Which OSS tool model do you prefer – Abstract or Specific?

There’s something I’ve noticed about OSS products – they are either designed to be abstract / flexible or they are designed to cater for specific technologies / topologies.

When designed from the abstract perspective, the tools are built around generic core data models. For example, whether a virtual / logical device, a physical device, a customer premises device, a core network device, an access network device, a trasmission device, a security device, etc, they would all be lumped into a single object called a device (but with flexibility to cater for the many differences).

When designed from the specific perspective, the tools are built with exact network and/or service models in mind. That could be 5G, DWDM, physical plant, etc and when any new technology / topology comes along, a new plug-in has to be built to augment the tools.

The big advantage of the abstract approach is obvious (if they truly do have a flexible core design) – you don’t have to do any product upgrades to support a new technology / topology. You just configure the existing system to mimic the new technology / topology.

The first OSS product I worked with had a brilliant core design and was able to cope with any technology / topology that we were faced with. It often just required some lateral thinking to make the new stuff fit into the abstract data objects.

What I also noticed was that operators always wanted to customise the solution so that it became more specific. They were effectively trying to steer the product from an open / abstract / flexible tool-set to the other end of the scale. They generally paid significant amounts to achieve specificity – to mould the product to exactly what their needs were at that precise moment in time.

However, even as an OSS newbie, I found that to be really short-term thinking. A network (and the services it carries) is constantly evolving. Equipment goes end-of-life / end-of-support every few years. Useful life models are usually approx 5-7 years and capital refresh projects tend to be ongoing. Then, of course, vendors are constantly coming up with new products, features, topologies, practices, etc.

Given this constant change, I’d much rather have a set of tools that are abstract and flexible rather than specific but less malleable. More importantly, I’ll always try to ensure that any customisations should still retain the integrity of the abstract and flexible core rather than steering the product towards specificity.

How about you? What are your thoughts?

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