Warning: Non-Technical Post As it's the festive period and this time of the year is for caring and sharing, here's a short story from many years ago. This might make some chuckle, but some of these times were not pleasant and I can assure you, they were very real! Like most IT related people, I started in support. The job paid peanuts, it was shift work and I had much to … [Read more...]
Archives for 2017
Network Automation Engineer Persona: Proof-of-concepts
If you've chosen to do a proof-of-concept (PoC), you should already know what the challenge or requirement is, what your satisfactory results look like and what the product or tool set is that will deliver on your commitment. A proof-of-concept is a recipe that should give you a well baked set of results. Approaching a PoC Approaching a PoC is a conscious decision to … [Read more...]
Network Automation Engineer Persona: Targeted Learning
The series of Network Automation Engineer (NAE) Persona blog posts have churned some comments in the community around learning. Part of the feedback appears to be the hero syndrome fighting back and also the odd misunderstanding, which might be a result of fear. Change often results in fear, so this is natural. Network Heroes Some people love networking because it makes … [Read more...]
Cloud Native: Upgrading a Workflow Engine or Orchestrator
On a train this morning, I read Ivan Pepelnjak's Twitter stream (because what else is there to do whilst relaxing with a coffee?), I came across this blog post on upgrading virtual-appliances. Couldn't agree more with the approach, but what about upgrading a workflow engine or orchestrator? I'll call this entity a 'wfeo' just to make typing this article easier. The … [Read more...]
Network Automation: Leaky Abstractions
I hear people talk about leaky abstractions all the time. I'm not sure that some of the people that use it have researched the term. As network-automation blurs the line between software and networking, terms like this are used more commonly than you might expect. When you hear someone say 'leaky abstraction', what does it really mean? This question drove me to a little … [Read more...]
Network Automation Engineer Persona: Part Four
Part three introduced the first three key skills. This part presents the introduction to the last three core skills and a call to action. Key Skill Four I'm trying very hard to refrain from using the term DevOps, but the fundamentals of the DevOps movement are super important. The DevOps fundamental pillars are improving the flow of work, improving the quality using a … [Read more...]
Network Automation Engineer Persona: Part Three
Part three! Let's get straight to business and carry on where we left off from part two. Key Skill One Thinking about automation in an agnostic way is your first footstep. Automation is about data flowing through building blocks that do things and decision points, allow you when to do things. Removing CLI and replacing it with an abstraction layer isn't much of a win. … [Read more...]
Network Automation Engineer Persona: Part Two
This article is number two in a series. The first part can be found here. There has been a thought trend in the last few years leading network engineers to think they need to be developers. This is totally nonsense. When we want to learn a new skill, there is a precursor which says “I want to do X, so therefore I need to learn about what X”. If you’re thinking “I should be … [Read more...]
