena online with us here too.

Yeah, absolutely. It is, it's exciting to see all that new development and growth and we have a great hospitality team in the San Diego market led by Chris's team that does such a good job of working with those, those clients. One example of a project that we can talk about here that we're excited about is Front Wave arena in coming to Oceanside soon and that will be a multi use sports and entertainment venue. And we're really excited. We're building Fiber in and we're really partnering with them on deploying a high capacity network that's capable of delivering a full suite of solutions. But really focused on that guest experience. Right? Like really focus on that connected guest and fan experience and making sure that they're building this great new state of the art facility. So how can we help them make sure that they're using technology to the best of their advantage and to really create that awesome experience for them, all of their visitors when the arena opens. So we're excited about that partnership.

Yeah, it's another area where we honestly take it for granted too. We just expect that all of our devices will work in places where you know, 20,000 people are going to be. Right. And there's a lot of backbone that goes behind that, specifically fiber backbone and broadband and then the wireless side too. Like Chris, can you give us a little, any inside piece of working with frontwave, like what's, what's kind of new and exciting on a connectivity side that people can expect?

Well, I mean I think you can expect very high quality bandwidth. I mean we've got experience this year. We powered the Super Bowl. I know we powered a lot of the March Madness Final Four. So the experience that Cox has in, you know, performing in a very high demand environment is second to none and we're bringing that to Front Wave and other areas here throughout the region. So we're excited for the partnership. There's a lot of fun things with that and continuing to expand our offering there and our expertise at this point. I don't know that there's anyone that does it better than Cox.

Yeah, you certainly have got the time frame and the investment capacity and know how to do it right. A company that has had to re invest and re innovate so many times over 120 plus year period, you learn a thing or two when you have to kind of lean forward in that regard. We're gonna, no conversation is, is incomplete without talking about AI, which we're going to get to. The software world is ablaze with changes, but that also brings in part like it shows the need for hardware. I think AI has actually shown how much we need to be connected to, to, to a world that can power and think for us like Jodi, anything a kind of a note on the kind of the hardware fiber broadband world that you're seeing innovation wise and investment wise. Worth talking about.

Yeah, I mean I think you, you hear trends out there about how people are, are doing the connectivity differently. I think that Cox, you know, fibers become this generic term. Right. It just means faster Internet and how much fiber are we building out. So at Cox, we're super focused on continuing to build out that fiber infrastructure and doing that, you know, with our own internal teams and continuing to do that in the right way so that we're running fiber optics through whether that's conduit that's already in the ground or whether we're digging and trenching or attaching to poles and things like that. But we are building new fiber pathways on a regular and consistent basis for our customers and really taking the long term view on building infrastructure that's stable and not susceptible to things like weather like some of our competitors are going to, you know, more wireless. Doesn't mean we can't do, you know, wireless within a building or wireless within a small area or hard to reach locations, which we absolutely can do. But we're really, I guess I'll say not skimping on making sure that we build out that fiber infrastructure and that we invest in our network to make sure that it's the best, most robust network to serve all types of customers and businesses. You heard, you know, we talked a little bit about hospitality, but we serve hospitals, large enterprise customers. I mean Customers that, you know, they can't be down. Right. I mean, it's life or death. And so I think it's really important to talk about how we're continuously investing in building out infrastructure. And also through acquisition, we've purchased a couple of fiber companies in Segra and upn, which while they don't have a big presence here in the west, it still just goes to show you how Cox is focused on building that infrastructure throughout the markets that we serve across the country.

Yeah, it totally makes sense in terms of, from an investment, but also kind of a layered approach of, of the kinds of connectivity that people want because like we keep talking about, people just kind of take it for granted that they're always connected. Right. In that regard. And we kind of mentioned, we didn't mention the 5G word, which we're just expecting more and more to be connected with even bigger files, faster and all this stuff too. So it's not just that we want the same, we want more and more of everything as well. And you kind of have to just deliver. Right. And be behind the scenes offering that. Chris, what comes to mind for you and kind of trends you're seeing in technology needs for kind of companies these days?

Yeah, I mean, I think we talked about it, it touched on it slightly. The evolution of AI and machine learning is taking on a life of its own. Right. A few years ago we talked to businesses and they would, you'd think AI and that was just sort of something that was okay, that's kind of a cool thing, maybe a nice thing to dabble into in today's environment. It's becoming a must have. It's a must consider. You must look at that, how you are managing your data, how you're protecting your data, and then quite frankly, how you're leveraging that data in order to grow your business, run more efficiently and, and, and, and make more money, you know, the, the ultimate goal. So companies are really seeing the power of that and investing in it. And you know, I'll say that Cox has recognized this trend and we too are investing in our solutions to help companies realize what they need to in this regard. And our people, data scientists and things like that, are now, you know, positions on the, on the payroll and really being able to provide that kind of expertise to our companies, to the customers that we work with, is just, it's great. It's, it plays into the evolution. It's us meeting businesses where they want to be met and need to be met. And it's exciting for us to to be able to provide that layer that's the, you know, those solutions for. For clients as well.

I mean I think from where I see the breadth of kind of businesses that you touch from super small to large enterprise, like I would imagine you get every question imaginable from a business owner who has no IT person, right. To super sophisticated CIO managing really big technology teams. And yet you have to be able to have the conversation the same across the board in that regard. Right. So I'm not surprised you're one having to be knowledgeable on AI because maybe you're getting a help desk question of how to access GPT all the way to like what's the infrastructure to power the future of my company using this data lake I have and how do I make sure a competitor doesn't have access to the same data too. Right. So yeah, you know, all of that sounds like continuing. You have to stay up to speed and be able to answer every and all question and provide the support and technology for there as well too. Jody, anything on cloud that kind of comes to mind that's related to this too in terms of expansion for Cox business.

I mean I think as you're we Chris hit on a little bit. Right. But we're talking about protecting data. Right. And security. Security as a service, making sure that our customers have access to that. Whether it's the very small customers that just need help with email. Right. Making sure that their employees aren't clicking on emails that they shouldn't and things like that all the way up to servers and just making sure that our customers have access to an affordable security stack. Right. That allows them to focus on their business and what they do best. So I think that that's a really important aspect of what we're providing to our customers is really helping them protect them from all those bad actors out there. Right.

I would add even from a management perspective, companies are struggling and finding ways to more efficiently manage assets, manage equipment, manage people across the board. And you know, there's the. The technology is. Is such that. That, that we can really assist and, and help our clients focus more on what makes their business run while we handle the full, you know, IT stack across the board, the connectivity, the managed services and the, and the backup and redundant solutions behind that end to end.

Well, it's great. I mean there's a lot there for sure. I think we could spend days just on the hardware powering the AI or the cloud powering the AI for companies, let alone everything else. And I know you guys could talk for days. And you do. That's what you do day in, day out. So I appreciate that. I mentioned at the top of the podcast, this is a fun time here where we get to look inward and look within our companies of kind of, you know, technology leaders. And I love kind of the unsung hero aspect of top tech, which is recognizing, like, our CTOs, our CIOs, our VP of IT. Like, you know, these are. These are people who are doing the job no matter what and, you know, not. There's not a ton of award shows out there for. For them, everything is mostly CEO or Entrepreneur of the year. So I really appreciate and applaud that you guys have been supporting this for so long. Can you take us, tell us a little bit more, Jody, about top tech coming up this year and maybe make sure our listeners are not like what they can be nominating some of their team members for?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm super excited, Neil. Like you said, it's one of my favorite events of the year. We started it 17 years ago in San Diego as just a way to really recognize those unsung heroes, those IT folks that are a lot of times in the background and really bring them into the spotlight. So it's a really exciting event. We're returning to Snapdragon Stadium this year. We talked about stadiums and those types of arenas earlier on the show, and that will be coming up on Thursday, September 26, so that we hope that a lot of the listeners will come out there and celebrate with us. It's a great night. There's 13 categories. You talked about nominations, plus a Cox Business Exemplary award, where we honor an individual based on their community service and just leadership in the IT community overall. And there's lots of great categories there. We have two new awards that are exciting. It's always fun to have new awards. So we have a rising star, which will go to someone that is 30 or under. So someone that's really just a rising star in the IT space and also a cyber security professional. That's a new award as well. We talked a lot today about security and the importance of making sure that our businesses are protected. And so we're looking to recognize someone in the cybersecurity space as well. There's two ways to be nominated. You can submit a nomination directly for yourself or. Or someone else or request to be nominated, at which point someone will contact you and get your nomination submitted. We have until May 8, so a little more time and then tickets will go on sale soon as well. So for more Info anyone out there can go visit TopTech Awards.com San Diego and read all of the details. And hopefully, Neil, I know you'll be there. Hopefully a lot of our listeners will be there with us as well.

Yeah, it's so fun. I've. I've been fortunate enough to be at a lot of different stadiums where you guys throw a great party. So thank you for doing that. From Petco to the Del Mar fairgrounds to the Sound and back to Snapdragon, we sometimes. What's kind of fun, my part with this podcast, we'll. We'll do it. We won't tell the award winners. Maybe ahead of time, right off stage, we'll capture a quick sound bite. Like, take us through what you're feeling right now. And it's kind of fun to pull that through. People bring their families out, right? Like, it's. It's kind of a special, special moment for a lot for these award winners. So thank you guys for, for celebrating that. This being the Tacos in Tech podcast in Southern California's gravity of the taco scene, our listeners demand to know your favorite taco spots. It's a. It's got one of the biggest databases of taco spots now with names from all over the world, from deep south Mexico, other continents. But, you know, tacos are subjective. We all have our own little favorite nostalgic spot. Chris, I'm gonna put it to you first. You got a favorite, favorite taco spot?

I do. I would say for my years of living in Pacific Beach, I'm very partial to Roberto's in Pacific Beach. So when I think of tacos, that's. That's my first go to.

Okay. When I heard you say pb, I was expecting Oscars, because that is what I think I want to hear, pb. But man, Roberto's is on a top Pacific beach list as well. What is the order? What's your order there?

I mean, I go to Roberto's.

Yeah. What do you get? What's. What's.

Oh, what's my order? Oh, you mean. Yeah, no, I mean a couple things. I mean, I'll do a carne asada burrito. It depends on the time of day. So they do great breakfast burritos. Some little partial to that. And then the carne asado burrito. For sure.

Yeah. Good one. For sure. Jody, how about you? Do you have a favorite spot?

There's so many good ones. I will say that. I mean, geez, like, good Mexican food, specifically in San Diego is on every corner. I feel like you can't really go wrong. We used to joke with my kids when they were younger that as long as you go to anything bertos, you're probably safe. But I'll. I'll go with for tacos and I'm gonna go roll tacos specifically. I think I have to go with las cuatro mipas.

Oh, yeah, yeah, a really good one. And I appreciate the rolled taco point out there. The. It's a good one. Are you chicken, steak, fish? What do you. What do you have in your roll? Tacos.

Yeah, you know, when I'm going for the calories of the tacos and the burritos, I just gotta go steak. Definitely beef.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny that we talk so much about the fish taco scene, but the meats of all of the Bertos are so good from El pastor all over the place there too. So great mentions here. And now I think we all need to go get some food because we're all pretty hungry. And while we're doing that, we'll all go think about who we should be nominating for our top tech awards. I know I've got some portfolio companies that definitely deserve a mention there, so thank you both. Chris, Jody, thanks for your time. Thanks for your dedication to the tech ecosystem and the tech workforce in that regard as well too. You know, we know that tech doesn't just work itself. It takes people to keep us all connected. So we appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thanks for being on the pod.

Thanks for having us.

Thanks so much, Neil.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party, party started.

You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got tacos and tech is on smash for the green guacamole keeper Counting, counting beans Contador Quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a craft beer and coffee my coating yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing Coronado eating tacos el gordo the tacos standing puesto, lucha libre and sombrero Got a shout out to coast angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shows entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana estee be full of hustlers from couch surfing to Penthouse is right on the beach Tech leaders who believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the moon SD techos with your host, Neil Bloom.

Come on.

Startups get the party? Startups get the party started? Startups get the party? Startups get the party started? Startups get the party? Startups get the party started?

You want Tekken, tacos, tacos and tacos? Tech, you know we got it, hey?

Startups get the party? Startups get the party started? Startups get the party? Startups get the party started? Startups get the party? Startups get the party started?

You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech, you know we got it, hey?