Skip to main content

Network Automation Enables DevOps Programmability

Shamus McGillicuddy

Nearly 97% of DevOps teams are integrating their orchestration solutions with network automation tools, according to new research from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

EMA recently published The Future of Data Center Network Automation, a report based on a survey of 359 enterprises and services providers. The survey explored technology strategies and challenges for automating data center networks.

Integration between data center network automation tools and DevOps tools are nearly universal, but the depth of that integration varies. More than 50% of companies have or plan to have only loose integration between NetOps and DevOps automation, meaning that many NetOps teams are limiting the extent of network programmability that they offer to DevOps.

This conservative approach may mitigate risk, but it could be shortsighted. DevOps groups require agility to achieve their goals. When network engineers limit network programmability, they will inevitably have to respond to a larger number of change tickets from DevOps, leading to human latency in overall operations. Network engineers may maintain more control over how the network operates, but it comes at the expense of agility.

More than 46% of networks teams have or plan to implement tight integration between NetOps and DevOps automation, meaning that they are going to allow DevOps to program most or all aspects of their data center networks. This approach is most popular with best-in-class data center network automation strategies, suggesting that it is a best practice.

Network Automation Strategies are Cloud and DevOps Centric

The typical data center network automation strategy is multi-tool. More than 48% of network teams use two tools for network automation, and 45% use three or more. Quite often, DevOps tools are part of the picture, not just something to be integrated with. More than 42% of network teams use DevOps automation or infrastructure-as-code tools as one of their network automation solutions. DevOps tools are most popular as a network automation solution in companies that have many data centers (11 or more).

Beyond DevOps integration, EMA research found that most companies are thinking about how their data center network automation tools fit into their overall hybrid cloud architecture. Nearly 78% of companies require that their data center network automation tools be extensible to public cloud environments, thus allowing the orchestration of network automation across both data centers and clouds. This requirement is more common among best-in-class companies, against suggesting that it is a best practice.

"The push toward the cloud is one thing that is driving our [data center] network automation," a network automation engineer with a $3 billion retailer told EMA. "With day-to-day operations, we want to be able to provide our new cloud applications with access to resources that are sitting in a data center."

EMA's research is clear. As network engineering teams formulate a plan for data center network automation, DevOps and cloud will be a major factor. If you have a DevOps team, you must be prepared to integrate your network automation solutions with the DevOps toolset. You should also consider how your network automation strategy will be extensible to public cloud environments. And DevOps tools may offer solutions to some of your network automation requirements.

The Latest

AI is becoming the operating system of the enterprise. It acts as an invisible coordination layer that understands intent, connects systems, and executes work across complex SaaS environments. Previously, employees had to click through multiple systems — CRM, ERP, support tools, collaboration platforms — to complete a single task. Now, instead of navigating each application manually, they can simply state what they need to accomplish ...

In 2026, the cost of downtime or an outage is no longer just a technical inconvenience; it's a $600 billion wake up call for global businesses. As our digital ecosystems become  more interconnected, each touchpoint introduces new risks and multiplies the consequences when things go wrong. And the data is clear: aggregate downtime costs  for Global 2,000 companies have surged 50% since 2024, reaching a staggering $600 billion ...

Deloitte found that 74% of enterprises expect to deploy agentic AI solutions in the next 24 months. However, the rush to deployment is outpacing foundational work, though. Only 21% of enterprises have fully formed agent governance models in place. The result? AI agents deployed without guidance or governance begin to function as fragmented islands of complexity ...

Cloud spending is no longer viewed as a passthrough IT expense, but as a strategic financial lever that directly impacts innovation capacity, profitability and enterprise resilience, according to the CFO Cloud Cost Optimization Report from Azul ...

As AI moves from generating responses to performing actions, the need for trust increases exponentially. And as organizations enlist AI agents for increasingly sophisticated business processes, trust is going to be the single most important theme for spurring adoption. What can organizations do to build trustworthy AI agents? ...

I've spent a lot of time in the channel, and one thing I keep coming back to is this: a partner program is only as good as what it looks like in the field. Many programs look great on paper, but when a partner is in front of a customer navigating a complex hybrid environment or trying to make the case for AI-powered observability, the gap between what a vendor promises and what it actually delivers becomes very clear, very fast ...

Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

For decades, trust in the digital workplace rested on familiar signals. We trusted faces on video calls, voices on the phone, and emails that appeared to come from people we knew. These cues felt human and intuitive. They anchored how decisions were made, approvals were granted, and access was authorized. AI-powered deepfakes have quietly broken that model ...

Cloud migration was supposed to be a one-way door. For most enterprises, it turns out it isn't. Cloud data repatriation is a real and growing trend. A new survey ... finds that 89% of organizations plan to expand their on-premises infrastructure footprint over the next two years — and 75% have already moved at least some workloads back from public cloud in the past 24 months. The findings point to a broad rethinking of where data belongs ...

Over the past few years, large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized the software industry. Given their ability to excel at multi-step reasoning, LLMs have helped enterprises streamline workflows and adapt to the unknown. However, employing such models comes with sky-high costs, latency issues, and limited flexibility. In the realm of IT operations, it is generally wiser to employ smaller, domain-specific models instead ...

Network Automation Enables DevOps Programmability

Shamus McGillicuddy

Nearly 97% of DevOps teams are integrating their orchestration solutions with network automation tools, according to new research from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

EMA recently published The Future of Data Center Network Automation, a report based on a survey of 359 enterprises and services providers. The survey explored technology strategies and challenges for automating data center networks.

Integration between data center network automation tools and DevOps tools are nearly universal, but the depth of that integration varies. More than 50% of companies have or plan to have only loose integration between NetOps and DevOps automation, meaning that many NetOps teams are limiting the extent of network programmability that they offer to DevOps.

This conservative approach may mitigate risk, but it could be shortsighted. DevOps groups require agility to achieve their goals. When network engineers limit network programmability, they will inevitably have to respond to a larger number of change tickets from DevOps, leading to human latency in overall operations. Network engineers may maintain more control over how the network operates, but it comes at the expense of agility.

More than 46% of networks teams have or plan to implement tight integration between NetOps and DevOps automation, meaning that they are going to allow DevOps to program most or all aspects of their data center networks. This approach is most popular with best-in-class data center network automation strategies, suggesting that it is a best practice.

Network Automation Strategies are Cloud and DevOps Centric

The typical data center network automation strategy is multi-tool. More than 48% of network teams use two tools for network automation, and 45% use three or more. Quite often, DevOps tools are part of the picture, not just something to be integrated with. More than 42% of network teams use DevOps automation or infrastructure-as-code tools as one of their network automation solutions. DevOps tools are most popular as a network automation solution in companies that have many data centers (11 or more).

Beyond DevOps integration, EMA research found that most companies are thinking about how their data center network automation tools fit into their overall hybrid cloud architecture. Nearly 78% of companies require that their data center network automation tools be extensible to public cloud environments, thus allowing the orchestration of network automation across both data centers and clouds. This requirement is more common among best-in-class companies, against suggesting that it is a best practice.

"The push toward the cloud is one thing that is driving our [data center] network automation," a network automation engineer with a $3 billion retailer told EMA. "With day-to-day operations, we want to be able to provide our new cloud applications with access to resources that are sitting in a data center."

EMA's research is clear. As network engineering teams formulate a plan for data center network automation, DevOps and cloud will be a major factor. If you have a DevOps team, you must be prepared to integrate your network automation solutions with the DevOps toolset. You should also consider how your network automation strategy will be extensible to public cloud environments. And DevOps tools may offer solutions to some of your network automation requirements.

The Latest

AI is becoming the operating system of the enterprise. It acts as an invisible coordination layer that understands intent, connects systems, and executes work across complex SaaS environments. Previously, employees had to click through multiple systems — CRM, ERP, support tools, collaboration platforms — to complete a single task. Now, instead of navigating each application manually, they can simply state what they need to accomplish ...

In 2026, the cost of downtime or an outage is no longer just a technical inconvenience; it's a $600 billion wake up call for global businesses. As our digital ecosystems become  more interconnected, each touchpoint introduces new risks and multiplies the consequences when things go wrong. And the data is clear: aggregate downtime costs  for Global 2,000 companies have surged 50% since 2024, reaching a staggering $600 billion ...

Deloitte found that 74% of enterprises expect to deploy agentic AI solutions in the next 24 months. However, the rush to deployment is outpacing foundational work, though. Only 21% of enterprises have fully formed agent governance models in place. The result? AI agents deployed without guidance or governance begin to function as fragmented islands of complexity ...

Cloud spending is no longer viewed as a passthrough IT expense, but as a strategic financial lever that directly impacts innovation capacity, profitability and enterprise resilience, according to the CFO Cloud Cost Optimization Report from Azul ...

As AI moves from generating responses to performing actions, the need for trust increases exponentially. And as organizations enlist AI agents for increasingly sophisticated business processes, trust is going to be the single most important theme for spurring adoption. What can organizations do to build trustworthy AI agents? ...

I've spent a lot of time in the channel, and one thing I keep coming back to is this: a partner program is only as good as what it looks like in the field. Many programs look great on paper, but when a partner is in front of a customer navigating a complex hybrid environment or trying to make the case for AI-powered observability, the gap between what a vendor promises and what it actually delivers becomes very clear, very fast ...

Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

For decades, trust in the digital workplace rested on familiar signals. We trusted faces on video calls, voices on the phone, and emails that appeared to come from people we knew. These cues felt human and intuitive. They anchored how decisions were made, approvals were granted, and access was authorized. AI-powered deepfakes have quietly broken that model ...

Cloud migration was supposed to be a one-way door. For most enterprises, it turns out it isn't. Cloud data repatriation is a real and growing trend. A new survey ... finds that 89% of organizations plan to expand their on-premises infrastructure footprint over the next two years — and 75% have already moved at least some workloads back from public cloud in the past 24 months. The findings point to a broad rethinking of where data belongs ...

Over the past few years, large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized the software industry. Given their ability to excel at multi-step reasoning, LLMs have helped enterprises streamline workflows and adapt to the unknown. However, employing such models comes with sky-high costs, latency issues, and limited flexibility. In the realm of IT operations, it is generally wiser to employ smaller, domain-specific models instead ...