When the clock struck midnight on January 1, a new decade commenced with four U.S. technology companies at or very close to the $1 trillion mark in valuation.

The question on the table for the next eight to 10 years is whether Apple Corp., Google LLC, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon Inc. will manage to stay unchallenged at that lofty level.

“They look invulnerable in the trillionaires’ club, but I would point out there will be a backlash,” said Dave Vellante, co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during an enterprise analysis discussion at the Cisco Live event in Barcelona. “People are beginning to realize how powerful they are, and the enterprise players have really begun to respond. They don’t like to give up their position, so it will be interesting to see how that goes.”

Vellante spoke with co-hosts John Furrier and Stu Miniman, and they discussed the shifting landscape for networking vendors such as Cisco Systems Inc. and next waves of technology change in the enterprise computing world. (* Disclosure below.)

Network transformation

With Cisco Systems Inc. holding its major conference in Europe this week, theCUBE analysts used the occasion to examine evolving trends in the enterprise computing world. In the “holy trinity” of information technology, where compute, storage and networking reign supreme, the industry has already seen compute and storage models transformed through Amazon’s successful cloud products and services approach.

In response, Cisco has embarked on a clear strategy to move from selling hardware to software-based solutions that support its vision of a programmable enterprise network. Is networking about to be transformed in much the same manner as compute and storage?

“We already see that happening,” Miniman said. “If I’m deploying serverless architectures, is there networking involved? Yes. Do I know what it is? No, my platform underneath it is going to take care of that.”

The challenge confronting enterprises today is how to derive maximum value from computing models, which can be costly, complicated and continually evolving. This scenario will likely drive the next wave of change over the coming decade in the enterprise world, according to Furrier.

“Value proposition is the business model evolution; that’s going to be a wave that will constantly be the north star for transformation,” Furrier said. “Artificial intelligence and data will continue to power a lot of the value, and networking is going to be cloudified.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Cisco Live event. (* Disclosure: Some segments of theCUBE have been sponsored at this event and will be disclosed. No sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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