Automating the modern network: A Q1 network automation recap

Automating the modern network: A Q1 network automation recap Events Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform updates Advanced routing and interface management FIPS compliance Partner updates F5 Palo Alto Arista Cisco Cisco Intersight Cisco Catalyst Center: The power of choice Cisco Meraki: Visibility and indirect node counting Splunk and Ansible Automation Platform: Security at scale Looking ahead Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform | Product Trial About the author Elle Universal More like this Take your automation to the next level with Ansible Content Collections for Windows, Splunk, AIOps, MCP, and more End of Maintenance Support for Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 Technically Speaking | Taming AI agents with observability You Can’t Automate Collaboration | Code Comments Keep exploring Browse by channel Automation Artificial intelligence Open hybrid cloud Security Edge computing Infrastructure Applications Virtualization Share As the first quarter of 2026 comes to a close, we have seen a shift in the role of network automation. It's no longer a "nice to have" and instead is a critical support for AI-driven workloads, edge computing, and hybrid cloud environments. For network operations (NetOps) teams, there has been a transition from managing individual devices to orchestrating entire service delivery frameworks. The momentum we've seen this past quarter highlights that Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is the standard trusted execution layer for this transformation. Organizations are moving away from isolated team structures and high-risk manual changes, and instead embracing a unified Infrastructure as Code strategy to ensure that the network is an accelerator for the business and not a bottleneck. Let's take a look back at some of the major milestones from the past three months. Ansible Automation Platform experts traveled to Cisco Live in Amsterdam in early February, providing valuable learning and best-practice sharing opportunities. Over four days at the event, the team ran 32 labs, covering topics from network automation fundamentals to integrating Event-Driven Ansible into existing network automation workflows. The event was a success, allowing the Red Hat Ansible team to connect with and empower users globally. To learn more about Red Hat's participation, visit the event page. Our team also had the opportunity to collaborate with two of our partners for webinars that covered our joint solutions. In case you missed either of them, you can watch the recordings: Automate your network modernization with Red Hat and F5 Automating network policies with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Firewalls There have been some exciting updates to Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform lately, including improvements to routing, interface management, and features for FIPS compliance.