{"id":4017,"date":"2026-05-11T06:10:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/netdevops-isnt-stalled-its-stuck-on-the-wrong-problem\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T06:10:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:10:40","slug":"netdevops-isnt-stalled-its-stuck-on-the-wrong-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/netdevops-isnt-stalled-its-stuck-on-the-wrong-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"NetDevOps\u00a0Isn\u2019t Stalled,\u00a0it\u2019s Stuck on the Wrong Problem\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While it is true that network engineers are taking on NetDevOps roles to advance stalled automation efforts,\u00a0<\/span>the barrier to NetDevOps isn\u2019t technical; it\u2019s people.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 44% Problem<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>2025 State of Network Automation Survey<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from the Network Automation Forum, which gathered responses from 681 network professionals across 58 countries, paints a clearer picture. When asked about barriers to automation, only 10% cited technical challenges. Meanwhile, 44% pointed to\u00a0<\/span>people<\/span><\/i>\u00a0problems:\u00a0Skills gaps, organizational dysfunction, cultural resistance and yes, sometimes,\u00a0just personalities that don\u2019t mesh.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let that sink in: The tools work. Python is mature. Ansible is everywhere. Source-of-truth platforms are production-ready. The tech isn\u2019t the bottleneck \u2014 people are \u2014 and this aligns with something else the recent NetDevOps article touched on: Nearly half the organizations have no formal measurement of automation success. You can\u2019t fund what you can\u2019t prove, and you can\u2019t prove what you don\u2019t measure.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the real challenge\u00a0in\u00a0NetDevOps adoption. It\u2019s not about writing better Python. It\u2019s about organizational change management. It\u2019s about communication. It\u2019s about building trust between teams that have historically operated in silos.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You Don\u2019t Need Unicorns\u00a0\u2014\u00a0You Need Evolution<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s where I want to push back on the industry narrative a bit.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s this persistent idea that NetDevOps requires mythical\u00a0<\/span>unicorn<\/span><\/i>\u00a0hires, people who are simultaneously expert network engineers\u00a0<\/span>and<\/span><\/i>\u00a0expert software developers\u00a0<\/span>and<\/span><\/i>\u00a0expert DevOps practitioners. These people exist. I\u2019ve met a few. But building your automation strategy around finding them is a losing game.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research from theCUBE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0shows that organizations prioritizing internal upskilling outperform those relying on net-new hires. But I want to amplify this point:\u00a0<\/span>You already have the people you need. They just need to evolve.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was at Dell EMC, I transitioned from\u00a0principal network engineer\u00a0to\u00a0consultant software developer, because automation became necessary and I kept pulling on that thread. One script at a time. One playbook at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the path for most of us. You don\u2019t wake up one day as a NetDevOps architect. You evolve into one.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The automation survey data backs this up. When asked who builds automation in their organizations, 92% said\u00a0\u201cnetwork engineers with automation skills.\u201d\u00a0Not software developers (44%),\u00a0not DevOps teams (32%)\u00a0\u2014\u00a0network engineers who learned new tricks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do you create the conditions for that evolution?\u00a0Here are a\u00a0few patterns I\u2019ve seen work:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Permit people to learn on the job.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0Automation skills don\u2019t come from weekend certification cramming. They come from solving real problems with new tools. That means accepting that the first few automation projects will take longer than doing\u00a0manual work, and that\u2019s okay.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pair, don\u2019t silo.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0When you do have someone with stronger automation skills, don\u2019t make them\u00a0<\/span>the automation person<\/span><\/i>. Pair them with network engineers on real projects.\u00a0Transfer skills through collaboration, not documentation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Celebrate the small wins.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>The engineer who writes their first working Python script to pull interface stats has taken a bigger step than it looks. Recognize it. That momentum compounds.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Data Foundation<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Traditional network operations treat documentation as an afterthought, something you update\u00a0<\/span>after<\/span><\/i>\u00a0you make changes (if you remember). NetDevOps flips this. You make changes in the data first, then push those changes to the network through automation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Intel\u2019s Greg Botts (a Network to Code customer) puts it perfectly:\u00a0\u201cStart with your data, and everything falls out of that. Network config is a byproduct of the data.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a mindset shift that trips up a lot of organizations.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

EMA\u2019s McGillicuddy notes that organizations often spend a year or two just establishing their network source of truth. That sounds like a long time, but it\u2019s foundational work. You\u2019re consolidating information that lives in 10 different silos, cleaning up years of accumulated drift and building the authoritative data layer that makes everything else possible.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Organizations with a clearly defined source of truth are nearly three times more likely to achieve consistent automation outcomes. Yet 56% are still flying without one\u00a0\u2014 and if you\u2019re trying to do NetDevOps without a source of truth, you\u2019re building on sand.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From Documentation to Operations<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s where intent-driven methodology changes everything.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Without NetDevOps, without an intent-driven approach, your network data is just documentation. It\u2019s a record of what you did, updated after the fact (if you remember) and its only purpose is to help the next person understand what\u2019s out there. It\u2019s passive. It describes the past.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With an intent-driven approach, data becomes\u00a0<\/span>operational<\/span><\/i>. Your source of truth doesn\u2019t just document what the network looks like; it defines what the network\u00a0<\/span>should<\/span><\/i>\u00a0look like. Data becomes the way you operate the network. You change the data, and automation makes reality match.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This flips everything. Documentation stops being a chore you do after the work is done. It becomes a natural byproduct of doing the work itself. You don\u2019t update the spreadsheet after you make a change; you make the change <\/span>by<\/span><\/i>\u00a0updating the source of truth. The documentation is the operation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a profound shift, and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0why organizations that embrace it see such dramatic improvements. The act of automating forces you to clean up your data, and clean data makes better automation possible. But more than that:\u00a0Data finally has a real purpose. It\u2019s not busywork. It\u2019s how you run the network.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AI Can Help Today,\u00a0if You\u2019re Ready<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

AI\u00a0<\/span>can<\/span><\/i> help you today. Natural language queries against network data, configuration analysis, optimization recommendations, and even generating automation code, all of this works right now. The problem isn\u2019t the AI. The problem is that most teams aren\u2019t ready to use it effectively.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about how we approach Python in network automation. We don\u2019t just write scripts and push them to production. We have linting. We have a code review. We have testing frameworks and CI\/CD pipelines. We build\u00a0<\/span>structure<\/span><\/i>\u00a0around how we use Python so that it\u2019s safe, repeatable and maintainable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AI needs the same kind of structure. The good news is that the industry is starting to define it\u00a0\u2014\u00a0frameworks\u00a0such as\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>NIST AI Risk Management Framework<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>ISO 42001<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for AI management systems, plus LLM testing tools\u00a0such as\u00a0<\/span>DeepEval<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that bring automated validation to AI outputs.\u00a0However,\u00a0most organizations haven\u2019t built these guardrails yet.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The automation survey shows that 45% of network professionals have\u00a0<\/span>no current plans<\/span><\/i> to use AI\/LLM in network operations. Only 3% have actually deployed it. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s because AI doesn\u2019t work; it\u2019s because experienced network engineers are appropriately cautious. They\u2019ve seen what happens when you push untested changes to production. They\u2019re waiting for the guardrails.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Road to AI Runs Through Automation<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: AI is only as good as the data you feed it. If your network data is scattered across spreadsheets, tribal knowledge and half-updated CMDBs, AI will confidently give you wrong answers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is why the road to AI in NetDevOps runs through automation, not around it. Think of it as a flywheel:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, you build your data foundation. You establish a source of truth and create authoritative records of what your network\u00a0<\/span>should<\/span><\/i>\u00a0look like.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, automation starts improving that data. Every automated change gets logged. Every drift gets detected. The act of operating the network through data makes your data better.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, with solid data and mature automation practices, AI has something real to work with. It can query accurate inventory. It can analyze consistent configurations. It can learn from a\u00a0history of well-documented changes. The foundation you built for automation becomes the foundation AI needs to be useful.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Skip the early steps and you\u2019re asking AI to make sense of chaos. That\u2019s not a technology\u00a0problem;\u00a0it\u2019s a sequencing problem.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Intel\u2019s Botts says,\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/i>AI is going to enable us to uplevel our workforce. It\u2019s not going to take these jobs away; it\u2019s going to help us do our jobs better.\u201d But <\/span>better<\/span><\/i>\u00a0assumes you\u2019ve done the work to be ready for it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

NetDevOps is real. It\u2019s happening\u00a0\u2014 and the organizations that figure it out will operate more efficiently, respond faster and frankly, be better places to work.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be honest about what\u00a0<\/span>figuring it out<\/span><\/i>\u00a0actually requires. It\u2019s not about finding the perfect hire or buying the perfect tool. It\u2019s about evolving your team, fixing your data and doing the hard organizational work that nobody wants to talk about.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2026 is a turning point. It will be defined by the people who do the work \u2014 and most of those people are already on your team. They just need the opportunity to evolve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

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While it is true that network engineers are taking on NetDevOps roles to advance stalled automation efforts,\u00a0the barrier to NetDevOps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rssfeedtelegrambot.bnaya.co.il\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}