What are the most useful NetDevOps Tools in 2023?

NetDevOps and associated network automation are constantly evolving fields, and as such, have what seems like a never-ending number of cool-named tools, frameworks and libraries available to simplify your NetOps life. We’ve curated a few of our favourites, which we hope will enhance your journey towards NetDevOps. As always, let us know what you think of these, or if we can help you in your NetDevOps journey. 

Our top picks for the most useful NetDevOps tools in 2023

Network automation tools are essential for IT teams to execute complex tasks, including network configuration, security and cost-efficient operations. Here’s our pick of what we consider to be the most useful tools in 2023: 

• Terraform 

• netlab 

• Batfish 

• Cisco YANG Suite 

• Git 

Terraform 

Terraform is an automation and orchestration tool that is capable of building cloud, network and IT infrastructure based on input in HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language), which act as IaC (Infrastructure as Code) artefacts. Terraform is highly flexible and provides modules and providers for nearly every network and cloud vendor and technology going within the Terraform Registry. 

netlab 

netlab is a network lab and emulation tool that is capable of taking IaC input definitions of a given network lab topology (such as YAML) and having an emulated lab of network device VM, containers and topologies to play with and perform learning or “what if?” scenarios upon. 

Batfish 

Batfish is a network configuration analysis tool that is highly useful in performing “what if?” scenarios and supplying rapid ability to pre– and post-test network changes to ensure the desired state is achieved. 

Cisco YANG Suite 

Cisco YANG Suite is a learning and development suite which provides a web-based user interface to interact with an opinionated set of tools and plugins. It enables you to learn, test and adopt YANG network model programmable interfaces such as NETCONF, RESTCONF and gNMI others. 

Git 

Git is the de facto version control system, allowing for IaC, network configuration and network automation scripts and code to be stored in a consistent but distributed manner. It also supports collaboration on modifications of these to be shared between teams of network and automation engineers without file blocking or version management issues. 

Our honourable mentions for 2023

Although these didn’t make our opinionated cut, these are certainly worth a mention and merit some investigation to see whether they can benefit your situation at all: 

• Juniper Apstra – Intent-based networking (IBN) suite 
• Nornir – Python network automation framework 
• Ansible – Automation and orchestration suite 

How CACI can support your NetDevOps journey

Network automation tools are essential for IT teams to execute complex tasks, including network configuration, security and cost-efficient operations. These are just a few of what we consider to be the best network automation tools available in 2023, with other notable mentions including Chef, SaltStack, Jenkins and Python for Network Automation. Ultimately, however, choosing the right tool will come down to your organisation’s specific needs and requirements. 

Why not get in touch and see how we can help your business fully utilise some of these awesome tools and frameworks to accelerate your digital transformation journey.