Arista Networks CloudVision Demo

Andre Pech, Director of Software Engineering, demonstrates Arista Networks CloudVision automation and orchestration platform.

In this presentation, Andre Pech provides an in-depth demonstration of Arista’s CloudVision portal, showcasing its capabilities in network-wide automation and provisioning. CloudVision standardizes device configurations through a centralized network database, which defines the desired state of the entire network rather than relying on individual device-specific configs. This centralization allows for simplified change management and compliance through the use of logical containers and configlets, which allow configuration inheritance down a strict hierarchy. Pech emphasizes the system’s ability to enforce standard configurations at different logical levels (e.g., tenant, data center, availability zone) without duplicating effort or treating devices as unique snowflakes.

CloudVision also enables zero-touch provisioning by managing new devices out-of-the-box as they register themselves with the portal. The system allows users to define network changes in a staged, controlled manner, including approval workflows via a task management system. By leveraging EOS APIs such as EAPI and config sessions, CloudVision can efficiently apply full configurations in a transactional, all-or-nothing manner. This minimizes error-prone configuration diffs and ensures consistency, rollback capabilities, and high reliability throughout the change process. Additionally, integration with external API-driven systems—such as OpenStack, NSX, or ServiceNow—extends CloudVision beyond just network management into broader data center orchestration.

A key benefit of CloudVision is that it enhances management through automation without removing traditional manual control. Network engineers can still interact with individual devices via the CLI for urgent fixes or deep debugging, and any local rogue changes are detected through compliance checks and reconciled through the portal. The platform is built on a highly available clustered architecture, ensuring operational continuity even during controller downtime, with no impact on the functionality of the underlying network. As highlighted in the presentation, the CloudVision model focuses on managing the provisioning and orchestration of the network, rather than direct data plane control, making it highly practical and non-disruptive for real-world deployment.