
The Network Automation Journey
How Hard Can It Be? Simplicity and Network Operations
In this episode I talk about making technically inferior choices because it makes better operational sense.


technology
Hosted by Tony Bourke · technology · EN
This is a (probably) limited series where Tony Bourke, a networking instructor (Arista, Cisco, etc.) talks in a vendor-neutral way about the process of network automation, the basic concepts, and where everything falls into place.
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Signup to Generate a PitchThis is a (probably) limited series where Tony Bourke, a networking instructor (Arista, Cisco, etc.) talks in a vendor-neutral way about the process of network automation, the basic concepts, and where everything falls into place.
The Network Automation Journey is hosted by Tony Bourke. The show has published 54 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "How Hard Can It Be? Simplicity and Network Operations" (28 September 2026, 9 minutes), "Intent and Natural Languages" (21 September 2026, 3 minutes), and "There Can Be Only One: The Highlander Principle" (10 September 2026, 6 minutes).
The Network Automation Journey publishes roughly every two weeks, with episodes averaging 9 minutes across 54 episodes.
Booking probability for The Network Automation Journey is 41%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. The Network Automation Journey requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. The Network Automation Journey's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for The Network Automation Journey are IT Services & Software Development. The Network Automation Journey has a technology audience.
Tony Bourke hosts The Network Automation Journey, a technology podcast with 54 episodes published.
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The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I talk about making technically inferior choices because it makes better operational sense.

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I discuss the use case (or lack thereof) for using natural language in network configuration. (Hint, I don't think natural language is a good fit for network configuration.)

The Network Automation Journey
The source of truth is the source of truth. There can only be one place to look for information or to set information.

The Network Automation Journey
What should you learn? Python? Should you skip Ansible for Python? I discuss all of this in this episode.

The Network Automation Journey
Yeah, I think network automation is now just part of being a network administrator.

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I talk about the concept of a tenant as it relates to network automation (and networking in general).

The Network Automation Journey
You're slammed, tickets piling up, deadlines slipping, you're barely keeping your head above water. And some Youtubers are telling you that you should automate? In this economy? I talk about the genuine issue of finding...

The Network Automation Journey
What would a replacement for Ansible look like? What do we want in a network automation platform that would replace Ansible?

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I talk about the lack of commit/confirm in many of the NOS modules.

The Network Automation Journey
It's easy to be overwhelmed and see all these network automation tools and wonder... what is even the goal? The tools are there to help us achieve our goals, they're not the goal themselves and I talk about how you can...

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I talk about my preference for generating a new config and replacing the entirety of the old config, every time, much like the Genesis Torpedo from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Adding things is easy...

The Network Automation Journey
I don't like YANG for configuring devices (and I'm going to tell you allll about it).

The Network Automation Journey
More meetings, more committees, more reviews isn't going to deliver more reliable network changes. While a formalized process and policies for network changes is important, you hit a point of very diminishing returns...

The Network Automation Journey
Today's topic is how automation has made choosing things like routing protocols very different than they were maybe 10 years ago.

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I warn people about issues that have cropped up with the network automation modules/collections/roles that got broken with the new versions of Ansible (Ansible Community 12/Ansible-core 2.19)

The Network Automation Journey
In this longer episode, I share my thoughts on the term "Software Defined Networking" (SDN) and why it should be retired as a term.

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode, I talk of my love for YAML as a tool for network automation.

The Network Automation Journey
Here I talk about declarative vs imperative approaches to network automation.

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I talk about my thoughts on using OpenConfig versus managing the device in a more native way.

The Network Automation Journey
In this episode I talk about the pitfall of throwing too many new things at once to someone who's just learning network automation. Keeping it simple and using a layered approach is what I've found to be the best way to...
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