DevNet Express: Learn to code and use the power of Cisco APIs, a Cisco Champion Radio Podcast (S5|Ep.22)

In this episode of Cisco Champion Radio, our Cisco Champion host Jose Bogarín discusses Cisco DevNet Express.

The Cisco DevNet Express program hasn’t been around all that long but in its short run, it’s made a huge impact. That’s one reason, among many, that we’re excited to bring you this conversational podcast with DevNet Express expert and Cisco Champion, Jose Bogarin.

Meet Jose Bogarín

Jose is one of an elite group of non-Cisco employees that run DevNet Express events, he is also a Cisco Champion and the CIO at Altus Consulting, a VAR based in Costa Rica. Jose is no stranger to DevNet Express, he attended one of the very first events and fell in love at first sight. Check out his personal journey with DevNet here.

So what is DevNet Express and Why should You attend the next one in your City

DevNet Express is a program that was implemented about three years ago as a way to package up the DevNet experience and make it available to a much larger pool of customers, partners, engineers, and others around the world. Essentially, it’s DevNet in a box, an in-person event with pre-packaged tutorials and curriculum as well as games and rewards for those that participate. They are typically run by highly qualified sales engineers and a select group of partners.

The Curriculum, Is there Something for Me?

DevNet Express curricula focus on three different architectures:

Collaboration

Data Center

Networking

The goal is to help people bridge the gap between the physical hands-on components and all the cool stuff you can do with APIs. DevNet Express packages up educational information in a friendly hands-on, instructor-led event to help you get in the game. The events are in person and typically run two days. And did I mention they are free!

Learning how to code

DevNet Express events normally start with basic programming skills using Python, which is fairly easy to use as far as programming languages are concerned. Python also has the ability to scale up to very powerful applications so it’s an ideal language for beginners and experts alike. Additionally, with existing code libraries, it’s easy to get started and DevNet shows you how.

DevNet Express also introduces concepts around REST API’s, the different HTTP methods, and how a REST call looks and performs. This includes using Postman to utilize APIs without having to write code.

What’s New?

DevNet Express has integrated fresh new content to simplify and distill down lessons to be more consumable. The new content covers UCS, UCS Manager, and ACI and how APIs and SDKs can be utilized to automate processes and integrate other platforms.

What about Collaboration and DNA Center? Don’t worry, those are covered too. Overall, DevNet Express is a good starting point for a network engineer that wants to go the application development or the automation route, expand their skills, make themselves more valuable, and most importantly help drive positive networking change for their company.

Once you’ve started automating and integrating, the DevNet Sandbox lets you try things out. Maybe you’re playing around with something in the lab, try it out in the sandbox. You can then decide whether you want to bring it in-house or continue tweaking it.

Overall you get great learning content, documentation, and resources, and the ability to try it all out in the sandbox.

How can you take part?

Cisco partners, as well as Cisco sales engineering teams, are now hosting DevNet Express events around the world. Recent events were in South Africa, Australia, Latin America, Europe, and of course across the US. Over the last few years, there have been hundreds of DevNet express events that have helped countless individuals build and hone their skills. What makes it better is that each event across the world has the same content delivered, so someone in South Africa is learning the same as someone in San Jose!

DevNet Express events are listed on the DevNet events portal. You can browse and see when one is coming to your region. And if you are interested in conducting a DevNet Express in your area, simply attend one and get in touch with the Partner SE to get trained. DevNet Express events have a “Listen, Learn, Put it into Practice” structure and that differentiates a DevNet Express event from any other event. It’s a combination of a workshop and a hackathon which make the content hands-on and rewarding.

500,000 DevNet Developers and Counting

Cisco DevNet now boasts more than 500,000 developers. Network engineers are looking for new skills to keep up with demand for diversified requirements and DevNet and the DevNet Express events offer those skills for free in an easy to understand way that inspires and makes learning fun and rewarding.

All of what DevNet offers; educational exercises, code, and a vast community of developers is all available on developer.cisco.com

Get the Podcast

Listen to this episode in SoundCloud

SUBSCRIBE on iTunes and listen to all episodes of Season 5

Listen to Seasons 1-4 in iTunes

Cisco Champion Host

Jose Bogarín (@josebogarin), Cisco Champion member, Chief Innovation Officer.

Guest

Ashley Roach, Developer Evangelist.

Moderator

Brett Shore (@brettshore), Cisco Champion Program Management.

Podcast Discussion Topics

What is a DevNet Express

DevNet Express curriculum

What coding language and technologies DevNet uses and why

Where you can find DevNet Express sessions

DevNet Express Training Program

What the DevNet organization is like and how they got to 500k developers

How DevNet got started

What the sandbox environment is like

What is DevNet Create

How Meraki ties into DevNet Create

Resources

More info on Cisco DevNet

Events on DevNet

More info on Learning Labs

More info on the DevNet Sandbox

More information for App Developers on DevNet

Listen in and provide us feedback, we would love to hear from you!

Cisco Champions are an elite group of technical experts who are passionate about IT and enjoy sharing their knowledge, expertise, and thoughts across the social web and with Cisco. The program has been running for over five years and has earned two industry awards as an industry best practice. Learn more about the program at http://cs.co/ciscochampionprogram.