Understanding network automation

There is no official definition of network automation. Even asking your favorite large language model-based system (such as ChatGPT) might yield only a vague description. Why? Because network automation is a broad term encompassing many facets. We define it as the streamlining of all network-related tasks.

These network-related tasks span a wide scope, including configuration, management, monitoring, troubleshooting, capacity planning, testing, and more, across all types of network environments—from physical and virtual devices to cloud networking services. This marks a departure from traditional network operations, which, from the 1980s until recently, relied heavily on human-driven command-line interfaces (CLIs) that required constant manual intervention.

While this manual approach worked reasonably well for a time, the early 2000s brought increased network scale and complexity. This spurred network operators to seek alternatives that...