Operators need to deploy new services in order to grow their revenue, and time to market, thus rapid network deployment, is crucial. Rapid deployment is significantly helped by automation and programmability. In this environment, the CLI is no longer the norm: since it cannot be easily used as a programmatic interface, the CLI is not suitable for automation. Network engineers have adapted to an industry where the only constant is change, by combining Development and Operations into DevOps: a practice that aims to unify software development and operations. DevOps combines programming and network administration, and allows rapid prototyping and network build, often using the Python programming language.
In order to support these requirements, in the last few years, a few emerging technologies and concepts have appeared and disrupted how network equipment is designed, and how networks are built and operated: hardware commoditization and disaggregation of software from hardware and of software itself, extensive use of open source (Linux), Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and DevOps.