Brad Haas, Engineering Director, DevOps at Presidio and Chuck Stickney, Business Development Architect, Cisco DevNet Partner Transformation joined theCUBE's Jeff Frick for Accelerating Automation with DevNet 2020 #DevNet #theCUBE #Cisco @SiliconANGLE theCUBE @Cisco @Cisco DevNet https://siliconangle.com/2020/10/09/qa-cisco-presidio-partner-network-automation-innovation-ciscodevnet/ Q&A: Cisco and Presidio partner for network automation innovation BY DIEGO ASTURIAS Cisco Systems Inc. was king in networking infrastructure. But things changed when the cloud took over and organizations increasingly began moving applications to the cloud. Yet, over time, many businesses took their workloads back to their on-premises environment and implemented a hybrid multicloud ecosystem. Cisco quickly realized it needed to transform along with the industry, and the company responded by creating an ecosystem of partners to serve this new demand. Through Cisco DevNet, the company is bringing together developers and IT professionals to consult and create applications and integrations for Cisco products and APIs. Cisco and its DevNet partner Presidio Inc., an IT solutions provider, are creating network automation aimed at unlocking new capabilities on the network. Brad Haas (pictured, left), director of cloud, automation and development at Presidio, and Chuck Stickney (pictured, right), business development architect of Cisco DevNet partner transformation at Cisco Systems, spoke with Jeff Frick, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the Cisco Accelerating Automation With DevNet event. They discussed DevNet, how businesses are transitioning during COVID-19, cloud migration, software-defined networking, and network automation. (* Disclosure below.) [Editor’s note: The following has been condensed for clarity.] Let’s talk about the programs that you guys are putting together and how important it is to have partners to move this whole [software-defined networking] thing forward versus just worrying about people that have Cisco badges. Stickney: So, along this whole journey of DevNet where we’re trying to leverage that customization and innovation built on top of our Cisco platforms, most of Cisco’s business is transacted through partners. We have some of our partners that have been building these practices going along this step in that journey with us for the last six years. They really want to say, “Hey, how can I differentiate myself against my competitors and give an edge to my customers to show them that, yes, I have these capabilities, I’ve built a business practice, I have technologists that really understand this capability and they have the DevNet certifications to prove it.’ I wonder if, from your perspective, the importance of the network, the importance of security, and the ability now to move into this new normal very quickly … you guys were pretty much in as good as space as you could be given this new [COVID-19] challenge thrown at you. Stickney: I think the transition that we’ve seen in the industry as far as moving to that application type of economy, as we go to microservices, as we go to a higher dependency upon the cloud, those things have really enabled the world to be able to better respond to this COVID situation. And I think it’s helped to justify the investments that our customers have made, as well as what our partners have been able to do to deliver on that multicloud capability, to take those applications, get them closer to the end user — instead of sitting in a common data center — and then making it more applicable to users wherever they may be. Even though you guys are both in the business of networking and infrastructure, there’s still this recognition that apps first is the way to go because that gives people a competitive advantage. It gives them the ability to react in the marketplace and to innovate and move faster. So, it’s a really interesting twist to be able to support an application first by having a software-defined in a more programmable infrastructure stack. ... Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Cisco Accelerating Automation With DevNet event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Accelerating Automation With DevNet event. Neither Cisco Systems Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)