3) Automation interfaces are largely unsupported:
CLI is an automation interface. Combine that with a management server from which telnet sessions to the router can be managed, and you have probably the lowest risk automation interface possible. This may force you into building your own tools, but if you really want low risk, that's the price you pay.
I'm sure we'll continue to build automated policy and configuration tools. I'm just not convinced it's the panacea that everyone thinks. Unless you're one of the biggest, it puts your network at someone else's mercy - and that someone else doesn't care about your operational expenses.
That is not a risk of automation. That is a risk of buy versus build. More and more businesses of all sorts are beginning to take a new look at their software and automated systems with a view towards building and owning and maintaining the parts that really are business critical for their unique business. In this brave new world, only the non-essential stuff will be bought in as packages. --Michael Dillon