Infrastructure-as-code

In a perfect world, network engineers and architects who design and manage networks should focus on what they want the network to achieve instead of the device-level interactions. But we all know the world is far from perfect. Many years ago when I worked as an intern for a second-tier ISP, wide-eyed and excited, one of my first assignments was to install a router on a customer's site to turn up their fractional frame relay link (remember those?). How would I do that? I asked. I was handed down a standard operating procedure for turning up frame relay links.

I went to the customer site, blindly typed in the commands, looked at the green lights flashing, then happily packed my bag and patted myself on the back for a job well done. As exciting as that assignment was, I did not fully understand what I was doing. I was simply following instructions without thinking about the implication of the commands I was typing in. How would I troubleshoot something...