APIs, Python, Ansible, Infrastructure as Code, and AI-assisted operations — the automation literacy that keeps a growing network consistent instead of quietly drifting apart device by device.
This module is not trying to make you a software developer. It is the layer of automation literacy every enterprise network team now expects: why structured APIs (NETCONF/RESTCONF) replaced screen-scraping the CLI, enough Python to read and adapt a real automation script, and Ansible as the tool that actually gets deployed at scale to keep hundreds of devices in a known, consistent state.
It closes with Infrastructure as Code — configuration as version-controlled, reviewed, reversible source of truth rather than tribal knowledge on a device — and an honest look at where AI-assisted tooling genuinely helps network operations today, and where an engineer's judgment still has to be the last check before a change ships.