Before I studied the art, a punch was a punch, A kick just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I UNDERSTAND the art, a punch is just a punch, a kick is just a kick. The height of cultivation is nothing special… It is merely simplicity: The ability to do the utmost with the minimum.
– Bruce Lee

Simplicity is difficult we start calling ourselves Subject Matter Experts, we have a need to make sure we seem “above”. That we have learned the arts that we practice day to day, but because technology moves so fast, few can be truly called Masters. I do not say this lightly, as I am one of those who lives the SME life. I find myself asking over and over, Why do we allow the mistakes of the past to perpetuate to the future?. Why we continue to do what we know fails?

To simplify life software developers build frameworks to reduce repetitive work, speed iteration, and reduce the risk of mistakes. Rarely does the infrastructure follow that same model. Chef, Puppet and Salt are beginning to see adoption at the system layer, but what about under the hood. The physical machines. The network. We still fall into the trap of thinking that “this company”, “this application”, “this network”, is a special case, different then anything else you have ever seen or ever will see.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your network is not a special snowflake.

Does it run on a IPv4 or IPv6 Ethernet network? Bet you answered yes.
Does it directly support equipment that keeps people alive? Bet you answered no.

There are few exceptions to the above 2 questions, so why do we all think that we are so special and that our challenges are so different?

A punch is just a punch. There is no reason that we should not be keeping it simple. If we want to be masters, lets do the utmost with the minimum.