Over the past year, we saw the idea of software-defined networking (SDN) become an integral part of IT conversations globally. As this technology evolves, the term "network programmability" can be used to capture the idea of opening up the network.

The Cisco Global Cloud Index predicts that two-thirds of all workloads will be processed in the cloud by 2017, and more than two-thirds of all data center traffic will come from the cloud. Companies building enterprise private clouds, public clouds and hybrid clouds will need qualified talent to optimize their cloud deployments for maximum efficiency.

At Partner Summit last month, Cisco announced new Data Center Innovations, including new high performance switches for Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI). ACI is the first data center and cloud solution to offer full network automation, visibility, security at scale, and integrated management of both physical and virtual networked IT resources, all built around the needs of applications.

As all elements of the data center have become less physically real and more virtual, the tools and processes needed to design and manage the data infrastructure have changed, as have the skills required by the operators and engineers working in the data center.

To help meet the need for individuals with validated skills capable of supporting next generation infrastructure with network programmability, we are introducing new training and certification offerings. These new Cisco Specialist Certifications are being developed specifically for network programmability job roles, including:

• Business Application Engineer: to gain awareness of the new open data center environment
• Designer or Architect: to achieve capability of integrating application
• Engineer: to integrate and troubleshoot in a programmable cloud environment
• Developer: to use programmatic interfaces for network automation including JSON, XML, Python, Puppet/Chef, and OpenStack.

More details of these new offerings will be available soon.

Learn more about Cisco Certifications and Training on the Cisco Learning Network: www.ciscolearningnetwork.com