Cisco Live is nearing and it is time to set your schedule.  I’m excited to have a new session BRKDEV-2000: NetDevOps: Let's Do it Like They Do in the Developer Channel.  I apologize for the poor wordplay on the Bloodhound gang song.  But since the scheduling gods gave me the 830 session after the party we will need to either keep the party going or wake everyone up with fun and exciting Network Automation! I noticed that the session is somehow already full.  But have no fear.  Get on the waitlist.  Think about how many of you went to the Thursday 830 session before?  If you managed to go, I’m sure you recall many open seats.  Many prospective session-goers will fall victim to the snooze button or booze glutton but lose out-on BRKDEV-2000. What is DevOps? It is the trend to integrate application development with the operations team that support the end product.  While that concept of development may not apply to Networking as much as other IT fields, the Network must keep up with the more rapid changes to support those Applications.  This means more Access-list updates, Load-balancer changes and even Routing tweaks.  To keep up, we can leverage the same cool tools the DevOps teams are using and make our lives less mundane (maybe even insane or profane) and focus on the fun stuff like deploying new advanced technology or going home at a decent hour. So how does BRKDEV-2000 help?  It is a session to help the Network Engineer navigate the waters of DevOps. We will dip our toes into APIs and the many opportunities for integration they present, wade through concepts of Configuration Abstraction and Infrastructure as Code, and lastly we will get our feet wet with Continuous Integration through Automated Toolchain as a method for versioning control, collaboration, validation and implementation.  Please take a look at session information for all the deep dives to plunge deeper into each of the topics like Git, Python, Python for networking, Network Device APIs, Infrastructure as Code, CICD Pipeline to fully quench your curiosity.  There is even a Learning Path for Network Engineers looking to get started with Network Programmability. I hope to see you at Cisco Live where I will present this and a few more Programmability Sessions.  But if you can’t make it please take advantage of the library of session videos and presos, DevNet’s free lessons and sandbox, and don’t forget to leverage the many blogs at Cisco and DevNet.  And feel free to hit me up at @sdn_dude on twitter. ... View more

It seems everyone is talking about the modern network engineer and the transition we all will have to undergo.  I am here to say it should not be scary or intimidating. It should be a fun opportunity to learn and think differently about networking. Think about how many hours you’ve spent on repetitive tasks or commands you wished were there. Now is our time to leverage API’s like NETCONF and RESTCONF to get the information we want in a format that’s easily manipulated. Now is our time to let the machines: shut/no shut bounce dot1x after someone came back from working from home so long his machine cert expired reapply port-security for the manager that continues to rearrange her office and forget that it matters where she plugs in. kick of ip-sla to get a more descriptive answer than “slow” for an application performance find all the devices affected by a field notice Feel like you are giving the same message on troubleshooting IPSEC to your junior engineers?  Want to get alerted when the configuration drifts from the gold config on your network?   Maybe your use cases are different from the ones I remember, but I’d love to help demonstrate how Network Programmability can save your sanity (and I can’t wait to hear your ideas). Beyond the initial solutions to repetitive tasks and notifications, there is the concept of abstraction and simplification called Infrastructure as Code.  We can leverage Ansible and Puppet to deploy your validated solutions and/or simplified network services any number of times with a simple execution and instantiating variables on a set of templates.   I am very excited to get to meet many of you in the coming weeks at Cisco Live in Berlin and Melbourne. I will be delivering sessions on NetDevOps (DevNet-1002), Network Programmability with Python (DevNet-2449), SDN (TECSDN-2602 and TECSDN3602), and Programmability in DNA (TECCRS-2700) in Berlin and NetDevOps (DevNet-1002) and Programmability in DNA (TECCRS-2700) in Melbourne.  I will also be lurking around the DevNet Zone ready to pounce on anyone willing to listen I hope to see you there and as always feel free to reach out to me on twitter @sdn_dude. ... View more