The drive toward NetOps-as-Code continues to reshape how enterprises manage their infrastructure. We see the demand for resilient, agile networks capable of supporting hybrid cloud applications and distributed edge environments continuing to grow, and Red Hat aims to support these needs with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Recent advancements across the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and its partner ecosystem focus on turning this model into a practical reality. Here are some highlights of the last few months that show how the automation landscape is evolving to deliver scalable, AI-ready infrastructure.Network automation at Red Hat SummitAt Red Hat Summit 2026 in Atlanta, the conversation shifted from the need for simple, point-of-need tools to modern enterprises requiring a centralized, comprehensive platform capable of orchestrating complex workflows at scale. For network operations teams, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform demonstrated that it is a unified, highly capable solution needed to streamline operations, align teams, and confidently prepare infrastructure for the AI revolution.The Ansible Automation Platform product spotlight included automation leaders from Marriott and TD Bank (a 2026 Red Hat Innovation Awards winner) discussing how they are building governed, scalable foundations for their evolving IT operations. Marriott International is establishing a scalable, governed IT foundation by integrating an agentic mesh within its horizontal AI architecture. The company uses Ansible Automation Platform to automate repetitive workloads, optimizing operations and enabling associates to pivot toward higher-value tasks.TD Bank is using Ansible Automation Platform as a structured control plane, allowing the bank to move from reactive firefighting to governed outcomes in areas like fraud defense. By replacing ad hoc tools with a single unified solution, the bank improved enterprise-wide compliance and consistency while limiting service disruptions.A core focus of the week was turning real-time monitoring insights into immediate, governed network remediation.The receive-decide-respond model: Cisco and Splunk joined forces with Red Hat to showcase how Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI) uses event analytics to cut through network alert noise. Once an anomaly is detected, customizable Ansible Rulebooks evaluate the event and trigger a target response. This closed-loop remediation eliminates manual triaging and radically reduces mean time to resolution.Network source of truth: NetBox Labs and Red Hat demonstrated real-time network operations (NetOps) by pairing Event-Driven Ansible directly with NetBox Cloud. This integration makes safer and dynamic automated changes based on a fully synchronized, validated network source of truth. The featured demo highlighted a circuit failover switching in under 30 seconds compared to the 45 minutes required for a real customer, and included an example of an AI-assisted incident postmortem via a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Red Hat and CiscoFollowing Red Hat’s inclusion on the Cisco Global Price List, the 2 companies delivered a joint session at Red Hat Summit called Optimize your network operations with Red Hat and Cisco. The session outlined how Ansible Automation Platform and Cisco work together to deliver a single, consistent language to automate traditional network devices across your entire enterprise footprint. Instead of relying on random acts of manual scripting, engineers can use certified content collections to drive absolute consistency across switches, routers, firewalls, and wireless controllers. By treating network infrastructure as code (IaC), teams can drastically reduce manual configuration time and build a more connected enterprise.Red Hat also attended and sponsored Cisco Live US, which ran June 1-5, 2026. The week was defined by packed sessions, user engagement, and partner connections.Across 4 high-traffic days, the team delivered 27 hands-on lab sessions and more than 12 minitheater presentations. Topics spanned the entire automation journey—from network basics and self-service portals to advanced AIOps, OpenTelemetry, and AI-driven operations via MCP. Our experts were able to educate users on how Ansible Automation Platform complements Cisco's native tooling.Product update: Paramiko deprecation and the move to secure SSH transportIn Q2 2026, the ansible.netcommon collection (v8.5.0) formally deprecated Paramiko as the SSH transport for network_cli connections, standardizing on libssh via ansible-pylibssh. This transition aligns with the broader Ansible project direction favoring OpenSSH and libssh for improved security, maintenance, and feature development. Importantly, this deprecation includes a 2-year migration window: Paramiko support will not be removed until after February 2028, giving teams ample time to plan and migrate. During the transition, users will see a deprecation warning during playbook execution, but existing Paramiko-based workflows will continue to function. Defaults have been updated so that libssh is the practical default for new deployments. A dedicated migration guide is available on the Ansible forum. Additionally, a critical reliability fix was delivered for pylibssh to properly handle output capture from long-running device commands that produce progress characters, providing dependable automation for operations like firmware upgrades and large-scale configuration pushes.Product update: Persistent connection resilienceTo better support network automation in containerized and Kubernetes-native environments, we delivered 3 enhancements to the persistent connection manager used by Ansible Automation Platform’s network modules:Idle timeout for manager processes: Manager processes now automatically terminate after playbook completion, eliminating the accumulation of orphaned processes in production environments.Health check endpoints: New health check mechanisms enable Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes, improving observability and orchestration of network automation workloads.Stale socket detection and recovery: Automatic detection and cleanup of orphaned Unix sockets from unexpected process termination prevents connection failures on subsequent playbook runs.Partner update: Arista improvementsArista AVD is an open source automation framework built on Python (PyAVD) and packaged as a certified Ansible Content Collection, enabling organizations to design, deploy, document, and validate Arista network fabrics using IaC. AVD abstracts complex network configurations into intuitive data models, automatically generating production-ready EOS configurations, comprehensive documentation, and ANTA-based validation tests. Trusted by leading enterprises and service providers across all verticals worldwide, AVD accelerates network deployments while establishing consistency and compliance with Arista's validated design patterns.AVD 6.2.0 highlights include:AVD support for ansible-core 2.16 up to 2.21+New flexibility in the cv_deploy role to leverage it as a stand-alone role without requiring eos_designsSupport for L2 ring topologiesIntroduce RD/RT rewrite mode under evpn_gatewayVarious improvements to 802.1x modelsFor a complete list of updates, please see the official AVD release notes.Partner update: Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for Cisco improvementsAcross our Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collections for Cisco, we delivered expanded capabilities and key reliability improvements:IOS interface range configuration: The cisco.ios.ios_config module now supports configuring multiple interface ranges in a single task, dramatically reducing bulk interface configuration time.IOS-XR BGP fact collection: Restored full fact-gathering support for IOS-XR devices using ASDOT notation for BGP remote-as, resolving a compatibility gap for complex BGP deployments.IOS-XR OSPF v2: Fixed the iosxr_ospfv2 module to correctly handle max_metric.router_lsa subparameters during command generation.NX-OS static route VRF handling: Corrected an issue where the nxos_static_routes module could inadvertently remove routes from a VRF even when the VRF was not specified in the playbook.IOS ACLs module fix: Addressed a regression in the cisco.ios collection (v11.2.0+) that caused the ios_acls resource module to fail during execution.Partner update: HPE Juniper improvementsThe Red Hat Ansible Automation Certified Content Collection for Juniper Apstra provides certified end-to-end data center fabric automation. With 29 modules, teams can automate the entire lifecycle—design, build, operations, and assurance—across various vendors.The collection supports fabric provisioning through blueprint management, resource allocation (ASNs, IP, VLANs, VNIs), and the definition of security zones and routing policies. Connectivity templates using network primitives allow configuration of any interface, while gateways and generic systems extend connectivity to remote DCs, WAN edges, and external devices.Additional features include device onboarding, ZTP checks, fabric-wide settings, and OS upgrades. Network assurance is provided via Intent-Based Analytics probes, while blueprint rollback provides safeguards.All modules are idempotent and qualified for Apstra 6.0 and 6.1. Access the collection on Ansible Galaxy or Ansible Automation Hub.Partner update: NetBox Labs improvementsThe Red Hat Ansible Certified Collection for NetBox connects NetBox with the Ansible Automation Platform. NetBox Labs has deepened its investment in the collection, dedicating 2 engineers as GitHub maintainers to drive regular releases. The v3.23.0 release, shipped in May 2026, reflects the 1st wave of that work:Systemic bug resolved: The long-standing “more than one result returned" error affecting sub-object lookups, one of the most commonly reported issues in the collection, has been fixed.Current compatibility: The collection is now continuously tested against NetBox v4.4 and v4.5 and updated for Ansible Core 2.19+.Expanded module coverage: New field support includes tenant assignment in netbox_vlan_group, module_type for front/rear port templates, and dict-based primary_mac_address in netbox_vm_interface, plus fixes for DNS validation, custom session headers, and regex conversion.The collection is available on Ansible Galaxy. Coming soon: idempotency fixes, cable module reliability, and continued Ansible Core compatibility work.In case you missed it: Further readingBlog posts:Scaling financial services with a strategic automation foundationStop managing, start orchestrating: Streamlining catalyst operations with Red Hat Ansible Automation PlatformScaling automated infrastructure compliance in telecommunications using Red Hat Ansible Automation PlatformWebinars:Network Automation 101Real Time NetOps: Red Hat Ansible + NetBoxAutomate Cisco at ScaleCustomer stories:TD Bank Innovation Award WinnerOne New Zealand Innovation Award Winner