u/Admirable_Claim_3203

Been thinking about this after a few conversations recently.

In theory, network automation should have a clear owner. In practice it seems like it usually ends up being one of three things:

• A network engineer who picked up Python and just ran with it
• A DevOps or platform team who inherited it because "it's code"
• Nobody, and it's a pile of scripts held together by one person who's definitely leaving someday

What's interesting is how much the ownership question affects the outcome.
Curious what it actually looks like in your environment, is there a clear owner, or is it more of a grey area?

Every time I read about network automation it feels like the conversation jumps from:

“we have a few scripts”

straight to:

“full NetBox / Ansible / pipelines / GitOps setup”

however, it feels like most environments sit somewhere awkwardly in the middle for years

bits of automation, some manual work, different tools not really tied together, and documentation half there.

curious what that middle stage actually looked like for other people and what pushed you beyond it (if you ever did)

feels like most environments start simple and only move towards structured automation once things get harder to manage.

made me think, when does it actually become worth the effort?

is there a point where it clearly saves more time than it costs?