Founder
Founder-led Cisco automation, education, and delivery
Christopher Davies¶
I'm the founder of Nautomation Prime and a CCNP-certified network engineer focused on transparent, production-grade Cisco automation. After 10+ years in enterprise infrastructure, I built this practice to help teams move from brittle scripts and black-box delivery to automation they can understand, trust, and own.
Why I Built Nautomation Prime¶
My name is Christopher Davies, and I've spent the last 10+ years building network infrastructure at scale. This is why I founded Nautomation Prime—and why I'm obsessed with transparency in automation.
The Problem I Saw¶
Over a decade in enterprise networking, I noticed a pattern that frustrated me:
Organisations would invest £15,000–£25,000 in a "network automation solution," deploy it... and six months later, nobody was using it.
Not because the code was bad. Sometimes it was brilliant code. But:
- Nobody in the organisation understood how it worked. When the original engineer left, the solution became a black box.
- The wrong things got automated. Teams automated easy tasks instead of painful ones, and then couldn't figure out what to automate next.
- Nobody could measure the business value. "Is this saving time? How much?" The answer was usually "...we think so?"
- The company was locked in to the original consultants. Any change required going back to expensive external help.
I realised: Delivering scripts isn't enough. Sustainable automation requires a structured methodology that builds organizational capability, not dependence.
My Background¶
Enterprise Network Engineering (10+ Years)¶
I cut my teeth in hands-on network operations at diverse organisations:
- Muller UK & Ireland - Network Operations Senior Analyst
- Involve Visual Collaboration — System Infrastructure Specialist
- Autonet Insurance — Network & Collaboration Engineer
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Vendor Support & Troubleshooting
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Proactive monitoring of enterprise networks across multiple UK dairy sites using SolarWinds Orion, Cisco DNAC and Netbox
- Ground-up implementation of Cisco DNAC for network visibility and automation
- Designed and executed site-wide wireless upgrades using Ekahau AI Pro
- Managed tens of thousands of network devices across multiple data centers
- Collaborated with engineers to deploy Python scripts for automatic configuration of 200+ switches during network upgrades across UK courts, prisons, and probation offices
- Delivered NHS integration enabling video conferencing across health systems (Cisco networking, Dell Hyper-V, Pexip VoIP)
- Ensured 99.9% uptime for mission-critical collaboration infrastructure
- Led migration from on-premises Mitel telephony to cloud-based Cisco Catalyst platforms
- Designed and deployed multi-site SD-WAN/MPLS hybrid connectivity architecture
- Managed complex network upgrades across rapid-expansion deployments
- Root cause analysis across Cisco routing, switching, wireless, voice, and security platforms
What this taught me:
Real networks are ugly. Legacy, hybrid, edge-case-ridden. The solutions that work aren't the "perfect" ones—they're the ones pragmatic enough to handle reality.
Cisco Certifications¶
- CCNP Enterprise — Professional-level routing and switching design
- CCNP Automation — Network automation and orchestration
- CCNP Collaboration — Advanced unified communications architecture
- CCDA — Cisco design methodology
What these taught me:
The fundamentals never change. Mastering layer 3 matters as much as Python syntax.
Python Automation & Network Automation¶
After years of clicking GUIs and running CLI commands 500 times, I taught myself Python. Today:
- Netmiko, Nornir, NAPALM — Multi-threaded, vendor-neutral automation at scale
- pytest & unit testing — Reliable automation that doesn't break
- CI/CD pipelines — Automation that evolves sustainably
- Secure credential management — Zero hardcoded passwords
What this taught me:
Network automation is a team sport. If only one person understands the code, you've failed. Documentation and transparency should be first-class requirements.
Why Work With Me¶
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Direct founder access¶
You work with the person responsible for the thinking, design, and delivery, not a sales layer followed by a hand-off chain.
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Enterprise reality, not lab-only theory¶
My approach is shaped by live environments, legacy constraints, compliance pressure, and real operational risk.
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No black-box automation¶
The goal is sustainable capability, not dependence on the original author or consultant.
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Education plus delivery¶
Nautomation Prime exists to teach, build, and hand over, not just ship scripts and disappear.
The Turning Point¶
A few years ago, I completed an engagement for a large enterprise. We built a sophisticated Python framework that automated VLAN provisioning—taking 15-minute manual tasks down to 30 seconds.
The client loved it. We delivered the code, documentation was okay, we invoiced, moved on.
Six months later, they called back: "Our network team says they can't modify it. Can you add a feature?"
That's when I realised: We built a solution, not capability.
They'd gotten a tool but not the understanding to own it. That's when I created the PRIME Framework—a methodology that doesn't just deliver code, it builds organizational capability.
Why Transparency Matters¶
Throughout my career, I've seen automation fail because teams don't understand the code they're running on production networks. That's not just inefficient—it's dangerous.
At Nautomation Prime, transparency is non-negotiable:
- Line-by-line documentation — Every decision explained, not just every line
- Verbose logging — When something breaks, the logs tell the story
- Runbooks & knowledge transfer — Your team owns the solution when we walk away
- Open educational content — We publish in-depth guides and tutorials so the community benefits
Beyond Work¶
Life in Staffordshire¶
I'm based in Leek, Staffordshire, where I live with my wife and son. Family is everything to me—they're the reason I work the way I do and the support system that keeps me grounded when things get challenging.
I have Ménière's disease and coeliac disease, which brings its own set of daily challenges. But I've learned that limitations don't have to define you—they just require better planning, clearer systems, and support from people who matter. My family makes all the difference.
What Drives Me¶
If you've taken the 16personalities test, I'm an INFJ-A (Advocate). After reading their analysis, it's eerily accurate: I'm driven by purpose, I value authenticity over surface-level interactions, and I genuinely want to help people succeed—not just sell them something.
That's probably why I'm obsessed with transparency in automation. I can't stand the idea of someone running a script they don't understand on their production network. It feels wrong. If you're going to trust automation, you should understand it.
I'm also quite introverted, which surprises some people in consulting. But introversion doesn't mean I don't care about people—it means I care deeply about meaningful work and genuine connections over small talk and sales pitches.
When I'm Not Automating Networks¶
Music is a constant in my life. My taste is eclectic—spanning decades and genres—but I'm very particular about what I love. If it resonates, it stays on repeat. If it doesn't, it's skipped immediately.
Nature and the outdoors recharge me. The less man-made, the better. Give me forests, hills, and open countryside over cities any day. There's something about being surrounded by natural complexity that puts human-created systems into perspective. I've come to know this by its Japanese name, Shinrin-Yoku—forest bathing—which is a more deliberate practice than it sounds: no destination, no step count, just paying attention with all five senses to somewhere that was never built for a purpose. I take my DSLR camera along to capture those moments—there's a satisfaction in framing a shot properly, getting the light right, preserving something beautiful.
Precision shooting is another interest of mine. Breathing, stance, the same sequence every time so the outcome stops being a surprise—it keeps me grounded in patience, safety, and repeatable performance. It's not lost on me that this is also a fair description of how I write automation.
Reading is where I go when I want my head somewhere that isn't work. No notes app open next to it, nothing to action afterwards—just a book, read for its own sake. It's one of the few things I do that produces nothing measurable, which is exactly the point.
Tea. Proper tea, brewed Gongfu style. I import varieties from China and India as directly from the tea farms as possible because I'm particular about quality, and I brew it the traditional Chinese way—small pot or gaiwan, short infusions, one after another, watching how the same leaves change across six or eight rounds instead of collapsing them into one long steep. Gongfu Cha translates roughly as "making tea with skill," not "making tea fast," and that's the whole practice in one phrase. It's a small thing, but it demands your attention for the twenty minutes it takes, and gives it back in a way a coffee machine never will. (You might notice a pattern here: I care about doing things properly.)
Between the Lines
Gongfu Cha, forest walks, a book, the range—none of them are productivity hacks.
I don't do them to work better. I do them because they're proof, to myself, that a version of my day exists that has nothing to do with output.
Why This Work Matters to Me¶
Network automation isn't just a career—it's something I genuinely enjoy. It gives my life purpose.
I've always believed that if you're going to spend a third of your life working, it should be in something you love. And I love solving problems. I love teaching people. I love seeing teams go from "we can't do this" to "we built that ourselves."
That's why I built Nautomation Prime. It's not about selling scripts—it's about empowering engineers to solve their own problems. If I can help someone feel the same satisfaction I get from automation, then the work has meaning beyond the invoice.
Why I Protect Time Away From Screens¶
I've spent years around network engineers, and I've seen the version of "always on" that isn't heroic—it's just corrosive. The on-call phone that never really switches off. The sense that stopping is somehow letting people down. I don't think most people choose that life. I think most people are handed it, told it's simply how a career works, and never given a reason to question it.
I can't fix that for anyone else. What I can do is refuse to run my own life that way, and build a business around the idea that automation's real job is to hand people hours back, not just to make the same treadmill faster. Gongfu Cha, Shinrin-Yoku, a book, the range on a Saturday morning—these aren't things I do instead of working hard. They're how I stay someone worth working with, and a reminder, every time, that the invoice was never the point.
Let's Work Together¶
Need founder-led help with a real automation challenge?¶
Whether you're starting automation, rescuing inherited scripts, or trying to build sustainable capability across a larger estate, the next step is a short discovery conversation.
Connect¶
- Location: Leek, Staffordshire, UK
- LinkedIn: Christopher Davies
- GitHub: Nautomation-Prime
- Email: enquiries@nautomationprime.io
I built Nautomation Prime for engineers like me—people who believe network code should never be a black box, that sustainable automation requires transparency, and that a great engineer doesn't just solve problems, they empower teams to solve their own.