What Is GitOps for Network Engineers?

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.