The Network Automation Map - Navigate Your Journey with the NAF Automation Framework

Learn to build trustworthy network automation using the NAF Automation Framework in this 48-minute conference talk from NANOG. Discover a practical, engineer-friendly approach to moving beyond ad-hoc scripts and brittle workflows through a modular reference architecture designed by practitioners. Explore the framework's six core building blocks—Intent, Observability, Collector, Executor, Orchestrator, and Presentation—and understand the key characteristics that make them reliable, predictable, and scalable in real-world environments. Master essential automation best practices including declarative design, idempotent execution, diff-based workflows, version-controlled changes, safe failure handling, and human-friendly interfaces. Gain a shared mental model and common lexicon that helps teams align on concepts, compare architectures, and collaborate more effectively across tools, vendors, and organizational boundaries. Walk away with clearer language, stronger architectural intuition, and practical patterns to accelerate automation efforts in your own network environments. Presented by Damien Garros, co-founder and CEO of OpsMill with over 10 years in automation community leadership, and Wim Henderickx, CTO IP Division at Nokia with over 30 years of networking industry experience.