Buying Guide for Network Automation The best way to evaluate a NetOps solution is to qualify and quantify what you have today. Look at your Service Desk and see how the NetOps function is represented along with the volumes of tickets and the kinds of problems being seen. Above all, you need to understand your operational baseline and expectations when evaluating how network automation can help. Key capabilities to look for in a network automation solution: The ability to scale to any infrastructure size, including the Builds a live digital twin that includes not only the devices edge and public cloud and everything in between. and topology, but also the network logic for all traffic flows Support for major public cloud providers, traditional and critical IT logic translated from business needs. network infrastructures and software defined LAN and Includes a pre-built automation library that can WAN. Support for all major vendor components. immediately solve your most common network issues out Provides operational scalability with automation by of the box and is extensible without the need for coding. solving for similar problems across the entire Takes a proactive approach to automation and infrastructure. continuously assures preservation of network intentions and Captures and shares SME knowledge across the verifies the infrastructure can support your applications. organization without coding and programmers. The ability to interactively apply stored automation units Allows your experts in each scenario to capture their best for remedial purposes when operators and engineers are practices and make them re-usable without coding. addressing network issues. Auto-discovers details of the entire hybrid network The ability to execute automation in response to external infrastructure and knows the parameters for every device. events from third-party applications, including threat This is in stark contrast to many of the early automation detection from SIEM systems, ITSM workflow managers approaches that were unaware of their surroundings. and network monitoring consoles. Getting Started: Determine your most commonly occurring problems The ability for your chosen network automation solution to quickly address your problems in your environment is the key to demonstrating value and gaining support throughout Use Cases the organization. So, the best place to identify your needs is to start with the most valuable information available: Your top use case(s) and a dedicated automation 1. Outage Prevention engineer(s) to build automation. 2. Diagnosis Automation 3. Application Performance Creating Success: Scaling NetOps and Applying No-Code 4. Network Security Network Automation 5. Protective Network Change Automation projects over the last couple of decades have become mired in mis-set expectations, budget overruns, and unclear ROI. As NetOps scales in scope and complexity, IT has learned some valuable lessons regarding how to select and implement network automation that can be deployed immediately, increases in value over time, and quantifies ROI. Here are common mistakes to avoid and mitigate for a successful problem diagnosis automation experience.