Network Automation with David

What do we choose? Paramiko or Netmiko? When it comes to automating network devices using Python, two popular libraries often come up: Paramiko and Netmiko. Choosing between these two can be a bit of a dilemma, especially for those new to network automation. Even for experienced network engineers, choosing the right tool can still be a challenge. Making the decision between Paramiko and Netmiko can feel like a steep climb for beginners. In this post, I’ll show a few use cases and best practices to help you decide which library is the best fit for your needs and how to get started with it.

In the very beginning… Whether you are an administrator, an engineer, or an architect, the moment you are asked to automate the network, you are stepping into a new world. A world full of possibilities, but also challenges. The first question that often comes up is simple: where do I even start? For an administrator dealing with tickets and day-to-day changes, the idea of automation can feel overwhelming. For an engineer, it might immediately become a question of tools and languages. For an architect, it’s about designing a system that can scale, adapt, and remain maintainable over time.

A short introduction I started my career in IT in 2008 on a service desk. Back then, networking felt very tangible. You logged in, made a change, verified it, moved on to the next ticket. It was manual, repetitive, and for a long time, that was simply how things were done. Over the years, the scale changed. Networks grew larger, more complex, and more critical. The number of changes increased, but the time and attention available did not. That was the moment when doing things “the old way” stopped being sustainable.

My first blog post! Everything seems to be working alright, so many topics to post about. More to come soon ⚡