The industry has been buzzing over the past years around Next Generation of Software Defined and Application Centric networks. If you missed that, it means that you were probably on planet ...Zircon  (?).

In his recent blog, Colin Lynch  @UCSguru and Cisco Champion  talks about the skills that network engineers will need in order to design, support and deploy these new networks.
Colin designs and deploys large data centers for a Gold Partner in the UK, and is CCIE#7064 as well as holding certifications in VMware, EMC and NetApp. His Blog is http://ucsguru.com which covers all Datacenter topics but focuses on Cisco UCS.  Recently Colin participated to a lively Cisco Champion  podcast with Insieme/Cisco Joe Onisick  @jonisick  on ACI and Nexus 9000.

When recognizing that the traditional networks will not go away overnight , giving ample room for people with the current skill sets, Colin explains what he sees happening, and the course of actions he already took . "I'm certainly no programmer, but I see having basic programming competency as the next skill required to remain in that band of "High Demand" networking professionals."  A reality that many other network engineers start to embrace

A reality that Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior  @padmasree emphasized at a recent NPR broadcast for the Commonwealth Club of California, as she highlighted the importance for the new generation of  professionals to learn a programming language . Listen to Padmasree's  speech  on "The Business of Innovation : Today and Tomorrow"

Without necessary being amongst those who tend to think "that not being able to code could well be the next definition of literacy" as Colin questions  in his blog , more and more network engineers seems to take this steps , including Bill Carter @billyc5022 , who shared also  his new skill sets in a recent blog  Cisco is bringing together networking and programming  .

To better understand Colin's point of view and discover what are his first steps to be ready for this new breed of networks,  read his blog  The "Next Gen" Network Engineer"  . Tell us what are your first steps , if any.

You may want also to check this video with Colin debating with Hal Rotenberg @harl9000 on the very same topic  "ACI and Traditional Networking"