It is not uncommon for enterprises to confuse the role of a Business Process Management (BPM) system with that of a network automation solution. Because there are a lot of surface-level similarities between the two, we often see organizations attempt to leverage BPM systems to automate network activities in an effort to leverage their existing investments in these tools. Additionally, the allure of open source BPM options is often mistakenly seen as low-cost alternatives to network automation solutions.
While the differences between the two are vast at their core, they are often overlooked or discounted in the evaluation process due to their more immediately visible common traits and similarities. Inevitably, their differences will present themselves as major problems during implementation. Operators discover that they can’t force a network focused automation process into a system not designed with the network in mind; it’s just not the right tool for the job and as a result, it falls short in automating critical network operations.
When looking at the capabilities of a BPM system as compared to a network automation solution, they share a few high-level similarities:
- Workflows: You can define a series of tasks that must be completed to accomplish an activity.
- Control: You can define specific requirements with regard to who should perform a task or which pieces of data are required to complete a task.
- Intelligence: Each type of platform has built-in intelligence for its own use cases – for an automation platform, it will relate to network management and engineering processes, while BPM systems will focus on processes around business priorities like collaboration and document management.
- Integration: The ability to integrate to third-party systems and tools allows for kicking off automation processes in a self-service catalog, a query of data from external systems for use in the automation, and execution of processes that exist in those external systems.
What Differentiates Network Automation
At the surface, it’s obvious why people make the assumption that a BPM system can be leveraged for network automation. However, as you begin attempting to follow this path it quickly becomes obvious that BPM systems fall short in significant ways with regard to network automation. After all, network automation is not BPM’s core focus.
In discussing why BPM systems fall short, it is important to mention the intent involved in the design of each type of system. BPM systems are designed with the sole intent of automating business focused processes such as those seen in Sales, Human Resources, and Finance. They focus much more on who is to perform a task, and they integrate with other systems with the intent of pulling or pushing relatively static data around pricing, billing, or benefits information such as health insurance. Additionally, they are heavily focused on human interaction, content management, and even social media integration.
Network automation systems are designed with the complexity of network changes at their core. They are built with the intent of automating very complex tasks in the network with very little human interaction. When diving deeper into specific use cases involved in network automation, the shortcomings of BPM start to become even more obvious.
Activities such as device OS upgrades, configuration, and activation of network services, new device configuration, port activations, policy management, access control management, configuration management, and enforcement of configuration standards require the use of networking specific standards and technologies. Among these are modeling languages such as YANG, Ansible, YAML, and TOSCA, which BPM systems were not built to understand or consume. Attempting to build network automation with a BPM system that has no understanding of these modeling languages would inhibit the ability to integrate with network facing systems such as managers, orchestrators, and controllers which are critical to network automation success.
Furthermore, the differences in integration and built-in intelligence between the two types of systems present a challenge. BPM systems have built-in functions for collaboration, document management, social media integration, and other business focused activities. Also, BPM systems frequently come with out-of-the box integrations to popular sales, HR, and other business applications to quickly get you up and running. Network automation systems have built-in intelligence on how to do pre- and post-network checks, software upgrades, port turn-ups, and other very technical network specific activities. Network automation solutions come with out-of-the-box integrations to network controllers, orchestrators, ITSM tools, and other network focused tools needed to build and execute network automation workflows. Each type of tool provides you with a head start in the domain it is designed for.
And, as opposed to only considering who is performing a task, a network automation solution has to consider whether that user has permissions to access the network elements involved in the automation. It would not be a good idea to assign a task to a person and just assume that because that person could be assigned a task that they were allowed to make a change in the network.
The Right Tool for the Job
Despite these challenges, some organizations still try to leverage BPM tools to automate network activities. The result is, at best, an inefficient and highly manual “automation” and, at worst, a failure to meet any of the goals set for the effort – wasting the time and money invested. The same problem would be present in any attempt to use a network automation solution for a sales process. Both sets of tools have their place, and you must choose the right tool for the right job.
When evaluating the right tool for network automation, there is a very specific set of capabilities to consider. These include:
- Built-in network intelligence that is available out-of-the-box, with no custom development required.
- Low-code, drag-and-drop approach to defining and executing automation that enables anyone, not just developers, to utilize the solution by abstracting the complexity inherent to the network.
- The ability to import, utilize, and extend existing processes and investments in models, templates, scripts, and spreadsheets.
- Industry standard compliance for YANG, TOSCA, Ansible, YAML, and other templating languages used in the network and cloud domains.
- Secure, granular control over who can and cannot impact the operation of the network.
It is important to consider these capabilities when choosing a network automation solution in order to avoid projects with unachievable goals and expectations. Attempting to automate your network with a BPM system that meets none of these criteria will result in adoption and operational issues and will ultimately prove unscalable. Those who have tried to do so have canceled projects and started over with the correct tools before ever making any significant progress. It is possible to avoid this tremendous waste of time, money, and resources by understanding the differences between the two types of solutions and selecting the right tools for the right job.
If you’re currently looking to find the right tool for your organization, check out the “Network Automation Evaluation Guide” to explore the 10 most important criteria to consider when comparing your options (spoiler alert: Network Focus is the first one).
Originally published on Dzone.
Tyler Lochan
Technical Content Specialist ‐ Itential
Tyler Lochan is a Technical Content Specialist at Itential. Tyler is a Georgia Tech grad who began his career as a technology consultant in financial services. He has a passion for bringing his technical expertise together with writing, and he focuses on creating content to support our customers as they navigate their network automation journeys.
