You must have heard of “automated networks”, “autonomous networks” and other concepts, all of which refer to a communication network that learn the traffic needs from the network and knows how to respond to these needs.
In automation there are several considerations, the main considerations being, as with any new technology, do we need it, and will it save costs – visible and hidden, when visible costs are how much the new products will cost us, and the hidden costs are those we are not currently aware of, for example future licensing employee training and so on.
Technologically we are talking about Software Defined Networking (SDN) in the broad aspect of technology. When we talk about SDN we are generally talking about the concept of a central controller receiving requirements from applications, and according to these requirements it allocates the network resources to users. Among the first to implement these technologies were Google, which already in 2012 implemented a similar network. Google defined that an independent is a network in which all network operations are automated, all changes will be made from a central system, all changes are reversible and network infrastructure will not allow network policy violations.
When we talk about what is available in the last several years, the basic automation is that in a case of event, a pre-configured script is activated and perform pre-defined operations on a communications device or several communications devices.
At the second level, it is now possible to access most types of equipment in the software, read data and respond to this data. At this level, access the equipment is usually in Python with directories such as ncclient or netmiko, that can also “speak” with the equipment in its language, i.e. send commands in Cisco-IOS / NXOS, Juniper-JuNOS, etc., send commands for Data, receive alerts, process information and send commands back.
At the third level we are talking about full SDN, when there is an Orchestrator that controls the network services, SDN Controllers that control systems and applications and talk with it in a standard interface, REST for example, and when the Controller receives a request from a particular application to assign a particular service register, it passes the requirement to switches using OpenFlow and the service level is set.
As we are in this area since the early days of the technology, we would be happy to help examine the feasibility of the transition to the new technology and, if necessary, accompany you through the transition process.
