Network Automation Benefits

Network automation is the process of automating the configuration, management, testing, deployment, and operations of physical and virtual devices within a network. Every day, network tasks and functions are performed automatically. Using a combination of hardware and software-based solutions, large organizations, service providers, and enterprises can implement network automation to control and manage repetitive processes and improve network service availability.

Today, networks are fully capable of performing the following tasks:

• discovering topologies

• Manage bandwidth and find quick redirects to implement the best computing paths

• Performing Root Cause Analysis

• Update and installation of routes

• Establish performance benchmarks

• Software update

• Security Implementation and Compliance

By working together, automation and orchestration simplify network operations involving complex configuration and device management, while providing business agility to adapt to an ever-changing environment. You can think of automation as performing repeatable tasks without human intervention, and orchestration as the process of chaining a series of these tasks together to perform a process or workflow.

Driving network automation is the rapid expansion of network infrastructure required to support the exponential growth in network traffic generated by video, social, data, and application usage. Additionally, as computing power continues to decline in cost and virtual computing continues to grow, network automation becomes more available to many businesses. Various types of network automation can be applied to local area networks, virtualized environments, data centers, and public and private clouds.

benefits of automation

For many organizations, the lack of agility in adopting network changes has become a bottleneck, preventing them from implementing a robust and highly responsive data center infrastructure. For service providers, automation is the critical strategy to focus on to increase network agility and reliability while controlling operating expenses (OpEx) and capital expenses (CapEx). To improve operational efficiency, margins, and customer satisfaction, service providers can automate routine and complex tasks that can be time-consuming, repetitive, or error-prone. The openness and interoperability of automation support APIs, standards-based protocols, and open source automation frameworks (such as Ansible, Saltstack, Puppet, and Chef). Service providers and enterprises can take advantage of these automation frameworks to accelerate their network automation migration.

By automating network functions and implementing software products that offer automation, organizations benefit from the following:

lower costs-Because automation reduces the complexities of your underlying infrastructure, far fewer person-hours are required to configure, provision, and manage services and the network. By simplifying operations, consolidating network services, reducing floor space, and powering down underutilized devices, you need fewer staff to troubleshoot and repair, and realize energy savings.

Improve business continuity-By eliminating the possibility of human error, companies can offer and deliver a higher level of services with more consistency between branches and geographies. For example, Juniper Networks’ Service Now is a remote, automated troubleshooting client that enables Juniper to quickly and proactively detect any problem on a customer’s network before they know it.

Increase the strategic workforce-By automating repetitive tasks subject to human error, businesses increase productivity, which helps drive business improvements and innovation. As a result, new job opportunities arise for the existing workforce.

Greater knowledge and control of the network-Automation helps IT operations better respond to changes through analytics. You get more network visibility and understand precisely what’s happening on your network with the ability to monitor and adapt as needed.

Increase business agilityAutomation allows companies to develop operating models that improve time to market. You can add new services, test new apps, and fix problems. The time to make improvements is reduced, resulting in greater competitiveness and elasticity and, ultimately, more added profit to the corporate bottom line.

Network Automation: Build or Buy?

Once you’ve decided that you want to automate your network, the next decision is: do you do it yourself, outsource it, or some combination of both? Answering these questions can help you make your decision:

• Which network automation technologies are best suited to your needs?

• Do you have staff who have experience in automation technologies?

• Do you have enough staff resources to implement automation technologies?

• If not, does your provider offer professional services that can help your team automate your network?

• What are the risks of automation and how to mitigate the risks?

• What are the benefits of automating sooner rather than later?

• Do you know how to start automating your network?