As cloud computing technologies expand, the two worlds of operators and developers are now coming together to create a confluence of work, collaboration and co-creation in technology unheard of in the past. And companies like Google LLC and Cisco Systems Inc. are partnering up to continue to pave the way for new ways of collaborating and working for the future.

“The key is that the infrastructure has become programmable,” said Susie Wee (pictured), vice president and chief technology officer of DevNet at Cisco. “[The old] infrastructure would not have been able to handle what you want to do with cloud, hybrid cloud applications, and everything there. But all of a sudden, these two worlds can interact more seamlessly, and they have the tools to help each other more.”

Wee spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco. They discussed the new converging world of developers and operators, open-source opportunities and collaborations. (* Disclosure below.)

Evolving co-creation and collaboration

As the technology workforce begins to merge more seamlessly, creating a more open environment where co-creation is a part of work is crucial. As Cisco and Google begin to partner on new hybrid cloud solutions, Wee has seen this collaboration work firsthand while bringing together Cisco’s DevNet community with the developer community of Google.

“Now the technologies are real enough that we can invite people to innovate on top of it,” Wee said. “And so as we … embrace the open-source tools, as well as … the hardened tools that are in these different areas, just bring these all together, then it’ll be interesting what the community develops.”

And open-source projects are key to all of this collaboration, according to Wee. As Cisco and Google are launching a joint effort, called the Cisco and Google Cloud Challenge, which will challenge people to write hybrid cloud solutions for a prize.

“We’re really excited to see what the community develops and what they submit,” Wee stated. “We’re creating just a sandbox of cool tools … to enable this entire new world of hybrid cloud applications, and we want to see what people create. They’re gonna create things that we can’t even think about.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Google Cloud Next event. (* Disclosure: Cisco Systems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Cisco nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE