December 2025 Summaries

NetDevOps, derived from the principles of DevOps, aims to apply a collaborative, cross-team mindset and a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflow to network operations, supporting versioning and automated testing of network changes. While DevOps successfully integrates development and operations teams in software development, applying its principles to networking poses challenges, as network engineers often perceive DevOps as software-centric and struggle with cross-team collaboration. Despite efforts to promote NetDevOps in the late 2010s, the term has not gained significant traction, partly due to its association with software development. Network engineers remain divided on whether NetDevOps is synonymous with network automation or represents a broader concept, with some viewing it as a method for integrating network automation into application development to enhance service delivery speed.

In the realm of network and infrastructure management, a plethora of terms, such as DevOps, NetDevOps, GitOps, Infrastructure as Code, and Network as Code, are used to describe overlapping concepts, leading to confusion and debate over their definitions. The industry's language fragmentation is partly attributed to marketing influences and the evolving nature of technology, which results in terms like DevSecOps being perceived as more appealing. Key figures in the field, like Ethan Banks and Urs Baumann, highlight the challenges of achieving consensus on terminology, with some suggesting that striving for clarity can lead to "analysis paralysis." Instead, experts such as Eric Chou advocate for focusing on progress rather than perfecting language, emphasizing the importance of maintaining momentum in technological advancements. This context sets the stage for an exploration of seven key terms in network management, detailing their origins, definitions, and why certain terms have gained traction over time, illustrating the dynamic nature of language and practice in the field.

Network as Code (NaC) emerged as an extension of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), applying similar principles, such as version control and automated testing, to physical network infrastructure. While IaC has achieved widespread adoption and recognition as a standard framework within cloud management and DevOps, NaC has struggled to establish a distinct identity or clear boundaries separate from IaC, NetDevOps, or broader network automation practices. The concept of NaC began circulating informally around 2016 and was highlighted in talks like those by Cisco engineer Julio Gomez, who positioned it alongside IaC within the NetDevOps context. Despite some industry discussions and vendor promotions, NaC remains less commonly known or used among engineers, lacking the universal recognition that IaC enjoys in cloud and DevOps environments.

GitOps, originally coined by Weaveworks CEO Alexis Richardson in 2017, is a set of principles centered on managing cloud-native applications declaratively using Git, but its definition has evolved to encompass a broader framework of operational guidelines that can be implemented with various tools. While most practitioners still associate GitOps with Git-based workflows, the OpenGitOps initiative by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) promotes a version control-agnostic approach, emphasizing principles like immutability and automatic reconciliation without explicitly requiring Git. Despite this, many network engineers continue to equate GitOps with Git, and the concept remains relatively niche within the networking community, overshadowed by related frameworks like Infrastructure as Code and NetDevOps. Historically, network engineers have used Git-based workflows for automation even before the GitOps term existed, and although the idea is gaining traction, it remains a somewhat undiscovered methodology that not all engineers have fully embraced or understood.

Network automation refers to the use of software to perform tasks traditionally done manually in network management, encompassing a wide range of activities from basic scripting to advanced AI-driven operations. Despite its straightforward definition, the term is flexible enough to include various stages of implementation maturity, which has helped it gain widespread acceptance in the industry. The concept emerged in the early 2010s as network engineers began adopting programmatic approaches, and it has since grown into a unifying term for modern network operations. This flexibility contrasts with other terms like NetDevOps or GitOps, which have struggled with precise definitions and adoption. Network orchestration, on the other hand, involves the coordination of these automated tasks into comprehensive, end-to-end service workflows, representing a more advanced evolution beyond individual task automation. While network automation has become a dominant term in the industry, network orchestration is increasingly recognized as essential for managing complex, scalable systems.

Infrahub 1.6 introduces enhancements aimed at improving the user experience for teams managing large-scale infrastructure data and automation. The update features a new dashboard landing page that offers immediate visibility into system states, reducing the need to navigate multiple views for status checks. With improved navigation for large hierarchical data and refined breadcrumb navigation, users can efficiently explore and manage complex data structures. The release also enhances Git workflows by enabling selective Git branch synchronization and introducing explicit merge commits for better traceability. Additional tools such as the infrahubctl branch report command aid in branch maintenance by providing detailed insights into branch states, while object templates now support profiles for consistent object creation. These improvements collectively aim to streamline daily operations, allowing teams to focus more on their core tasks rather than on managing the platform.