When Cisco Systems Inc. created its developer program DevNet in May 2014, it foresaw that software, application programming interfaces and programmability would become core to computing’s network. Cisco knew it needed to get network builders and network operators trained with transitional skills, as well as enabling cross-pollination between network teams.

Four years later, DevNet has reached 500,000 registered users, what Cisco calls “critical mass,” allowing them to push network innovation through collaboration. To enable this, Cisco recently kicked off the DevNet Code Exchange. While all the code can still be found in GitHub, there was a need for a curated list, filtered by product and by language.

“I sometimes joke that it’s like Zappos for sample code because you can [specify] a code for DNA center or a C in Python, and then [you can] see all of the repositories submitted by the community,” explained Amanda Whaley (pictured, right), director of developer experience at Cisco DevNet.

Whaley and Parvaneh Merat (pictured, left), senior director of community and ecosystem at Cisco DevNet, spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Cisco Live event in Orlando, Florida. They discussed how DevNet Code Exchange is expanding beyond code to drive business value, as well as the implications for intent-based networking, or IBN. (* Disclosure below.)

Shifting mindsets from build to business

Cisco found that, as developers collaborated and worked with each other, they moved from thinking just about code to solve one problem into working out the business value associated with the problem they were trying to solve, as well as how they could apply that to other use cases, creating repeatable value across multiple organizations.

“[Developers] can come and see what’s already been built: ‘Is there something that can jumpstart my development?’ And if there’s not, then they can [partner] with each other,” Merat said.

DevNet Exchange helps facilitate IBN by bringing together developers from different organizations to collaborate and solve issues they may have in common. An example of this collaboration is happening right at the Cisco Live event. The organizations that sell and install the Cisco Meraki Network are different from companies that build wayfinding software. Working together, the wayfinding companies can access Meraki’s embedded Wi-Fi location services to expand and enhance their software.

Cisco Live partnered with an independent software vendor to embed a cloud-based navigation app into the Cisco Live app. Therefore, users can tap within the app on the session that they want to attend, and a map will come up to navigate them from where they are within the convention center to where the session is located, according to Merat and Whaley.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Cisco Live 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