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Imagine you’re a network engineer at an enterprise. You already have your hands full with IT priorities, including managing bandwidth related to working from home, the company’s new data center, and, more recently, computing needs to support AI adoption. Additionally, the security team has a long list of device vulnerabilities and an audit they need your help to pass by a specific deadline. So, you spend your nights and weekends managing backups and trying to keep up with configuration changes and upgrades one device at a time.
Then, your company completes an acquisition, and your workload doubles as you try to get your arms around additional network infrastructure and technologies. How do you prioritize supporting that initiative while keeping up with your daily responsibilities? It’s time to revisit network automation.
According to Gartner, 30% of enterprises will automate more than half of their network activities by 2026. You’ve considered network automation because you know it would allow you to do more impactful work, but it has been on the back burner because you never seem to have the time. Plus, talking to industry peers has raised many concerns about being sold on a great vision but with tools that don’t go far enough.
Five misconceptions remain based on a legacy of disappointing experiences. They need to be dispelled so that you can move forward with network automation and get some relief.
Myth #1 – It takes a team of consultants just to get started
The success of network automation is predicated on having a single source of truth for network and security device data, including the manufacturer, type, model number, firmware, and software version.
Bringing all that data into an automation platform has traditionally been a manual task handled by a team of consultants as part of a network automation vendor’s services contract. Alternatively, the network team tries to do it, one device at a time. Either approach can be expensive, often incomplete, and certainly not updated as changes happen.
A comprehensive device inventory you can trust is essential for tracking the state of backups, configurations, updates, patches, and end-of-life devices. Modern network automation platforms can collect details about your network devices and build and maintain your device inventory. New devices are automatically added to the inventory during onboarding, and updates to existing device data happen in real time.
Myth #2 – Network engineers must become Python experts
Network engineers are typically experts in managing specific devices, not writing and managing code. The expectation for network automation is that it will save time for network engineers, not force them to learn open-source tools like Python, PowerShell, and Ansible to build and maintain their custom automation.
Modern, purpose-built network automation solutions have extensive prebuilt automation libraries and a no-code customization approach. There’s no need to learn or manage any scripting language. For an automation unique to your environment, a true partner will go even further and help quickly develop custom automation, often as part of your contract.
Myth #3 – Multivendor environments are too complex for automation
Network and security device vendors have solid automation tools for their own devices. But most network environments include devices from multiple vendors: different firewalls, switches, routers, etc. Applying changes to keep devices from multiple vendors updated and eliminating vulnerabilities takes time and expertise.
Traditional network automation solutions have taken an integration approach to adding coverage for new devices, requiring network engineers to build the capability themselves. That approach isn’t feasible because some devices may only comprise five percent of the environment.
An expected increase in M&A activity in 2025 translates into increasingly heterogeneous environments for network engineers to manage and urgency for alternatives to manual methods or complex integration projects. Being able to automate functions for different device types from various manufacturers and, at the same time, from a single platform is important.
Myth #4 – Automation only applies to greenfield use cases
New cloud infrastructure doesn’t exist in a bubble. It invariably must connect to brownfield environments where data, users, and other applications reside. Network teams need the ability to support greenfield environments, like a new e-commerce site, alongside mission-critical legacy applications that can’t move to the cloud.
To deliver on the promise of network automation, solutions have a flexible onboarding process to support greenfield and brownfield provisioning equally. When new devices are brought into the network, tasks are automated to match the configuration policy for their environment.
Myth #5 – Prepare for a substantial investment: money and time
Only 18% of network automation initiatives have been successful for reasons including complexity, data quality problems, and budget issues.
Traditional approaches to network automation that result in heavy infrastructure bear that out.
- Going the route of open-source tools and developing advanced coding skills to write your automation
- Using a mix of vendor toolsets and playbooks to integrate, orchestrate, and automate various capabilities, including device inventory, backups, configuration, compliance, and security
- Signing a substantial services agreement with a specialty provider to stitch together an ecosystem for you and create and maintain automation with no light at the end of the tunnel
Network automation platforms address these challenges through pre-built automation, multi-vendor support, and no-code customization. API-driven integration makes connecting with complementary tools like IT service management easy.
Get your life back
Recent research shows that heads of I&O who focus on enterprise-wide automation delivery will double the value delivered by service quality and cost improvement efforts. However, a legacy of network automation being complex to scale and expensive is holding adoption back.
More recently, investments have been made to align capabilities to the reality of the environments network engineers manage. Now that you know what to look for and what you can expect from a modern approach, it’s time to prioritize network automation and get your life back. It’s the only way you can get relief from mundane manual tasks and start to work on more strategic initiatives.
