Cisco bringing networking pros and software developers together

Cisco has decided that putting software developers and nework professionals together should speed up the pace of innovation and increase levels of automation.

The vendor is holding its Cisco Live event in San Diego this week and the announcements that have so far come out include one around efforts to have a single certification programme that covers both developers and networking pros.

The aim of the DevNet certifications is to increase the levels of network automation and encourage sharing of best practices among the wider community.

“Networking technology has evolved significantly over the last five years and the new network can accelerate business, catalyze new applications, and bring DevOps practices to networks,” said Susie Wee, SVP/CTO and founder of Cisco DevNet.

“We are bringing software skills to the networking industry with new Cisco DevNet certifications. In addition, we are bringing software practices to networking by having a community of networkers and developers work together to solve tough network automation problems through shared code repositories. This will allow the industry to take full advantage of the capabilities of the new network to accelerate business," she added.

The vendor's DevNet Automation Exchange will bring together the two communities, networking and software, and should increase rates of collaboration.

Cisco is aware that to really make the idea fly some partners will need to increase their networking and software skills and the vendor is providing more training and certifications to get people in the right place to develop more automation.

“With networking technology changing at an unprecedented pace, the world of infrastructure engineers and software developers must come together to build the IT team of the future,” said Mike Adams, vice president of Cisco’s training and certification business.

“The Cisco Certification program is designed so IT teams can optimize network and application performance, giving their businesses an edge in today’s dynamic digital world," he added.