Cisco rolls out another developer program: “Same same” but different
Cisco has taken another shot at attracting third-party coders into its embrace with the relaunch of a rebranded developer program.
Keen followers will remember this isn’t the first time Cisco has tried to encourage others to write apps and functions for its platforms. It’s also not the first time its chosen to name its program as the “Cisco Developer Network” either. It did so back in 2009 when it named its first developer program as such. Later, that program was renamed as the Cisco Solution Partner Program, and now its been reborn with the shortened version, “DevNet”, which is essentially the same thing.
But while the name is old, the new program will be slightly different. This time around, the aim is “to enable an open community of software developers – including ISVs, customers and Systems Integrators/Channel Partners – to help them easily and rapidly build Cisco-enabled applications to sell and use, on top of Cisco APIs to enhance or manage Cisco networks and platforms,” said Susie Wee, Cisco’s VP & CTO of Networked Experiences. “Cisco is encouraging the adoption of APIs across our products and fostering integrations with third-party products.”
To help encourage this, Ciscos is allocating resources including “engineering platform APIs, SDKs, ready-to-use code samples, a developer sandbox, developer support, and community management”, adds Wee.
So why has Cisco jumped back on the developer bandwagon? Most probably, it has something to do with emerging platforms like OpenFlow, OpenStack and NFV, which are beginning to threaten anyone involved in networking. Wooing developers to aid its cause is but one way Ciscos thinks it can head off these threats. Whether or not it will be able to convince developers that its easier, faster and more profitable to work with Cisco remains to be seen.
But Wee seems to think it can, and has promised more than 100 APIs will be made available to get the wheels rolling. She adds that Cisco will make APIs for SDN, IoT, collaboration, mobility and security. It’s also going to work with Mulesoft to make accessing these APIs easier, and it’ll provide a developer’s sandbox, to remove “the cost and time of acquiring lab equipment and the technical staff to maintain it.”
photo credit: Shreyans Bhansali via photopin cc
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