Buying Guide for Network Automation Intent Based No-Code Approach Applies to any hybrid multi-cloud, multi-vendor network Based on full stack Digital Twin, including devices, connectivity, real-time traffic flows and network intents Captures subject matter expertise through no-code to create desired network behaviors, replicate behaviors across the network, and then leverage that knowledge before, during, and after issues are detected Tackles all repetitive tasks throughout the lifespan of the infrastructure, from the smallest of tasks to the largest Scales expertise to provide solution consistency and reduced overhead and escalations Provides a robust change management platform to assure business services are preserved prior to making changes and after changes are complete, with roll-back as needed Provides a comprehensive collaboration platform where resources can resolve an operational issue that spans organizational responsibility Conserves engineering resources and reduces the staffing/skills needed for scale 1. Trying to scale NetOps through personnel to match business growth As infrastructure scope and complexity expand, it is becoming impractical to simply As NetOps scales in hire more operational staff and train each of them in every network technology. While scope and complexity, adding more service personnel is a common and tactical solution to this growing IT has learned some problem, it fails to achieve the desired results of lower operational costs, shorter task valuable lessons duration, and more consistent ticket resolutions. And the varying skill levels of regarding how to operators and engineers negatively impact the ability to solve problems effectively select and implement and rapidly. The most successful IT leaders realize that their operational plan must network not continue the labor-intensive model that has been in place for decades, but automation instead become smarter and transform knowledge into a re-usable asset. that can be deployed immediately, increases 2. Adding Another Tool or Point Solution in value over time, and We all understand the value of documenting and mapping your network. You can quantifies ROI identify where the root cause of the problem is faster, maintain compliance more easily and prepare for audits quickly. And the promise of a fancy new auto-discovery and mapping tool can be exciting. But if you stop there, you’re overlooking the big picture. Tools are tactical. What you are really looking to do is change the approach. You are looking to change the workflows associated with Network Operations to re-use knowledge and automate the portions that are similar from ticket to ticket. Buying just another tool does nothing to change the trajectory of the problem. 3. Waiting for AIOps and ML tools All AIOps and ML solutions take a black-box approach leveraging machine learning or traditional statistics-based AI functions to discover root causes from large amounts of machine data. But for most IT problems, a set of clean data is very hard to come by, on top of many other challenges including a PH. D to operate such a tool. Customers routinely state that AI and ML tools rarely meet the bar for success. These approaches are unaware of the infrastructure details and intents, so the observations they make are more theoretical or academic in nature. As such, they rarely produce results that have a material impact on the biggest challenge, which is solving a small number of similar problems at scale, using re-usable knowledge. And, since it's a really small number of similar problems, gaining the requisite knowledge is not really the NetOps scale issue. It automatically captures and applying automation to solve this set of problems again and again. When selecting a strategic network automation solution, look for solutions with the ability to apply knowledge and experience-based best practices proactively to prevent potential problems from impacting production.