Developers are always looking to embrace new technologies that can help them build the applications that drive innovation forward. This was evident at the Google Cloud Next '18 conference, where more than 25,000 registrants came to learn more about the possibilities of cloud. I was there as a guest speaker where I got to see the excitement first hand and talk to the Google Next audience about the new Cisco Hybrid Cloud Platform for Google Cloud that is shipping this August.

Cloud is one of the ways many companies will future-proof business, deliver applications, and innovate faster than ever before. In the Google Cloud Next '18 opening keynote, Urz Holzle, SVP Cloud Infrastructure for Google Cloud talked about how cloud represents a fundamental shift in computing with many great things to come. He said there is still a big need to find a simple way to combine the cloud with a company's existing on-premises infrastructure or with other clouds. And he talked about how so many ordinary tasks are different in different clouds, creating a lot of complexity that needs to be managed. But there has to be a balance between developing in public cloud and making the most of what is on-premises.

And that's why hybrid cloud makes so much sense for developers.

Hybrid cloud is fast becoming the way developers strike the middle ground between the existing and new, hybrid optimized infrastructures. Cisco is doing a lot to help developers tap into the power of hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Accessibility

Developers are big drivers of public cloud adoption in the enterprise. The new hybrid cloud reality helps developers take advantage of technologies like containers, microservices, APIs, and more from public cloud toolsets and platforms to build applications both on-premises and in the cloud. Hybrid cloud enables them to work across their organization's complete application landscape and develop across any environment.

Solutions like the Cisco Hybrid Cloud Platform for Google Cloud which is shipping in just a few weeks, opens the door for developers to combine modern Google Cloud services such as AI or ML with their existing secure, compliant, and controlled application and infrastructure environment. It's a complete, customizable solution to develop, run, secure, and monitor applications that enable customers to optimize their existing investments and work in the cloud at their own pace. The Cisco and Google Cloud engineering teams have been working together for over a year to develop this joint solution that Google has certified as GKE compatible.

Flexibility

Public cloud gives developers new tools, speed and scale, but the future of application development involves working across different environments in a modular way, rather than "lifting and shifting" workloads between isolated ones. In this new era of hybrid cloud solutions, open source technologies like containers which run anywhere are making development and deployment much easier.

Google Cloud just awarded Cisco the Innovative Solution in Containers Award for our innovation that helps customers realize the potential of Kubernetes and containers. The Cisco Container Platform announced in January simplifies the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters in a multicloud environment with enterprise-class security and compliance. The Cisco Container Platform is a turnkey solution for production-grade environments that's based on open source components (100% upstream Kubernetes, Docker, Contiv, Nginx, etc.) so there's no lock-in. And it runs anywhere, with consistent deployment across hyperconverged infrastructure, VMs, bare metal, public, and private cloud.

DevOps

More and more companies are embracing DevOps to be able to move at a faster pace than with traditional software development approaches. A hybrid cloud infrastructure enables developers, IT ops, and security to work fluidly between development and operations instead of creating new technology and skills silos. It bridges the technology gaps that exist between teams and makes the most of existing legacy application investments and cloud-native tools. Teams can move to a continuous delivery model, releasing code not a couple of times a year, but sometimes multiple times per hour.

Cisco DevNet provides many resources to help developers program the cloud infrastructure. Through learning labs, sandboxes, and tools, developers can get hands on with Cisco APIs and technologies as well as open source technologies such as Kubernetes, Istio, and Docker. At the Google Next '18 conference, we announced the Cisco and Google Cloud Challenge where developers earn prizes by building their best hybrid cloud applications using both Cisco and Google Cloud platforms.

These are just a few reasons why hybrid cloud is key for developers in accelerating innovation. Applications are the lifeblood of many businesses and we've seen a big need for applications to be developed, deployed, and managed across both the data centers and clouds. If you are a developer, I encourage you to check out the solutions and resources above, to help you tap into the potential of the new hybrid cloud reality.

And in case you missed us at Google Cloud Next '18, check out some of the replays of our co-presented sessions below:

• Google Cloud Next '18: Day 2 Keynote: Bringing the Cloud to You
• Google Cloud Next '18: Spotlight Session: Enabling Application Innovation: Cisco and Open Hybrid Cloud Architecture