Network Automation in the Modern Age#

Marcus Stoegbauer and Veit Heller (no affiliation listed)

• Why: The "source of truth / data model" problem is the current wall in netops automation — most teams past the template stage hit it. This names the next stage rather than selling a tool.
• What: A reflective talk tracing automation from template-pushing to variable storage in documentation systems/DCIMs, arguing the next stage demands modeling the world explicitly, unconstrained by DCIM limits — and that automation designers now need deeper data-modeling skills than the tools teach. Explicitly a conversation-opener, with a glimpse of an early draft solution. (from abstract only)
• How: Conceptual — decoupling the network's world-model from the documentation system that stores it; no finished tool is presented.
• Where applicable: Any netops team that has outgrown templates and found its DCIM's model shaping (and limiting) its automation. Conceptual rather than deployable; the value is the framing and the community discussion it opens.