Applications Meet Infrastructure at Cisco Live Berlin: DevNet Zone

By all rights I should be exhausted.  But I’m not.  To the contrary, as Cisco Live Berlin 2017 winds down, I’m totally energized.  So much creativity.  So many amazing people, with innovative products and ideas that are truly transforming the way we live and work.  I saw this first-hand in our DevNet Zone and throughout the event. On Tuesday, I was honored to give one of the conference Innovation Talks.  I took the opportunity to look at the growing importance of the relationship between applications and the network infrastructure on which they run.  You can see the replay of my Innovation Talk here.

There was a time, not so long ago, when applications and network/IT infrastructure were managed separately – when applications were the domain of software developers, and infrastructure belonged to network engineers and IT professionals.

Today, applications have become the primary vehicle for reinventing entire workflows that transform (or disrupt) businesses.  The Internet of Things and the Cloud are opening up new pathways for developers to create business value in an increasingly app driven economy, but only if the apps are seamlessly and securely connected to the programmable network infrastructure.  Keeping those apps running and performing well has never been more important.

The world of network engineers and IT professionals is also undergoing rapid and profound change.  To meet skyrocketing expectations for network speed, scale, analytics and security, they are becoming programmers too – creating network infrastructure that is more automated, software-defined, and programmable.

The imperative is clear…applications and infrastructure must meet.  Developers and IT must communicate, and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are the medium for that connection.  APIs are how separate software systems talk to each other.  APIs are the vehicle by which network administrators can securely expose the infrastructure to app developers, and developers in turn can build applications that are optimized to run on the infrastructure.

This is the nexus where Cisco DevNet lives – where applications and infrastructure meet.  This week, that meeting has been on full display in the DevNet Zone at Cisco Live in Berlin.  Workshops on using APIs for NETCONF/RESTCONF/YANG, WAN Automation Engine, and APIC-EM have been filled to capacity.  As were developer sessions on using Cisco IoT tools, integrating Spark collaboration into apps, or creating context-aware mobile experiences with the CMX API.  Cloud sessions on continuous development, containers, Docker, blockchain, serverless, and more all played to overflow audiences.  Vince Kelly was his usual Python programming rock star.  With over 120 sessions, I can’t begin to list all that happened…IS HAPPENING!

To everyone who came to see us in the DevNet Zone…thank you.  It was great to meet you in person.  If you weren’t able to be there, you can catch replays of the sessions on the Cisco DevNet YouTube Channel.  And if you don’t find what you’re looking for there, email us at DevNet@cisco.com, and we’ll help you out.

Your input and engagement is important to us.  So if you’re not a member already, please join the DevNet Community.  Whether you’re an app developer, network engineer or IT pro, we’re here to help you learn, code, inspire, and connect.

Now it’s time to get ready for DevNet Create, May 23-24 in San Francisco.  We’re bringing together application developers, infrastructure engineers, designers, technologists, innovators, DevOps engineers and IT Pros who want to define and build this new landscape – where applications meet infrastructure.  Join us!