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Review: DevNet Express Cloud Collaboration - Las Vegas 2017

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My Cisco Live US 2017 in Las Vegas starts with the 2-Day DevNet Expressway Cloud Collaboration event . Cisco DevNet Express events are an offer from Cisco to provide the possibility to dive deeper into the programmability of today solutions. The Cisco DevNet team provides a mixture between theoretical backgroud and technics about programming and small labs and tasks to train the theoretical stuff in practice.  After the usage of scripting and the development of small own tools helps to make the daily work of every engineer easier, the DevNet Express are the ideal start to build up the required programming skills. To level the field for all participants of the event, Day 1 starts with the basics of Python, programming basics, the benefits of APIs and usage of Rest APIs. The theory parts are always mixed with small exercises which really help to deepen the understanding of the theory parts. The second day was focused to use the basics from day one in combination with Cisco S
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Cisco Live US 2017 - Preview from the view of a Collaboration Engineer

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The Cisco Live 2017 US in Vegas is coming closer and the time to create the own schedule starts. Through my work as a Collaboration Engineer I put my focus on the Collaboration tracks offered at Cisco Live. This year my focus on Cisco Live is completely the general strategy of Cisco in the collaboration field and Cisco Spark. The complete Cisco Spark Hybrid story is for me one of the game changers in the collaboration game. The integration in existing Cisco UC deployments in combination with the integration existing IT services are brining large value to the Spark offering. But the real changes will come with Hybrid Media and Hybrid Data Security. The possibilities of Hybrid Data security with all the possibility to save the encryption keys of Cisco Spark conversations in your own datacenter on your own servers provides a large benefit in comparison with cloud only solutions. With this in mind I'm really looking forward to the session of Jonathan Rosenberg "Worr
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How to - Install Python and Paramiko in offline Windows environment (Optimized Method)

After using more and more Paramiko and Python for automation of endpoint testing and changed requirements for the the usage of Paramiko in newer versions my old how-to  becomes outdated. With the newest release of Python, Python 3.6 , I started to optimize the installation process to reduce complexity and make the installation process more simple. Instead of downloading manually all required files from the different homepages I use Python included functions for this work.  Step by Step overview: 1. Creation of reference system For preparation of the required files and for verification I'm using normally a test system i setup in VMware Fusion on my MacBook. For the Microsoft operating system I use the trial version from Microsoft Technet Evaluation Center for 180 days testing. After the system is finally setup based on my requirements I create a snapshot to have a valid reference point for my installation. 2. Installation of Python in reference system and downloadin
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Cisco and the edge challenge - federations in Cisco collaboration solutions

Based on my actual projects I made some experiences with the needs and requirements or large enterprises around federations. In today enterprise communication requirements federations with external partners or customers becomes more and more important. While Microsoft has a clear strategy with their Microsoft Edge Servers to provide their customers a wide range of features via one kind of server. With this solution Microsoft can provide features like: Business to Business Audio and Video calls Instant Messaging Desktop Sharing Registration of clients via Internet In comparison the Cisco solution is more complex, depending on the use case a different kind of edge device is required. With the Cisco acquisition of Acano the range o possible edge devices get more possibilities but also more overlap between the different solutions. In an actual overview of edge devices in an Cisco collaboration solution we would see the following devices: Cisco Expressway Cisco ASA Ci
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My first Cisco Spark project - Phase 1: Ups and Downs and the PaaS Challenge

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After working approximately some time on my private Cisco Spark App, which combines the Cisco Openvuln API with the Cisco Spark API, I had several ups and downs during working on the code. During the first days I focused on Openvuln API and to understand OAuth. The first versions of the program is running on my laptop and was just for verification of the functions of the Openvuln API and to get my first experiences with OAuth. I used the Client Credential Grant of OAuth for the first programs, but the final goal is to create a web application using the Authorisation Code Grant. The topic web application was also part of one of the downs I experienced. Ups: - I get the Client Grant based OAuth authentication working to send requests to the Cisco Openvuln API. Based on the fact that I had no experience with OAuth and not much experience with programming, that was a real highlight for me after I get that running - I get the get the Cisco Spark API training labs running and g
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My first Cisco Spark project - The idea: Integration of OpenVuln API into Cisco Spark

Cisco Spark and its new released set of APIs  was one of the main topics during the Cisco Collaboration Summit 2015 . The easiness of usage was a highlighted point during the presentations and piqued my natural curiosity. I'm a Cisco Spark fan since more than one year and I really like the idea to merge innovative Cloud based apps and on-prem equipment to provide new services. Besides the different Cisco Spark APIs, Cisco released also the OpenVuln API , which provides API based access to Cisco Security advisories. One my responsibitilies at work is the evaluation of impact of new security advisories for Telepresence solutions, working with security advisories is part of my regular work. So I was very interested in evaluating how the OpenVuln API could make my daily life easier. During the days before Christmas I got the time to meet old friends and we talked about the good old time during school with IRC chat rooms, bots and other tools we used in the past. After some b
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Cisco Customer Connection Program - Why being active brings value to your organisation

Normally the holiday season becomes the time for looking back and to recap the ups and downs of the last year. One of my personal largest highlights last year was the Cisco Customer Connection Program. The Customer Connection Program or formerly Collaboration User Group is part of the Cisco Communities and is open for everybody. If you are Cisco employee, partner or customer, it does not matter you, you can just join the community. For me the Customer Connection Programm brings five large benefits to their members: - Briefings There are regular briefings and many topics are presented before they are officially announced,  sometimes even before the partners are getting these informations. And also the kind of the briefings are making them special for me. Everybody knows the normal Cisco webinars. Normally you come to the session, the presenter go through his slides and the only change for asking question is the Q&A function of WebEx.  The briefings in Customer
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