Cisco pyATS Network Test and Automation Solution: Data-driven and reusable testing for modern networks Early Release

John Capobianco has a dynamic and multifaceted career in IT and networking, marked by significant contributions to both the public and private sectors. Beginning his journey in the field as an aluminum factory worker, Capobianco’s resilience and dedication propelled him through college, earning a diploma as a Computer Programmer Analyst from St. Lawrence College. This initial phase set the foundation for a career underpinned by continuous learning and achievement, evident from his array of certifications, including multiple Cisco certifications as well as Microsoft certification.

Transitioning from his early educational accomplishments, Capobianco’s professional life has spanned over two decades, featuring roles that showcased his technical prowess and strategic vision. His work has significantly impacted both the public and private sectors, including notable positions at the Parliament of Canada, where he served as a Senior IT Planner and Integrator, and at Cisco, where he began as a Developer Advocate. These roles have been instrumental in shaping his perspective on network management and security, leading to his recent advancement into a Technical Leader role in Artificial Intelligence for Cisco Secure, reflecting his commitment to integrating AI technologies for enhancing network security solutions.

In addition to his professional and technical achievements, Capobianco is also an accomplished author. His book Automate Your Network: Introducing the Modern Approach to Enterprise Network Management, published in March 2019, encapsulates his philosophy toward leveraging automation for efficient and effective network management. He is dedicated to lifelong learning and professional development, supported by a solid foundation in education and a broad spectrum of certifications, and now aims to share his knowledge with others through this book, YouTube videos, and blogs. John can be found on X using @john_capobianco.

Dan Wade is a Network and Infrastructure Automation Practice Lead at BlueAlly. As part of the Solutions Strategy team at BlueAlly, he is responsible for developing network and infrastructure automation solutions and enabling the sales and consulting teams on delivery of the developed solutions. Solutions may include infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, network source of truth, network observability, and, of course, automated testing and validation. Previous to this role, Dan worked as a consulting engineer with a focus on network automation.

Dan has more than seven years of experience in network automation, having worked with automation tooling and frameworks such as Ansible and Terraform, and Python libraries, including Nornir, Netmiko, NAPALM, Scrapli, and Python SDKs. Dan has been working with pyATS and the pyATS library (Genie) for the past four to five years, which has inspired him to embrace automated network testing. In 2021, Dan contributed to the genieparser library with a new IOS XE parser. He also enjoys creating his own open-source projects focused on network automation. Dan holds two professional-level certifications from Cisco: Cisco DevNet Professional and CCNP Enterprise. He is also a member of the Cisco DevNet 500 and Cisco Champions program.

Dan enjoys sharing knowledge and experience on social media with blog posts and YouTube videos as well as participating in podcast episodes. He’s passionate about helping others explore network automation and advocating how network automation can empower, not replace, network engineers. You can find him on social media @devnetdan.