The Cost Of Doing Nothing in Network Engineering—Manual vs Automated Approaches

The Cost of Doing Nothing in Network Engineering—Manual vs Automated Approaches

Introduction

A few decades ago, the arrival of automatically generated incident tickets felt revolutionary. By linking monitoring systems with CMDB data, we could eliminate tedious data entry tasks, and we celebrated that as a major leap forward in IT operations and network management. But today, automations like this are not “nice to have”—they’re the baseline. We are fast approaching another shift: intent-based networking is rapidly becoming the new standard in enterprise network engineering. As this shift takes hold:

• Network Engineers must evolve their skill sets to embrace NetDevOps practices.
• Organizations must build the capabilities, culture, and tools to support NetDevOps practices.

The cost of doing nothing is not just a missed opportunity. It is the loss of relevance and the onset of obsolescence. The barrier to entry is low, the upside is high, and the risks of inaction grow every day. So let’s start where we are, leveraging the tools and data we have, and move decisively toward an automated network future.

Benefits for Engineers

From a high level, the industry consensus is that skill sets must evolve to meet market demands. But what does it mean for those of us in the trenches? As a network engineer, I understand the urge to power through every problem like a CLI commando. We know the commands. We know the fixes. But today’s networks are too large, complex, and business-critical for that approach to scale. And that’s exactly what automation aims to resolve—taking what network engineers already know and augmenting it with NetDevOps practices to increase engineering throughput. Imagine taking a project that used to require hundreds of engineering hours and using automation to complete that same project, with better results, in just a few hours.

For example, consider a change request to add a few lines to an ACL list across a thousand routers. When this work is done manually, an engineer must step through the pre-checks to ensure that the ACL is configured as expected, update the ACL, and then verify functionality. Individually, updating a single ACL is easy, however at scale, projects like this are a burden. ACLs that have been manually maintained for years are rarely standardized. Unnecessary lines, duplicate lines, and incorrect application are common. Which means that engineers must analyze and correct them before applying the update. Furthermore, repetitive work invites mistakes as assumptions are made for the sake of efficiency, resulting in security vulnerabilities and unexpected network behavior.

With NetDevOps, engineers can write automations that:

1. Analyze the ACL to ensure that it’s ordered correctly and applied appropriately
2. Precisely update the ACL with new dynamically generated lines
3. Verify the new ACL’s functionality after implementation
4. Perform the update across the entire project’s scope in hours.

Given the superior efficiency and accuracy of automations, it’s becoming harder to justify a CLI-first mindset and easier to see it as a bottleneck holding operations back. The benefits of adopting NetDevOps skills are personal, with engineers reporting greater compensation and improved job satisfaction and job security. 

Benefits for Organizations

Organizations are adopting intent-based networking practices at breakneck speed. In fact, the push is becoming so pervasive that Gartner predicts 25% of initial network configurations will be generated via automation by 2027. Let’s consider how automation is changing the landscape:

Undeniably, automation improves speed to market. Consider an automation that can generate a topology down to the line cards, draft configurations for each device and provision them in CMDBs, IPAMs, monitoring platforms, and other IT management platforms in minutes with minimal human effort. This enables businesses to pivot to new technologies and deploy new devices, racks, and locations with ease. Enabling them to outperform competitors that must wait while manual implementations drag.

Furthermore, service costs are minimized by increasing the efficiency of engineering teams. This is accomplished in a wide variety of ways. For instance, by implementing self-service portals and back-end automated implementations, pressure can be taken off engineering teams. Shifting their focus from routine repetitive work to critical business initiatives. Additionally, the network becomes more stable when it’s maintained with an intent-based approach because the network’s topology and configurations conform to a standard. This results in fewer network outages and makes troubleshooting easier when failures occur.

NetDevOps practices also improve network security. Take Nautobot’s Golden Configuration application, which standardizes device configurations across large-scale networks, ensures compliance, minimizes misconfigurations, and supports continuous security audits. In doing so, the application reduces the attack surface of the network by eliminating security oversights such as misconfigured ACLs, SNMP configurations, and vty lines. Automations also make it easier to upgrade operating systems, which has historically been a weak point in network security management. Instead of upgrading only as necessary—when a vulnerability is reported, it becomes possible to maintain a regular upgrade cadence due to the reduced effort required. Ensuring that the operating systems that run the network are always in line with what the manufacturer recommends. Furthermore, solutions like Device Lifecycle Management can track CVEs and maintain lists of acceptable OS versions and important dates like end-of-life and end-of-support.

The rapid embrace of intent-based networking is transforming the industry by accelerating deployments, reducing service costs, and improving network stability, all while enhancing security. Organizations that haven’t begun this transformation are losing millions in efficiency and exposing themselves to greater security risks, making automation adoption not just a competitive advantage but a business imperative.