I did my best to make it as short as possible while collecting enough data to be useful. I will share the analysed and anonymized results with all respondents, as well as (assuming the talk is accepted) at the next NANOG meeting.
Feel free to send any questions directly, although I hope the survey is self-explanatory.
The financial questions (2 of them) both allow opt-out if that is a sticking point. They are also both as vague as possible (large ranges, not exact figures) while still providing something to baseline against.
Having the opt out is nice, but if I am being completely honest, it gives me pause as to what the intent of this survey is in the first place.
I perhaps may be hyper cynical, but those feel like a straight line towards the standard salesperson line of “look at what you are spending now on FOO , you could save X if you used BAR”.
Update: The survey has received almost 4 dozen responses already!
Of course, for the most meaningful results possible, I’d like to see that
about 10x higher.
Don’t expect too much when you need a Google account to answer a survey
For better or worse, some form of SPAM protection is needed for publically available surveys. A free account seems like a low bar - but I acknowledge that it is a bar.
If you would like a private survey to complete without requiring a Google account, please let me know directly and I will find a way to make that happen. This is an open invite to all who share Denis’ concern.
Having the opt out is nice, but if I am being completely honest, it gives me pause as to what the intent of this survey is in the first place.
I perhaps may be hyper cynical, but those feel like a straight line towards the standard salesperson line of “look at what you are spending now on FOO , you could save X if you used BAR”.
Fair play, Tom. All I can say is that after 20 years of working on, in, and around the Internet, I’m sure as hell not going to ruin my reputation now.
The intent of the survey is exactly as I stated: To report network automation trends back to the community.
And whether we engineers like it or not, one of the best ways to measure trends is in the relative amount of money organizations spend on them…
Competed the survey , I think I understand why some might feel issues with the financial questions but it’s a fair point to understand on how there can be avenues to maximize savings for one services if you can get automation rolled in with it . All the best with the survey
Competed the survey , I think I understand why some might feel issues with the financial questions but it’s a fair point to understand on how there can be avenues to maximize savings for one services if you can get automation rolled in with it . All the best with the survey
Thanks, Lou!
Savings is one potential aspect, but truly the spend numbers are mostly about helping to determine how “serious” companies are taking automation. Along with the other questions, they are a clue to how much automation is actually out there in the real world.
Fair play, Tom. All I can say is that after 20 years of working on, in, and around the Internet, I’m sure as hell not going to ruin my reputation now.
Apologies if I implied anything like that. Wasn’t my intent to do so.
And whether we engineers like it or not, one of the best ways to measure trends is in the relative amount of money organizations spend on them…
I am not sure I completely agree with that assertion honestly.
Seen plenty of projects that saw dumptrucks of time/money thrown at only to never be completed or implemented. Have also seen plenty of projects that didn’t get much investment, yet ended up yielding massive benefits in productivity and money.
There is of course some merit there , but I would disagree that spend itself is a good barometer.
Fair play, Tom. All I can say is that after 20 years of working on, in, and around the Internet, I’m sure as hell not going to ruin my reputation now.
Apologies if I implied anything like that. Wasn’t my intent to do so.
Thanks Tom - I just wanted to assure you and all participants that I will not be using this survey as a jumping off point for a sales pitch; and I won’t be sharing the email addresses nor any identifiable data with anyone else.
And whether we engineers like it or not, one of the best ways to measure trends is in the relative amount of money organizations spend on them…
I am not sure I completely agree with that assertion honestly.
Seen plenty of projects that saw dumptrucks of time/money thrown at only to never be completed or implemented. Have also seen plenty of projects that didn’t get much investment, yet ended up yielding massive benefits in productivity and money.
There is of course some merit there , but I would disagree that spend itself is a good barometer.
Fair points again - my take is that spend is one data point worth looking at, along with staffing, and of course along with the self reporting on what things are automated and to what degree. I hope that this combination of metrics will come together to paint an interesting and informative picture. And I can say that based on the responses so far - they do!
