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Blog • • 3 minute read

Automation Will Change Your Life

Organizations are adopting automation and expecting programming skills from their infrastructure engineers. WWT can help those engineers on the path to learning new skills with our study groups. Learn how to deploy faster and better!

What if you could eliminate the fat-finger phenomenon of misconfiguration and configuration drift leading to unintended consequences? Think of the boring, repetitive tasks you hate doing. What if you could automate those tasks and free up your time to do the things you love? The Cisco DevNet Study Group offers a way to dive into the exciting world of infrastructure automation.


Our industry is changing. We've seen over the past few years that programmability, automation, and APIs have become more and more relevant. Improving the quality of work and engineers' lives, while increasing value to the organizations, is the future.


Whether you are a grizzled CLI-junkie looking to learn what this automation thing is all about, or someone already familiar with software development looking to pass a DevNet certification exam, the study group may be for you. The WWT Cisco DevNet Study Groups help people learn important skills in programmability and automation. We cover foundational topics such as version control, development environments, and data formats. We then dive into deeper topics such as working with APIs, docker, and python. The structure of the study group is geared towards passing the DevNet exams, but the skills you learn can be applied in your day-to-day work.


When Cisco announced the DevNet certifications in 2019, a small group of WWT employees formed the first study group and were among the first in the world to pass the DevNet associate exam as members of the DevNet 500. The group realized that there were many other people with a passion for learning that could benefit from their experience and replicate their success. Since its inception, more than 80 people have gone through a DevNet study group; this includes both customers and WWT employees. The study group alumni have passed over 30 DevNet exams since that initial group first met.


The Cisco DevNet Study Groups run for approximately 15 weeks; each group focused on a particular exam blueprint. Since 2020 we've run eleven individual study groups focused on the DevNet Associate, DevNet Enterprise Automation, DevNet Core, and the DevNet Data Center Automation tracks. The study group includes weekly presentations on the week's topic, a chat forum for asking questions and interacting with the group, and the opportunity to partner with another member to dive deeper into the issues. The study track is dependent on the level of interest in a particular exam.


If you have not already passed a Cisco DevNet Certification exam, start with the DevNet Associate Group. The DevNet Associate blueprint lays the foundation for the other exams. Study groups covering the specialization or professional level topics require the knowledge gained in the Associate blueprint.


If you have a passion for learning, want to eliminate repetitive and tedious tasks, and ride the rainbow with all the other unicorns, sign up for the 2021 DevNet Study Groups.


Check out the Infrastructure Automation Community to learn more about automation at WWT.