Joining the Team

Two weeks after starting with Network to Code, I thought now might be a good time to share some thoughts on the transition, my motivations for joining, and where I see us going.

I made the jump to Network to Code after five years working for a popular cloud hosting provider. My role there was managing a team of what we called network developers: folks with one foot in traditional network engineering and the other in software development. My team was tasked with developing and maintaining the various tools and integrations crucial for automation of our network infrastructure. This was a natural fit for me, having led the development of NetBox for several years in conjunction with our automation initiatives, and I very much enjoyed my work.

Over the past year or so, it’s been hard to ignore Network to Code’s mounting successes. While I had been in sporadic contact with various folks on the team, I first took serious notice of their growth when John Anderson, a fellow NetBox maintainer, came onboard last year. But what really attracted me to the team was the scope and depth of presentations NTC had put together for Interop 19. I was honored to present alongside John a talk showcasing NetBox as a source of truth for network automation, and I was thoroughly impressed by the caliber of others on the team.

Speaking of NetBox, it’s exciting to see the project moved into its own GitHub organization, completely detached from any commercial entity. NetBox has grown far bigger than I ever expected. Despite it being open source software (or perhaps because of it), I hear people ask again and again if there are any commercial support options for NetBox. It is often deployed as a central component in network automation solutions, and many organizations prefer the backing of guaranteed support. With John and I now both at Network to Code, there’s good potential to simultaneously address this need and secure long-term sponsored development.

It’s an exciting time to be working in network automation. After decades of tolerating legacy network management solutions, organizations all over the world are quickly recognizing the benefits to be gained from standardizing and automating their infrastructure operations. It’s encouraging to see so many teams at various stages of the same journey, ultimately in pursuit of next-generation network deployment and maintenance.

Network to Code is uniquely positioned to help set the course of the industry over the coming years, and I’m thrilled to be part of the team. We’re in for some fun!