It is a pretty well-known fact by now that the internet outage on Nov 6, 2017 was a direct result of a configuration error. What is not known is just how such a common occurrence in the network, a config change, could have been allowed to happen at a time and in such a way that it caused such a massive problem across the country.
Every time an engineer touches the network using the common processes and techniques in place today this kind of thing can happen. That doesn’t mean that every config change could impact the entire country, of course, but for the branch office you take down or outage in a market that may impact multiple customers it matters a lot.
This is a core reason that we believe network automation can’t just be copying what you do today and making it happen fast. We also don’t think your focus should be solely on how you recover from a config induced outage when it happens, but instead should consider how to properly manage your network configuration in such a way as to prevent these things happening in the first place.
Automation for automation’s sake is not the right way. Intelligent automation that considers the device configurations, the service configurations, and the overall operational environment you work within is the right way to automate your network.
The Itential approach to network automation is based on this simple, yet very powerful concept. We consider your network and operational environment and account for the needs of each. The Itential Network Automation solution then leverages your existing tools that manage devices and services, augmented by our purpose-built apps for Config Management, Service Management, and MOP automation, to provide Operational Models that include key items such as:
- Dry runs of config changes so you can be sure what a change will do to the network once committed BEFORE you have to perform that commit
- Approval processes to ensure that not only is a change being done with full knowledge and approval, but changes are documented to a level that it is immediately clear what should be done to recover from any issues encountered
- An ability to run compliance reports against the network to identify potential issues due to config inaccuracy before those issues manifest into outages
- A common toolset to manage your network from a fulfillment and assurance perspective, with regard to network configuration
- And many more…
To find out more, Contact Us. Let us help you realize your full potential when it comes to intelligently automating your network!