In this post Nicola Arnoldi clears up some confusion. For him, when network automation is vital for any organization, it’s important to keep in context what things like Ansible are. This isn’t SDN or an orchestration framework. Instead, taking a cue from Ansible’s recent Networking Field Day presentation, this is just one tool to accomplish automation. These kind of tool are perfect for building a Graph DB of your network resources. This is what underlies Apstra’s intent-based networking, as demoed at Networking Field Day last year.
Data Point: Why Automation Won’t Replace Humans
Ivan Pepelnjak thinks network engineers don’t need to worry about automation replacing them in the near future, given that a forward looking company like Tesla has failed with their complete automation efforts. Instead, he points that network engineers should train themselves to do higher value jobs for organizations, which seems to be a good hedge against automation. He points out some recent Networking Field Day videos on the topic as well.
NFD 18 – Day 2 – RedHat Ansible
Nicola Arnoldi clears up any confusion around what Ansible is and what it is not, relaying what he heard from their Networking Field Day presentation earlier this month. He makes it clear that Ansible is not SDN, nor an orchestrator, but just a powerful tool in your networking toolbox. He goes on to discuss the Ansible Network Engine, Ansible and Openconfig, and the Ansible ML2 plugin for Openstack.
Ansible is NOT Programming
Rita Younger was pleasantly surprised by how much she learned from Ansible’s Networking Field Day 18 presentation. She says that Ansible is not a programming language, but rather a tool for automation, augmentation, consumption and simplification, and Ansible is, in fact, a networking company, although their model is not traditional.
Automating My World
Aaron Conaway talks about how he goes about automating his world and the tools he uses to do it. He mentions Python, Rundeck, and Ansible, who he recently saw present at Networking Field Day 18.
Network Field Day 18 – Some Preparation and Review
Greg Ferro does his homework for Networking Field Day 18, giving a brief explanation of his thoughts and the facts about each presenting sponsor. He also goes over what themes he think will be consistent talking points throughout the event, such as Multi-cloud, Kubernetes, and SDN.
