E56 - Federico Oliveri at Network to Code

On our 56th episode of The Route to Networking podcast, our Director James Dean was joined by Federico Olivieri, a Network Automation Engineer at Network to Code. During the episode, they discuss all things Automation. Federico shares his advice to Network Engineers on how they can transition into Automation.

When Federico was 18 years old, he didn’t have a career path set out in front of him. It was only when his dad said to him that he needed to start looking for a career path, that Federico started to take it seriously. Federico was naturally drawn to technology. But when he looked around for a career path there was only one problem: there were very few opportunities in his hometown in Italy. He ended up getting a job as a Service Provider which is where his journey into the Networking industry began. He realised soon after that the certification route would be the best option to help him, so he got his head in the books and studied.

Certifications were the chosen path for Federico and have got him to where he is today. They helped him move around and gave him that stepping stone in knowing what to expect when he went into different job roles. Although he has now become more particular about which certification he takes. He was studying for a certain certification that was too vendor specific. At that point, he started to look at what certs he was taking and looked more into certs that gave him at least 70% of basic knowledge that he could use for a wide range of things across Networking. He suggests to anyone looking to start the certification track to look into taking ones that are broad.

Network automation is a way to simplify deployment, improve reliability and increase efficiency. With that being said, he chose to take the Automation route because he describes himself as lazy, automation and laziness go hand in hand, right? With all jokes aside, there was a time in his career after doing his CCNP, he thought, what next? CCIE or Automation? He started studying for his CCIE but realised shortly after it was not the route for him and instead went down the Automation route.

With the rapid development of the Internet, network automation has become increasingly important. At the moment there is an expectation for Network Engineers to do Automation but as the industry develops there will be a huge rise in Network Automation specific roles. If you are considering stepping into Automation, you will need to understand the most common tools required, mostly Ansible and Python.

More on Network to Code…

Network to Code is a worldwide leading company for Automation. They are a network automation solution provider helping clients eliminate manual inefficiencies and operations costs while helping IT teams deliver services faster resulting in quicker time to market, faster recognition of revenue, and increased customer satisfaction.

Federico is currently collaborating with the customer to do a series of things such as Project Management and trying to learn more about that side. He is constantly needing to keep up to date with changes to provide the correct service to his customers.

Have you ever had a networking disaster? Federico shares his and it involves a huge project his boss asked him to do. Make sure you tune in now to hear it!