If you have ever built or operated a real network, you already know the problem: networking is often the last part of the infrastructure that still relies on manual work, device-by-device configuration, and vendor-specific CLI syntax. While compute and storage moved towards automation and declarative management years ago, networking often lags behind.
Here are two introductions videos ...
In this post, I want to briefly introduce Netris and explain why it is interesting from the perspective of modern, automation-driven environments.
Traditional Networking Does Not Scale Well
In many enterprise and service-provider environments, network operations still look like this:
- Logging into individual switches and routers
- Manually configuring VLANs, IP addresses, and BGP sessions
- Copy-pasting configuration between devices
- Troubleshooting problems caused by configuration drift or simple human mistakes
This approach might work for small setups, but once you start dealing with virtualization platforms, multi-tenant designs, or frequent changes, it quickly becomes a bottleneck.
What Is Netris?
Netris is a network automation and abstraction platform that approaches networking in a way that should feel familiar if you already work with modern infrastructure tools. Instead of configuring devices directly, you define the desired state of the network at a higher level.
You describe things like networks, gateways, routing policies, or tenants, and Netris takes care of translating this intent into actual configuration on the underlying nodes.
Network Abstraction in Practice
The key idea behind Netris is abstraction. You no longer need to think in terms of:
- Individual VLAN IDs
- Per-device routing configuration
- Low-level firewall rules on each node
Instead, you work with logical objects such as:
- Networks and subnets
- Tenants and VRFs
- Gateways and routing behavior
- Security and traffic policies
This makes the network easier to reason about and much easier to automate.
Architecture Overview
From an architectural point of view, Netris consists of:
- A central controller that holds the desired network state and exposes an API
- Lightweight agents running on network nodes
- Integration with standard Linux networking and routing components
It can be deployed on bare metal or virtual machines and supports common data-center network designs, including routed fabrics and simpler flat topologies.
Key Capabilities
Automation First
- Automated provisioning of network nodes
- Consistent routing and policy configuration
- No more manual device-by-device changes
Multi-Tenancy
- Native tenant and VRF support
- Clean traffic isolation
- Suitable for shared infrastructures
Integrated Network Services
- Load balancing
- NAT and firewalling
- Control over north-south and east-west traffic flows
API-Driven Design
- Everything is exposed via API
- Fits well into Infrastructure-as-Code workflows
- Easy integration with orchestration and automation tools
Where Netris Fits Best
Netris makes sense wherever networking must keep pace with automation:
- Enterprise private clouds
- Service-provider platforms
- Virtualization-heavy environments
- Labs where reproducibility and consistency matter
By reducing manual work and enforcing a single source of truth, it helps avoid many of the classic networking pitfalls.
Conclusion
Netris treats networking as a system that can be described, automated, and versioned—rather than a collection of individual devices that must be configured by hand. For anyone building modern infrastructure, this approach is not just convenient, but increasingly necessary.
In future posts, I plan to look at Netris in more detail, including practical deployment scenarios and how it compares to more traditional networking approaches.
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