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[Music]
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my
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how's my hair
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good how's my hair okay already we are
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welcome everyone to today's Cisco chat
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live I'm Silvia spy versus Co developer
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community manager and you know we always
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bring you all the latest news from dev
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net we want to make sure that you know
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the latest and the latest is definite
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automation exchange we have a great crew
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with us we're going to go first to hear
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from Patrick Patrick Rocco
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I've been a Cisco for about four years
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as a systems engineer in the Atlanta
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select commercial space before that on
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the customer side as a sales engineer
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and network engineer and the service
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provider arena hey everybody I'm bill
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Henschel I'm the director of enterprise
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networks for our Americas partner
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organization and as a nineteen-year
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cisco veteran and coder myself I'm
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excited to discuss what's going on with
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partners and dev net and I'm John
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McDonough
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I'm a Deb net developer advocate I've
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been with Cisco for quite a number of
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years and I've been programming all
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those years and I'm excited about this
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new network automation exchange that we
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have so of course you get the tough
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question sure
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what is definite automation exchanged so
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Deb that automation exchange is a place
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where you can get some use cases and
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code that could help you and your
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automation and your automation journey
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and that's great but it's also a place
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where you can submit or give what you've
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done and I know that as a developer
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every time I do something great there's
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something good I like to share it and
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not not not from you know pat on the
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back perspective but I think it helped
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me it can help somebody else so
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automation exchange is a place where you
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can get some use cases and the code and
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how it was deployed and things like that
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but it's also a place where you can
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submit what you've done and tell us how
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you did it you know give yourself a
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little bit of a place to shine and tell
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us all about
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your automation and what you're doing in
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your environment and share with others
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you've been with dev net for two three
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years now coming up on three years yeah
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but of course you were presenting in the
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devlins zone before that oh my gosh I I
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was in another group and I saw the great
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stuff going on in Devon I thought if I
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start presenting in the definite zone
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Mable it'd be like hey I like that guy
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and and they'll they'll bring him in and
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bring me in and so I started way back to
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presenting the definite zone but now I'm
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actually definite developer advocate for
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datacenter and you know network
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automation data center automation these
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are things that I spend a lot of time
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looking at and working on and that's why
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I'm so excited about this automation
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exchange because it gives me a place to
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share what I'm doing
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so hold on to that feeling of
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remembering what it was like to want to
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be part of definite because we wanted to
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make sure that everyone watching feels
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welcome and that they understand how
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they can contribute sure let's go to
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someone representing one of our favorite
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organizations Patrick tell us about
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today you're representing the systems
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engineering organization who can
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contribute to automation exchange so the
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really really short answer was anyone
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but as far in terms of our se leadership
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and how they've kind of purchased really
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especially with Chris Lunsford and he
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has has really been an advocate for this
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and really helped our engineering team
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kind of move the needle in terms of the
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the coding and programming fundamentals
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that we as SES as well as the community
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as a whole need and desire Chris and I
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actually just finished a definite
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workshop for local networking some local
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network academy students went through
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the fundamentals around Python API is
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and Devon has done a lot of those kinds
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of events not only local to areas I
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could land up but worldwide just in
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terms of looking at some of the
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different architectures with dev net
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Express events with the workshops
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there's been hackathons and other ways
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just to get the training and hands-on so
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that they can really see what we're
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doing in terms of making open agile
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approach to to automation and one of the
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questions that we as SES often ask even
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our customers is what problem are we
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trying to solve and normally I break
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that down into kind of three pressures
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that a lot of IT and networking team
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have what is that external IT pressure
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right where cisco and other vendors
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continue to introduce new features and
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functionality that a lot of these teams
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is currently don't have the bandwidth to
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to take advantage of because they're
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putting out fires all the time trying to
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manage these networks that are becoming
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more more complex another one is in
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terms of sort of this internal IT
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pressure where just internally there's
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more and more mobile devices more MORE
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I have T devices that are being added to
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the network again adding that complexity
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as well as security concerns and if
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there is a business pressure where the
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lines of business are really seeing how
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important the network is it's helping
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you know with the customer experience
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like one example even locally to Atlanta
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is a furniture company that uses
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location analytics to determine how long
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a customer's been in a store what
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they're looking at they need help or not
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or if it's in terms of saving money like
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another company that uses a freezer
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refrigeration warehouse system where
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they need to know these temperatures are
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critical to the business and instead of
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using humans that obviously are can be
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more error prone they need to get that
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data reliably through automation as well
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as to act on any case there's issues so
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that's kind of the ideas how can we help
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with these pressures and I see just from
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you know outside looking into dev net
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really Devon I start with that code
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exchange right the ability to kind of
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curate code from github and now I've
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used Google kind of bringing that code
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into a place where they can look at it
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and start to see some of those examples
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but as it's your point this Network
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automation exchange it's kind of the
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next step into those real world use
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cases where the community can kind of
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see how they could drive the innovation
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not only from those examples but using
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those examples to even bring them back
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and represent them to the community to
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the codes to the automation exchange to
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to continue the efforts there those are
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some great examples and if I go to
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automation exchange will I see those use
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cases there or do we want to really take
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the opportunity to remind people to
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enter those use cases and shine and
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share yeah yeah I think that's that's a
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great point to me the use cases that are
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there it's kind of I would say a
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starting point and maybe the use case
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doesn't it made us like 100% of what
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you're looking for maybe it's 80% you
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can take that example
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add to it and then sort of resubmit that
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to a use case also so that helps other
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people as well now we know that cisco
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loves our partners we love our partners
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that's a hashtag I didn't start it my
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friend mol abdel started it but you know
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he's he's fantastic so a shout out to
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mow abdel and we're going to go to
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someone else who is fantastic and loves
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our partners our friend bill and we're
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going to ask bill why he's so involved
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with deb net and why he sees definite as
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being so important for cisco partners
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it's great question sylvia you know one
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of the things in in my time covering our
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partner community and and dealing with
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partners globally in my former role is
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the they're always looking for a way to
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differentiate themselves you know
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anybody can sell you a switch or router
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or whatever from from us or any
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manufacturer quite frankly but what is
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the thing that makes that partner unique
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how do they stand out in a crowd and and
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as I did at Cisco live us one of the
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conversations that came up time and time
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again is how do I stand out how do i
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leverage the great stuff we do and the
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intellectual property you know it's not
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just install some net ops hardware
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faster or better but really how do I
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start doing things like writing
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automation code that either is going to
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help me be more profitable because I can
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do a deployment for a customer faster
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and in a consistent way that helps my
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security or is there something I could
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do something unique that I can do with
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with a network that I couldn't do before
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with just simple you know CLI etc and
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when we have these discussions it's been
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awesome when I talk to these partners
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and I've had I had multiple I had one I
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was talking to and they said hey you we
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kind of have this DevOps practice that's
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really focused on collaboration and now
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I'm learning about Deb net and all the
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oken I've api's you have across your
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entire portfolio boy that seems like
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there's a lot more we could do there and
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we started talking about it and how on
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average partners find that they are
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about three times more profitable by
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doing DevOps types practices than
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are doing just simple net ups you know
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rack and stack install kind of stuff so
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that the profitability came in and then
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obviously done differentiation you know
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wow if I could do something amazing like
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write an app that watches for like when
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a badge reader triggers and then the
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camera sees that trigger and I and
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matches that person's face with the
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badge read wow that would be amazing to
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have an automated like security system
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ironically if you look up on the
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automation exchange there's already one
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up there for Meraki
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cameras and badge readers so I was like
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wow that was funny they were just
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talking about it and now I see someone's
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already uploaded that example and that's
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just one idea so things like that now
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you can really differentiate and and
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leverage the network in new unique ways
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that allow you as a partner to say hey
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you want to come work with me partner BC
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because I have this capability in
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context the other part that's really
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cool about that is our as our partners
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start getting more and more involved in
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this global community is they its lets
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them shine and see why do I want to
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select if I'm a customer why do I want
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to select this partner well look at this
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they've got all this code uploaded they
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actually understand networking beyond
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just simple connections but actually how
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to articulate the network based on some
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really business in real business use
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case and that ties right into some of
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those certifications that we're having
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coming out here shortly around deafness
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it's not just I'm a CCIE but I'm like a
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rockstar developer and I can showcase my
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talent so why do i as an individual you
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know what's the value I have but also as
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a partner what value does this partner
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have and why would I pick partner over
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partner be because I might be able to
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get a better experience with that
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partner and then you know then really it
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just really grows from there so my point
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simply is by bringing this back is being
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able to leverage the open api's and the
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platform experience that we give that i
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blogged about allows partners to really
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change the game for themselves and stand
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out and and its core to their business
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and and how they're gonna go to the next
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you know go to the next wave so that's
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that's really why deb net and tying in
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these communities and this automation
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exchange is that as the you know the new
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thing that we're adding really helps
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them change their business and
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go to that nuts you know what the next
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year's are gonna look like I like that
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you gave an example that's already an
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automation exchange and I want to remind
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the global community it's not about Oh
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someone had that idea already I wasn't
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the first one to get that idea and
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that's not what matters what matters is
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building on each other's ideas right
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because we can take it to the next level
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and and that's what this is all about
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share what you've build and you'll be
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surprised at how you can collaborate not
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just with people within Cisco but with
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other partners now bill I want to come
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back to a point that you made which is
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really important and I want to make sure
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that people hear it partners cisco
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partners should have a DevOps practice
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tend to be three times more profitable
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so i got that i was talking to a partner
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that's actually developed a really nice
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DevOps practice in fact you know i know
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we're not doing product placement but
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i've got a little Panera cup here and
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that's the customer they wrote for and
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and and it's a public reference so I'm
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allowed to do that but what's cool about
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it is this partner was telling me that
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you know wasn't just setting up the
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network but then they used their DevOps
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practice that they built out and
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invested in to then expand what what
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that company was able to do and when I
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talked to him but I said wow you know
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how did this change your business they
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said well you know bill selling hardware
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I get I get you know a certain amount of
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profitability off selling your hardware
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when I attach my services to it for
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every dollar of service I get about
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three dollars I've sold about three
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dollars a hardware to get the same level
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profitability when I saw attached my
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services when I attach my DevOps
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practice and actually start coding not
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only do I get more stickiness for that
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customer to allow them to do net new
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things and change their business model
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but I get about a 9x over just selling
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the hardware so I sell you a piece of
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gear I make 1x profit if I can sell you
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some DevOps practice and coding
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capabilities
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I'm making about nine acts so it's about
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a three a factor of three times more
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profitable than their traditional
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services sales model so that was that's
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a direct quote from one part
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I mean your mileage is gonna vary of
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course but but that was I was like wow
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that's there it is that's why you should
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do this so I'm going to give any Cisco
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partner watching out there some homework
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go to blogs cisco.com slash author slash
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bill Henschel because he has been
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blogging about this in the past year and
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you want to go back do their homework
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and get these step-by-step tips on how
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to build a DevOps practice from Bill but
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I know he's going to be blogging a lot
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more so make sure you bookmark that blog
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stuff cisco.com slash developer slash
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author slash bill Henschel we have lots
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some questions coming in already I have
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to ask this one some will stay for the
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end because it means that someone we
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care about a lot is paying attention
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question from Stuart Clark on YouTube
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who has the best most awesome beard on
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the definite team oh my gosh that would
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be me and I don't know my if mine
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actually counts as a beard but I would
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say that when you have this you know the
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darker on the top and the more you know
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mature on the bottom it just lends
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itself to a brand of Awesomeness that
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you can't get with a one-color beard or
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a length of beard so I'm gonna say from
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that perspective it would be me but
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everybody's opinion is is different and
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you know well I just have to know we can
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agree to disagree perhaps maybe you
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don't have the most awesome big evil
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beard in the definite team but a big
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shout out to our teammates who are
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Manning and women in the social media
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channels out there we're live on Cisco
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comm Twitter YouTube Facebook so thank
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you everyone for tuning in and make sure
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you keep and sending us your questions
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and we will get to them before the end
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automation exchange I know you've heard
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about code exchange you've heard about
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partner exchange this is really that
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next step of bringing all of that
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together learning for
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somebody else's use cases and adding
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your own use cases automation exchange
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so what is it how do you submit a use
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case step by step John can you show us
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how to use it I can so let me just set
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this up for just a minute you know my
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favorite part of going to the movies is
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the previews oh and you know you see
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what's coming what you're excited about
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what you think is is you know junk so
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you you know you just you know and then
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you make little quips to your to whoever
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you're there with but here's the thing
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we have a full-length movie coming at
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some point but the I did bring a clip
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with me today the control room has it so
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if the code if you in the control room
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if you would actually roll the clip we
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can go ahead and I'll take you through
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the submission process so and if I could
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I'd like to reach a my answer and
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history as the best beard so you open up
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a browser and go to developer down sis
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cocom slash automation it's really that
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simple and when you get to the
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automation page you'll see that we have
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two buttons right at the top one to view
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all the use cases which that's your
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homework do it on your own and then
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share a use case that's what I want to
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talk about today you click that button
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it takes you to the case submission form
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or the use case submission form you put
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in a title and in this case the title is
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ansible playbooks for configuring you
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seeis network interfaces and VLANs give
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me a two line technology summary or put
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the two line technology summary in the
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form and go ahead and add a two line
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business summary why did you do this how
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does it help your business has it helped
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your day-to-day and now give us a really
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detailed use case description as
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detailed as you can possibly be because
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we're going to use this to determine you
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know addition into the into the
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automation exchange and also so the
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people using it you know know what it is
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all about
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so what's these case for this one
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automation and scale I want to be able
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to add these interfaces quickly pick the
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domain well its data center and but you
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could pick others so suppose it was a
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you know it was beyond that what's the
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workflow this is day one configuration
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or day two configuration perhaps what
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are the products that are being used
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here again this one's for UCS but it
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could be a CI it could be an XLS and
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what's the stage is it walk run and fly
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is it run is it fly whatever it may be
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unless the technology is used so in this
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case it was ansible and they give us
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some more information the link to the
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code exchange repo the name of a sandbox
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the link to a sandbox anything here that
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can help somebody with this use case a
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video demo a video tutorial and once all
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that's in there click Submit we get your
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submission we go through it we look at
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the repo and code exchange we look at
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the detail that you've given us and we
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determine the viability of putting this
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out there an automation exchange it's
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really that simple
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so there is a check checking process
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that happens in the background after a
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submission is made absolutely you know
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we won't just click Submit and then it's
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just out there
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it's click submit our team's get
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notified we look at this and so from a
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domain perspective if one you know I I
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did that little clip there so of course
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I put UCS and that's my favorite
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technology but now I'm the domain expert
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on that but some other domain experts
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will be pulled in for the technologies
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that are utilized there and you know we
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may actually go ahead and run through
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that code just to ensure is this doing
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what they said it would do we'll look at
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the code you know we'll make sure the
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licensing is correct so there's a lot of
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things that come into play to make sure
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that it really does fit into that you
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know that section of dev net and it's
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appropriately or it's appropriate to be
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out there well that's good to know so
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any use cases that are already there on
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automation exchange have gone through
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that process any use cases that are out
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there we we went over we looked at code
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we ensure that the licensing was correct
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we ensured that this was something that
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people could download and utilize and
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the providers are that you know are rest
-
assured that you know someone's using
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their code but we do want to make sure
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that people understand when you bring
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something into your environment you know
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tested fires to make sure it works for
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you the way it should work are you
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expected to work you know we we do
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expect you to you know make sure it's
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good for you and follow your best
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practices within your environment when
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you apply code like that this is super
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exciting because you know you and I have
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been in the definite team for almost
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three years now and
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been following definite like we were
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talking about earlier before and we see
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that there are so many people that are
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involved and have so much to contribute
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so this is an opportunity for them to
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submit their use cases and really get
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visibility for themselves or their
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organization or their company tell us
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more about walk run fly what does that
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mean so of course you know and and just
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you know a little bit on your last point
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there was that you know people used to
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come to these events and be like oh I
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really want to be part of that not I
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really want to do what you do I want to
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get out there and talk and I want to get
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and I want to write a blog and and now
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you know this is how we can bring that
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community in wherever you are you may
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never get to go to an event because your
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location because of the whatever the
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resources are that you have but if
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you're that developer if you're that
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person in your in that scenario where
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you can't make it to us right that
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doesn't mean you can't be part of us
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this is how you can be part of us this
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is for everybody everywhere globally so
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walk run fly well you know we know
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everybody can't be as seasoned as
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everybody else because it takes years to
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get there experience etc and how do you
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do it
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right you walk well you might have
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crawled first but you walk and then you
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run and then you fly and the walking
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part is let's get some data and
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analytics from our environments let's
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just query it don't do what do you think
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that might change configurations or
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let's walk get some data and pull it out
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that's the walk part the run part is
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okay well now I got my data and maybe
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I'm gonna do some some coding here too
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let me change some configurations right
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in maybe a hands-on way maybe at the
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command line I still run a script but I
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have control over when that's running
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and and I can see how it kind of plays
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out and it does this configuration for
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me based on some data that it pulled so
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we're putting that walk and that run
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together and fly is really where it all
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comes together this is the exciting part
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because now we can take the automation
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code that's there and put into our
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DevOps our DevOps practices right so
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where I can make a change to maybe a
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configuration in an editor push that
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change to a
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code repository so I haven't documented
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I made the change when I did it and I
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pushed the code repository
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well now the code repository typically
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has some kind of web hook that can be
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triggered and this is what's exciting so
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now the code repository says oh you made
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a change sends off this web hook which
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may be the payload of that web book is
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what changed who changed it when it was
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changed and it sends it off to a web
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book listener whatever that may be
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whether it's something in the cloud or
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it's something on a workstation
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someplace in your data center this web
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hook gets this payload gets delivered to
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the web hook listener the web hook
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listener parses it pulls out the data it
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says oh it's an update was made to this
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playbook the configuration was changed
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or we're adding something routing
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whatever maybe I'm going to run it and
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as exciting as that is right from push
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to your code repository to the code
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being run and changing your your your
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environment the logs and whatever may be
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resulting from that change well they're
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on that workstation how about I take
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those logs right you ready for this
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already I take those logs and I sent it
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to a collaboration you know endpoint
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where everybody in my team sees the
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change that just happened who did it
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when they did it what the results were
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and now I have a historical record of
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all that the changes that people get to
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see it that's the fly
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it's end-to-end DevOps enabled
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automation and that's what we're talking
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about and Dart slow not slow easy better
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it really seems like a journey towards
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community which which is fantastic you
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know you feel at first we might feel
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like oh I'm doing this on my own I
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wonder if anyone out there is noticing
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then you have something worth sharing
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and then you're improving the experience
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for everybody I love them we always
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bring it back to community and thank you
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for explaining that now I know Susie has
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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
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used to run Enterprise routing globally
-
and got to see you at every Cisco live
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it whether it was in Europe or down in
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Melbourne which is also one of my
-
favorite spots to go we always had a
-
great partnership and spread the word
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and finding someone that shares the same
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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
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[Music]