Podcasts

Packet Pushers: The Network Engineer’s Evolution – Thinking Like a Product Owner

Speakers

Peter Sprygada

Chief Architect, Itential

What We Discuss in This TNOps Podcast

- Automation vs. Orchestration – What’s the Difference?
- From Scripts to Strategy
- Building a Network Product Mindset
- Cross-Domain Orchestration
- Error Handling & Reliability
- The Next-Gen Network Engineer

Building a Product Mindset for Network Automation

Network teams everywhere are automating tasks, but too often, automation remains fragmented — engineers build scripts for isolated use cases, teams rely on siloed tools, and automation is treated as a one-off project rather than a scalable solution. To truly modernize network operations, organizations need to move beyond basic automation and adopt an orchestration mindset that delivers repeatable, self-service network services.

In this episode of Total Network Operations (TNOps), hosts Scott Robohn and Ethan Banks sit down with Itential’s Chief Architect, Peter Sprygada, to discuss why automation alone isn’t enough. They explore how leading organizations are developing a product-based approach to networking, integrating automation with IT workflows, and shifting from reactive network management to proactive service delivery.

Being a next-gen network engineer isn’t just about subnets and spanning tree anymore. That’s table stakes. Now, you need to understand automation, orchestration, APIs, Git, and pipelines to stay relevant.

Scott Robohn

Founder & Host of TNOps

Developers don’t want to pick up the phone and call a networking person to ask for infrastructure. We don’t want those calls either, right? The future is meeting at an API layer where network teams and app teams can collaborate seamlessly.

Peter Spyrgada

Chief Architect at Itential

How Itential Helps You Deliver Network Services Like a Product

Automation should do more than speed up manual tasks—it should enable a fully orchestrated, API-driven network that integrates with IT systems and empowers teams to consume networking as a service. Itential’s platform transforms automation into scalable, governed workflows that unify network, cloud, and security operations. Whether you’re standardizing automation, integrating with DevOps pipelines, or building self-service network capabilities, Itential helps you turn your network automation into a product that delivers real business value.

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