Reality Check

Difficult Decisions

I've gotten a decent amount of pings over Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and also directly about my Juniper.net account bouncing and why.

First: I apologize for that. I've reached out to folks at Juniper to add a re-direct in there for you so you'll be connected with the right folks moving forward.

Second: Yes, because you have asked and I have not yet answered most of you - I did decide to leave Juniper Networks and last Thursday was my last day.

Third: Yes, I do have a new opportunity I am heading to, but I have a few weeks before I start. The what, the where - none of that is relevant right now. Why? Because I'll pop up in a few weeks. And you'll hear about it then. It's an awesome gig, it's with a great team and there's a whole hell of a lot to do. And I'm psyched (understatement). But that's for another post.

When one makes a decision in their career sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it's very difficult, and this for me was the latter simply put because of an amazing, passionate group of individuals I worked with at Juniper and the wonderful partners, developers, consultants, customers and individuals I had the joy of getting to know. Period. But when making decisions like this I've learned (and thank you Sheila for reminding me) that you need to take out the emotional and look at the facts of what you truly want to do. When I did that I saw a very clear path towards the decision that I made.

Ah, Juniper. What a freaking ride it's been. Our team (known as the Developer Business Unit or DBU) was a start-up, kick-ass little engine that could. In under one year, we joined the Eclipse Foundation, created the framework and model for new ways to look at networking through Programmability (because it's not just about a box anymore - it's about the magic that happens inside and exposing it through APIs and new software that drives value not only for businesses but for developers by giving them the tools to build more intelligent applications and services), getting the keynote and I think surprising the pants off of everyone at JavaOne ("What's a networking company doing at a Java developer show? Don't you just sell boxes?") and the beta of the Juniper Developer Network, which included a full application and code gallery (Diet Coke, Clif Bar, and Quaker Instant Oatmeal should have sponsored NagiP, the IT team and me for that one. But hey, if you hit the dates you promised people and knock numbers out of the park, sleep doesn't matter, right?).

What a year. Some of the most trying work I've done (if I ever have to explain to someone again why you build a community, you don't "launch" one . . .) but also some of the most rewarding. And definitely with a team that I'll never, ever forget and will continue to call my friends.

• Eddie Amos, Jeet Kaul, and Mike Harding - the three headed monster (in a good way!) that continuously paved the way for things to get done from marketing and evangelism to engineering. I can tell you as someone that needed air-cover more than once in a while to get new things done, these guys did it. They are high on the get-it factor, they push the needle when it comes to execution, and lay it on the line for doing the right thing for the business. Looking back, I've learned a tremendous amount in just over a year working with these guys. And yes Jeet, I do remember and will be forever grateful for that night two weeks into my role at Juniper when I know you should have been home eating dinner with your family but you took the time to explain the intricacies of networking hardware to me. :)

• The brilliant and always inspiring Hal Stern who I think finally has figured out that sometimes I didn't answer his calls because his thinking was just so over my head from a technical perspective that if he wrote it down in email I could at least Wikipedia it :)

• Ivan Vojvodic, who was a great partner and colleague in driving multiple inroads and ventures with partners and development organizations.

• The Junos and Space SDK teams: Saurabh, Connie, Bijou, Karthik, Usama, Brian, Parag, Pratik, Sunit, Sree, and the rest of the crew who do amazing work and I know will continue to build amazing things.

• From the marketing side: Anna Griffin, Juniper's VP of Global Branding & Advertising, who has an amazing awareness and knowledge of brand and the right way to go about building a strong one, Barbara French who took the time to sit down and actually understand the goals of this "new" developer and software business and truly help us deliver from the analyst perspective, Adam Christensen, my buddy from IBM days and Juniper lead for Social, and of course, Brad Brooks who I wish I got to work with a bit longer and who brings loads of leadership and talent to the team (and although he'll never admit it and I'm not sure if he knows it, is usually one of the smartest guys in the room).

• Lastly, Nagi Punyamurthula and Helen Sebhatu - countless hours spent on website coding, events, partner strategies and evangelism, building new programs and who I could count on for anything and everything when we were building JDN and multiple different programs - you guys are the best. Period. 

I don't give compliments that often to folks - maybe it got knocked out of me at MSFT or maybe I'm just not that good at it - but when I do, I mean them. That said, the DBU team is hands-down some of the best folks I've ever had the joy of working with, and I wish them and Juniper the best.

Signing off for now./LC

Email: [email protected]/Twitter: @lcooney

 

 

 

 

Building Great Applications for your Network

You hear the word network and application together more and more frequently today. Why? Because you actually can build applications more easily than ever using tools that are developer and network friendly and utilize tools you already know how to use (ie: Eclipse IDE).

Historically there's been a divide. But the network and applications need to work together.

The good news? The divide between IT and Developer is getting smaller and smaller - you can now access the network through a series of APIs and an orchestration layer that make it easier to build and scale applications specific to your network. The two need to work together to be successful. We're making this happen today through what we call "Programmability," which enables developer access to data trapped in the network - without frustrating the network engineers who have to deal with the network intricacies (which is *not* an easy task). Essentially we're making it simple for developers to access this network data without mucking up the network.

Now, let's dive into an example.

Junos Space SDK is a toolkit for developers to build and deploy applications across their network. Easy enough. But what we're finding is that it's not taking months to build these applications anymore - it's taking a couple weeks. And these applications are pretty complex. By utilizing RESTful web services & APIs, developers are building faster and smarter apps - smarter because the application is able to access data from the network.

Here's a great example of one of our partners, Firemon, and what they've done with the Space SDK. Firemon has almost finished their security application that enables visibility for security breaches across the (your) entire network. It allows network security managers to see how attacks propagate through the network and show them where to stop attacks at the perimeter. Check it out here:

 

 

We have lots of amazing appplications that have been built with Junos Space SDK, and soon you'll see more of them.

If you'd like to start building or get our help doing so, just reach out to us at [email protected] - we've got a slew of experts ready to help you start developing.

For more information as always, ping me direct ([email protected]). I'd love to hear questions, feedback, and more.

/LC

 

Why Does Juniper Care about Developers?

Juniper = Networking, right? Well, that's not quite true anymore.

Juniper still offers lots of great networking equipment, but we've also been growing our software offerings for the past few years (albeit a bit quietly) and this year at JavaOne we really wanted to showcase what we're doing.

No longer does Juniper only = Networking, but Juniper also = better web applications for developers.

We call this "programmable networking" but I think of it more as intelligent development with a self-adjusting network to make your apps work/run better & faster and include more data that can provide your end-users with better experiences. Long-winded, but that's essentially what it means (no lingo there folks).

Why does this matter for you as a developer and how are we doing this?

Current situation:

• IT is transforming as technologies are increasingly moving to the cloud
• If you sit in IT, it's no longer just "good enough" to add value by saving money and optimizing equipment - you have to add value to your company.
• Good information is often stuck in silos - organizational and technology silos. From databases to networking boxes, good data is tough to get.
• The current offerings of developer tools out there now aren't *great* to get this data - cludgy, clunky, and hard to use.
• The pressure of changes to systems or applications to be built in days instead of weeks or months.

Juniper's vision for a programmable network is changing this. Let me explain how this applies to application developers:

• Juniper is essentially unlocking the network (black box) for developers to utilize data in their applications. This means better data. More real-time information. And better performance and end-user experience for applications (ie: faster, more personalized apps).
• We're decoupling software from systems - so you can go do what you want with previously unavailable data.
• With the IT situation outlined above, the goal is to make everything programmable - for developers to alter, utilize, build, export, etc - simply. RESTful APIs. New Protocols. And more intelligent tools that you actually already know how to use (ie: Eclipse IDE).
• We have a few tools, the Junos Space SDK and the Junos SDK - that offer APIs into these network elements for the data to be pulled out and utilized in your applications. 
• We're working with new protocols and standards to help drive programmability not only into the networking boxes but also into your applications. For example:
  • Applications that are aware of the network:  you can now utilize previously unavailable data from the network when building apps. You can now use code to make the network adapt to what you need for your app.
  • Networks that are aware of applications: Which path is the best for your app to go through the network to reach your end-user faster? How to do you load-balance traffic to make this happen? We're working on technologies that make this happen real time and with LOTS less work. Coding to use network value natively inside of applications.
    

Bottom line? You can now build what you want, with you want. With great tools. Potential has been fully unlocked. You have the keys to make better, more intelligent, and faster apps. Creativity is up to you.

For more details, check out our Slideshare account on how we're making this a reality.

We'd love feedback on what we're doing. What else can we do? How can we better help you build your applications?

You can always reach me at [email protected] - and for more info, follow us at @junosdeveloper for updated information on this.

Oh, and PS: We have something BIG coming in November. You'll have to wait to find out about that, but let's just say it ties LOTS of this together :)

/LC

 

Just what *is* Juniper doing at JavaOne?

As promised, more information on what we're doing at JavaOne!

As most of you know, the divide between developers and their ability access the network (or even want to, for that fact) has been a major problem for a long, long time. To me at least (coming from the software side) the network is just this big box that either is up or down, and if it's down I'm frustrated, if it's running I don't even think about it. But there's actually a lot of information in there that's relevant to developers - and it actually can be used if  it is unlocked in a simple enough way to use the network data in web applications and services.

Well, Juniper provides that key to unlock the box. You're going to learn lots more about the ways this can be done at JavaOne (types of APIs we offer, ways to actually get more visibility into your network through new technologies, make your apps run faster, more efficiently, and include better data - and how to apply this to your apps - today). This will actually be part of the focus of the keynote we're giving on Tuesday at 8:30am. More to come on this very soon.

In the meantime though, here's a quick list of sessions that some of our folks are doing that will be discussing these topics:

• Hal Stern, VP & Chief Troublemaker (I mean Architect) will be presenting on "Networks as Information Factories"  on Wednesday, 11:30 AM, Hilton San Francisco - Plaza A/B. You'll get some great detail on Cloud Computing, Big Data, and how you can utilize more intelligent information on these things to create better solutions.
• James Kelly, one of our top network engineers (and probably the coolest guy you'll meet at the show) will be discussing open innovation in networking software and how to use APIs from the network to build new services and applications. His session is: Tuesday, 01:30 PM, Hotel Nikko - Carmel I/II

Any questions on what we're up to (because it doesn't stop after JavaOne!) or interviews, ping me direct as well and I'll connect you to the right folks at Juniper so we can meet. There's lots more  coming... so stay tuned. 

Looking forward!/LC