Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Abstract
Network automation is intended to help operators reliably manage large networks as they grow and change. In practice, however, automation systems often become difficult to reason about once standards evolve, services diverge, and production networks accumulate history.
This talk presents a practical pattern for managing that complexity using versioned services, named service types, managed features, and cascading types. Using EVPN as an example, it shows how service intent can include not only service parameters, but also the version of the automation standard used to realize them.
James Henderson:
James Henderson is an Automation Solutions Architect at Ductus with over a decade of experience in the telecom industry. He specializes in network automation, NETCONF, YANG, and RESTful APIs. With a background as an instructor, architect, and lead developer, James brings a passion for optimizing network design changes and enforcing rigorous testing systems.
nanog.org/events/nanog-97/content/5673
Abstract
Network automation is intended to help operators reliably manage large networks as they grow and change. In practice, however, automation systems often become difficult to reason about once standards evolve, services diverge, and production networks accumulate history.
This talk presents a practical pattern for managing that complexity using versioned services, named service types, managed features, and cascading types. Using EVPN as an example, it shows how service intent can include not only service parameters, but also the version of the automation standard used to realize them.
James Henderson:
James Henderson is an Automation Solutions Architect at Ductus with over a decade of experience in the telecom industry. He specializes in network automation, NETCONF, YANG, and RESTful APIs. With a background as an instructor, architect, and lead developer, James brings a passion for optimizing network design changes and enforcing rigorous testing systems.
nanog.org/events/nanog-97/content/5673
