--- title: Simplify and Standardize Mantra Encounters Reality «... description: A networking engineer's anonymous account challenges the common advice to simplify and standardize before automating networks. While the principle is sound,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/simplify-and-standardize-mantra-encounters-reality-ipspace-net-blog-bdkiasuqx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Simplify and Standardize Mantra Encounters Reality « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: A networking engineer's anonymous account challenges the common advice to simplify and standardize before automating networks. While the principle is sound,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/simplify-and-standardize-mantra-encounters-reality-ipspace-net-blog-bdkiasuqx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/bDKiaSuqx.png og:image:alt: Simplify and Standardize Mantra Encounters Reality « 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. # Simplify and Standardize Mantra Encounters Reality « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A networking engineer's anonymous account challenges the common advice to simplify and standardize before automating networks. While the principle is sound, real-world enterprise environments inevitably accumulate complexity over time — budget constraints, evolving hardware requirements, one-off application needs, and vendor-imposed configurations all erode clean initial designs. The post argues that ruthless standardization has real costs too, including shadow IT and missed business opportunities, and that deep expertise and robust monitoring remain irreplaceable regardless of automation strategy. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is it hard to standardize and automate enterprise networks even when you start with a clean design? Clean initial designs degrade over time due to hardware upgrades, evolving bandwidth and TCAM demands, budget-phased rollouts, vendor-supplied equipment, and one-off application requirements. A data center built on Cisco Nexus 7k VDCs with Fabricpath, for example, started highly standardized but grew complex as fabric extenders, IP storage, and multi-year line card upgrade cycles were added — making automation progressively harder. _Network engineers navigating the gap between automation theory and messy production environments share hard-won lessons 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 - [Have less stuff](https://daily.dev/posts/have-less-stuff-llfkpnl7e) · RUBYLAND · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [From Chaos To Clarity: Simplifying Server Management With AI And Automation — Smashing Magazine](https://daily.dev/posts/from-chaos-to-clarity-simplifying-server-management-with-ai-and-automation-smashing-magazine-d0u6vdvnc) · Smashing Magazine · 0 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 - [The Viral Nature of Institutionalized Uncertainty](https://daily.dev/posts/the-viral-nature-of-institutionalized-uncertainty-i1g9tyfsx) · Jay Little · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/simplify-and-standardize-mantra-encounters-reality-ipspace-net-blog-bdkiasuqx) ```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":"Simplify and Standardize Mantra Encounters Reality « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/simplify-and-standardize-mantra-encounters-reality-ipspace-net-blog-bdkiasuqx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/simplify-and-standardize-mantra-encounters-reality-ipspace-net-blog-bdkiasuqx"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:53:17.604Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T08:57:56.303Z","description":"A networking engineer's anonymous account challenges the common advice to simplify and standardize before automating networks. 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