You’re Not Behind. You’re Stuck – NetBrain Triple-T
Across enterprise IT, the pattern is the same. Teams have monitoring. Many have automation. Some have been running AI pilots for over a year. And yet, when an incident fires, the response still looks a lot like it did five years ago.
The problem is not the technology. The problem is that most teams are stalled at a predictable point in their operational evolution, and they don’t have a name for where they are. Without that, moving forward is guesswork.
This session introduces a practical framework for network operations maturity built from real enterprise patterns. It defines four stages of operational evolution and the specific plateaus that stall progress at each one. More importantly, it reframes AI not as the goal but as the catalyst.
Once you understand where your team actually is, AI becomes the lever that unlocks the next stage, whether that means building better workflows, correcting automation that has lost trust, or shifting from reactive response to preventative operations.
AI readiness starts with operational self-awareness. This session gives practitioners a way.
Nigel Hickey is a network automation evangelist and Senior Technical Marketing Manager at NetBrain, where he helps organizations rethink how they operate, automate, and trust their networks.
With more than 20 years across IT operations, cloud platforms, and virtualization, Nigel focuses on the intersection of human expertise and automation, advocating for systems that assist engineers rather than replace them. His work spans competitive intelligence, technical storytelling, field enablement, and live conference engagement, helping teams understand where automation delivers real operational value.
Whether on stage, on a podcast, or in hallway conversations at industry events, Nigel is known for cutting through noise, challenging assumptions, and making complex NetOps concepts accessible to real operators.
