Six Hours Just to Get Started
So imagine you’re a network engineer at Cisco. You need to test a new configuration before rolling it out to production. You need a lab environment - several routers, switches, maybe some virtual machines - all connected in a specific topology.
In 2014, getting that lab meant four hours of coordination. Which equipment is available? Who has it reserved? Let me check the spreadsheet. Let me email the lab manager. Let me wait for someone to get back to me…
Then two more hours of setup. Console cables. Serial connections. Manual configuration, device by device. One wrong command and you start over.
Six hours. Just to get a lab environment. And you haven’t even started the actual work you were hired to do. That’s insane when you think about it.
What If It Was Like Netflix?
That was the pitch. What if getting a lab was as easy as picking a show to watch?
Self Serve Labs changed everything. Instead of coordination emails and spreadsheets, engineers browsed available lab topologies like browsing Netflix. Found one that matched their needs. Clicked reserve. The system handled everything else - provisioning virtual machines, configuring network connections, setting up console access.
Eight minutes later: ready to work.
The platform served over a thousand Cisco engineers worldwide. Five years of development. Nearly two thousand commits. Dax Mickelson and I basically rebuilt how one of the world’s largest networking companies managed its internal labs.
Getting Console Access Right
The hardest part wasn’t automation. It was making the experience feel seamless.
Network engineers live in the command line. They need direct access to device consoles - typing commands, seeing responses, debugging in real time. Self Serve Labs provided that access directly through the browser. No VPN. No special software. No waiting for IT to provision access.
Click a device in your reserved topology. Console window opens. Start working.
And here’s the part I’m kind of proud of: every session was recorded automatically. Engineers could replay their work for documentation. Managers could review configurations for compliance. Support teams could diagnose issues without playing telephone. (“What did you type?” “I don’t remember exactly…”)
The Database Nobody Sees
Lab scheduling sounds simple until you think about conflicts.
What happens when two engineers book overlapping times on the same equipment? What about a topology that shares devices with another topology? What if someone extends their reservation while someone else is waiting?
I could’ve built application-level checks for all of this. But application code has bugs. Race conditions happen. Someone always finds the edge case.
So the system used database constraints that made double-booking literally impossible. Not “the application checks for conflicts” - the database itself refuses to accept conflicting reservations. Zero coordination required. Zero race conditions. Zero angry emails about stolen lab time.
This is the kind of invisible infrastructure that engineers never notice - until they’ve worked somewhere without it.
Lab Access Used to Be Political
Before Self Serve Labs, getting lab time at Cisco was kind of a political problem. Who had seniority? Who knew the right people? Who could navigate the bureaucracy fastest?
After Self Serve Labs? Book what you need, get it when you need it. The system doesn’t care if you’re a VP or you started last week. Same interface, same access.
A thousand engineers stopped thinking about lab politics. They just did their work.
What I Keep Coming Back To
Enterprise software isn’t about impressive technology. It’s about removing friction from people’s daily work.
The most sophisticated parts of Self Serve Labs - the scheduling constraints, the session recording, the real-time console proxy - were completely invisible to users. They didn’t know how it worked. They didn’t care how it worked. They just knew that when they needed a lab, they got one.
That’s the goal, right? Technology so reliable that people forget it’s even there. They just get to focus on what they’re actually trying to accomplish.
