The Network Programmability and Automation Book, 2nd Edition

Back in 2014, I had the idea to write a book on network automation. It was around the time I was getting ready to start Network to Code. It wasn’t the ideal time to write a book, since it was basically ground zero of a new business. But in the end, it was a humbling experience and so worth it professionally and personally.

There was so much hype and media focus on venture-backed SDN startups years ago (as is typical). There was no focus on truly transforming how we as an industry deploy and manage multi-vendor networks. One could argue 2014 was the real start of the growth of open APIs, Python and Linux becoming pervasive on network devices, software development and DevOps tools being applied to networking. I was convinced these technologies and skills could transform careers for network engineers and subsequently have a huge impact on the organizations that adopted them.

In 2015, I was fortunate enough to partner with Scott Lowe and Matt Oswalt and begin writing Network Programmability and Automation. It was later published in 2017. I still can’t thank O’Reilly, Scott, and Matt enough for the partnership. It was a true pleasure getting to collaborate and write a book. I believe it was the first book of its kind and had a profound impact on the industry and thousands of individuals’ careers. For that, I am grateful and humble.

Since the book was initially published in 2017, a lot has changed. We all know the technology landscape changes daily—imagine five years of change! Recognizing the change, we thought it was a great idea to publish a second release of Network Programmability and Automation, and so did O’Reilly! However, given the amount of change in the industry and my focus personally not being hands-on much anymore, I decided to take a step back in the second release and pass the ball on to a colleague and friend I get to work with on a daily basis at Network to Code.

Christian Adell is going to be taking over for me, still working with Scott and Matt, to produce an amazing second edition. I trust every reader of the second release will be in GREAT hands. I’ll let Christian share some important details about the new release from here.

-Jason

In 2015, I was one of those people who was excited with the early release announcement of this book, and who enjoyed its content when it was finally published. So, you can imagine how excited I got when Jason asked me to join this project.

At Network to Code, we have had the privilege engage with customers and the community, observing how the network automation ecosystem has evolved since 2017, and how new technologies and tools have appeared to fill new gaps found in this journey. In this second edition, you should expect to rediscover and dive deeper into previous topics, but also get practical and key relevant knowledge as a network automation engineer (yes, this is actually a job title nowadays!) in the 2020s.

The new big topics added in this edition, with the same network automation focus, are:

• Cloud-native technologies like Docker and Kubernetes
• Network development environments with emulation tooling
• Go programming language
• gNMI interface, using protobuf and gRPC, and new libraries, such as Nornir & Scrapligo
• Terraform to manage network services
• A reference architecture for network automation, understanding how to leverage Source of Truth, Telemetry and Orchestration to build capable and flexible network automation solutions

We hope you will find this new content as relevant as we do, and you get excited about the coming new edition, as we are.

Don’t get too nervous that you’ll have to wait; it is coming soon! And even better, the early release of the Second Edition is available here within the O’Reilly early release program, so you can start reading it today!