One of my readers wondered whether it makes sense to attend my Building Network Automation Solution course even if they plan to deploy a $Vendor platform.

It depends, this time on how fast and how far you want to proceed with network automation. You could rely exclusively on a vendor-supplied platform, or build your own components when:

• You need a multi-vendor solution;
• You need functionality beyond what the $vendor provides;
• You have to do simple things that the $Vendor product cannot do;
• The humongous $Vendor platform is an overkill or way to expensive.

Also keep in mind that if you're buying a fixed functionality product you're limited to what it can do, if you're buying a platform (example: Cisco NSO) you'll have to do loads of customizations anyway.

If any of the above applies to your situation, then you might benefit from my Network Automation Online Course – register now.

I’m looking forward to spending some quality automation time with you in January 2017!