If you’ve spent any time at SOF Week, you know the drill. It’s the premier global gathering for the Special Operations community. For one week, it’s a sea of high-speed gear: automated dogs, C-UAS platforms, and optics that turn night into high-definition day. It’s impressive, and it’s the kind of stuff that reminds you why we do what we do. And yeah… we’ll be right there with everyone else, quietly admiring it, probably drooling over it a little. 

But in that sea of kinetic hardware, there’s a small contingent of us…the nerds. The ones focused less on the automated dogs, C-UAS platforms, and next-generation optics, and more on the invisible infrastructure underneath it all — the networking and security architecture that allows those systems to communicate, operate securely, and remain resilient when the environment is anything but stable. 

That’s where #TeamDnS comes in — a name that plays on both the Domain Name System (DNS), the foundational technology that helps modern networks communicate, and Darrin & Scott, the globe-trotting duo carrying Cisco’s message of tightly integrated networking and security. 

While others may be focused on the platforms themselves, our attention naturally gravitates toward the connective tissue behind them: the enterprise infrastructure, visibility, segmentation, resilience, and secure communications that allow modern missions to function at mission speed. 

I’ve spent 20 years in the DoD, and I know that when the environment gets austere; the heat, the exhaustion, and the pressure of a mission where the margin for error is zero. You don’t care about “innovative solutions.” You care about one thing: does it work? 

A lot of technology looks great in a lab, but at the tactical edge, you don’t have the luxury of managing a dozen disconnected point solutions. You don’t have time for complexity. You need a cohesive architecture, because security isn’t just a feature: it’s the battleground. And most of that “always-on cloud” thinking doesn’t survive in contested environments. You need resilience. You need on-prem capability. You need something that doesn’t break when the network does.  

That’s what #TeamDnS and our peers bring with Cisco. We keep it simple: 

• Zero Trust and Identity Networking: It’s not just a buzzword; it’s about strict identity verification to keep mission-critical networks locked down. We’re showing how to maintain robust access control and protect your data, even in highly contested environments. 
• Connecting the Operational Edge: Tactical field ops and command centers shouldn’t be speaking different languages. We’re showing how ruggedized connectivity bridges that gap, allowing you to securely transmit real-time data to support faster, more informed decision-making at the edge. 
• Quantum Safe for What’s Next: The cryptographic threats of tomorrow are already here. We’re exploring quantum-resistant tech engineered to defend sensitive communications. Cisco Security provides capabilities into securing infrastructure today against the advanced security challenges of the future. 
• Power AI Workloads – Data Center to Edge: Everyone’s talking AI, but you need it to work from the data center to the tactical edge. We’re showing how high-performance, scalable infrastructure gives you the compute power to drive actionable insights, no matter where you’re operating. 

We’ll be surrounded by some of the most advanced hardware in the world, and we appreciate every bit of it, but none of it matters if the network behind it fails. True story. Come find us at Booth #908. We’ll talk shop, look at the tech, and have real conversations about what it takes to keep networks resilient in the environments that matter most. 

See you in Tampa

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