Demystifying Network as Code and Services as Code

[ad_1] More and more, prospects ask me about Community as Code and Cisco Companies as Code.

Whereas community automation is much more essential within the AI period, there’s additionally lots of fable, confusion, and a recurring query: “We’ve already been automating community operations with Scripts, APIs, Controller GUIs, Terraform suppliers, and Ansible playbooks… what’s new and totally different about Community as Code (NaC)?”

Let’s discover these questions, ranging from the fundamentals: what's Community as Code?

Community as Code is a technique that applies DevOps rules to community administration, by means of declarative knowledge fashions, permitting groups to automate and handle community configurations by means of YAML information.

However, how did we get right here and why is that this the popular methodology for community automation?

The Evolution of Community Automation

For those who’ve ever wrestled with a notepad filled with swap configs or discovered your self knee-deep in Python scripts at midnight, you’ll recognize simply how far we’ve come.

Wave 1: The Nostalgia Period (Handbook CLI & Primary Templating)

Within the early days, community configuration was all in regards to the command-line interface (CLI). All the things was written in clear, human-readable textual content, which meant you might at all times see precisely what was happening-provided you might maintain your eyes open after hours of scrolling.

Templates have been usually managed utilizing Notepad or one other primary textual content editor, and in the event you have been actually organized, you had a centralized folder someplace – in all probability named “final-final-configs” – for reuse.

Whereas this method was easy and easy, it relied closely on handbook effort and was susceptible to errors.

Wave 2: The Scripting Renaissance (Programmatic CLI)

As networks grew extra advanced, engineers began leveraging scripting languages like Python (with libraries reminiscent of Netmiko and Paramiko), and templating engines (Jinga) to automate repetitive CLI duties.

This marked the period when community engineers grew to become part-time coders, writing scripts to save lots of time and cut back errors.

It was an enormous leap ahead, nevertheless it additionally meant you wanted to maintain your coding abilities sharp – and bear in mind which script did what, and the place you left the most recent model.

Wave 3: The API-Pushed Period (Controllers & SDKs)

Then got here the controllers, ushering in a brand new period the place handbook CLI instructions might be changed with intuitive interfaces and centralized administration. The complexity of direct CLI configurations started to fade, changed by programmable interfaces reminiscent of REST APIs, NETCONF and more and more gRPC, that are broadly adopted for his or her effectivity and suppleness in managing and automating techniques. Software program growth kits (SDKs) made programmability simpler, serving to community groups keep away from the fatigue of infinite API calls.

This wave targeted on abstracting direct system interplay, permitting for centralized administration and extra refined programmatic management. Whereas the problem of CLI configuration is eradicated, the duplication of funding and snowflakes have been unavoidable.

Wave 4: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Cloud-Native Networking

This wave noticed the broader adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) rules, pushed considerably by the rise of cloud computing. Instruments like Terraform and Ansible (for infrastructure provisioning) have been used to outline and handle community infrastructure alongside compute and storage, significantly in cloud environments.

The main focus shifted to declaring the specified state of the complete infrastructure, with model management and automatic deployment turning into customary. This wasn’t nearly community gadgets, however the community as half of a bigger, codified infrastructure.

Wave 5: Declarative Community as Code (NaC) and Intent-Based mostly Operations

That is the present and evolving wave, representing the maturity and specialization of declarative rules for the community area. It strikes past generic IaC to deal with high-level community intent, leveraging simplified knowledge fashions (in YAML) and a library of modular, expertly crafted parts. This wave emphasizes abstracting advanced orchestration particulars, permitting engineers to outline the specified state of their community infrastructure, relatively than the step-by-step instructions. There’s not a requirement for each administrator to be a programmer; As a substitute, area SMEs merely render variables into these modules to automate duties. Consistency, effectivity, and high quality are baked in by design. This wave sees GitOps rules change into central for managing community configurations, guaranteeing a single supply of reality and enabling strong CI/CD. Moreover, seamless integration with IT Service Administration (ITSM) techniques turns into a normal observe for change administration. This method brings consistency, effectivity, and high quality by design, empowering groups to handle their networks with the identical rigor and agility as software program growth. Even these with minimal programming background can obtain spectacular automation outcomes, which means the Community architects can focus extra on core Community design and ideas.

Community as Code

The times of each group constructing their very own ‘snowflake’ automation are over. Community as Code (NaC) represents the maturity of declarative rules for community administration, permitting engineers to outline the specified state of their community infrastructure relatively than specializing in intricate particulars like dependencies, references, or looping logic. With an easy-to-use, opinionated knowledge mannequin and a library of examined, maintained modules, you'll be able to spin up total community materials in minutes, just by describing their supposed configuration in simple textual content, without having deep API or object mannequin data.

Central to NaC is the adoption of GitOps rules. This implies community configurations are version-controlled in a Git repository, serving as the only supply of reality. Adjustments are proposed by way of pull requests, reviewed, after which robotically deployed and synchronized with the dwell community, enabling strong CI/CD pipelines. This ensures that the community’s precise state constantly matches the declared state in Git. Moreover, NaC facilitates seamless integration with IT Service Administration (ITSM) techniques. This ensures that each one community modifications are tracked, authorized, and managed inside present operational workflows, enhancing governance, compliance, and auditability. This holistic method brings consistency, effectivity, and high quality by design, empowering groups to handle their networks with the identical rigor and agility as software program growth.

Whereas NaC is an open-source methodology that enables for Do It Your self(DIY) automation, implementing its full framework and methodologies may be advanced. That is the place Cisco steps in to speed up your journey.

Going past with Companies as Code

Cisco Companies as Code is on the market by means of Cisco Skilled Companies, providing a complete resolution that encompasses the complete lifecycle of community service supply. This contains readiness assessments, folks/course of enablement, resolution setup, brownfield import, steady integration and deployment (CI/CD), automated testing, validation, launch administration, and 24×7 assist. It integrates DevSecOps practices and gives a framework to handle community infrastructure modifications with excessive accuracy, scalability, and operational effectivity.

A essential differentiator of Cisco Companies as Code is its strong, built-in Take a look at and Validation framework. Not like ad-hoc testing usually present in DIY automation or market options, our service gives a scientific and complete method to make sure community modifications are completely verified earlier than and after deployment. This contains automated syntax checks for configuration correctness, semantic validation and checks each configured object towards the supposed configuration. This complete, steady validation, built-in all through the CI/CD pipeline, considerably reduces the danger of errors, minimizes community downtime, and ensures that modifications constantly meet operational and compliance requirements. It’s this assurance of high quality, reliability, and safety, baked into the service, that really units Cisco Companies as Code aside, offering peace of thoughts and operational excellence that goes past merely automating configurations.

Moreover, we not too long ago launched the mixing of Cisco AI Assistant with Companies as Code, additional simplifying infrastructure administration with pure language inputs.

So there you've it; Community as Code and Companies as Code defined – and hopefully demystified. Tell us within the feedback what prime of thoughts questions you need us to cowl subsequent.