Network Automation

[Music]

my

how's my hair

good how's my hair okay already we are

welcome everyone to today's Cisco chat

live I'm Silvia spy versus Co developer

community manager and you know we always

bring you all the latest news from dev

net we want to make sure that you know

the latest and the latest is definite

automation exchange we have a great crew

with us we're going to go first to hear

from Patrick Patrick Rocco

I've been a Cisco for about four years

as a systems engineer in the Atlanta

select commercial space before that on

the customer side as a sales engineer

and network engineer and the service

provider arena hey everybody I'm bill

Henschel I'm the director of enterprise

networks for our Americas partner

organization and as a nineteen-year

cisco veteran and coder myself I'm

excited to discuss what's going on with

partners and dev net and I'm John

McDonough

I'm a Deb net developer advocate I've

been with Cisco for quite a number of

years and I've been programming all

those years and I'm excited about this

new network automation exchange that we

have so of course you get the tough

question sure

what is definite automation exchanged so

Deb that automation exchange is a place

where you can get some use cases and

code that could help you and your

automation and your automation journey

and that's great but it's also a place

where you can submit or give what you've

done and I know that as a developer

every time I do something great there's

something good I like to share it and

not not not from you know pat on the

back perspective but I think it helped

me it can help somebody else so

automation exchange is a place where you

can get some use cases and the code and

how it was deployed and things like that

but it's also a place where you can

submit what you've done and tell us how

you did it you know give yourself a

little bit of a place to shine and tell

us all about

your automation and what you're doing in

your environment and share with others

you've been with dev net for two three

years now coming up on three years yeah

but of course you were presenting in the

devlins zone before that oh my gosh I I

was in another group and I saw the great

stuff going on in Devon I thought if I

start presenting in the definite zone

Mable it'd be like hey I like that guy

and and they'll they'll bring him in and

bring me in and so I started way back to

presenting the definite zone but now I'm

actually definite developer advocate for

datacenter and you know network

automation data center automation these

are things that I spend a lot of time

looking at and working on and that's why

I'm so excited about this automation

exchange because it gives me a place to

share what I'm doing

so hold on to that feeling of

remembering what it was like to want to

be part of definite because we wanted to

make sure that everyone watching feels

welcome and that they understand how

they can contribute sure let's go to

someone representing one of our favorite

organizations Patrick tell us about

today you're representing the systems

engineering organization who can

contribute to automation exchange so the

really really short answer was anyone

but as far in terms of our se leadership

and how they've kind of purchased really

especially with Chris Lunsford and he

has has really been an advocate for this

and really helped our engineering team

kind of move the needle in terms of the

the coding and programming fundamentals

that we as SES as well as the community

as a whole need and desire Chris and I

actually just finished a definite

workshop for local networking some local

network academy students went through

the fundamentals around Python API is

and Devon has done a lot of those kinds

of events not only local to areas I

could land up but worldwide just in

terms of looking at some of the

different architectures with dev net

Express events with the workshops

there's been hackathons and other ways

just to get the training and hands-on so

that they can really see what we're

doing in terms of making open agile

approach to to automation and one of the

questions that we as SES often ask even

our customers is what problem are we

trying to solve and normally I break

that down into kind of three pressures

that a lot of IT and networking team

have what is that external IT pressure

right where cisco and other vendors

continue to introduce new features and

functionality that a lot of these teams

is currently don't have the bandwidth to

to take advantage of because they're

putting out fires all the time trying to

manage these networks that are becoming

more more complex another one is in

terms of sort of this internal IT

pressure where just internally there's

more and more mobile devices more MORE

I have T devices that are being added to

the network again adding that complexity

as well as security concerns and if

there is a business pressure where the

lines of business are really seeing how

important the network is it's helping

you know with the customer experience

like one example even locally to Atlanta

is a furniture company that uses

location analytics to determine how long

a customer's been in a store what

they're looking at they need help or not

or if it's in terms of saving money like

another company that uses a freezer

refrigeration warehouse system where

they need to know these temperatures are

critical to the business and instead of

using humans that obviously are can be

more error prone they need to get that

data reliably through automation as well

as to act on any case there's issues so

that's kind of the ideas how can we help

with these pressures and I see just from

you know outside looking into dev net

really Devon I start with that code

exchange right the ability to kind of

curate code from github and now I've

used Google kind of bringing that code

into a place where they can look at it

and start to see some of those examples

but as it's your point this Network

automation exchange it's kind of the

next step into those real world use

cases where the community can kind of

see how they could drive the innovation

not only from those examples but using

those examples to even bring them back

and represent them to the community to

the codes to the automation exchange to

to continue the efforts there those are

some great examples and if I go to

automation exchange will I see those use

cases there or do we want to really take

the opportunity to remind people to

enter those use cases and shine and

share yeah yeah I think that's that's a

great point to me the use cases that are

there it's kind of I would say a

starting point and maybe the use case

doesn't it made us like 100% of what

you're looking for maybe it's 80% you

can take that example

add to it and then sort of resubmit that

to a use case also so that helps other

people as well now we know that cisco

loves our partners we love our partners

that's a hashtag I didn't start it my

friend mol abdel started it but you know

he's he's fantastic so a shout out to

mow abdel and we're going to go to

someone else who is fantastic and loves

our partners our friend bill and we're

going to ask bill why he's so involved

with deb net and why he sees definite as

being so important for cisco partners

it's great question sylvia you know one

of the things in in my time covering our

partner community and and dealing with

partners globally in my former role is

the they're always looking for a way to

differentiate themselves you know

anybody can sell you a switch or router

or whatever from from us or any

manufacturer quite frankly but what is

the thing that makes that partner unique

how do they stand out in a crowd and and

as I did at Cisco live us one of the

conversations that came up time and time

again is how do I stand out how do i

leverage the great stuff we do and the

intellectual property you know it's not

just install some net ops hardware

faster or better but really how do I

start doing things like writing

automation code that either is going to

help me be more profitable because I can

do a deployment for a customer faster

and in a consistent way that helps my

security or is there something I could

do something unique that I can do with

with a network that I couldn't do before

with just simple you know CLI etc and

when we have these discussions it's been

awesome when I talk to these partners

and I've had I had multiple I had one I

was talking to and they said hey you we

kind of have this DevOps practice that's

really focused on collaboration and now

I'm learning about Deb net and all the

oken I've api's you have across your

entire portfolio boy that seems like

there's a lot more we could do there and

we started talking about it and how on

average partners find that they are

about three times more profitable by

doing DevOps types practices than

are doing just simple net ups you know

rack and stack install kind of stuff so

that the profitability came in and then

obviously done differentiation you know

wow if I could do something amazing like

write an app that watches for like when

a badge reader triggers and then the

camera sees that trigger and I and

matches that person's face with the

badge read wow that would be amazing to

have an automated like security system

ironically if you look up on the

automation exchange there's already one

up there for Meraki

cameras and badge readers so I was like

wow that was funny they were just

talking about it and now I see someone's

already uploaded that example and that's

just one idea so things like that now

you can really differentiate and and

leverage the network in new unique ways

that allow you as a partner to say hey

you want to come work with me partner BC

because I have this capability in

context the other part that's really

cool about that is our as our partners

start getting more and more involved in

this global community is they its lets

them shine and see why do I want to

select if I'm a customer why do I want

to select this partner well look at this

they've got all this code uploaded they

actually understand networking beyond

just simple connections but actually how

to articulate the network based on some

really business in real business use

case and that ties right into some of

those certifications that we're having

coming out here shortly around deafness

it's not just I'm a CCIE but I'm like a

rockstar developer and I can showcase my

talent so why do i as an individual you

know what's the value I have but also as

a partner what value does this partner

have and why would I pick partner over

partner be because I might be able to

get a better experience with that

partner and then you know then really it

just really grows from there so my point

simply is by bringing this back is being

able to leverage the open api's and the

platform experience that we give that i

blogged about allows partners to really

change the game for themselves and stand

out and and its core to their business

and and how they're gonna go to the next

you know go to the next wave so that's

that's really why deb net and tying in

these communities and this automation

exchange is that as the you know the new

thing that we're adding really helps

them change their business and

go to that nuts you know what the next

year's are gonna look like I like that

you gave an example that's already an

automation exchange and I want to remind

the global community it's not about Oh

someone had that idea already I wasn't

the first one to get that idea and

that's not what matters what matters is

building on each other's ideas right

because we can take it to the next level

and and that's what this is all about

share what you've build and you'll be

surprised at how you can collaborate not

just with people within Cisco but with

other partners now bill I want to come

back to a point that you made which is

really important and I want to make sure

that people hear it partners cisco

partners should have a DevOps practice

tend to be three times more profitable

so i got that i was talking to a partner

that's actually developed a really nice

DevOps practice in fact you know i know

we're not doing product placement but

i've got a little Panera cup here and

that's the customer they wrote for and

and and it's a public reference so I'm

allowed to do that but what's cool about

it is this partner was telling me that

you know wasn't just setting up the

network but then they used their DevOps

practice that they built out and

invested in to then expand what what

that company was able to do and when I

talked to him but I said wow you know

how did this change your business they

said well you know bill selling hardware

I get I get you know a certain amount of

profitability off selling your hardware

when I attach my services to it for

every dollar of service I get about

three dollars I've sold about three

dollars a hardware to get the same level

profitability when I saw attached my

services when I attach my DevOps

practice and actually start coding not

only do I get more stickiness for that

customer to allow them to do net new

things and change their business model

but I get about a 9x over just selling

the hardware so I sell you a piece of

gear I make 1x profit if I can sell you

some DevOps practice and coding

capabilities

I'm making about nine acts so it's about

a three a factor of three times more

profitable than their traditional

services sales model so that was that's

a direct quote from one part

I mean your mileage is gonna vary of

course but but that was I was like wow

that's there it is that's why you should

do this so I'm going to give any Cisco

partner watching out there some homework

go to blogs cisco.com slash author slash

bill Henschel because he has been

blogging about this in the past year and

you want to go back do their homework

and get these step-by-step tips on how

to build a DevOps practice from Bill but

I know he's going to be blogging a lot

more so make sure you bookmark that blog

stuff cisco.com slash developer slash

author slash bill Henschel we have lots

some questions coming in already I have

to ask this one some will stay for the

end because it means that someone we

care about a lot is paying attention

question from Stuart Clark on YouTube

who has the best most awesome beard on

the definite team oh my gosh that would

be me and I don't know my if mine

actually counts as a beard but I would

say that when you have this you know the

darker on the top and the more you know

mature on the bottom it just lends

itself to a brand of Awesomeness that

you can't get with a one-color beard or

a length of beard so I'm gonna say from

that perspective it would be me but

everybody's opinion is is different and

you know well I just have to know we can

agree to disagree perhaps maybe you

don't have the most awesome big evil

beard in the definite team but a big

shout out to our teammates who are

Manning and women in the social media

channels out there we're live on Cisco

comm Twitter YouTube Facebook so thank

you everyone for tuning in and make sure

you keep and sending us your questions

and we will get to them before the end

automation exchange I know you've heard

about code exchange you've heard about

partner exchange this is really that

next step of bringing all of that

together learning for

somebody else's use cases and adding

your own use cases automation exchange

so what is it how do you submit a use

case step by step John can you show us

how to use it I can so let me just set

this up for just a minute you know my

favorite part of going to the movies is

the previews oh and you know you see

what's coming what you're excited about

what you think is is you know junk so

you you know you just you know and then

you make little quips to your to whoever

you're there with but here's the thing

we have a full-length movie coming at

some point but the I did bring a clip

with me today the control room has it so

if the code if you in the control room

if you would actually roll the clip we

can go ahead and I'll take you through

the submission process so and if I could

I'd like to reach a my answer and

history as the best beard so you open up

a browser and go to developer down sis

cocom slash automation it's really that

simple and when you get to the

automation page you'll see that we have

two buttons right at the top one to view

all the use cases which that's your

homework do it on your own and then

share a use case that's what I want to

talk about today you click that button

it takes you to the case submission form

or the use case submission form you put

in a title and in this case the title is

ansible playbooks for configuring you

seeis network interfaces and VLANs give

me a two line technology summary or put

the two line technology summary in the

form and go ahead and add a two line

business summary why did you do this how

does it help your business has it helped

your day-to-day and now give us a really

detailed use case description as

detailed as you can possibly be because

we're going to use this to determine you

know addition into the into the

automation exchange and also so the

people using it you know know what it is

all about

so what's these case for this one

automation and scale I want to be able

to add these interfaces quickly pick the

domain well its data center and but you

could pick others so suppose it was a

you know it was beyond that what's the

workflow this is day one configuration

or day two configuration perhaps what

are the products that are being used

here again this one's for UCS but it

could be a CI it could be an XLS and

what's the stage is it walk run and fly

is it run is it fly whatever it may be

unless the technology is used so in this

case it was ansible and they give us

some more information the link to the

code exchange repo the name of a sandbox

the link to a sandbox anything here that

can help somebody with this use case a

video demo a video tutorial and once all

that's in there click Submit we get your

submission we go through it we look at

the repo and code exchange we look at

the detail that you've given us and we

determine the viability of putting this

out there an automation exchange it's

really that simple

so there is a check checking process

that happens in the background after a

submission is made absolutely you know

we won't just click Submit and then it's

just out there

it's click submit our team's get

notified we look at this and so from a

domain perspective if one you know I I

did that little clip there so of course

I put UCS and that's my favorite

technology but now I'm the domain expert

on that but some other domain experts

will be pulled in for the technologies

that are utilized there and you know we

may actually go ahead and run through

that code just to ensure is this doing

what they said it would do we'll look at

the code you know we'll make sure the

licensing is correct so there's a lot of

things that come into play to make sure

that it really does fit into that you

know that section of dev net and it's

appropriately or it's appropriate to be

out there well that's good to know so

any use cases that are already there on

automation exchange have gone through

that process any use cases that are out

there we we went over we looked at code

we ensure that the licensing was correct

we ensured that this was something that

people could download and utilize and

the providers are that you know are rest

assured that you know someone's using

their code but we do want to make sure

that people understand when you bring

something into your environment you know

tested fires to make sure it works for

you the way it should work are you

expected to work you know we we do

expect you to you know make sure it's

good for you and follow your best

practices within your environment when

you apply code like that this is super

exciting because you know you and I have

been in the definite team for almost

three years now and

been following definite like we were

talking about earlier before and we see

that there are so many people that are

involved and have so much to contribute

so this is an opportunity for them to

submit their use cases and really get

visibility for themselves or their

organization or their company tell us

more about walk run fly what does that

mean so of course you know and and just

you know a little bit on your last point

there was that you know people used to

come to these events and be like oh I

really want to be part of that not I

really want to do what you do I want to

get out there and talk and I want to get

and I want to write a blog and and now

you know this is how we can bring that

community in wherever you are you may

never get to go to an event because your

location because of the whatever the

resources are that you have but if

you're that developer if you're that

person in your in that scenario where

you can't make it to us right that

doesn't mean you can't be part of us

this is how you can be part of us this

is for everybody everywhere globally so

walk run fly well you know we know

everybody can't be as seasoned as

everybody else because it takes years to

get there experience etc and how do you

do it

right you walk well you might have

crawled first but you walk and then you

run and then you fly and the walking

part is let's get some data and

analytics from our environments let's

just query it don't do what do you think

that might change configurations or

let's walk get some data and pull it out

that's the walk part the run part is

okay well now I got my data and maybe

I'm gonna do some some coding here too

let me change some configurations right

in maybe a hands-on way maybe at the

command line I still run a script but I

have control over when that's running

and and I can see how it kind of plays

out and it does this configuration for

me based on some data that it pulled so

we're putting that walk and that run

together and fly is really where it all

comes together this is the exciting part

because now we can take the automation

code that's there and put into our

DevOps our DevOps practices right so

where I can make a change to maybe a

configuration in an editor push that

change to a

code repository so I haven't documented

I made the change when I did it and I

pushed the code repository

well now the code repository typically

has some kind of web hook that can be

triggered and this is what's exciting so

now the code repository says oh you made

a change sends off this web hook which

may be the payload of that web book is

what changed who changed it when it was

changed and it sends it off to a web

book listener whatever that may be

whether it's something in the cloud or

it's something on a workstation

someplace in your data center this web

hook gets this payload gets delivered to

the web hook listener the web hook

listener parses it pulls out the data it

says oh it's an update was made to this

playbook the configuration was changed

or we're adding something routing

whatever maybe I'm going to run it and

as exciting as that is right from push

to your code repository to the code

being run and changing your your your

environment the logs and whatever may be

resulting from that change well they're

on that workstation how about I take

those logs right you ready for this

already I take those logs and I sent it

to a collaboration you know endpoint

where everybody in my team sees the

change that just happened who did it

when they did it what the results were

and now I have a historical record of

all that the changes that people get to

see it that's the fly

it's end-to-end DevOps enabled

automation and that's what we're talking

about and Dart slow not slow easy better

it really seems like a journey towards

community which which is fantastic you

know you feel at first we might feel

like oh I'm doing this on my own I

wonder if anyone out there is noticing

then you have something worth sharing

and then you're improving the experience

for everybody I love them we always

bring it back to community and thank you

for explaining that now I know Susie has

presented on this topic before I walk

run fly and we have videos from definite

create and Cisco live us so social Julio

and

social Julio Julio Fernandez who's

monitoring your questions reminded me to

remind you to go to the definite YouTube

channel and watch those videos and get

trained and you can always go to

developer Docs Cisco comm and see the

complete list of places where you can

follow us on social and you can make

that social Julio happy now walk run fly

I want to know how partners are doing

this I want to know how our systems

engineers are doing this so bill how are

you getting the word out to cisco

partners about everything that they can

do with definite that's a nice one so

via so that that's that's a big question

a lot going on there because there's so

many parts of dead net right and so that

the first thing that I have done is when

I meet with the partners is that going

to check in with them and find out

things like do you even have a deaf net

practice or DevOps practice I should say

and if you do have you marketed are you

aware of it and if not are there things

that we can do with our connection to

deaf net to help you mark it and and

take advantage of it and so that's the

first part of just the introduction it's

just having those face-to-face meetings

and talking about what their strategy is

around DevOps and how they're

interfacing and being part of the dead

net community can expand what they're

doing already as I said before I've

found some of these partners maybe have

a DevOps practice but it's limited to a

certain area you know we only do it when

we're talking into juror AWS we hadn't

even thought about some of the things we

could do on the network and then tying

it back to wow you know what if you

thought about this more broadly as

you're bringing applications down from

let's say AWS to having a network

automatically identify and apply policy

to make sure you're getting proper

access and and throughput and quality of

service etc could then extend that out

oh my god I'd even think about that so

that's that's one area the other area is

just doing things like going to Cisco

live and encouraging our partners and

sending message our partners to make

sure they're showing up at all the dead

net a vents going on at whether it was

Cisco live us or the upcoming one in

Cancun and Cisco live

Tamm which I hope to see a lot of you

there and and I know that'll be a great

time but that's another area where we

make sure they're aware of this

opportunity to be part of this bigger

community and then the third thing that

I've been focusing on in my role is we

do Cisco there's a lot of investments

and our partners because you said at the

beginning partners are so critical to

our business and with over 10,000

partners spread across the Americas to

make sure we're touching them and make

sure we're investing is that we write

contracts with them investment contracts

that say hey if you go build out your

DevOps practice we'll help you and so

for partners that are really digging in

and really want to co invest and don't

really know how to get going we have

people on my team they're going in and

actually help them through investments

of people and dollars and connecting

them back to to dev net so that they can

see what the opportunity is beyond

what's going on right as I talked about

a minute ago about that you know trying

to increase profitability so much for

them I mean that's huge for them so

that's those are different ways that

we're getting the message out and then

of course making sure everybody in

America's partner organization is aware

of the opportunity that deb net provides

for our partners and how they can get

involved it's it's really the next way

if you even see our senior leaders we're

going to impact as you know here coming

up the end of end of August which is our

big sales event we have everybody from

around the globe all comes in to Las

Vegas and we share best practices ideas

we talk about the fiscal year we ended

and what the big focuses for next year

well guess what Deb net DevOps practices

all the open api's that's a huge focus

of this coming impact and we're gonna be

talking about that we have a lot of

partners that show up and want to hear

what's the latest where we focus what's

the top of mind for Cisco and as you

mentioned already Sylvia and John is

Suzy this is huge top of mind for Suzy

and Chuck it's gonna be all over our

impact so I think that's just gonna help

spread the word even more on top of what

little old me can do but keep spreading

the word and we are admiring your

stickers look at all the stickers see he

has Debbie he has a Barcelona Debbie he

has a little come to the community

Debbie he has a still

a sticker he's a team player yeah we're

liking this there's a Julio sticker over

here too don't let's not forget all the

swag you know I got that and then I've

got you know even on the back of the

phone I'm a little bit of a fanboy every

sticker counts and we appreciate it we

want people to you know Reese killed

themselves to learn new skills now

we rely heavily on our systems engineers

so we're gonna go back to Patrick and

ask him how do you and everyone in your

organization make the time to learn

these new skills because we're relying

on you but how do you stay up-to-date

with everything that's coming at you

from definite and from the community at

large great question you really do have

to find the time to really you have to

make time to get these new skills and it

is as other videos you have kind of ask

the question around developer engineer

it really is that hybrid approach to

being a developer and an engineer taking

both of those skill sets and and honing

them right so you've got a lot of guys

out there that are definitely heavily

certified in the network realm and

bringing their software skills up to

speed

there'll be a rare breed indeed at least

especially right now and how important

it's going to be to continue that that

path we've said it before something even

a little cliche at this point but

definitely the developer test is good

comm page and right there in the front I

think this was introduced right before

Cisco live San Diego but you've got this

nice little getting started there's like

six circles there and the far left is

that start now and we talked a lot about

this when we were at Cisco live in San

Diego they kind of introduced this kind

of getting started section in the dev

net zone and it's just a great place to

find how do you start the coding 101

skills we talked about the fundamentals

around Python the fundamentals around

what api's are and how they're used

you've got learning tracks there as well

on the on that front page where you go

in and kind of pick a path and there's

different modules within that path they

can kind of help you move on depending

on what architecture you want to explore

there's a video course they're also

presented by hank preston because

another great job just kind of

building those foundations and of course

there's the sand boxes where you can go

in and basically turn up some some

equipment that you might need whether

it's routing devices or other

collaboration devices security all those

pieces are there to spin up and start to

play and start to get to know and get

comfortable with the programmability

around those pieces and of course now we

have the Network automation exchange as

well

so I'd say beyond that beyond jumping

into the start now part is is also maybe

just get a study partner someone that

you can get with daily to kind of push

you along Stewart is Clark is kind of in

mind not only he helped me with my beard

but also just in terms of the next level

as far as you know Python just to kind

of exploring different places we're

going to hey I found this you know kind

of you may want to try this there's some

different books around how to kind of

bring your skills to the next level as

well so that's that's been helpful and

also whether you're going to Cisco live

or internal to Cisco and you're going to

impact definitely go by the dead zone

there and just to spend time there and

kind of soak in some of the knowledge

then obviously take that knowledge and

do the hands-on that's that's how I

learn is just doing the hands-on

continuing to practice and seeing the

results and find out there especially

there's errors right never be afraid of

doing something wrong because that's

against how you learn and how you

troubleshoot how you get comfortable

those pieces we always have to keep

learning we always have to keep working

at getting better at what we do and what

we love to do now I know all three of

you are going to want to answer these

questions that are coming in that's

around the same topic definite

certifications who wants to go first

bill I know you wanted to talk about

some that certifications you want to go

first

sure what's the questions about definite

certification so via how will it help my

career when will they be ready I can say

that that's coming later in 2020

actually why should I look into definite

certifications so we're getting a lot of

questions around definite certifications

awesome well you know I mean obviously I

can look at this two ways one is through

the partner lens the area that I'm I

specialize in

that's again I mentioned before how do I

differentiate myself as a partner so you

know Cisco our bread and butter czar

certifications early in the days when

people started reselling Cisco product

one of the big things that help them

differentiate themselves was our

traditional certifications or CCNA & P

CCIE being the you know the flagship

certification across the tech industry

and that brings a level of credibility

to any individual whether they be

working for a partner or or out on their

own or working in a customer here that

that is one of the most sought-after

certifications because it demonstrates a

level of competence and capability at

the expert level you know if you have

somebody with that certification you

have an expected outcome well on the dev

net side now having similar

certifications that have those stages

where you've got like the basic the

intermediate and the advanced versions

that are coming out you can demonstrate

- whether it be your employer your

partner or two other individuals that

you have a level of skill and competence

in being able to leverage the API it's

across all of Cisco's products and

you're able to create net new things you

tie that in a certification with

something like the automation exchange

where you can show the ear a contributor

you know it's the same way like you

think a github where you go on there you

can see if you're contributing and

you're you're in there and adding on as

John highlighted you know we got you've

got a base thing and then now you've

added on and extend it even further

those are areas that can highlight your

skill as either a partner community or

as an individual and ideally those go

hand-in-hand so both the certifications

are coming up and leveraging these

platforms and all these different code

exchanges that we're now offering deb

net is a way to really highlight the

value of you and certification path I

mean like I said before if that's that's

really the the bread and butter of Cisco

and how you can show that and

demonstrate that so the customer gets

engaged with a partner and you say hey

I've got five Deb net experts certified

on there Wow then I know you're probably

somebody I want to do business with

versus yeah I do some coding

right so I think the the its it shows a

lot of that and I think just like CCIE

does I have a feeling don't know but I

have a feeling the long run when he

comes to things like salary which we all

care about having a certification like

that shows that you have that capability

and you can probably divide demand a

little bit higher salary so I think

there's some perturbs personal and

family gratification there to Patrick

John anything you want to add to that

certifications I would just say that you

know for the definite associate that is

really going to like bill said give that

person you know the confidence you know

they pass that test it gives them the

confidence to be able to say yeah I

understand programmability yeah this is

something that I can do and do for you

when you get to the dev net professional

level are the specialist and you've

concentrated in an area well now you

know it's not just program ability that

you know but I know this area or these

areas so we're really helping people

quantify their capabilities so that when

they do go out whether it's a job that

they're looking for our job that they

already have they say it's not just me

saying I can do this

Cisco said I know how to do this and

that's what's really important about the

certifications that's very powerful and

I want to ask more about how do you

choose an area to specialize in I mean

you're our data center expert we know

that Patrick I want to take it back to

you how do you choose what you want to

specialize in and can you change once

you've made that choice how hard is it

to change I don't I mean for the first

the second part first I don't think it's

hard to change at all if you specialize

and what's nice about the way that the

certifications are now being presented

especially from you know a CCNP level

right is that you can if you're in your

whatever you're doing and the IT you

know in your company and you're really

focused on one piece very heavily you

can go ahead and get that specialist you

can go ahead and get that CCP around

that

specialty certification and then if you

can explore other pieces as well right

so you can go into other special

specialties as well so I think it's it's

very flexible you can kind of make your

own career path around certifications

and the John's point as well is that

I'll add to that and that what we're

seeing this the automation piece go into

both directions right we're definitely

seeing it in the CCP we're gonna see it

in CCIE it's already in you know Ted net

associates already in dead net

professional all of this is going across

all the all the certification portfolio

to learn autumn to learn this automation

to learn how to program is the way

networks are going to be built they have

to be built like I said before given the

speed of how things are moving the speed

of the business again these these

pressures that IT teams are feeling we

have to be able to do this in a manner

that is automated and so I think you're

seeing that presented across all those

certifications because of that okay I

just say can I add one more thing about

this

whether it's Bill or Patrick or myself

you know we can't answer all the

questions about certifications just off

the top of our head especially for Deb

net because they're so new and and these

things are are you know the information

that's out there is you know more than I

think one person you know and here just

you know put out in the in the time that

we have so if you really want to know

about definite certifications developer

dot Cisco comm slash certification

developer cisco.com slash certification

so it's very easy to remember all your

answers are there not only are your

answers there the way that this part of

the site's been set up is that when

you're looking at different

certifications we actually give you some

links to these labs to these sandboxes

so get those skills together and you can

start studying now if you're interested

in going for your definite certification

which won't happen until I believe

February 23 2020 that's correct you can

you can't start forming your study group

studying now

getting ready you know finding people

like John on Twitter to ask questions we

should probably mention Ryan roads if

anyone's got most of the answers to the

debit certifications that's easier one

Ryan is the one yes not Ryan Wright tell

them we sent you

so we also mentioned not to that Matt

Johnson just did a blog post yesterday

around the definite certification as

well so just another resource out there

along with Ryan roads and if you follow

us on twitter at cisco dev net you will

see there that we are having a series of

webinars around certification to get you

ready for 2020 but today we wanted to

really focus on automation exchange and

help me out here that's developer at

cisco comm slash automation we try to

make it easy to remember bill the last

question of the day is for you and it's

a question from Debbie Dundas who says

well he says awesome jobs Sylvia bill

and Patrick sir

Thank You W and the question is oh and

John the question is partners that

believe that they're too small to engage

with programmability what can they do to

get started I get that question a lot

you know there's a couple things there I

don't think there is such thing is too

small for program ability because

programmability is is an individual

thing so at a minimum you should have

somebody and your staff some usually

it's an engineer or somebody who has a

passion around development get involved

at least at a basic level around DevOps

and understand some basic things you

know ansible puppet Teradata a few those

things but if you really want to have

like a full-on DevOps practice and you

feel that you're too small to make that

investment you can't bring a cadre of

coders in to go build a bunch of code

and up there there's a couple things you

can do

well you can go look at the automation

exchange and go see what codes out there

had maybe you can take part of that and

if you just have that one person you can

add on to it that's one thing you could

do another thing you can do is we have a

lot of we call them DSi partners we have

a lot of partners that don't actually

resell Cisco hardware so they're not

competitive to our partners but they

specialize in things like a DevOps

practice and you can partner with them

so you have a customer that has a unique

need you want to use our API is to

articulate the network - maybe deliver a

different or better application

experience you can partner with other

partners that aren't resellers that all

they focus on is things like DevOps and

then another thing you can do is there's

there's also we call it practice as a

service we also have other enablement

partners that you can work with that

will actually provide those kind of

services on like a subscription basis

and it does two things not only do you

get the capacity you need today but they

actually start training individuals in

your partner work to become skilled up

in that so that then you can offer that

as a skill and you can start to build

that practice and figure out kind of

that same idea of the walk run fly you

can start walking and figure out get

your toe in the water figure out if

DevOps is the right thing for your

business model and then if you see that

there's good revenue be made maybe you

start making some investments and you

augment it with these services as a

service the DevOps as a service and then

maybe you build out a full practice or

maybe decide that's not your model and

you just could have continued partnering

when it's needed but you know again I

think it's it's the way to think about

it is it's I'm not too small and I think

some of the code you'll see out there in

the automation change or code exchange

stuff you see how simple it is just

grabbing insights I mean this is back to

that walk concept just to be able to

grab insights out of the network using

code that's already there you probably

can already have a different impact on

your end customer because you can see

things like from the rocky dashboard oh

where where's everybody at I can get

some inventory around wireless

networking and where

users are aware devices are you can then

move into well maybe I'll just add a

little automation because it'll help my

net ops practice again you know there

I'll give you another example on the

automation exchange right now is code

you can grab right now that goes to an

axis and just checks for all the optical

connections so your racket and stack and

your wiring up you're plugging in a

bunch of fiber ports and you have a

problem man if you just grab this code

you can see that port 23 actually maybe

you didn't click it in all the way and

it's not or there's a problem on the on

on the connection and it's not

transmitting properly so just using that

little bit stupid of code you can

already help your business practice even

if it's just more of a net ops kind of

get things configured and set up and so

that's how another way to kind of walk

in so again there to me there is no such

thing as I'm too small to DevOps

it's just how you really want to use

DevOps you might be too small to have a

full-blown DevOps practice but that's a

business model that we can help work you

with and and myself and the other

leaders in the partner community

globally in our global partner

organization or regional in this case

Americas partner organization we're here

to help you go on that journey just let

us know it sounds like a great

invitation so if you if you've been

following Bill if you've been following

this webcast today you can go back you

can see what his Twitter handle is and

make sure that you reach out anytime we

have very social people here John you

wanted to add something I did and I

thought that um and I thought this for a

while we have developer dot Cisco comm

and maybe that URL is a little

intimidating to people why would I go

there

I'm not a developer and so I thought for

those people I'd like to add think about

that URL as I want to be a developer dot

Cisco calm because that's where you're

going to go to learn the basics to learn

the tools I remember as you know young

kid helped my dad fix cars and he would

say hand me that you know seven sixteen

and and the first time out I didn't know

what that was and he's like oh you know

the whatever it's that one

well that's what dead net is it's your

think of it you're with your dad learn

how to fix cars or maybe you're with

your dad learn how to bake a cake

wherever you are with somebody who

mentored you through something I want to

be a developer at Cisco comm that's how

you should think about this and never

ever be intimidated uh we don't have you

know egos we want to help we want you to

succeed we want you to succeed what a

great thought to give to our community

and thank you both I want to thank

everyone who's helped us be successful

today what a great discotech thank you

Greg Thank You Cisco TV Thank You Julio

diario de vivre steward everyone who

asked questions and Patrick bill any

final thoughts hey I do want to say

southern not just for a quick thank you

to John McDonough because it was because

of him about two years ago when I first

saw his managing cisco ucs with amazon

alexa video it's actually on youtube if

you want to go watch it with that video

really sort of a data center you know

kind of a little bit of a data center

specialist I was I got to see that and

really that was kind of my point that

took off really wanting to know more

about Devon and how these pieces the

programmability pieces work together so

just want to say thank you to John that

I can't tell you what I'm feeling right

now I'm all like a little tingly because

and not not in being superstitious or

silly at all that is what I want to have

happen when I make that video or when I

stand up at an event or if I write a

blog post that's what I want I want

someone to say I want to do that and to

know that that Patrick was inspired by

something I did I can't tell you how

grateful I am

or gratified I am to hear something like

that and and kudos to you for for

putting that effort in that's great

Wow I'm feelin the love here a job we'll

have to have you back out Atlanta

sometime to you first with some more UCS

programmability

bill do you want to thank anyone

well yeah Wow several people actually

you know Silvia I want I want to thank

you because you and I have been partners

to crime for years I mean we not what I

used to run Enterprise routing globally

and got to see you at every Cisco live

it whether it was in Europe or down in

Melbourne which is also one of my

favorite spots to go we always had a

great partnership and spread the word

and finding someone that shares the same

passion around DevOps and what we can do

with it was was wonderful and then the

other person is Susie we I mean Susie to

take something that was so nascent and

build it out to where it is and you know

there's no charge for this stuff you

know you go on and you can learn this

and have this all exposed and really to

change the way Cisco goes to market is

incredible so yeah I mean I just the

whole the whole you know whether it's

it's Julio or John or Patrick or you I

just the whole Deb net team has been

awesome to work with and and so

supportive of the partners and everybody

in the channel I know that all the

partners love everything you guys are

doing for us and so I just want to say

thank you to the whole team and on that

note we'll say thank you to our audience

for tuning in and of course to everyone

who was part of today's show my message

for everyone is to quote what really all

of you have said in this past hour be

the person with that passion that's why

the world needs thank you

[Music]