For those who may get 98%+ implementation and alter success 5x quicker, what number of modifications would you make to your community?
Cisco Providers as Code may help you expedite community automation – and get you prepared for the AI period.
Right here’s what you should know – in brief.
*This weblog is predicated on a Cisco Stay session delivered by Jesse Reed, VP of Buyer Expertise Product Administration, and Michael Kaemper, CTO of Buyer Expertise EMEA. You possibly can watch the total session right here.
#1
What’s the state of networks immediately?
- Roughly 80% of community issues are as a result of improper configuration and points with change administration[1], which are sometimes a results of human error.
- IT leaders are shifting away from handbook automation to API-driven environments to arrange for AI.
- Infrastructure as Code is established because the de facto methodology with the worldwide market projected to develop at a CAGR of >24% from 2025 to 2027[2].
#2
What do you should change to get AI-ready?
The AI period requires sure modifications:
- Digitize change; Go from ClickOps to DevOps: Transfer from human workflow to digital workflow. As a repeatable methodology, you may go from one structure to the following utilizing the identical toolkit.
- Leverage digital intelligence and expertise inside DevOps: Guarantee finest practices are utilized, validated designs are adopted, and all modifications are examined and documented with model management. Making use of open requirements like Terraform, OpenTofu, Ansible, and Relaxation-APIs allow you to handle your atmosphere in a common and totally digital style.
Working your infrastructure digitally is the important thing to harvesting AI capabilities – which has nonetheless to indicate its full potential.
#3
What’s Cisco Providers as Code?
This can be a huge transformation in the way in which you use your atmosphere. Cisco can assist you with Cisco Providers as Code, enabling you with these three digital capabilities:
- Infrastructure as Code: All of Cisco’s finest practices, information, and capabilities, so you may keep away from errors when defining and executing configurations.
- Enterprise Course of and Analytics: We guarantee an built-in enterprise course of is included. We provide observability and analytics so you may replicate on how your modifications have an effect on your consumer expertise or your utility efficiency.
- DevOps Toolchain: Cisco equips you with a toolchain or use yours the place accessible. It’s all open supply to work to your heterogeneous environments, not simply Cisco applied sciences.
#4
How are you going to put together the workforce for change? (AI brokers)
Engineers can now interact with the Cisco Providers as code by an AI Assistant to get assist all through all the course of:
- “Assist me perceive the configuration”: The engineer comes into an advanced topology and desires to grasp the configuration state.
- “Assist me change the configuration”: The engineer will get assist altering the configuration and creating documentation.
- “Assist me troubleshoot”: The engineer executes a pipeline with validation earlier than the change goes into manufacturing. If an error happens, the assistant creates another configuration and helps determine and perceive the foundation explanation for that situation.
*Now accessible for ACI. Quickly accessible for SD-WAN and NDFC.
#5
How are you going to obtain cross-architecture automation?
Community as Code API means that you can automate totally different architectures in the identical approach in addition to combine your corporation course of along with your ITSM, providers catalog, and many others. After you have one structure applied within the toolchain, you should utilize the identical toolkit for different architectures.
Many architectures can be found immediately, together with ACI, NDFC, SD-WAN, ISE, Firewall, Meraki, and Catalyst Heart.

#6
What do prospects say?
“We’ve got been speaking about community automation for 10 to fifteen years however hadn’t seen the increase we anticipated. For us, it was the adoption of the general public cloud that opened our eyes, and we actually noticed the chance. Infrastructure as Code can have a big influence on the way in which we function and preserve the community.”
-Jose Manuel Postigo Aguilar, Lead Community Architect, BBVA

[1] Gartner, Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking 2024, June 2024
[2] International Market Insights, Infrastructure as Code Market Measurement, December 2024
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