We’ve been talking about Network Automation for a long time: 15 years or longer. Yet, it’s just not taking off like we thought it would. NAF aims to answer the question: Why is this?

NETWORK AUTOmaTION FORUM

WHat IS NAF?

The Network Automation Forum (NAF) is exactly that, a forum for discussion - a salon if you will. We’re here to bring together engineers, architects, developers and others from enterprises, service providers, the public sector, consultants, and vendors to discuss what’s next for networking.

At NAF, we believe that what’s next for networking includes plenty of automation, orchestration, and observability. And we think that creating dedicated events, reports, webinars, articles, videos, best practices, and other content and conversation will help the community discover, design, develop, deploy, and operate these more software enhanced and autonomous networks.

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  • Bring all key stakeholders together to assess the true state of network automation; what’s working, what’s not, and what we can all do to advance modern networking practices

  • Address business case issues; our focus is on technical content, but we’ll spend some explicit energy on investigating the business attenuators for the adoption of automation

  • Research how we can all leverage emerging AI/ML tools to accelerate the adoption of network automation, and perhaps even promote the "next wave" of automation

  • Learn from each other and promote more sharing of info and solutions, perhaps building more formal community structures

CURRENT OBJECTIVES

WHAT’S NEXT?

We started in 2023 with AutoCon 0, an in-person event in Denver, CO, USA. It was a foundational moment for a community working together to advance the state of automated network operations.

Now we’re working hard to grow AutoCon into a recurring series of practitioner focused events. In 2025 we have two more planned:

We’re also looking for other ways to advance our shared mission, join our Slack to participate and our mailing list for updates!

Stay In Touch

Sign up for our mailing list to stay informed and updated on the state of network automation, along with relevant NAF announcements.