Network Engineer in a Programmable Age

Ahmad Reshad [1], Komal Rana [2]

[1]
Student, MS.c NTM, AIIT, Amity University, Haryana (INDIA),
armirazai@gmail.com
[2]
Teacher, MS.c NTM, AIIT, Amity University, Haryana (INDIA),
komal.sang@gmail.com

Abstract
In reality, the way networks were managed had never changed in over 20 years except for the
addition of CLI commands for new features. The biggest change was the migration from
Telnet to SSH, the management of networks has lagged behind other technologies quite
drastically. This lack in manageability is often better understood when other technologies are
examined. Other technologies almost always have more modern ways of managing a large
number of devices for both configuration management and data gathering and analysis. This
paper aims to look at today's network engineer and the skills required and how the network
programmability can help to do things faster and achieve more predictable behavior than
making changes manually, which gives the executive team a better chance at achieving
deterministic outcomes, moving one step closer to having the assurance that the task at hand
will get done right the first time without human error.
Keywords- Network Programming, Network Automation, Network Engineer.

Introduction
To get started let's look back at the network engineer of old, where we've all come from and
how we need to transition.

To do that I'd like to introduce you to Carl the network engineer,

He has a load of Networking skills that have made him very successful up to this point, he
understands layer 2 concepts like spanning tree, he's got layer 3 areas down with routing
protocols, quality of service, security with VPN design and new applications like voice over
IP, he can handle the spanning tree like the back of his hand, with security policies and MPLS
he has got all of his networking skills under control, but he also does have a few
Programming skills along the way, he's had to pick up tickle scripts and embedded event
management and also using expect scripts to automate some of the network configuration.
now this skill set is suited Carl very well as the network started looking like this.

But over time the network started to evolve,

the first hint of it was the V switches (virtual switches) and virtual machines, well at this
point Carl and the rest of his network engineers they looked at it and said virtual switches,
that's not real! that's software let the server guys handle the VSwitches, Anyway nobody's
ever going to put anything of critical importance in a virtual machine, we'll stick with the
routers and the switches. Well it didn't stop with the V switches Carl's Network had blade
switches connecting into it in this case the blade switches often came from server vendors
and on server bills of material so once again Carl and his fellow co-workers said you know
what let the server team continue to deal with those, the real important networking are the
routers and the switches and we'll focus on that physical network that we can see in touch.
well it didn't stop later we had LBRs and Containers the LBR is the Linux bridge and now we
have networking concepts happening inside of virtual machines really quite far away from
the routers and switches, that Carl’s used to manage.
Then we have cloud and cloud picks up with cloud we have cloud exchanges and
connectivity between our data centers in our cloud but worse than that are all the virtual
machines that don't have any physical network at all or containers connected directly to
cloud, well the network continues to evolve from there and let's not forget all the network
services and appliances and capabilities, load balancers, firewalls, IPS… there are so much
into the network today that we have to deal with and Carl and his fellow engineers, me
yourself everybody we have to accept it.

Today we have to understand all seven layers of the network, applications running on the
network are reliance on us understanding and making sure protocols like HTTP function
appropriately and session consistency across these applications are becoming important in
this space, we can't focus solely on layer two three and four anymore.

In order to tackle these challenges and really ground ourselves and move forward into today's
network engineering, let's talk about what a network engineer of today looks like, going back
to the start of this topic when we discussed Carl, he came up with a three-phase approach a
way to break down all of this stuff coming at him in a consumable fashion, in phase one he
left networking aside for a second and focused on some core programming skills some
Python and API's learned about data formats like JSON and XML and started experimenting
with source controlling Git and- GitHub with that under his belt he looked to Linux skills and
Ansible and maybe toys around with Docker and some of the new networking protocols like
Netconf and Yang in phase 2. Then finally in phase 3 he doubled down into Linux
Networking, Container Networking, Network Function Virtualization and then as needed be
sure to pick up all topics like controllers and IOT if you work in the manufacturing space and
IOT is important there are all sorts of protocols and wireless and mesh and gateways but
you'll have to understand and pick those up as required by your job now with this plan in
place Karl embraced program ability and I know you can too.
Conclusion
The digitization of the enterprise and the changes that our businesses are all having, the app
economy, the user expectations are requiring a much higher degree of agility across our
enterprises than we've had in years past. The Internet of Things is affecting and putting
pressure on networks and design whether its scale and topology or security that we have to
address around the IOT era, then we have the tech unicorns putting pressure on every one of
your enterprises out there, the barrier of entry to disrupt traditional enterprises is lower than,
ever anybody with a credit card and a great idea can challenge all of our organizations these
challenges are pushing down on our lines of business our CIOs the CTOs the CEOs trying to
figure out how do we solve these solutions and technology is part and parcel to all of this and
we know how we've decided to solve it, every one of your organizations I'm sure is turn to
the cloud because the cloud will repair all of these issues. you know that everybody sets out
with the plan to build the unicorns of cloud, they'll be powerful, they'll be beautiful to work
exactly as we're, the challenge is that building clouds is not a simple activity there's more to it
than just going ahead and taking what we've always done and adding some extra software,
that is why such a rapid change across from the traditional Age to a programmable age is
needed.

References

[1] “Network Programmability and Automation”, Jason Edelman, Scott S. Lowe, and Matt
Oswal.

[2] Hank Preston, Cisco DevNet