Speaker 1: Hey everyone, and welcome back. Ready to dive into something
Speaker 1: pretty huge in the tech world.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're talking all about network programmability today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to really get into it, we're going deep
Speaker 1: on this awesome book Programming and Automating Cisco Networks. This
Speaker 1: stuff is changing how networks are built, like from the
Speaker 1: ground up.
Speaker 2: It's a total game changer, not just a tech buzzword.
Speaker 2: This is like a fundamental shift, you know, how we
Speaker 2: think about network, designing them, managing them, the whole nine
Speaker 2: yards exactly.
Speaker 1: And no matter where you're at, whether you're a coding
Speaker 1: guru or well, let's just say you've been typing commands
Speaker 1: since before I was born.
Speaker 2: Hopefully not that long ago.
Speaker 1: Hum, but you get the idea. This deep dive is
Speaker 1: for you. We're giving you the tools the knowledge to
Speaker 1: navigate this whole network programmability thing.
Speaker 2: And what's really cool is that it is accessible whether
Speaker 2: you're just starting out or you've been in the field
Speaker 2: for years.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's get into it. Why is now the
Speaker 1: time for this change? What's the big push behind all
Speaker 1: this network programmability stuff.
Speaker 2: It's a perfect storm. Really. You've got cloud computing blowing
Speaker 2: up data everywhere and businesses. They need to move faster
Speaker 2: than ever. The old way like manually configuring every little thing, yeah,
Speaker 2: just doesn't cut it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The book makes that super clear with that story
Speaker 1: about the company, right, the one that missed out on
Speaker 1: a huge EE opportunity because their network just couldn't adapt
Speaker 1: fast enough.
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's a wake up call in today's world. Your network,
Speaker 2: it can either hold you back or launch you forward.
Speaker 2: Network programmability, it's about making sure it's the second.
Speaker 1: One makes sense. So how does it actually do that
Speaker 1: make networks faster, more adaptable? What's the secret? Sauce?
Speaker 2: Software. We're using software to automate all those tedious tasks,
Speaker 2: to organize resources, even create systems that can fix themselves.
Speaker 2: Remember all those times you spent troubleshooting until two am?
Speaker 1: Don't remind me, right?
Speaker 2: Network programmability can automate a lot of that, free you
Speaker 2: up for more, shall we say, strategic thinking?
Speaker 1: Okay, now you're talking my language. Less time fighting with
Speaker 1: command line, more time for you know, actual thinking. So
Speaker 1: automation versus programmability. The book kind of touches on this,
Speaker 1: but I think it would help to dig a little deeper.
Speaker 2: Totally think of it like this automation is like those microwaves,
Speaker 2: you know, the popcorn button. Preset instructions works for specific things,
Speaker 2: but not very flexible programmability. That's like having a full
Speaker 2: on chef's kitchen. Yeah right, you call the shots, customize everything.
Speaker 1: So basic microwave versus like five star restaurant level control exactly.
Speaker 2: With programmability, you're not stuck with preset options. You've got
Speaker 2: the power to fine tune everything.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So how does coding actually fit into all
Speaker 1: of this? I'll admit it can seem kind of intimidating,
Speaker 1: especially in networking.
Speaker 2: I get it, but it's not as scary as it sounds.
Speaker 2: A lot of the ideas are similar to what you
Speaker 2: already do as a network engineer. Think about changing an
Speaker 2: NTP server. Do it once, no big deal, but now
Speaker 2: imagine doing that across say hundreds of devices.
Speaker 1: Ugh. I think my fingers are starting to cramp up
Speaker 1: just thinking about all that typing exactly.
Speaker 2: That's where coding comes in. Write a script, automate that
Speaker 2: whole process faster, fewer errors.
Speaker 1: And the book really seems to like Python for this
Speaker 1: right programming and automating Cisco networks. They're big fans for.
Speaker 2: A good reason. Python is super versatile, relatively easy to learn,
Speaker 2: and it's used everywhere in network programmability. What's really cool
Speaker 2: is it's even used in stuff like open stack for
Speaker 2: managing those cloud environments. So the skills you learn they translate.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Python it is. And this isn't just some
Speaker 1: like niche skill, right. It sounds like this is valuable
Speaker 1: across it absolutely so for our listeners who are like
Speaker 1: ready to jump into the coding pool. What are some
Speaker 1: tools that can make it less you know, intimidating? Oh?
Speaker 2: For sure. The book highlights a few. One that stands
Speaker 2: out is pipe charm. It's like having a coding buddy
Speaker 2: helps you write your code, test it, fix any bugs, autocomplete,
Speaker 2: syntax highlighting. Think of it like spell check but for code.
Speaker 1: Okay, so less chance of messing everything up. I can
Speaker 1: get behind that. What about get and get hub? The
Speaker 1: book mentions though too.
Speaker 2: Those are essential, especially if you're working with a team.
Speaker 2: Imagine working on a script, you make some changes, then bam,
Speaker 2: you realize you need to go back to an earlier version.
Speaker 1: Oh I've been there. Stringtel plus z is my best friend.
Speaker 2: Right, But with get you can track every single change
Speaker 2: you've made, go back to any previous version, life saver
Speaker 2: and GitHub. That's where we saw your code, work with
Speaker 2: other people on projects, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So it's like a time machine and a collaboration hub
Speaker 1: all in one.
Speaker 2: You got it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we've got the why behind network programmability. We've
Speaker 1: talked about automation versus programmability. We've even dipped our toes
Speaker 1: into the coding world with Python, pie Charm, the whole shebang.
Speaker 1: What I'm really curious about is Cisco. They're, you know,
Speaker 1: the hardware giant. How are they embracing this whole software
Speaker 1: driven thing? What are they doing to keep up?
Speaker 2: That's the question, right And the book dives into this
Speaker 2: with the Nexus nine thousand series, prime example of Cisco
Speaker 2: bridging that gap between hardware and software.
Speaker 1: Okay, so spill the tea on the Nexus nine thousand.
Speaker 1: What makes them so special for network programmability.
Speaker 2: It's all in the architecture really. See, in the past,
Speaker 2: network devices were like those black boxes, right, tough to
Speaker 2: work with, hard to automate. The next is nine thousand.
Speaker 2: It changes all that. It runs on Linux.
Speaker 1: Wait, hold up, Linux on a network switch that's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, teaching my dog to do my taxes
Speaker 1: or something. It just sounds wrong, huh.
Speaker 2: I know, right. It seems weird at first, but it's
Speaker 2: huge because now you can use all those familiar Linux
Speaker 2: tools languages like Python to work directly with the switch.
Speaker 2: No more clunky workarounds.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about really merging networking and software development,
Speaker 1: like they're actually on speaking terms now exactly.
Speaker 2: And it gets even cooler. The Nexus nine thousand supports
Speaker 2: containers too, call it guest shell.
Speaker 1: Guest shell sounds kind of friendly for something so technical.
Speaker 2: Right, but it's powerful stuff. Imagine running apps directly on
Speaker 2: the switch itself, no need for a separate server. It's
Speaker 2: all right there.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's got to be a game changer for performance.
Speaker 1: But what kind of apps are we talking about here?
Speaker 2: I think network monitoring, security analysis, even custom stuff you
Speaker 2: name it. Running these directly on the switch, it means
Speaker 2: things happen faster, smoother, more efficiently.
Speaker 1: So it's like having a mini data center built right
Speaker 1: into the switch itself.
Speaker 2: You've got it and the cherry on top. Cisco's got
Speaker 2: this thing called the devnet sandbox. It's a virtual environment
Speaker 2: where you can actually test all this out.
Speaker 1: Oh nice, so our listeners they can actually get hands
Speaker 1: on without the risk of blowing up their entire companies network.
Speaker 2: Exactly, safe space to experiment, learn the ropes, really get
Speaker 2: a feel for what network programmability can do.
Speaker 1: Love it. But we've been talking a lot about like
Speaker 1: data centers, these high end switches. What about everyone else?
Speaker 1: Does this apply to, say, campus networks ones?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? In fact, you could argue that it's even more
Speaker 2: impactful in those environments. Yeah, campus networks they can be massive, right,
Speaker 2: hundreds even thousands of devices. That's where Cisco's apic EM
Speaker 2: comes in.
Speaker 1: Apic EM as in Application Policy, Infrastructure, Controller and Prize Module.
Speaker 2: You got it.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a mouthful.
Speaker 2: I hear you. But the name's a mouthful, The functionality's
Speaker 2: even better, trust me. Remember that example in the book
Speaker 2: about configuring QoS quality of service on a really large network, Yeah.
Speaker 1: The one where doing it manually would take like a
Speaker 1: whole team of engineers a week.
Speaker 2: Exactly, with a bic EM, you can automate that entire thing,
Speaker 2: set your QoS policies across the whole network just a
Speaker 2: few clicks, Boom done.
Speaker 1: I bet that saves a ton of headaches too. So
Speaker 1: how does it work? What's the magic behind epic em.
Speaker 2: It's all about centralized control. Epic EM. It's like the
Speaker 2: brain of your network. It sees everything, all your device is,
Speaker 2: all your settings all in one place.
Speaker 1: So no more logging into each device one by one
Speaker 1: like it's the Stone Age or something exactly.
Speaker 2: And get this. Apic em is built on open APIs
Speaker 2: just like the NEXTUS nine thousand. It plays well with others,
Speaker 2: third party tools, systems, you name it.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we're talking about a flexible system here, not
Speaker 1: just locked into Cisco Land. But what about the wham.
Speaker 1: We've covered data centers, campus networks, but the land seems
Speaker 1: like could be even trickier with the old school ways.
Speaker 2: You're not wrong. Wands can be a real pain, especially
Speaker 2: now with cloud apps everywhere. Everyone needs their connection to
Speaker 2: be rock solid. That's where Cisco's intelligent one comes in.
Speaker 1: I won for sure, I wan another acronym. Is starting
Speaker 1: to think these Cisco folks just love them. But what
Speaker 1: makes it so intelligent? Fill me in?
Speaker 2: Okay, imagine this. You're driving right and you've got different
Speaker 2: routes to your destination. Do you always take the exact
Speaker 2: same one.
Speaker 1: Not if I can help it. Traffic accidents got to
Speaker 1: mix it up sometimes exactly.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you want the fastest routes, sometimes the most scenic.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just want to avoid the tolls. Right, depends
Speaker 2: on your priorities.
Speaker 1: Okay, so is I like the GPS for your network
Speaker 1: traffic or what.
Speaker 2: You got it? It's always checking out all the available
Speaker 2: WAN links in PLS, Internet, you name it, and it
Speaker 2: routes traffic based on what's needed. Maybe an app needs
Speaker 2: top speed, maybe you need to keep cast down. I
Speaker 2: one figures it out.
Speaker 1: So let me get this straight. I WAN can prioritize
Speaker 1: traffic for say, like a big video conference, make sure
Speaker 1: that goes smoothly, even if someone's downloading a massive file
Speaker 1: at the same time.
Speaker 2: Precisely, it's about making the most of what you got,
Speaker 2: making sure everyone have the best possible experience, even when
Speaker 2: things get crazy.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's pretty slick. So we've got apic M automating
Speaker 1: the campus, i WAN acting like a traffic cop for
Speaker 1: the one. What I'm seeing is this isn't just about
Speaker 1: making our lives easier as network engineers. It's about letting
Speaker 1: businesses actually do more be more responsive in this whole digital.
Speaker 2: World one hundred percent. And it's bigger than just Cisco too.
Speaker 2: There's this whole world of open source tools, technologies, all
Speaker 2: built on these same principles.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right. We've been Cisco heavy so far,
Speaker 1: but we can't ignore the open source world for sure.
Speaker 2: And this is where things get really interesting. Open standards,
Speaker 2: open source tools. They're making network programmability accessible to everyone,
Speaker 2: not just the big players.
Speaker 1: So you're telling me, and if you're not a Cisco shop,
Speaker 1: you can still get in on this.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. We've talked a lot about what Cisco's doing, which
Speaker 2: is huge, but network programmability it's bigger than any one company.
Speaker 2: It's a movement.
Speaker 1: I love it. So let's talk open source. Then. What
Speaker 1: are some of the big names the tools our listeners
Speaker 1: should know about.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we're ditching the big brand names from a minute,
Speaker 2: heading into the open source world. What's out there? Give
Speaker 2: us the highlights.
Speaker 1: One name you'll hear everywhere is Yang And no it's
Speaker 1: not some hip new band.
Speaker 2: Oh that would be pretty cool, right.
Speaker 1: But Yang it stands for yet another next generation and
Speaker 1: it's all about creating one language for network devices to speak.
Speaker 2: Yet another next generation. Someone was having fun with that one. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but okay, why is a common language so important. We're
Speaker 2: talking about networks here, not the un Think about it.
Speaker 1: You've got all these different companies, right, Cisco, Juniper, whoever.
Speaker 1: Each one's got their own way of doing things, configuring devices,
Speaker 1: managing them. It's like a tower of Babbel Yang. It's
Speaker 1: like the universal translator.
Speaker 2: So I could use the same tools, same scripts to
Speaker 2: manage like a Cisco switch and a Juniper Rider. No problem,
Speaker 2: you got it.
Speaker 1: It's about breaking down those walls, making it easier to
Speaker 1: manage a network that's got a little bit of everything. Okay,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Let's headache for everyone. But Yang's just
Speaker 1: part of the picture, right Right.
Speaker 2: You've also got net conf, which is how we actually
Speaker 2: talk to those devices using the Yang model.
Speaker 1: So Yang's like the blueprint net con and f's the
Speaker 1: construction crew making it happen.
Speaker 2: Perfect analogy, nailed it.
Speaker 1: Okay, what about actual tools? Anything open source that uses
Speaker 1: this stuff?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, tons. One example is CONFD, developed by this
Speaker 2: company tailhaf Systems before Cisco scooped them up.
Speaker 1: Wait, Cisco bought a company making open source stuff interesting?
Speaker 2: It is shows you how important this whole movement is becoming.
Speaker 2: Even the big guys are paying attention for sure.
Speaker 1: So back to CONFD. What is it? What's the deal?
Speaker 2: It's a platform let you build your own network management apps,
Speaker 2: custom made for what you need. Provides all the p
Speaker 2: you just put them together like.
Speaker 1: A Lego set for a network engineers.
Speaker 2: Basically, you get to be creative.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You mentioned another one earlier, Open Daylight. What's that all about?
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a big one. Open Daylight. It's a whole
Speaker 2: operating system for your network, open source, totally modular.
Speaker 1: So if con off D's like the Lego set, open
Speaker 1: Daylight is more like, I don't know, building a whole house.
Speaker 2: From scratch exactly. It's a huge community effort, lots of
Speaker 2: people working on it, adding new features, making it better
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 1: That's awesome, real community spirit right there.
Speaker 2: Okay, last one I got asked about ansable. It's everywhere
Speaker 2: in the automation world. Does it have a place in
Speaker 2: network programmability?
Speaker 1: To one hundred percent? Ansable is amazing for automating all
Speaker 1: sorts of it stuff, including networks, and it's.
Speaker 2: Known for being pretty user friendly. Right even if you're
Speaker 2: not a coding list totally.
Speaker 1: You write your automation tasks in this really simple language,
Speaker 1: easy to read, easy to understand.
Speaker 2: That's great for people just starting out, definitely less intimidating.
Speaker 2: So just to recap, we've got conf d for CUSS,
Speaker 2: some tools Open Daylight for building network operating systems from
Speaker 2: the ground up, and answable for like everyday automation task
Speaker 2: is made.
Speaker 1: Easy exactly, And I think that's a really important point.
Speaker 1: Network programmability. It's not a one size fits all thing.
Speaker 1: You've got choices. The key is figuring out what works
Speaker 1: best for you for your network. Couldn't agree more. It's
Speaker 1: easy to get overwhelmed by all the options, but like
Speaker 1: you said, it's about finding the right tool for the
Speaker 1: job it is.
Speaker 2: Think of it like I don't know, learning a new language.
Speaker 2: You don't need to know every word, every grammar rule. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you just got to start talk and start using it.
Speaker 1: I love that analogy, And on that note, I think
Speaker 1: it's time to wrap up this deep dive. We've covered
Speaker 1: a ton the why, the how, the tools, the whole
Speaker 1: nine yards. But before we go, any final thoughts for
Speaker 1: our listeners, just this.
Speaker 2: Network programmability it's not going away. This isn't just a trend.
Speaker 2: It's the future, plain and simple.
Speaker 1: So whether you're all in on the code or just
Speaker 1: dipping your toes in, now's the time to get on board.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the network's changing and we get to be right
Speaker 2: there shaping it, making it better.
Speaker 1: How cool is that could have said it better myself.
Speaker 1: That's a wrap on this deep dive into network programmability.
Speaker 1: We've got more exciting stuff coming up, so stay tuned
Speaker 1: until then, Happy networking everyone,