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Itential highlights challenges of homegrown automation in networks

16th article in the last 90 days, one of 16 articles referencing Itential. Previous coverage: Huawei 5G-A, enterprise automation, and security updates - Week of June 30, 2025 (Jun 2025).

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Itential's recent report highlights that many enterprises rely heavily on homegrown automation scripts, leading to challenges in network management. This trend, which sees 64% of companies using custom scripts, raises concerns about efficiency and oversight for IT teams tasked with maintaining these tools.

Product Update

The report indicates that 61% of network teams invest over six hours weekly managing these scripts. This time could otherwise enhance operational efficiency or explore more productive tasks.

Technology Strategy

Network engineers are encouraged to develop bespoke solutions using free open-source tools like Python and Ansible. While these tools provide flexibility and immediate problem-solving capabilities, they can also lead to complexity as the number of scripts increases.

Security & Compliance

The EMA report outlines security risks associated with unmanaged scripts. As organizations scale, maintaining control and security becomes paramount to prevent operational risks related to script proliferation.

Customer Use Case

Armstrong World Industries serves as a case study, illustrating the integration of their existing automation into Itential's platform. This adaptation resulted in significant operational savings while equipping their team to manage requests more effectively.

Leadership Perspective

Itential addresses common leadership barriers to adopting automation tools, specifically budget constraints and perceived value. The platform's ability to track efficiency gains and enhance security with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) supports a stronger business case for automation investments.

In conclusion, the insights gathered from Itential’s blog provide clarity on managing homegrown automation efforts. The report outlines prominent challenges and how leveraging structured platforms can enhance operational capabilities while ensuring security and efficiency. This summary reflects a timely, fact-based overview of the original blog post.

Blog post, originally published by Itential at itential.com. The publisher has since removed that page — its address was https://www.itential.com/blog/netdevops/taming-the-frankensteins-monster-of-network-automation/.

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