Technology has seen a near complete overhaul in the past decade due to the transformative effects of cloud virtualization and the wireless world of the “internet of things.” Now at the onset of a digital renaissance spurred by smarter computing through artificial intelligence and automation for software development, technology’s newfound potential also comes growing pains. From startups to legacy companies, the tech industry looks to collaborative programs to help ease the transition.

“It’s a great program, because it’s about enablement. It’s helping people get from where they used to be … and moving them into a new space where they can now do much more with the network and continue to remain relevant as well,” said Paul Giblin (pictured), senior solution architect at Presidio Inc. With almost half a million developers in its community, Cisco DevNet is helping lead the charge in optimizing tech’s new landscape with its innovation enablement ecosystem.

Giblin spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Lauren Cooney (@lcooney), founder and chief executive officer of Spark Labs Consulting LLC, at the DevNet Create event in Mountain View, California. They discussed DevNet’s impact on the developer community and how Presidio’s work with Cisco is uncovering new opportunities in automation and cloud technology. (* Disclosure below.)

Reconstructing infrastructure with cloud in mind

Cisco DevNet caters to a range of developers and tech leaders interested in streamlined working processes and new solutions for the cloud and IoT spaces. The community provides tools and resources for users at every level, including those new to cloud, and its collaborative foundation gives all the opportunity to work together.

“As I continue to attend DevNet events and immerse myself in the community, I’m finding I’m starting to look at things through a new lens, and I think that’s one of the big values of coming here,” Giblin said about attending DevNet Create.

By empowering application developers with application programming interfaces, DevNet enables its community to improve apps through better utilization of data and streamline overall performance. For Cisco, the program provides the opportunity to engage directly with the fresh insights of today’s developer community.

“Even though Cisco’s exposing a lot of really cool functionality and capability, they might not necessarily understand how to leverage it, and I think that’s where the value really exists in the market today,” Giblin said. Historically indecisive on moving up the stack, DevNet allows Cisco to gain exposure to application-side perspectives while providing developers with reliable infrastructure tools.

Constructing that infrastructure is more crucial than ever, as security controversies surrounding tech giants like Uber Technologies Inc. and Facebook become increasingly common. “How do I make the network able to support whatever application may ride on top of it? … How do I allow people who aren’t necessarily going to be moving cables and getting deep with the network interact with it in a safe, controlled way?” Giblin asked.

Giblin utilizes the DevNet community tools to provide automation options to his team at Presidio. “In the infrastructure world, you’re going to have switch refreshes every so often, and it’s a difficult manual process. We’re working on a set of tools to automate to get people not doing rote labor nearly as much,” he said.

While automating around human labor can be a challenging task, Giblin follows a rule of thumb to ensure his team continues to thrive and innovate into the future. “Ripe targets for automation are the things you don’t like to do. Automate that, and you’ve got a built-in customer right there,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the DevNet Create 2018 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for DevNet Create. Neither Cisco Systems Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE