Why Hire a Software Engineer in the Networking Team?

Network Engineer teams receive periodic instructions to automate their networks. They are under pressure to learn software skills, use the latest DevOps tools, and take advantage of vendor-specific programming interfaces. What are some ways to approach this business transformation?

MLB has identified three key practices that can help achieve these goals. (1) Hire a senior software engineer for the network engineering team, (2) assign a technical project manager to the team, (3) other infrastructure engineering teams in the company to coordinate tools and business processes so that match. This publication focuses on (1) and saves other topics for future articles.

More is needed to do more. Network engineering teams are constantly being asked to do more with less, and by providing automation projects, they can effectively achieve this goal. Is your network team already working closely or beyond capacity? Are network / rotation engineers operating? If the team has acquired programming skills and a reliable project is already in use, it is impractical to expect to deliver it.

In some cases, the network engineering team will benefit from hiring a software engineer to automate the manual process and work smarter rather than difficult. Becoming a senior software engineer takes as long as becoming a senior network engineer. Sending network engineers to certification training doesn't immediately give you the skills to deliver automation projects. By hiring and recruiting senior software engineers directly, you can deliver your automation projects instantly and in a powerful way. Many of these projects can and should be used to reduce the traditional workload of the team. This improves your team's ability to undertake a new job.

For example, in MLB, a small project we created allows network engineers to run any number of commands on any number of devices and capture their output for review. This tool improves your team's ability to quickly troubleshoot - make sure you have all the data you need, and increase the reliability by reducing the time it takes to get it. Over time, mentoring changes teams' ability to use network automation to deliver more to their businesses. Senior software engineers are the key to unlocking the team's capabilities.

Mentoring is the most important long-term benefit of hiring senior software engineers for your networking team. Network providers are promoting programming skills and even certification as the next step in the evolution of a network engineer's career. Traditional network engineers are overwhelmed by the prospect of becoming software developers. Network engineers don't have to be developers, but they can apply the basic skills that will help them go a long way. A senior software engineer on your team can be your guide. Help them on small projects, identify the specific skills they need to be more effective, and allow the company to develop its team at a realistic pace. For example, MLB uses Ansible. Software engineers can take control and ownership of automated tasks by allowing network engineers to create playbooks and teach and teach. As companies begin to see the immediate benefits of network automation, they always want more. The software engineer will be the necessary trainer to develop the bench for future automation professionals.

Manage Expectations. The biggest challenge administrators face is to form realistic expectations regarding the time and complexity of completing network automation projects. Projects come in many shapes and sizes. Senior software engineers have the ability to ask the right questions and make more accurate estimates. Even the best software engineers and managers will find the process difficult and difficult to estimate. Senior software engineers will be the best guide in establishing a realistic set of quotes to help you manage expectations across the business.

Choose The Right Approach. Network engineers generally have a small set of options for each part of their network design, but there are infinite options in software design. Experienced software engineers can effectively select the optimal set of technologies, tools, languages, libraries, and techniques, the right tools for the right jobs.

Working With Other Teams. A company may have many teams, such as infrastructure tool teams, systems infrastructure teams, DevOps teams, or groups of people who "run" automation, but not necessarily network teams. While those other teams exist, they tend to have their own agenda, and the networks don't cycle through them. If a software engineer is part of a networking team, that person can "talk to the software" with other teams and understand the technology they use. The collaboration builds an important organizational bridge that strengthens the networking team's ability to deliver reliable automation solutions. Network teams can choose the right approach as part of a collaborative effort to build trust in the practice of network automation.