At Cisco Live in Las Vegas, the DevNet Zone was bustling with activity focused on the rapidly evolving field of automation engineering. This year’s event highlighted innovative strategies and tools that are driving the industry’s shift toward AI adoption. Cisco’s commitment to empowering engineers across the stack has been evident, positioning AI as a key pillar of future development. As an automation engineer, you play a pivotal role in leveraging AI to create smarter, more efficient solutions. Cisco DevNet supports you on your journey and provides the resources and community you need to succeed.
AI is complex, but with DevNet it doesn’t have to be difficult. DevNet AI resources aim to help demystify AI integration and make it accessible to engineers at all levels. Meanwhile, programmability in general still remains an important focus. DevNet continues to support IT organizations by building on its existing foundation of automation and programmability and now extending it with AI. Whether through advanced AI-based tools or our support community, we are committed to helping you unlock the full potential of AI. As you continue to innovate, DevNet will be with you, providing you with the knowledge and tools to stay at the forefront of your industry.
Key takeaways from Cisco Live’s DevNet Zone
- AI is transforming application development and automation with new possibilities.
AI is changing the way we approach writing software, providing new possibilities and efficiencies. Cisco Live explored AI’s potential to transform your projects with insights into AI-based programmability, predictive AI, and generative AI. - Scalable across domains with automation and programmability
Cisco provides the APIs needed for scalability in security, networking, data center, and collaboration, enabling organizations to build multi-domain solutions tailored to their business needs. - Technology is advancing sustainable energy management.
Sustainability is a major concern as technology use increases. At Cisco Live, the audience learned innovative approaches to energy management through automation and programmability.
Inside the action in the DevNet Zone
Technology Classroom Session
Cisco Live’s DevNet Zone focuses on the latest advancements in AI, network programmability, and more. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in AI-focused sessions, including the session “GenAI Impact on DevOps and Application Development: A Technical Perspective.” This session provided actionable guidance on integrating AI innovations into everyday DevOps workflows and specific Cisco solutions that can be used to facilitate this integration. The DevNet Zone was filled with impressive overflow into the aisles for NSO Playground and YANG Data Modeling sessions in Process Network Automation.
sandbox arcade
Attendees also experienced the fun of the new Sandbox Arcade. There, I was able to learn about Sandbox products and how to put together API calls through a retro-style arcade game, providing a fun and engaging way to practice my coding skills. The arcade games were only available to Cisco Live attendees, but the DevNet Sandbox is open to everyone. Available sandboxes allow you to develop and test Cisco APIs, SDKs, and more by running your code on live infrastructure.
workshop
Instructor-led workshops provided hands-on learning experiences, with many sessions having waiting lists of over 100 people. These high-demand sessions included topics on building the first GenAI Assistant, automating network tasks, using ThousandEyes API integrations for network insights, and securing Meraki MX. At Cisco Live, the hands-on learning never stops. To continue building your skills in programmability, GenAI, and more, explore DevNet’s online learning labs.
Share your experience
The Experience Sharing Program provided attendees with a unique opportunity to share valuable feedback and opinions on solutions, APIs, and resources. These comments are critical to influencing future products and helping us continually improve and evolve.
Key presentations and session highlights
Cisco Live 2024 included new announcements sharing updates on AI strategies and solutions, as well as new innovations in security, networking, and observability. Below is a breakdown of what has been most interesting and impactful to us in the areas of networking, development and operations.
The first keynote started off strong with Cisco announcing a $1 billion investment to scale and develop secure and trustworthy AI solutions. These investments will further help support our customers’ AI readiness, compute infrastructure, base models, model development, and training.
New partnerships resulting from these investments include:
- Mistral AI We specialize in generative artificial intelligence and combine scientific excellence, an open approach, and a responsible technology vision to develop new GenAI models for business.
- AI scale We provide a data-driven, end-to-end platform that provides training and validation for AI applications.
- cohere Provides security-focused, front-line large language models (LLMs) and industry-leading search augmented generation (RAG) capabilities tailored to meet the needs of enterprises.
Solutions and improvements to look for
- nvidia Cisco’s partnership will provide a streamlined solution for deploying generative AI applications through Cisco Nexus HyperFabric AI clusters that simplify infrastructure setup. Exclusive cloud management tools provide easy deployment and monitoring across data centers and edge sites.
- cisco networking cloud Introduce a unified management platform for seamless on-premises and cloud operations featuring SSO, API management, sustainable networking, and enhanced digital experience assurance from ThousandEyes, while simplifying IT with advanced AI and energy insights.
- XDR with Meraki MX Integrating together, they enable direct telemetry analysis and correlation, improve visibility for Meraki administrators, and provide immediate threat response capabilities within the Meraki dashboard.
- Hypershield support for AMD Pensando DPU and Intel IPU We provide an AI-based distributed security architecture that spans from the cloud to the data center to the edge, optimizing performance and energy efficiency.
- motivation, a new SaaS product for quickly and reliably delivering GenAI applications, has announced free trial availability for all customers and production use for a limited set of customers, targeting general availability on July 31, 2024. Our collaboration with Mistral AI, a leading provider of large-scale language models, allows us to enhance GenAI assistants with leading LLM capabilities.
- Splunk launches Log Observer for Cisco AppDynamics, an integration that allows users to provide faster problem resolution across on-premises and hybrid environments. A new AI assistant from AppDynamics was also announced, allowing users to leverage insightful guidance to make informed decisions.
- New Cisco AI Certification Now available to help your teams build the skills they need to design modern AI/ML compute and networks.
Cisco Live 2024 was an incredible event filled with learning, innovation, and community engagement. Whether you attended or followed virtually, we hope these will inspire you to continue exploring AI, sustainability, and programmability in your projects.
Stay connected to DevNet beyond Cisco Live
Even if you can’t attend in person, don’t miss the opportunity to build your skills. Continue to grow with your developer community and keep the Cisco Live spirit going all year long.
- Explore our technical resources: Keep pace with the evolving AI landscape and advance your skills through the AI Hub. Explore learning labs, sample code, and sandboxes to improve your skills and apply your knowledge to real-world scenarios across Cisco solutions. Explore all DevNet content here >.
- Join our community: Join DevNet Creators on Webex to connect with peers and subject matter experts on your favorite tech topics. Share knowledge, ask questions, and collaborate on projects. Connect >
- Waiting: Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @CiscoDevNet on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook for the latest updates, resources, and opportunities to connect with the DevNet community. Watch DevNet experts share exclusive insights, tutorials, and updates on our YouTube channel.
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