Unlike telnet, SSH provides a secure channel to exchange data between client and server. The tunnel created between the client and the device is encrypted with different security mechanisms that make it hard for anyone to decrypt the communication. The SSH protocol is the first choice for network engineers who need to securely administrate network nodes.
Python can communicate with network devices using the SSH protocol by utilizing a popular library called Paramiko that supports authentication, key handling (DSA, RSA, ECDSA, and ED25519), and other SSH features such as the proxy command and SFTP.