Last week, two signficant things in Networks

Due to the complexity and intensity of the project I’m currently engaged I haven’t written much lately, however last week two things occurred signaling a change in the business of networking.

I contend that network technology has not kept pace with the rest of infrastructure development. Over recent years we have seen major technological advancements in infrastructure like k8s, radical moves towards new compute models driven by GPU’s and AI, and increasingly cost effective storage technology; not much has really happened in networking. Sure there has been lots of talk around Software Defined Networking and some cost reductions driven by white boxes but nothing really new has happened. Worse still, the advances made in automation from other parts of the infrastructure have moved slowly in networking. I believe this is about to change.

Last week Pensando emerged from two years in stealth mode. Led by networking people who know what they are doing, Pensando has developed a new class of network equipment, designed for modern, large scale automated infrastructure delivering key network functionality in a form that has only been available from Cloud Providers.

The second announcement last week was Cisco’s CCNA DevNet Certification. This new track focuses on certification of automation skills in networking requiring basic proficiency in programming in python. To develop any modern infrastructure at scale, automation is an absolute necessity however too many networking people still believe that manual CLI skills are enough.

These two things together signal a shift in networking that is long overdue. The need to get both networking tools and skills in line with other infrastructure automation technology and teams is critical for any organization that plans to have any on-premise or hybrid infrastructure. Infrastructure engineers that understand networking, compute and storage, and can automate those systems are the most difficult resources to find. A new class of network equipment and new support in the form of education will help accelerate development in companies seeking to balance delivery time, cost and performance in the hyper-scale world.

Who would have thought that all of this would have originated from Cisco, one of the oldest networking companies.