Getting Started with Network Automation: Page 2 of 2

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Possible Approaches

Our discussion then went on to three possible approaches:

1. Commercial products -- If your organization operates a single-vendor network, it might be able to use that vendor's automation tools. Do your homework to make sure the vendor's automation tools support all of its network products. This market is fairly new, so watch out for automation tools that only cover a subset of a vendor's products.
2. Open source software -- Many organizations are having success using packages like Ansible, Salt, Jinja2, netmiko, and NAPALM (network automation and programmability abstraction layer with multivendor support), and you can find many examples of their use in managing a variety of vendor hardware. Because an active development community is working to improve these tools, you'd have to include software upgrade processes into your open source software support plans. Also note that the IT support organization may use these systems, or their IT server equivalents: Puppet and Chef. If other factors drive you to open source software, you may appreciate the availability of books, training, and consulting services to help jump-start your effort. Do a quick Web search for "Ansible training" or "Ansible consulting" to find multiple sources.
3. Commercially supported open source, a hybrid approach -- The open source movement has created a new type of company, one that provides commercial support for an open source software system. The commercially supported version tracks the open source version, including consulting services and add-on capabilities. Good examples are Ansible Tower by Red Hat, Salt by SaltStack, or syslog-ng by Balabit.

Where Do You Go from Here?

You'll find no right or wrong answer. Educate yourself on the tradeoffs between approaches and on automation systems. Understand your goals and your environment. Select tools that are more likely to succeed in your organization's environment. Evaluate your organization's ability to successfully implement a given solution. Obtain basic training. It can help you avoid early mistakes. Use training and online forums to connect with peers and experts. You may find others who are tackling the same problems and are willing to share their solutions -- that's what makes the open source movement successful.