What is Network DevOps? What is NetDevOps?

What is Network DevOps?

Network Devops is the acceptance of DevOps culture and principles in network engineering and operations, also referred to as NetDevOps & DevNetOps, Network DevOps is the movement towards using DevOps culture and principles when operating network infrastructure.

NetDevops is a blend of Network, Development, and IT Operations, utilising version control and automation, with tools like Ansible, Python, Git, Github, Terraform and Jenkins. Network engineers need to think more like programmers and treat their network like code. Infrastructure as Code is the way to manage your network in 2025 and beyond.

With so many networks operating in the cloud now, without getting on board with DevOps principles managing the complex network infrastructures in use today is going to become more difficult.

The big question is What is Network Devops?

What is NetDevOps?

NetDevOps is a modern approach that integrates network engineering and operations with DevOps practices to enhance collaboration and efficiency.

NetDevOps is focused on automating network management tasks, allowing teams to deploy and manage network configurations more rapidly and reliably.

NetDevOps and Network DevOps are basically the same thing but with so much terminology around it’s hard to know which one to use. Cisco seem to favour the term NetDevOps but Netwwork DevOps is the same thing!

So what is Network Devops and what does a Network Devops Engineer do?

What is a NetDevOps Network Engineer?

A new role has been created, a role which did not exist a few years ago. A network engineer who understands automation and DevOps tools is the network engineer of today, a NetDevOps engineer.

Not only do network engineers need to know how to configure and design networks, they also need to understand how to provision and operate those networks using DevOps tools.

DevOps for Network Engineers

NetDevops engineers need to know about Ansible, Python, API’s Git, GitHub, GitLab, Terraform and CI/CD pipelines.

The list is endless of tools and technologies but a good understanding of the above will stand you in good stead for the future.

Whilst good developers do not traditionally have knowledge of networks and network engineers did not have knowledge of software, the two skillsets are merging now.

So what does a day in the life of a NetDevOps engineer look like? What is NetDevOps all about?

What are the benefits of NetDevOps?

NetDevOps, or Network Development Operations, is a framework for network automation and management inspired by the principles of DevOps. DevOps has been instrumental in transforming the software development lifecycle by bringing development and operations teams closer together to facilitate faster and more reliable software delivery. NetDevOps applies the same principles to network management, resulting in numerous benefits:

NetDevOps key points

1. Faster Deployment and Scalability: Using automated tools and standardized procedures, networks can be deployed, scaled, and managed more quickly and efficiently.
2. Improved Collaboration and Efficiency: Just as DevOps improves collaboration between software developers and operations teams, NetDevOps promotes better collaboration between network engineers and IT operations, resulting in improved efficiency and communication.
3. Increased Network Reliability: Automated testing and deployment in NetDevOps can reduce errors and downtime. Problems can be detected and corrected more quickly.
4. Continuous Improvement: The use of modern software development practices such as CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) in the network domain allows for incremental, rapid improvements to the network.
5. Improved Security: Automated deployment processes can ensure that security policies are applied consistently across the network. In addition, security can be integrated into the network management process, rather than being an afterthought.
6. Reduction in Manual Processes: With automation as a key aspect of NetDevOps, time-consuming and error-prone manual configuration tasks can be significantly reduced, freeing up time for more strategic work.
7. Greater Flexibility: With NetDevOps, it’s easier to manage and adjust network settings to meet changing needs. This is particularly useful in cloud-based environments, where demand can fluctuate.

In summary, NetDevOps enhances the network lifecycle management by bringing together the best of networking and DevOps. It enables teams to manage networks in a more efficient, reliable, and agile manner.

Network DevOps Tools

This list is not exhaustive, but these are the main DevOps tools you need to know about for networking.

• Git
• GitHub / GitLab
• Ansible
• Python
• Terraform
• Docker
• Jenkins

In the realm of Network DevOps, Continuous Integration (CI) plays a pivotal role in automating the process of integrating changes from different contributors. Leveraging cloud-based platforms, CI tools such as Jenkins and Travis CI allow network configurations and codes to be tested in real-time, ensuring data consistency and integrity across the network.

At the heart of this automation are APIs, which serve as the connective tissue between different software tools. APIs enable interaction between cloud platforms, CI tools, and the network infrastructure, making automation possible at scale.

For network developers, CLI (Command Line Interface) remains a powerful means to interact with network devices. However, IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) like Visual Studio Code or PyCharm offer an even more comprehensive toolset for writing, testing, and debugging network automation scripts for netdevops engineers.

NetDevOps is not just DevOps! Ansible, DevOps and Infrastructure as Code

DevOps is about more than just tooling. It’s about a cultural shift towards more collaboration and shared responsibility for maintaining the network. The automation potential of NetDevOps is fulfilled by using a range of tools, often cloud-based, that facilitate efficient coding, testing, and deployment.

Git plays a key role in this process. As a version control system, Git allows teams to collaboratively develop network automation scripts, track changes, and revert to previous versions if necessary. It is the backbone of many CI/CD pipelines and an essential tool in the NetDevOps toolbox.

NetDevOps conclusion

In essence, NetDevOps brings together the power of DevOps principles, cloud technology, automation, APIs, CLI, IDEs, and tools like Git to create a flexible, scalable, and reliable network infrastructure.

What is NetDevOps used for?

Infrastructure as Code

NetDevOps Training

Git, GitHub for Version Control

API for network automation

NetDevOps Certification

Now you have the answer to What is NetDevOps most network engineers will want to get certified as a way to validate their knowledge and as a good way to learn. There are very few specific NetDevOps related certifications programs for Network DevOps / NetDevOps but really the leader in this in 2023 is Cisco with their Devnet programme.

Cisco Certified Devnet Associate

Cisco Certified Devnet Professional

Cisco Certified Devnet Expert

Other DevOps Certifications

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

Gitlab Certified DevOps Professional

Network Automation using Devops / NetDevOps

NetDevops Interview Questions

DevOps Practices for Networking

DevOps practices for networking focus on automating and streamlining network management to support the agile development and continuous delivery processes that DevOps promotes. Network configuration, monitoring, and management are critical aspects of DevOps that ensure the infrastructure remains stable, scalable, and highly available. Here are some key DevOps practices for networking:

1. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

• Automating Network Configuration: Use tools like Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation to define and provision network infrastructure programmatically. This ensures consistency across environments and allows for the rapid scaling of networks.
• Declarative Configuration: Define the network infrastructure in code (subnets, routing tables, VPNs, firewalls) to ensure that it can be versioned, tracked, and easily replicated.

2. Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

• Automated Testing of Network Changes: Integrate network configuration testing in the CI/CD pipeline to verify that network configurations are correct and do not cause issues when deployed.
• Automated Network Deployments: Implement CI/CD pipelines for network configurations, enabling teams to deploy updates to the network automatically and safely.

3. Monitoring and Observability

• Network Performance Monitoring: Use monitoring tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog to track the health and performance of network resources (e.g., bandwidth usage, latency, packet loss). This data is critical for understanding network bottlenecks or failures.
• Alerting: Implement automated alerts for abnormal network behavior, such as high traffic loads, downtime, or unexpected changes in network configuration.
• Log Aggregation: Use tools like ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) to aggregate and visualize network logs, helping to identify and resolve network issues faster.

4. Network Automation and Orchestration

• Automated Provisioning: Automate the setup of network components such as virtual private networks (VPNs), DNS services, and load balancers using orchestration tools.
• Network Policy Management: Tools like Calico or Cilium for Kubernetes allow for the management of network policies at scale, automating network security rules and preventing configuration drift.

5. Version Control for Network Configurations

• Versioning Network Changes: Store network configuration files (firewall rules, routing policies, VLAN configurations, etc.) in a version-controlled repository (e.g., Git). This enables rollback capabilities and ensures that network changes can be reviewed and audited.
• GitOps for Networking: Implement GitOps principles, where changes to the network configuration are made through Git, triggering automated deployments to reflect those changes in production.

6. Collaboration Between Teams

• DevOps and Network Teams Collaboration: Foster better communication between development, operations, and network teams to ensure alignment on network design and configurations. Shared goals and responsibilities help eliminate bottlenecks and reduce the risk of network misconfigurations.
• Cross-functional Teams: Integrating network specialists into the DevOps team can improve the speed and quality of networking decisions and optimizations.

7. Self-Healing Networks

• Automated Recovery: Implement self-healing network components that can automatically detect issues and attempt to resolve them (e.g., auto-healing virtual network functions, automated failovers, etc.).
• Dynamic Scaling: Automatically scale network resources based on traffic or demand using load balancers and cloud services like AWS Auto Scaling, Google Cloud Load Balancing, etc.

8. Security Automation

• Automated Security Policies: Integrate security tools (e.g., firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Identity and Access Management (IAM)) into the CI/CD pipeline to enforce network security at every stage.
• Zero Trust Networking: Adopt Zero Trust models for network security, where every network interaction is treated as potentially untrusted. Automate and enforce security controls dynamically.
• Encrypted Traffic: Ensure that all traffic, especially between microservices or virtual machines, is encrypted using TLS/SSL certificates, with automated renewals.

9. Cloud-Native Networking

• Service Meshes: Implement service meshes (like Istio or Linkerd) for managing microservices communication in a cloud-native environment. This allows for automated traffic management, security, observability, and resiliency between microservices.
• Network Functions Virtualization (NFV): Virtualize network functions to decouple hardware from network service provisioning, allowing dynamic scaling and easier management in cloud environments.

10. Disaster Recovery and Backup

• Network Failover Mechanisms: Implement automated failover and redundancy solutions to ensure network availability during outages. For instance, multi-region or multi-AZ (availability zone) deployment strategies.
• Automated Backups: Ensure that network configurations are backed up regularly to restore the network quickly in case of failure or misconfiguration.

By adopting these practices, DevOps teams can optimize their networking infrastructure, reduce errors, improve performance, and maintain a high level of availability and security across environments.

Network DevOps Best Practices

• Version Control (typically Git)
• Automated Testing
• Continuous Integration
• Continuous Delivery / Deployment

What is NetDevOps is a big question but in essence NetDevOps is an approach to network engineering that combines network operations with software development practices. This approach offers a variety of benefits for organizations looking to modernize their network infrastructure and streamline their workflows.

One major benefit of NetDevOps is the ability to deploy network services faster. By automating the configuration and deployment of network resources, organizations can reduce the time it takes to deploy new services or update existing ones, resulting in faster time to market.

NetDevOps also provides greater network agility, enabling network engineers to rapidly respond to changing business requirements by automating the configuration and deployment of network resources. This increased agility can help organizations stay competitive and adapt to new market trends.

In addition, NetDevOps can improve network reliability by automating network configuration and testing. This reduces errors and outages, leading to increased uptime and better service for users.

What is NetDevOps?

NetDevOps can also enhance network security by enabling network engineers to implement security policies more consistently and quickly. This reduces the risk of security breaches and helps ensure compliance with industry standards.

Another benefit is greater scalability. By making it easier to scale network resources up or down as needed, organizations can better meet changing demand and ensure their network infrastructure can handle growth.

NetDevOps allows collaboration

Network DevOps can also improve collaboration between network engineers, developers, and other stakeholders. This leads to more efficient and effective workflows, reducing time to deployment and increasing overall productivity.

By automating routine tasks, NetDevOps Engineers can free up time to focus on more complex issues, improving overall network management. NetDevOps tools can also provide greater visibility into network performance, helping network engineers diagnose and troubleshoot issues more quickly.

NetDevOps

Network DevOps can reduce costs associated with manual configuration, testing, and deployment of network resources, as well as reduce the risk of downtime and other costly issues. Finally, by leveraging DevOps practices, organizations can gain a competitive advantage by deploying network services more quickly and reliably, improving overall network performance, and responding more rapidly to changing business requirements.

Net DevOps

NetDevOps Course

If you want to develop NetDevOps practices I am due to release a NetDevOps course in early spring, estimated release date is end of April 2023

email [email protected] for more information

What is NetDevOps FAQ

What is NetDevOps?