If The Software Eats Everything, Is The Network Engineer On The Menu?

If you are a network engineer, don't rush to learn programming languages. To compete in the new world of software-defined networking, it may be more important to start thinking like a programmer.

It was one of the ideas that emerged this week from the Open Networking User Group debate that generated loud feedback from users in the audience.

As the four panelists at the ONUG Spring Conference in San Francisco said on Tuesday, they have spent days managing individual switches and routers and configuring them with their own CLI (command line interface). SDN is not implemented in all companies, but with a new approach to corporate IT and the availability of the public cloud with a few clicks, companies are moving towards a more agile and automated network.

Internal network engineering teams must match the speed of public cloud providers for tasks such as launching new virtual machines, said Stanford professor David Cheriton, who expressed his concern during a private interview at the conference. Expressed

Why Is It So Expensive And Time Consuming To Do This (ours)?

SDN takes care of configuration tasks that some network engineers have manually dedicated their careers to. This raises concerns about workplace safety and what these technicians should do next.

According to panelists and participants, a lot is happening. Network Engineer are free to configure ports and roots to perform more advanced tasks, such as designing better systems.

The Computers spend less time doing mechanical work than they do better & everyone focus on the intention and results that interests you for your business.

The good thing for your career and the company you work for is having a clear understanding of what you're trying to build and finding ways to connect them. This includes learning some Python, as well as other languages ​​and tools & the network engineers have a lot to learn from the software world.

"I think they need to understand programming more than they need to understand good programming practices. The mentioning interactive syntax checking, component testing, and eliminating redundancy by writing code once and using it many times.

"All of these, which are standard parts of careful software engineering, are not necessarily part of what we see as network operating practices.

An using software that does network functions but doesn't use those programming principles to automate on the go is hurting some companies.

"They left behind a bunch of Perl scripts that everyone trusts, but no one understands, because the person who wrote it is now heading to Italy.

As the number of modern languages ​​and APIs grows, programming has become easier than knowing each vendor's CLI syntax.

The traditional network engineers go in different directions as companies change, leaving some behind. Senior IT managers must understand how to maintain their businesses to add value to them.

"You have to think about how employees make a difference. "How are they trying to get the skills they need?"

Others agreed that some people would not be able to make the transition. But children are more optimistic.