One of the true pleasures of my job is being able to learn new technologies and integrate them in a real way to improve how we do our jobs and how we live our lives. The biggest challenge to learn new technologies, apart from the precious resource of time to do so, is having the right environment in which to learn and build. Unfortunately the high cost of Cisco technologies can be a barrier for development and learning. Costs approach several thousands of dollars putting learning and development out of reach for many.
Enter Cisco DevNet Sandbox. DevNet Sandbox provides you the ability to explore these technologies for the mere cost of your time, lowering your barrier of entry to these products. For developers, this provides you a way to test Cisco APIs on a large and growing number of Cisco technologies so you can compete in areas you never imagined possible. For IT and Networking professionals, this provides an environment to test, automate, and be on the cutting edge of what Cisco has to offer.
As an example of innovative creation we built the DevCycle Demo. DevCycle (being a play on words of course) is our effort to show you what is possible and to become part of your development cycle. The demo highlights technologies from Cloud Collaboration, On-Premise Collaboration, IoT and Networking. The bike represents any application / integration / implementation of your own technologies coupled with Cisco tech. Here is how this particular demo works. The bicycle has a magnetic sensor connected to it and a Cat-eye spoke magnet attached to the wheel. Every time the magnet crosses the sensor, the sensor sends a signal to a raspberry pi computer. The computer tracks and interprets each data signal from the sensor as a revolution. Tracked revolutions over time are used to track, speed, cadence, RPM and distance. The data is then fed into a web application and API service in real time. The web application shows you the cool metrics and the API service acts as a trigger waiting for specific events, such as riding one mile. Once the API service detects the events, it sends an API request to the Tropo Cloud Collaboration service which calls back to an on premise Cisco Collab end-point. Alternatively, it also sends an API request to a Collab service hosted in a lab environment in the DevNet Sandbox that connects the same on premise Collab end-point. By creating the DevCycle Demo we hope you see how easy it can be to build, create, and dream of possibilities with Cisco technologies through the Cisco DevNet Sandbox.
Let us bring your creations and dreams to life!
Jock Reed