I'll try not ask you anything about the ACI fiasco, seems like that was quite.. messy.
I have independent opinions and I generally choose to speak my mind. Most people are afraid to criticise vendors or resellers and you rarely find a negative view said in public. I would rather be independent and criticised like this than someone who constantly craves attention from vendors by sucking up and boot licking.
The executive team that built ACI have a long history of bullying, bullsh*t and bravado. They loved my positive review (http://www.networkcomputing.com/data-centers/cisco-aci-solves-all-your-data-center-network-problems/a/d-id/1234526?) and presented it to Cisco shareholders, they hated my negative review and have been bullying me ever since (and it is bullying, don't miss that). I continue to have the opinion that there are more negative features of ACI than there are positive. That said, ACI is becoming more interesting as new features are completed and it could be a good choice for some customers.
Get more people interested in Networking from an early age I don't really have a good answer here but I will tell you how I see things today. Most network engineers have lonely work lives because there are so few of us compared to other categories. Most companies have just one network resource/person and have no one to talk to, discuss problems or ask for advice. That is one of reasons that Ethan & I started blogging and then recording the podcast. Its cheesy, but you are not alone.
Networking will never be as big as software development or other infrastructure skills because of the way that the market works.
Next - do you think the behaviour of the ultra-large corp (Facebook, Amazon, Google et al) is damaging, in general, to the average enterprise? Specifically with their recreating protocols, platforms, OS's and features to be more inline with their requirements?
Not really. There is a huge transition in enterprise that is driven by the growth of the consumer market. For the last 30 years, Enterprise IT drove the market and so we got MS (bloody) Windows and cheap craptops. Enterprise IT wanted big powerful CPUs, monolithic applications and private WANs. But now companies like Apple and Samging don't even care about the Enterprise and this means that Internet replaces WAN, CPUs are small and efficient, and applications are hugely different.
That is, the money to made from smartphones and apps for the average person now dwarfs the total IT spend for Enterprise. This means that Enterprise is being forced to follow the consumer markets and make it fit their needs. The days of "enterprise ready" are over.
So I would say that the transition in technology is driven by a change in the market and not by companies. Sure, Facebook & Google are replacing Verizon, BT, Telstra in determining the future of the networking but because the consumer market now dominates IT Spending.
Lastly - favourite scotch?
None. I only drink real beer, and usually at this pub :) - http://www.cheltenhamcamra.org.uk/newsarticle.php?article=100. In fact, I might head over there in a few hours ..... mmmmm beers