Automation & SDN

Network Programmability & SD-WAN

Where the CLI era gives way to APIs and controllers: the automation stack — model-driven APIs, Python and Ansible — that treats network state as structured data, and Cisco SD-WAN, the controller-based overlay that replaced box-by-box WAN routing with centrally managed policy.

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2 chapters

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updated 26 Oct 2026
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updated 26 Oct 2026

Contents

  1. 01Network Automation: APIs, Python and the Model-Driven StackNetwork automation replaces per-box CLI sessions with programmatic interfaces: REST APIs and NETCONF/RESTCONF expose configuration and state as structured JSON or XML modelled in YANG, consumed from Python (requests, netmiko, ncclient) or declaratively through Ansible. The payoff is consistency at scale — intended state defined once, pushed everywhere, verified continuously.
  2. 02Cisco SD-WAN Architecture: vManage, vSmart and OMPCisco SD-WAN (Viptela) separates the WAN into four planes: vManage for management, vBond for zero-trust orchestration and device onboarding, vSmart controllers running OMP to distribute routes and policy, and WAN edge routers forwarding over IPsec tunnels across any transport. OMP advertises reachability, TLOCs and policy between edges and controllers, letting application-aware policy choose paths per traffic class instead of per destination.

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