White Paper: New Community Resource Unpacks Misconceptions and Touts Benefits of Network Automation for Any Organization

By Amber Rasche - Senior Communications Specialist, Internet2

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Why the hesitation on network automation? A new community resource developed by collaborators from Merit Network, University of Michigan, GlobalNOC, Internet2, Cisco, ADVA, and Juniper Networks unpacks some of the common misconceptions surrounding network automation and sheds new light on the approach as a must-have component of a stable, reliable network. The resource also provides tools and tips for getting started quickly.

Merit Network published the white paper on Networking Automation: The Must-Have Provision for a Growing Network, with contributions from speakers who facilitated a workshop on the topic at the 2021 Merit Member Conference, held virtually on May 11.

Karl Newell, Internet2 network software architect, was one of the contributors. Regarding how to implement automation, Newell suggests starting small. 

“Define a small set of things you want to automate, demonstrate that you can do it, get that deployed, then do it again and keep building on that,” Newell said. “Eventually you build in a process where you can operationalize a larger automation workflow, and pretty soon you’ll have a lot of your tools and a lot of your configuration under automation.”

• Read the Merit Network White Paper on Networking Automation: The Must-Have Provision for a Growing Network
• ICYMI: Karl Newell Presents on Network Automation and Orchestration at Upcoming NSO Developer Days U.S.
• Did you know? Automation, orchestration, and telemetry are big drivers for the Internet2 Next Generation Infrastructure (NGI) program.