It’s been a long time since my last post, way longer than I’d like. For the last several months we’ve been neck deep in network automation. This post focuses on the highlights of not only what I’ve been up to, but also the rest of the Network to Code team. More detailed posts will come over the coming days and weeks.

Training

As you can see from the website, we have a good number of public courses on network automation and even a few starting early next year that are completely virtual, but the majority of our training engagements have been private on-site instructor-led courses with Enterprises and Global Carriers. The private courses have varied from using the same course outline you see on the website, but have also been modified for a particular vendor, device type, and/or API. Popular topics covered in our training include Ansible, Python, NETCONF/RESTCONF/YANG, and various vendor APIs including Nexus NX-API, Arista eAPI, Juniper’s XML API, to Cisco’s new NETCONF/RESTCONF APIs on IOS XE.

Software Development

We’ve contributed to various open source projects, but key highlights include contributions to Ansible modules that are now part of core as well as adding Palo Alto Networks (PAN) drivers to both netmiko and NAPALM.

Professional Services

We’ve worked with companies of all shapes and sizes over the past several months to adopt network automation strategies and tooling. Performing small automation tasks and writing playbooks is quite easy to get started, but does not compare to the intricate detail and patience needed to automate workflows in production environments.

On Demand Labs

I originally wrote about this months ago, but we’re finally at a place to fully offer up the Network to Code On Demand Labs platform. This is a cloud platform that allows you to launch nearly any network topology in a matter of minutes lowering the barrier to start testing and automating.

We already have close to twenty pre-built topologies and a growing amount of tutorials, but will be adding even more over the coming weeks. Several companies have already purchased promotion codes in bulk for various use cases ranging from lab testing to simulation to vendor POCs and demos.

Check it out here.

Closing

I’m merely using this post as a vehicle for providing everyone an update on where I’ve been and what’s been going on, but clearly this is not just me doing all of the work. Huge thanks to the team for making all of this happen, and I’m sure we’ll have more to update everyone on in the coming months. By the way, we are hiring, so please apply if you’re interested.

As always- if you’re interested in talking automation or exploring how we can help, don’t hesitate to reach out - jason at networktocode dot com.

Thanks,

Jason

@jedelman8