Benefits of Automation for the Business vs. NetOps Engineer

0:00 [Music]

0:14 we talked about automation

0:17 we talked about some of the challenges

0:18 of automation multi-vendor versus single

0:21 vendor but um you know what about some

0:23 of the benefits of automation right so

0:25 we talked about we never really hit on

0:27 that you know if as a as a network

0:30 engineer as a net ops engineer what

0:33 would be the most beneficial to you is

0:35 now taking away the the you know the

0:38 company management they they have all

0:39 these great ideas that may or may not

0:41 come to fruition

0:42 but

0:43 you know down in the trenches what is

0:46 what is really going to be of value

0:48 that's kind of an interesting dichotomy

0:50 right because

0:52 what benefits the business isn't always

0:55 completely aligned with what benefits

0:57 the net ops person in the trenches um i

1:00 can tell you that

1:01 speed

1:03 is what the business needs and wants

1:05 right we we have to get to market faster

1:08 i've worked for i work for a software

1:10 company and you know when you have a new

1:12 thing you want to push out

1:14 in the old

1:15 pre-automation pre-agile world

1:19 you know if you had to build

1:20 infrastructure and order circuits and

1:22 get all that connectivity in place for

1:23 this new application

1:26 that could easily take two to six months

1:28 depending on how backed up telco is and

1:30 do they have fiber out there and do they

1:31 have to trench

1:32 so

1:34 i see the value of speed for the

1:36 business and listen if the business

1:38 isn't succeeding right i don't know how

1:40 long they can afford to pay me so

1:42 you know we have to

1:44 serve the business um speed seems to be

1:48 the biggest advantage um and i'll give

1:51 you an example you know

1:53 back before

1:55 so the company i came from

1:57 uh build an automation platform

1:59 open source ansible python right and

2:02 when we would stand up new gear at a

2:04 site

2:05 you can just put some variables

2:07 in a yaml file

2:09 call a python script

2:11 and in 10 seconds you have hundreds of

2:14 lines of config that you can just drop

2:15 in a box and be done

2:17 so that's fast

2:20 the better answer to your question how

2:21 does it help a net ops person

2:24 fast is good for me because it could

2:26 take me

2:28 three full days 24 working hours to

2:31 write a 500 line config

2:34 and not only all that time and pain and

2:36 staring at the keyboard and getting

2:38 headaches over it

2:39 but

2:41 the

2:42 automation stuff seems to be much less

2:45 error-prone than i am right um

2:47 you know it's all there in code and i

2:50 just need some variables and then it

2:52 puts it all together in this magical

2:53 automation machine and and spits it all

2:55 out i have made multiple mistakes over

2:58 my career in configs you know zeros and

3:00 ones matter in the config and if you get

3:01 anything off it breaks and i've broken

3:03 things too right we all have so you know

3:05 i i think speed

3:08 for the business

3:10 is a huge advantage i think

3:12 speed for the operator who might not

3:14 want to spend three full days writing a

3:17 novel of a config the way i have heard

3:20 this whole automation you know chant is

3:24 why would you want to be

3:26 doing that low-level stuff right like if

3:28 you could get a junior guy

3:30 to to put in an ip address and a routing

3:33 domain name you know whatever the

3:34 variables will be and then just press a

3:35 button and config and ship that device

3:38 for you you can work on

3:40 you know higher value stuff um because

3:42 i've had the title senior network

3:44 engineer in my career but i've been a

3:46 config jockey like you know i'm not

3:48 really working on high value stuff and

3:51 and that's been an interesting change in

3:53 the in the in the industry is

3:56 you know they don't the industry doesn't

3:58 just want a person who is really good at

4:00 writing configs line by line in a

4:01 notepad

4:03 they would rather us you know in

4:04 discussions about how we can solve more

4:06 important problems and you know how can

4:08 we automate how can we go faster how can

4:10 we reduce outages

4:12 if your configs and your changes in your

4:14 infrastructure infrastructure is code

4:16 right if you can do that in an automated

4:18 platform and not a guy like me writing

4:20 code deploying it at three in the

4:21 morning in a maintenance window and i'm

4:23 exhausted but actually

4:25 have it all automated and use the

4:27 intelligence of these automation

4:29 platforms in these programming languages

4:30 to kind of

4:32 i don't know if abstract away is the

4:33 right term but you know get it out of my

4:35 head and

4:37 it you know make it more you know less

4:39 error prone

4:40 faster to configure faster to change

4:43 they all seem like really good

4:44 advantages to me

4:46 kind of for the business and for the

4:47 operator uh you know

4:51 because a lot of times those two things

4:52 are different but

4:54 speed isn't necessarily bad for me

4:56 because i'll tell you what having a

4:57 project manager breathing down your

4:58 throat every day on a status call of why

5:01 isn't this thing built yet because we

5:02 got to go and deploy this application if

5:04 i can go from three days

5:06 to two minutes

5:08 to

5:09 write that long config throw it in the

5:10 box and ship it out then it makes me

5:12 look better you know people are happier

5:14 with me maybe my bonus is bigger that

5:16 year like so making the engineer faster

5:19 the net ops person faster i i think

5:21 benefits not only the business but

5:23 you know the engineer i'm i'm friends

5:25 with this guy daniel in australia he's a

5:26 big guy in automation um and what he

5:29 told me i thought was interesting he

5:30 said you know i am

5:32 time is my greatest asset right and

5:35 if i can do my job faster more

5:37 efficiently i get more time to spend any

5:40 way i want and he chooses to spend it

5:42 with his wife and kids and an extended

5:44 family right so

5:45 doesn't that sound cool like what's the

5:47 benefit of automation

5:48 spending more time doing things you want

5:50 to do and not in the minutia of writing

5:53 config so this is coming from a guy who

5:55 wasn't necessarily happy when the whole

5:57 automation thing happened right

5:59 because

6:00 i tried to take computer science in

6:03 college and ran for the hills they put

6:05 me in c plus i couldn't do it beyond my

6:08 capability and that was it i'm like well

6:09 i guess i don't get to be an it

6:12 turka took a you know circuitous

6:14 different route you know into network

6:17 you know engineering

6:18 and we didn't need when i got my you

6:20 know certificate my first certification

6:22 in 2012 and got my first job in 2013 you

6:24 didn't have to know any of that stuff

6:26 right now you know here we are uh eight

6:29 years later

6:30 and the industry all the certification

6:32 tracks all the employers

6:35 automation is here

6:36 and it seems like it's going to be

6:38 really difficult if not impossible to

6:40 compete if your competitors are

6:42 automating if your engineers are taking

6:44 three days to do something that another

6:45 company's engineers can do in three

6:47 minutes and you're trying to get your

6:49 new application or service to market

6:51 faster

6:52 who's got the advantage right um not

6:55 only in business but in the guy like me

6:56 wants to spend more time with his wife

6:58 and kids and maybe less time in

6:59 maintenance windows and writing config

7:00 so

7:01 right i think speed and accuracy

7:04 uh i probably could have condensed that

7:05 down into

7:07 a 10-second answer but um yeah it's not

7:09 inaccuracy that's good though because

7:12 you know some some things come out of

7:13 that like you know the the whole point

7:15 that it's not just

7:16 about the network it's about life right

7:19 you know the automation helps you helps

7:21 you live a better life and and the other

7:24 another thing that kind of came out of

7:25 that is you know as you said

7:28 when automation first came out you

7:29 weren't too impressed with it right

7:31 because it was different you were

7:32 already doing your thing and it was

7:35 you know extra work um as you mentioned

7:38 quite a bit earlier as it was extra work

7:40 that could have been on nights and

7:42 weekends to try to learn the stuff

7:44 so that's a challenge absolutely but

7:47 you know

7:48 kind of at the end you brought it around

7:50 to

7:50 if your company isn't automating

7:53 they're at a at a competitive

7:55 disadvantage to you know like companies

7:57 [Music]