--- title: Repost: What's Wrong with Network Automation «... description: Deepak Arora's observations on why network automation has failed to gain widespread adoption in enterprise environments are reposted and discussed. Key... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/repost-what-s-wrong-with-network-automation-ipspace-net-blog-aml3tnub4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Repost: What's Wrong with Network Automation « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: Deepak Arora's observations on why network automation has failed to gain widespread adoption in enterprise environments are reposted and discussed. Key... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/repost-what-s-wrong-with-network-automation-ipspace-net-blog-aml3tnub4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/aML3Tnub4.png og:image:alt: Repost: What's Wrong with Network Automation « ipSpace.net blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Repost: What's Wrong with Network Automation « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Deepak Arora's observations on why network automation has failed to gain widespread adoption in enterprise environments are reposted and discussed. Key challenges include: roughly 80% of network infrastructure still managed manually, automation engineers unable to make a business case to management, most practitioners reducing automation to just tool names like Python/Ansible/Terraform, and almost nobody treating automation as an architectural discipline rather than a tactical fix. The discussion in comments adds nuance — automation imposes rules that conflict with the customization-heavy reality of networking, and the sheer variety of edge cases in real networks makes rule-based automation inherently difficult. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why has network automation failed to gain widespread adoption despite years of effort? Roughly 80% of network infrastructure is still deployed and managed manually. Key barriers include automation engineers being unable to make a business case to management, practitioners conflating automation with specific tools (Python, Ansible, Terraform) rather than treating it as an architectural discipline, and the fundamental tension between automation's rule-based nature and the high degree of customization that real-world networks require — with some large private clouds reporting over 50% of transport services needing custom configuration. _Network engineers navigating the same adoption barriers find the ongoing debate on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why “automated” infrastructure might cost more than you think](https://daily.dev/posts/why-automated-infrastructure-might-cost-more-than-you-think-xpwhatayr) · The New Stack · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Cisco at AutoCon 4: AI, Automation, and the Human Side of ‘Ops’](https://daily.dev/posts/cisco-at-autocon-4-ai-automation-and-the-human-side-of-ops--0uocrrvpa) · Cisco · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [DevOps Automation Examples That Saved Time, Money, and Production Headaches](https://daily.dev/posts/devops-automation-examples-that-saved-time-money-and-production-headaches-2mpjl0fgo) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why networks face new limits in the age of AI](https://daily.dev/posts/why-networks-face-new-limits-in-the-age-of-ai-jlgrnpsg4) · Cisco · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking), [#iac](https://daily.dev/tags/iac), [#ansible](https://daily.dev/tags/ansible) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/repost-what-s-wrong-with-network-automation-ipspace-net-blog-aml3tnub4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Repost: What's Wrong with Network Automation « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/repost-what-s-wrong-with-network-automation-ipspace-net-blog-aml3tnub4","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/repost-what-s-wrong-with-network-automation-ipspace-net-blog-aml3tnub4"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:52:41.064Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:42:47.291Z","description":"Deepak Arora's observations on why network automation has failed to gain widespread adoption in enterprise environments are reposted and discussed. 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Key barriers include automation engineers being unable to make a business case to management, practitioners conflating automation with specific tools (Python, Ansible, Terraform) rather than treating it as an architectural discipline, and the fundamental tension between automation's rule-based nature and the high degree of customization that real-world networks require — with some large private clouds reporting over 50% of transport services needing custom configuration. Network engineers navigating the same adoption barriers find the ongoing debate on daily.dev."}}]} ```