It’s been a big year for Itential and we’re very pleased to share another exciting milestone – Itential’s inclusion as a market leader in a recent analysis from technology research firm, GigaOm, the Radar Report for Network Validation. As GigaOm notes, this report “provides an overview of the network validation landscape based on the following table stakes, which are mature, stable features common across all network validation solutions: automated pre-deployment checks, automated post-deployment checks, scheduled state validation and automated trouble ticketing.” You can check out the full report here.
In previous blogs, we’ve talked about the traditional, reactive methods of ensuring network configuration is in compliance, as well as the evolution of newer proactive validation processes that tend to fit naturally with network automation. Given the increasing demand for network infrastructure changes to be made as quickly as other IT technologies, it’s logical that proactive network validation needs to take place before any change is applied to a network device or service – thus avoiding exposure while safely enabling more network automation to occur.
A market of innovative solutions designed to ensure that the network is connected, secure, and operating as intended has rapidly matured. As highlighted in the GigaOm report, that market is composed of a mix of recent networking industry upstarts and entrenched industry stalwarts. Itential is honored to be among this groundbreaking group of companies and thrilled to be considered one of just six “leaders” in the category.
GigaOm’s Leaders and Outperformers in the space all support a broad range of vendor devices with sophisticated validation and automated remediation capabilities and were measured based on key criteria, including features and capabilities, ecosystem support, validation approach, and flexibility. In its overview of the Itential Automation Platform, GigaOm shares a few key reasons for why they chose Itential as a leader in network validation:
- Flexibility: “ltential provides a feature-driven, flexible platform for automation and orchestration across all technology (physical-, virtual-, and container-based network functions and overlays) domains through patented integration and federation capabilities, enabling users to instantly integrate with and manage any controller, device, or system.”
- Automated Guardrails: “Itential includes analytic and command templates that can be customized to perform automated pre- and post- deployment checks across multi-vendor and multi-domain network technologies.”
- Golden Configuration: “Simplifies the building of Golden Configurations for CLI-based network device or API-based cloud service, enabling network teams to quickly build rules and verify compliance.”
- Robust Validation Engine: “Includes a robust compliance and validation engine, as well as multiple tools for defining the desired state and remediating out-of-compliance configurations.”
- Rapid Time to Value: “SaaS platform allows organizations to evaluate IAP in a full, feature-rich cloud environment with training courses designed to accelerate onboarding and time to value.”
How Itential Differentiates from the Competition
Pleased as we are to be among the best and brightest, the team at Itential continues to work tirelessly to develop a platform that not only meets the table stakes for the market, but significantly exceeds the expectations of our customers. Unlike the competitors mentioned in the report, Itential Automation Platform distinguishes itself in several key areas, particularly:
- API Validation: Per the report, “ltential’s APl-first approach extends validation beyond CLI environments to include any environment that can be addressed via an API.”
- Ease of Integration: “Purpose-built for workflow automation, ltential’s ‘no-code integration with anything’ allows customers to build their own integrations for free.”
- Modular Framework: “ltential’s modular framework integrates seamlessly with orchestration and automation capabilities enabling users to incorporate validation functionality into other orchestration flows.”
The Importance of Integrating Validation with Network Automation & Orchestration
For organizations to successfully deliver automation and orchestration at scale, validation is necessary to integrate into any automated network change process. Automation will dramatically increase the number of network changes that occur; however those changes must not impact network performance, reliability, or security.
With the Itential Automation Platform, validation is available in every automation workflow, gaining a powerful preventative method that can identify issues in proposed network changes before they are applied to the network. This ensures that the network remains in compliance, minimizing risk and maximizing uptime and performance.
Again, for Itential to be among this list of networking industry stalwarts is a testament to the hard work and innovation from our team and to the support of our customers. Choosing the appropriate validation solution can be a challenge, and most organizations have very specific needs. As we enter 2023, Itential is well-equipped to fulfill both the short-term validation requirements and the long-term automation strategies of most enterprises.
To see Itential’s network validation capabilities in action, check out this demo or click here to test drive it for yourself.
Kristen H. Rachels
Chief Marketing Officer ‐ Itential
Kristen serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Itential, leading their go-to-market strategy and execution to accelerate the adoption and expansion of the company’s products and services.
