 Live from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It's theCUBE, covering DevNet Create 2018. Brought to you by Cisco. Hey, welcome back, everyone. Live here at DevNet Create Cisco's event here at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The heart of Silicon Valley, I'm here with Laura Cooney. We're here for two days, wall-to-wall coverage, breaking down, Cisco's move into the DevOps file developer world, separate from the DevNet community, which is the Cisco Developer Program. And we've been breaking down, Lauren, great to have you this past two days. Thanks so much, I appreciate it. It's been fun. So, we've talked to a lot of the Cisco folks, a lot of the practitioners, let's analyze it, let's discuss kind of what's going on. First of all, Cisco creates a new group almost a year ago, next month, called DevNet Create to get out of the Cisco bubble and go out into the cloud world and see if they can't connect the cloud ecosystem, cloud native, Kubernetes, all the microservices, goodness is going on the application side on infrastructure as code, and bring that with the Cisco network engineering community who are plumbers, network plumbers, they're network engineers, they deal with provisioning gear, routes. Well, I think it's interesting because you have this CCIE number that has been decreasing over the past couple of years and that's not because the network is less important, it's actually because new skill sets are emerging and folks need to take on these new skills to learn and to really flourish in their careers. So, I think what DevNet is doing is just tremendous in terms of enabling developers to move up stack, to look at things like Kubernetes, to look at things like cloud native, to look at new applications you can build, new things that you can extend to, API integration into new types of applications. We had folks here that were learning to code in Python for the first time and I think that's awesome, I think that's great. And the timing's perfect, I mean, I got to give credit to Susie, we and our team at Cisco, they're doing all the right things. I think the way they're handling this is they're not overly aggressive, they're not arrogant, they're humble, they're learning, they're listening and they're doing all the right things, they're bringing a lot to the table from the Cisco table to this community and they're just very cool, but the timing's critical. If they tried to do this four years ago, how hard would it have been? You know, you've been there. I mean, could they pull this off four years ago? I think there was the goal was always there four years ago, but I think the timing was, you have to kind of put the mission in order and get things up and running first, you can't just, you don't launch a community, you build one, and I think Cisco really needed to build that core community first, and that was super critical. Well, even four years ago, let's just go back and rewind the clock, where was cloud then? So it was still the purest DevOps culture and there was certainly hard charging, it was definitely flying, but still, even like a lot of the on-premise enterprise folks were like, still kind of poo-pooing the cloud. You even saw it four years ago, Oracle just made their move a couple of years ago to the cloud and they're still trying to catch up. So these legacy vendors, and Cisco is one, they've pivoted nicely, Cisco, into this because now the timing's there, it's Kubernetes, there's enough code to get glued in, plugged in, whoop the stack, so I think timing has also been a tailwind for them. Timing was critical, I mean, back then, we were talking about software-defined networking and new services that you could deliver to the cloud in new ways, and then DevOps came in as really the glory child, right? Saying like, this DevOps is going to solve world hunger and what it came down to, basically, is a critical part, but there are certain piece-parts that need to come together, especially in the open-source world to make these things happen. I mean, to me, if I had to point out, I'm just riffing here, but to me, the seminal moment for cloud and agile is happening, that's a key driver, but it was the fact that with horizontally scalable tech, unstructured data, the roles of databases, software that was becoming this new lightweight glue layer, control planes were moving up and down the stack, so there wasn't one thing, combination of these awesome things were happening, that made people go, well, holy, holy, we could do more if we think about scale differently. Scale differently, and really, how do you bring this, and this is where you get to edge computing, is how do you actually bring these to the masses? How do you go where the people are? How do you store data where people are? How do you extend security in new ways? I mean, that's going to be super critical. And I think the other thing that's also pretty evident is that when you start having new entrants into a market, start eating some of your breakfast, then they start eating some of your lunch, then you go, wait a minute, if I don't do something, my dinner's going to be eaten. I mean, you're starting to see people see their business at risk. This is a huge thing, that lights up the CXO, the CEO, the COO, CDO, CIO, now it's like, okay, we got to make a move. Definitely, I think that's the way that it has to be. And in terms of Cisco, I want to get your thoughts, because I've always been talking about this, and I'm a big Cisco fan. I know a lot of people who work there, been a big admirer of the company from day one, and what they did in the internet generation. They did bought a lot of cubbies, which created a little bit of a mesh-mesh, but that's not the issue. They really ran the networks. What a great culture. However, we are now seeing applications driving a lot of value, and the network needs to be programmable. And the challenge that Cisco's always been, how do we move up the stack as a company? And all the little scuttle butts in conversations and parties I've been to, hallway conversations, Cisco executives and employees, that's been the internal debate. How does Cisco, should Cisco move up the stack? And if so, how? So it's been kind of this internal thing. Good timing now to start moving up the stack, because automation's here, your thoughts? Well, I think it was great timing four years ago to move up the stack, to be honest. I think that there were efforts then, I know that I was engaged in some to do that rather quickly, you know. Those turned into things that, you know, went one way or the other. I think that there are the right people in the right places at Cisco now to make that actually happen. I think, you know, we were a little early on that. I think Susie's effort is just tremendous in terms of driving the users up stack to have them learn these new skills. And as they learn these new skills, they're learning it on Cisco. And that's going to be really critical. That's going to have the pull power. Yeah, I think Cisco's got a chance, a real great chance to, and it's not a far reaching accomplishment either for them to do this, is they can now actually build a developer program. Now, because before they didn't have enough software, but what Susie's doing, if I'm Chuck Roberts, CEO of Cisco, I'm doubling down on what's going on with DevNet, DevNet Create, and I can take that DevNet component and almost kind of expand it out because Cisco has a developer object. If you look at what they're doing on the collaborative software side, the stuff with video, they have a total core competence in video. I mean, they were early on so many things, but now with, they've got WebEx there still, sold for video conferencing, but still beyond that, IOT is a video application. Huge opportunity in video. You look at these communities that pop up and right now you don't have a product if you don't have a supporting community. And so Cisco should absolutely be doubling down on this. They need to double down on it. They probably need to invest more in it than they are now. I see it as absolutely critical as they move forward because Cisco wants to be one or two in the market for all their products, all their solutions. To have that, they need to have the supporting community to do that. We did two days here and in terms of events, it's not the big glam event. It's really a early stage, only second event within the, it hasn't even been 12 months since the first DevNet Create. What I'm impressed by, what I love about theCUBE is we, when you get at these early moments, when you see it magic happening, you get into the communities and you realize, wow, this is a team that could pull it off. And I think Cisco's a company at Cisco Live in Barcelona. It really became apparent to me that Cisco's really pulling in the right direction on a couple of things. I feel they've got the big company thing, they've got to kind of clean that up a bit, just make it more nimble. But they got their eye on the prize on video. They could really crush the IoT opportunity. And the leverage of the network is a huge asset. And if they could make that programmable with an open source community behind it, man, this could be a whole nother Cisco. Almost bring back the glory days. I fully agree, I fully agree. Lauren, what are you up to these days? I mean, you've got a new gig. I do. You're a new company and what you're working on. You guys writing code, you do an advisory, you do consulting, what's happening? There's a bunch of stuff. I mean, I like my hands on lots of things. So I think it's important to say that I've taken my experience at IBM and Microsoft and Juniper and Cisco, driving new innovation to market faster and new revenue channels. And I've taken that and I've started a consulting firm called Spark Labs. And what we do is we use new models, like minimum viable product and business model canvas to actually drive whether it's product, whether it's service, whether it's these new channels, whether it's partner, or whether you're just trying to kind of pull together your team in a new way. We actually take this and help you do it in a faster way. And we've got the models, we've got the background and we're working with companies that are big and small. What kind of engagements are you working on? What kind of problems are you solving? We have a larger company that we're working with and one of the things that they ran into is they had just changed around kind of their leadership and we've gone in and worked with their leadership team to kind of establish what this new team needs to look like, what are they going to deliver on? What are the metrics? What are the kind of success things that people are really trying to achieve and how do we empower this new team that has this new leader and how do we make sure that everyone's aligned? I think that's part of it. Alignment's critical. Alignment is, you know, if you don't, it's great to have an amazing vision, but if you don't have the execution, you're just not going to get there. Andy Jassy, one of my favorite execs that I've interviewed, he's pragmatic, he's strong, went to Harvard, won't hold it against him. But super great guy, he's got a great philosophy. I think it might come from the Amazon culture is, you argue all day long, but once a decision's made, you align behind it. So bring some constructive discourse to the table, but once it's done, they don't tolerate any, you know, any dysfunctional passive-aggressive behavior. Okay, say your piece, but align. That's exactly it. I mean, we pull people together for a day or a day and a half and actually run them through the business model canvas, which will align with like, what their goals are, what their mission is, how they're being seen in the market. And lots of other things, but the real goal there is to pull the team together on what exactly those things are and the value that their organization has. Because if you can't deliver on that message, you can't deliver on much more. So you do need that alignment and teams are so all over the place often. When you're running fast, you kind of forget, and so sometimes they need to be reminded. What's your take on DevNet Create this year? What's your thoughts? I think it's great. I mean, I love the fact that, you know, there's folks from so many different backgrounds and so many different, you know, kind of technical areas here. I love the, you know, Maraki's giving away 1.2 million dollars of equipment and software licenses. I think that's phenomenal. I'm impressed by the Cisco folks here, not to go overly overboard and give them too many compliments because, you know, they'll get cocky. No, but still, seriously, Cisco people that are here are kicking ass. They're doing a great job. They're got the microphones on. They're doing the demos, they're doing a lot. They are jazzed and they're not mailing it in either. Doing a great job. I think that's authentic, it's genuine. I think that's going to be a great, you know, seed in the community to grow that up. Again, still they got a lot of work to do, but I don't think it's too far of a bridge for network guys to be cloud guys and to kind of find some middle ground. So I think it's the timing's perfect. And again, super impressed with the team. And I think this is a great path of Cisco to double down on and really invest more in because it's definitely got legs. And I'm a big fan of the camp thing, too. We talked about the camp create where they had competitive teams hacking and spending two days on. So, you know, love it, love the culture. But again, early, let's see where they go with it. I mean, if they can get the network ops go on, there's DevOps for networks concepts and bring it up and make it programmable. Couldn't ask for a better time with Kubernetes, all the coolness going on that microservices. Good time. Definitely a great time. Well, great to host with you. And we're here live at DevNet Create, wrapping up two days of wall-to-wall coverage of theCUBE, DevNet Create. Again, this is the cloud ecosystem for Cisco, separate from the core DevNet, which is the Cisco developer program for all of Cisco. A great opportunity for them. Of course theCUBE's here covering it. We're going to wrap this up. And thanks for watching theCUBE coverage here in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Thanks for watching.