Cisco launched itself into the latest area of hot networking hype, intent-based networks, claiming it was “redefining the network for the next 30 years”, as CEO Chuck Robbins put it. Cisco’s announcements, and indeed most emerging intent-based networking concepts, are firmly geared to the data center. But as telco networks evolve into IT and cloud platforms, and even the mobile RAN can be run as a set of virtual network functions (VNFs) in a data centre, intent-based systems – once stripped of their hype – will certainly be closely watched by mobile operators too. Intent-based networking has been buzzing around in the conversation about next generation enterprise and carrier networks for at least a year and a few start-ups have…