NetBrain Reducing The Cost Of NetOps Solution Brief_10-13-22

SOLUTION BRIEF Reducing the Cost of NetOps If you have been working with Enterprise or MSP (Managed Services Provider) networking for a ® while, you have seen the phrase “intent-based networking” and promises that these technologies will revolutionize networking and lead to the rise of the self-healing network. While these headlines sound exciting, the actual impact that previously introduced intent-based networking solutions have had on the enterprise landscape has been insignificant. As it turns out, each vendor’s promise of Intent-Based Networking falls apart as soon as you encounter a multi-vendor and cloud-connected environment - which every organization already has today! In addition, t Increased Risk previous intent-based and network automation solutions os all focus on Day 0 and Day 1 network operations – which C is in fact, the smallest of the opportunities associated with ork Increased Complexity operational efficiency since it only focuses on the rollout tw e of new network devices including initial deployment, N provisioning, configuration, and other tasks. Increased Skills Gap DAY 0 DAY 1 DAY 2 - DAY N Network Size Provisioning Configuration Optimizing - Ongoing Operations For decades, the ratio between network size and The Untapped Opportunity: Day-2 operational cost has always been directly proportional. Automation As the infrastructure scope or complexity increased, so did the resources, maintenance times and total The BIG opportunity to increase operational efficiency in operational costs. NetBrain changes all of that by NetOps is Day-2 operations. Day-2 begins after initial focusing on the repetitive nature of operations, the deployments and lasts for years. It is this efficiency of this maturity of automation and by focusing on managing on-going NetOps function that drives the network’s TCO the desired outcomes, not the litany of boxes that upward without bounds. comprise every topology.

SOLUTION BRIEF Reducing the Cost of NetOps NetBrain has embraced the long-standing promise of While we may be conditioned to think of enterprise Intent-Based Networking to deliver a fundamentally networks as stacks of box-shaped appliances and miles of different approach to network management at scale. network cable, beyond the physical (or virtual) shell of It allows you to continuously verify your multi-vendor network infrastructure, networks are comprised of tens of hybrid network’s ability to do essential work and thousands of desired behaviors or “network intents.” verifies it’s compliance with design, performance and Network intents simply put, are the outcomes we expect security requirements. our network infrastructure to deliver for a specific need NetBrain focuses on the delivery of IT services over the (like the proper delivery of an application or service). lifespan of your network (Day 2), not only the health of For example, a typical network of 1,000 devices can easily the underlying equipment. In this way, it continuously be described as 100,000 Network Intents, when you verifies the compilations of network intents to consider all the unique and overlapping application proactively prevent misconfiguration from manifesting specific network requirements. into network outages or service degradations, Intents include things such as network design, performance reported or not. expectations, security policies, and application paths, among many others. They range from the purely technical (e.g., packet size) to domain specific (e.g., access control Day 2 Network Automation policy) to business-driven (e.g., throughput or latency for a Used by network teams in some midsize and customer-facing or real-time application). larger enterprises, across multiple network How does Intent-based Automation work? domains Primarily to address troubleshooting and Network Intents describe any hybrid infrastructure as a incidents/tickets function of the services each part delivers. Intents describe the Provides guided troubleshooting and ties in points of connectivity with their expected performance and with ticketing systems the security profile and policies that you put into effect for that These are more event-driven (site down, connection. A typical network is described by up to 100 times performance issue, ticket generated) the number of hardware, software and virtual devices that Often helps to automate collection of device are actually deployed, with the specific needs of each and operational state every application codified into network intents. Can be called by SOAR tools as part of a security playbook More mature enterprises evolve to anomaly detection after evolving from primarily reactive alert type triggers (for example, ticket initiated, yet after user affecting incidents have occurred) Preventing network outages and service degradations has been the most sought-after holy grail of network operations for years. NetBrain intent-based automation enables customers to attain this capability, and quickly becomes a key means to dramatically reduce operational costs and risk. NetBrain’s Problem Diagnosis Automation System (PDAS) uses Network Intents to verify, enforce and report on the Networks Intents are Business Intents status of the network in real-time to support remediation While there are many general-purpose network efforts, automatically in response to external events, or automation solutions on the market that focus on proactively to assure the network is in a known state. making sure networks are deployed correctly and Whereas all other network management solutions focus on optimized based on best practices, the ability to apply the health of the network equipment, NetBrain focuses on the automation to the much bigger issue of on-going ability for the network to deliver services. Intent-Based NetOps challenge has eluded the marketplace. automation speeds network diagnostics when: The challenge has always been attempting to manage • service tasks arise by helping technicians investigate a network at the device level, rather than focusing on network issues the desired outcomes of the network. NetBrain changes • a service desk has initiated a network issue request, or all of that and manages the hybrid multi-vendor • proactively by continuously verifying network functions to network based on what services it can deliver, rather prevent small issues from manifesting into outages or than at the underlying device level. services degradations.

SOLUTION BRIEF Reducing the Cost of NetOps Enforcing Network Connectivity, Performance and Security NetBrain’s Intent-based preventive automation assures the network is delivering the business outcomes it was built to achieve and does so at a cost that is in line with business needs. As new applications come online, NetBrain assures us that previously deployed applications continue to work as needed by the business. And with large organizations typically deploying hundreds of applications, the NetBrain Problem Diagnosis Automation System’s becomes the comprehensive repository of network requirements and the automated enforcement of those requirements. NetBrain Problem Diagnosis Automation System prevents outages, with more than HALF of which are preventable, by providing automated enforcement of design rules, network connectivity, performance and security as defined by Network Intents. NetBrain sets network operations on a path to efficiency that scales for every IT person, every network, and every task. Device Define & capture key network intents Verification Configuration Automate Intent Diagnosis & Verification Managing By Intent Drives Down the Cost of Network Operations NetBrain is fundamentally different than any other approach in use across enterprise and MSP networks. It delivers on the promise of Network Intent-based networking across any hybrid multi-vendor network using automation to preserve the desired behaviors needed by every application. NetBrain PDAS captures the entire design of the hybrid network as thousands of intents that describe the connectivity, performance characteristics, and security profiles needed by each service. NetBrain then uses this intent-based model of the network to verify the network’s ability to deliver applications reliably, to prevent network outages, to allow you to make changes to the network safely and to reduce remediation times when network issues do occur. NetBrain PDAS includes an advanced no-code engine that allows subject matter experts to capture their expertise so it can be shared and re-used by others across the organization. This reduces escalations and the delays associated with them. All these technologies work together at scale to leverage automation to fundamentally change the NetOps paradigm. About NetBrain Technologies Founded in 2004, NetBrain is the market leader for NetOps automation, providing network operators and engineers with dynamic visibility across their hybrid networks and low-code/no-code automation for key tasks across IT workflows. Today, more than 2,500 of the world’s largest enterprises and managed service providers use NetBrain to automate network problem diagnosis, generate real-time documentation, accelerate troubleshooting, and enforce enterprise architectural rules. +1 (800) 605-7964 Copyright © 2022 NetBrain Technologies, Inc. All trademarks referenced herein belong to NetBrain Technologies, Inc [email protected] NB-SB-RCNO-101322 www.netbraintech.com