February 2026 – Month of Good Connections

[ad_1] Embracing connectivity, automation, and innovation throughout distributors.

February is the month of affection and friendship. At Cisco DevNet, we used that spirit as inspiration to have a good time one thing we care deeply about: constructing significant connections throughout the networking ecosystem. The Month of Good Connections marketing campaign explored how automation and programmability can carry completely different distributors collectively by way of open requirements, shared tooling, and sensible workflows.

Throughout 4 movies, every paired with its personal code repository, we showcased vendor-agnostic approaches to community automation. From scripting fundamentals to agentic AI workflows, the Month of Good Connections delivered sensible concepts that will help you begin or strengthen your multi-vendor automation journey.

Episode 1: Loving All Distributors Good relationships begin when everybody agrees on tips on how to speak to one another.

On this episode, we launched tips on how to use Cisco Crosswork Community Companies Orchestrator (NSO) to drag and commit configurations throughout multi-vendor environments. One RESTCONF API, zero vendor drama. We additionally demonstrated two light-weight GitHub Copilot brokers designed that will help you uncover the proper configuration URIs primarily based on the Community Component Driver (NED) of your chosen platform.

Automation works finest when instruments converse a typical language. Typically the strongest connections come from studying tips on how to collaborate past acquainted boundaries.

Episode 2: Select Your Love Language There are various methods to specific your affection for automation.

On this episode, we explored three approaches: Python scripting, Ansible playbooks, and CI/CD pipelines. Whereas every workflow has its personal fashion, they share the identical basis: OpenConfig as a vendor-agnostic knowledge mannequin and gNMI because the protocol that enhances it finest.

Regardless of which toolchain you favor, open requirements permit consistency throughout environments and groups. The message is easy: your workflow might be private, however your basis needs to be common.

Episode 3: Belief Points Automation solely works when you belief what it does.

On this episode, we explored the open-source Robotic Framework and expanded it right into a vendor-agnostic testing framework tailor-made for networking. By creating customized Python key phrases and leveraging the OpenConfig and gNMI mixture as soon as once more, we demonstrated how automated validation can turn out to be a pure a part of community operations.

Testing transforms automation from experimentation into reliability. Belief just isn't assumed in automation. It's repeatedly verified.

Episode 4: Intentions Matter The most effective connections flip conversations into outcomes.

Within the ultimate episode, we constructed an AI agent to allow ChatOps for on a regular basis multi-vendor networking duties. Utilizing the open-source platform LibreChat and a rigorously designed agent persona, we built-in a number of Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP) servers orchestrated by way of a single Docker Compose deployment: the pyATS group MCP server alongside official integrations for NetBox, GitHub, and Draw.io.

By means of a single chat interface, we synchronized inventories utilizing NetBox and the netbox-secrets plugin for credentials, executed system audits, generated stories dedicated to GitHub, opened points routinely, validated and deployed configurations with built-in safeguards, and rendered community diagrams on demand.

The Month of Good Connections was in the end about displaying that fashionable community automation just isn't outlined by distributors, however by interoperability, openness, and shared practices. By combining open requirements, automation frameworks, testing methodologies, and AI-driven workflows, this sequence demonstrated how groups can construct networks that collaborate as successfully because the individuals who function them. Sturdy automation methods, like robust relationships, are constructed over time by way of consistency, belief, and significant connections.