In my first blog of this two-part series, I broke down the five automation metrics and principles I rely on most to help leadership demonstrate value. This second blog builds on that thinking. In my e-book, ‘Network automation in 2026: building resilience, assurance and future-ready networks’, I explained that one of the biggest challenges that network and operations leaders face today is making every change safe.
Automation is not just about efficiency, but maintaining control within modern networks that are dynamic, distributed and tightly-connected to cloud platforms and third-party services. While automation is essential, speed without control creates risk. By unifying the three capabilities of assurance, observability and lifecycle management, it becomes possible to execute network changes in a safe and repeatable way.
Assurance: Validate before and after every change
For me, assurance is the foundation. Validate every change is safe and compliant before it goes live, then confirm it behaves as intended after deployment. Continuous validation before and after every change is now expected, helping to ensure changes are safe and compliant. Streaming telemetry and service mesh architectures provide real-time visibility, making it easier to spot issues and respond quickly
How to implement assurance:
- Define policies as code and embed them in your pipeline.
- Run intent checks to catch misconfiguration and drift early.
- Use change windows that include automated validation and safe rollback paths.
Outcome: Fewer failed releases and emergency fixes and better audit outcomes because evidence is generated as part of normal work.
Observability: Real insight from streaming telemetry
In my first blog, I covered MTTR and MTTD with the time it takes you to detect issues and restore normal service. Observability is what drives this. Move beyond static, device-centric health checks to provide continuous visibility across paths, services and users.
How to implement observability:
- Stream telemetry from network and edge assets into a common model.
- Use service mesh patterns where appropriate to trace requests end-to-end.
- Align dashboards to service objectives, not individual devices.
Outcome: Faster detection, clearer root cause and performance data that stakeholders can actually trust.
Lifecycle management: Remove tech debt as you modernise
Teams often try to automate on top of legacy risks. Lifecycle management prevents that. You plan upgrades, renewals and retirements proactively to prevent new changes from piling risk onto legacy.
How to implement lifecycle management:
- Maintain an accurate inventory and map controls to business risk.
- Standardise on reference designs that are easier to secure and support.
- Budget for renewal and decommissioning alongside new projects.
Outcome: Lower exposure, simpler operations and a platform that adapts as the business evolves.
How to implement a safe automation framework
To bring assurance, observability and lifecycle management together for safe automation, I recommend organisations consider the following best practices:
- Start with responsibility: Assign clear owners for providers and controls. Everyone should know who approves what.
- Use reference designs: Build simple patterns that map known threats to specific controls, then reuse them.
- Automate safely: Codify configuration and policy, prevent drift and escalate recovery with tested rollbacks.
- Adopt Zero Trust: Assume breach, verify access and enforce least privilege across sites and clouds.
- Strengthen monitoring: Track performance, changes, access and compliance in one place.
- Keep governance practical: Set standards that teams can follow, measure them and iterate.
What to measure
To make progress visible and defensible, you can refer back to the core metrics from my e-book and previous blog:
- Change success rate and rollback avoidance
- MTTR and MTTD
- Compliance score and drift
- Latency and packet loss against service objectives.
These metrics will help you determine whether your automation is actually making change safer.
Two quick wins for the first 30 days
If you want to quickly build momentum, I recommend:
- Pre-change validation on one high-traffic service: Add automated checks for policy compliance and performance impact, then track the effect on change success rate.
- Drift detection with weekly remediation: Choose a critical domain, enable drift alerts and close gaps to raise your compliance score.
Where SD-WAN and SASE fit
At the edge, SD-WAN and SASE extend consistent policy and observability to every site. They simplify operations, support identity-led access that aligns to Zero Trust and reduce risks from technical debt and legacy systems so networks can adapt securely as business needs evolve.
How we can help
In my work with clients, I see the same challenge time and again: network change needs to move faster, but it also needs to be safer and more predictable. At CACI, we help organisations bring structure, visibility and governance to complex networks so change can happen with confidence.
We support teams in putting practical assurance and observability in place, improving lifecycle management and reducing configuration drift, without slowing delivery. That means fewer regressions, clearer accountability and a more predictable change pipeline.
If you’d like to explore how this approach could work in your environment, visit our Network Automation page to start the conversation with our specialists.
You can also download my new Network Automation in 2026 eBook for a deeper dive into how assurance and automation work together to build resilient, future-ready networks.