Network Automation 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

Network automation is rapidly becoming an essential capability for IT teams. And it’s not surprising.

According to Auvik’s 2024 IT Trends Report, 49% of respondents cited a shortage of skilled professionals as their top challenge of the year. That’s likely a major factor in why network automation saw the largest year-over-year increase in planned IT investments, with 39% planning to allocate funds towards this area over the next 12 months—a 24% increase compared to 2023.

IT departments are recognizing that using software to automatically configure, provision, and manage network devices can help them improve efficiency, reduce errors, and lower costs for their organization.

But what exactly is network automation?

How does it work, and what are the real benefits?

This guide will explain everything you need to know to get started with automating your network.

What is network automation?

Network automation refers to the process of using software tools to automatically handle repetitive, manual configuration and management tasks on networking devices like routers, switches, and firewalls.

Instead of an IT admin manually logging into each device to type in commands, make changes, and copy-paste configurations, specialized automation software can programmatically connect to devices and execute those mundane tasks. This saves huge amounts of time and eliminates chances for human error.

Some common examples of automated network tasks include:

• Automatically backing up device configurations
• Pulling inventory data from devices
• Making bulk configuration changes across multiple devices
• Automatically installing software updates and patches
• Provisioning new devices with standard configurations

Essentially, any repetitive task that requires manually interacting with a device CLI or API can potentially be automated to some degree. The more automation you implement, the less time your team has to spend on low-value grunt work, freeing them up to focus on core business tasks.

How network automation works

Modern network automation software uses standardized protocols and interfaces on networking hardware to programmatically execute commands and configurations instead of requiring a human to manually type them in.

Here are some of the main standards and technologies involved:

CLI automation 

The command line interface (CLI) on network devices allows automation scripts to connect and send commands just like a human administrator would. Scripting languages like Python, Ansible, Ruby, and others can log in to devices and send CLI commands.

The downside is that CLI automation requires knowing the specific syntax for the OS and platform you’re working with. It can also be slower compared to other methods.

NETCONF / RESTCONF APIs 

Newer devices support automation protocols like NETCONF or RESTCONF. These work similarly by providing a standardized API that automation tools can connect to.

The advantages over CLI include faster performance, reuse across platforms, and structured data formats like XML and JSON.

Orchestration and controllers 

For large environments, orchestration software ties your automation tasks together into coordinated workflows while also providing centralized management.

Controller platforms like Cisco DNA Center give IT teams easy front-end tools for visualizing networks, creating policies, maintaining compliance, and orchestrating automated provisioning tasks across their infrastructure.

Types of network automation

There are a few main categories of network automation to be aware of:

Scripted automation 

This refers to using common IT scripting tools like Python, Ansible, Bash, Perl, Ruby, etc. to automate network devices. Scripts contain instructions for connecting to devices programmatically and executing commands.

Scripted automation gives precise control but it means that IT teams must have coding expertise to maintain it over time.

Software-based automation 

Larger enterprises often employ specialized software platforms purpose-built for network automation. These provide graphical front-ends, pre-built workflows and integrations, role-based access controls, reporting capabilities, and more—removing the need to code everything manually. Examples include tools like Cisco DNA Center, Apstra, and VMware NSX.

The benefits include easier management, less manual effort, and tighter platform integration compared to scripting.

Intent-based automation 

Cutting-edge intent-based networking takes automation to the next level by having software directly translate business needs into technical policies. Rather than requiring admins to manually define exact network configurations, they can define broad business intents like “the HR payroll app needs low latency” and automation handles the technical details behind the scenes.

Intent-based automation uses techniques like machine learning and advanced data analysis to continually tune the network. This allows the infrastructure to align with business needs automatically, reducing the workload for IT teams.

The main benefits revolve around agility, improved uptime, and better alignment with business objectives. Intent-based networking is still an emerging technology but shows great promise.

Benefits of network automation

So, now that you know the answer to the question “What is network automation?”, it’s time to explore why you should consider implementing it within your infrastructure.

Here are the top advantages:

Improved efficiency 

Automating repetitive, manual processes is guaranteed to save time for IT teams. One survey found that 95% of network configuration changes are still done manually. Considering many enterprises manage thousands of devices, the time involved adds up quickly. Network automation enables admins to reclaim hours otherwise spent on rote tasks.

According to Auvik’s 2024 IT Trends report, 64% of internal IT departments spend between 10 to 20 hours per week just resolving end-user issues and requests. And 16% spend 20+ hours. Any automation helps regain time that could be better spent on strategic initiatives.

Take the automation within Auvik’s network monitoring tool, for example.

“The nice thing about Auvik is that you put the credentials in, put the agent on the network, and it just does its thing. It sets up alerts that you would most likely turn on anyway without even having to do it,” says one Auvik customer review from an IT Director at a hospitality company. “If you add another new device to the network, it detects it and sets alerts for that device. With the other systems that I’ve used, I had to manually add those devices in and manually set the alerts for new devices. I like that it’s an almost set-it-and-forget-it sort of system.”

This highlights how network monitoring tools with automation capabilities like Auvik can save significant time by automatically discovering devices, setting up alerts, and requiring less manual effort to manage the system. This allows IT teams to focus their effort on more value-added tasks.

Reduced human error

Manual network changes inevitably lead to misconfigurations and inconsistencies causing outages. Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 68% of data breaches involved a human element, namely mistakes made by IT administrators and other employees. Automated configuration management mitigates that risk by limiting direct human tinkering. Back-ups are automated and easily rolled back through automation.

Improved uptime and reliability 

Closely coupled with reducing mistakes, network automation also directly improves reliability and uptime. Manual processes simply can’t match the speed and precision of automated systems when it comes to maintaining ideal network state. Automation also facilitates crucial tasks like patching, upgrades, and backup/recovery to limit downtime from planned maintenance as much as possible.

According to a survey from Itential, 59% of respondents stated that implementing network automation resulted in faster problem resolution. For modern businesses that depend on cloud apps and mobile users, every minute of downtime hurts. Automation keeps services running smoothly.

Greater agility 

With network automation rolling out configs and provisioning new hardware, IT teams drastically cut deployment times. New offices can be up and running the same day. New users or devices can be added immediately without bottlenecking on manpower. Engineers avoid having to work overtime or weekends patching firmware.

By codifying complex procedures into software, massive changes become trivial. Instead of facing weeks of effort to migrate configurations or expand infrastructure, network automation makes agile, responsive IT operations a reality.

Lower costs 

All the efficiencies, time savings, and uptime improvements ultimately translate to hard cost reductions. Network automation means companies can reduce spend on manual labor needed to maintain infrastructure. And limiting outages caused by human errors avoids potentially massive economic damage.

According to a 2020 Infrascale survey, 73% of SMBs reported that an hour of downtime cost them in excess of $10,000 in lost revenues, while a 2020 Statista survey found that 25% of enterprises reported an average hourly loss ranging between $300,000 and $400,000. Every bit of reliability and agility gained through network automation protects the business from hemorrhaging money during an outage. The savings easily justify upfront investments into automation tools and infrastructure upgrades.

So, network automation in all its forms—whether using scripts, software platforms, or cutting-edge intent-based intelligence—produces faster, more reliable networks while slashing tedious manual efforts. For modern digital businesses, those operational gains often directly fuel top and bottom line growth.

According to Auvik’s 2024 IT Trends report, 64% of internal IT departments spend between 10 to 20 hours per week just resolving end-user issues and requests. And 16% spend 20+ hours. Any automation helps regain time that could be better spent on strategic initiatives.

Take the automation within Auvik’s network monitoring tool, for example.

“The nice thing about Auvik is that you put the credentials in, put the agent on the network, and it just does its thing. It sets up alerts that you would most likely turn on anyway without even having to do it,” says one Auvik customer review from an IT Director at a hospitality company. “If you add another new device to the network, it detects it and sets alerts for that device. With the other systems that I’ve used, I had to manually add those devices in and manually set the alerts for new devices. I like that it’s an almost set-it-and-forget-it sort of system.”

This highlights how network monitoring tools with automation capabilities like Auvik can save significant time by automatically discovering devices, setting up alerts, and requiring less manual effort to manage the system. This allows IT teams to focus their effort on more value-added tasks.

Reduced human error

Manual network changes inevitably lead to misconfigurations and inconsistencies causing outages. Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 68% of data breaches involved a human element, namely mistakes made by IT administrators and other employees. Automated configuration management mitigates that risk by limiting direct human tinkering. Back-ups are automated and easily rolled back through automation.

Improved uptime and reliability 

Closely coupled with reducing mistakes, network automation also directly improves reliability and uptime. Manual processes simply can’t match the speed and precision of automated systems when it comes to maintaining ideal network state. Automation also facilitates crucial tasks like patching, upgrades, and backup/recovery to limit downtime from planned maintenance as much as possible.

According to a survey from Itential, 59% of respondents stated that implementing network automation resulted in faster problem resolution. For modern businesses that depend on cloud apps and mobile users, every minute of downtime hurts. Automation keeps services running smoothly.

Greater agility 

With network automation rolling out configs and provisioning new hardware, IT teams drastically cut deployment times. New offices can be up and running the same day. New users or devices can be added immediately without bottlenecking on manpower. Engineers avoid having to work overtime or weekends patching firmware.

By codifying complex procedures into software, massive changes become trivial. Instead of facing weeks of effort to migrate configurations or expand infrastructure, network automation makes agile, responsive IT operations a reality.

Lower costs 

All the efficiencies, time savings, and uptime improvements ultimately translate to hard cost reductions. Network automation means companies can reduce spend on manual labor needed to maintain infrastructure. And limiting outages caused by human errors avoids potentially massive economic damage.

According to a 2020 Infrascale survey, 73% of SMBs reported that an hour of downtime cost them in excess of $10,000 in lost revenues, while a 2020 Statista survey found that 25% of enterprises reported an average hourly loss ranging between $300,000 and $400,000. Every bit of reliability and agility gained through network automation protects the business from hemorrhaging money during an outage. The savings easily justify upfront investments into automation tools and infrastructure upgrades.

So, network automation in all its forms—whether using scripts, software platforms, or cutting-edge intent-based intelligence—produces faster, more reliable networks while slashing tedious manual efforts. For modern digital businesses, those operational gains often directly fuel top and bottom line growth.

Challenges of network automation

No solution comes without challenges.

Here are a few common ones IT teams face when it comes to network automation.

Legacy device incompatibility 

Lacking modern programmable interfaces, old devices force manual configurations. Upgrading can be prohibitive due to complex integrations or budget constraints. IT admins must either selectively automate around legacy gear or run hybrid environments.

Complexity at scale 

Highly distributed branches, clouds, data centers, and networks containing thousands of devices magnify complexity exponentially. Automation helps but also requires skill to coordinate properly. No single one-size-fits-all solution exists.

Adoption resistance

Staff accustomed to legacy systems and manual processes may resist implementing any new technology. Network automation will change certain workflows and toolsets, which teams might initially hesitate to embrace, particularly if they feel there’s a lack of human oversight on those tasks.

Effective change management through training and inclusion in the automation roadmap creation process is key. Demonstrating the benefits through initial small-scale deployments and highlighting the improvements can help win over skeptics gradually. 

Emerging technology

While network automation is maturing quickly, intent-based networking and some cutting-edge platforms are still evolving to maximize reliability, bolster security, and simplify complexity, and other early-stage issues. Evaluate carefully and test exhaustively before trusting mission-critical infrastructure to automation software.

No solution eliminates all downsides. However, with careful technology selection, thorough testing, incremental deployment, strong change management, and administrator training, businesses can minimize the risks while realizing huge benefits.

Top 5 network automation tools

Dozens of tools exist for automating networks, including both open-source options and commercial platforms.

Let’s take a high-level view of common categories and examples.

1. Domain-specific platforms

Tools like Cisco DNA Center, Juniper Mist Cloud, and ExtremeCloud IQ provide end-to-end network automation capabilities purpose-built for infrastructure from those vendors.

2. General network automation software

Apstra, Forward Networks, and NetYCE specialize in multi-vendor network automation. They focus less on wireless capabilities but excel at automating complex data centers or edge environments.

3. IT automation tools

Mainstream DevOps platforms like Ansible, Salt, GitLab, Kubernetes, Terraform, and more now offer mature network modules for infrastructure automation. Leveraging broader IT automation expertise has appeal.

4. MSP and network monitoring tools

Increasingly network monitoring platforms like Auvik, Kaseya, SolarWinds, and Datadog bundle automation capabilities like automated config backups and RestAPI integrations to augment monitoring use cases.

5. Open-source projects

Platforms like NAPALM and Netmiko libraries provide open automation building blocks at minimal or no cost. They require integration effort but allow custom solutions.

And many network vendors also offer first-party automation SDKs and software developer kits to access devices programmatically, such as Arista eAPI, Juniper PyEZ, and Cisco NX-API.

The range of options to help kickstart network automation is vast. For help narrowing down your best fit, see Auvik’s Networking Automation Software guide.

Creating a network automation roadmap

Implementing network automation can seem intimidating.

Where do you start?

What tools do you need?

How do you get stakeholder buy-in?

Having a phased roadmap is key to successfully transforming network operations, like with any major IT project. Follow these steps to develop a long-term network automation strategy for your environment.

Step 1: Baseline your existing network

First, take a deep look at your current network to catalog all the components, topology, and configurations. Clean up any inconsistencies or undocumented areas if you can within change windows. Your automation will only ever be as accurate and effective as the discovered data from your networks allows.

When baselining your network, assess if the existing design lends itself well to automation or if upgrades may be warranted for optimal results. The most automation-friendly network designs standardize configurations, centralize services, and have well-defined access paths.

Important things to do:

• Auto-discover and map all network devices with monitoring software
• Backup existing device configs for easy before-and-after comparison
• Build a single source of truth for IP address management (IPAM)
• Find security vulnerabilities like outdated firmware
• Review integrations with other systems

Step 2: Define success metrics

Next, pinpoint key metrics linking network automation to bigger business goals. These give you quantifiable targets to hit.

Potential metrics:

• Mean time to repair outages
• Frequency of network changes
• Planned vs unplanned change ratio
• Time spent on manual tasks
• Network-related help desk tickets

Gather baseline data for 90 days pre-automation, so you have data to compare to later.

Step 3: Identify high-value use cases

With your current state and targets defined, decide where automation will fix the biggest network headaches.

Prioritize pain points like:

• Slow wireless AP deployment
• Manual troubleshooting of user issues
• Repeated firmware updates
• Restoring router configs from backup

Focus the first stage of automation on maximizing time savings, productivity, or reliability around your top specific problem.

Step 4: Select initial automation tools

Lots of platforms may help – scripts, niche software, controllers, etc. But don’t just adopt automation for its own sake.

Match tools to directly provide relief for your high-priority use case. Whether leveraging existing scripts, buying automation suites, utilizing SDN controllers, or integrating monitoring like Auvik, target usability to boost IT efficiency.

Step 5: Pilot automation workflows

Start small with minimum solutions tackling high-value issues. Define strict criteria for pilot testing, such as:

• Hours regained per week?
• Changes without errors?
• Faster ticket closure?

Compare to your original baseline data. The goal isn’t completely transforming everything overnight, just demonstrating the value of automation.

Step 6: Expand scope

Once the benefits of network automation have been established, assess any remaining manual tasks that could be automated. Re-evaluate network software needs and interconnect tools into a unified ecosystem advancing maturity.

Catalog other areas suited for automation, including the following:

• Refreshing access switch configs
• Automating cloud connectivity
• Automatically generating network documentation

Keep aligning to clearly defined problems automation can solve.

Step 7: Continual improvement

Treat automation as an ongoing initiative, continuously realigning with evolving infrastructure and business objectives. Revisit the roadmap each quarter to incorporate new systems, upgraded hardware, or shifting IT priorities.

Why choose Auvik for network automation?

As a platform purpose-built for network monitoring, Auvik offers automation capabilities explicitly designed to ease frustrations IT teams experience managing infrastructure:

• Auto device discovery and mapping
• Ongoing backups of network device configs
• 50+ out-of-the-box alert integrations
• RESTful APIs for workflow integration
• Software integrations like Freshdesk and Slack

Leveraging Auvik, IT staff regain hours otherwise wasted on manual documentation, device changes, and resolving common network issues. Integration with existing ticketing and notification platforms means no disruption to proven IT workflows.

Leverage network automation to maximize IT efficiency

Implementing network automation is a high-value initiative for modern IT organizations. Following the software-defined network evolution, network automation represents the next phase on the journey towards self-operating infrastructure.

With the right roadmap tailored to your environment and technology, enterprises realize huge gains: air cover for IT teams to focus on high-value tasks rather than mundane upkeep, improved resilience and uptime for always-on businesses, and future-proof foundations able to flex as needs change.