As applications and services are becoming more complex, distributed, and require connectivity and policy enforcement across a diversity of domains such as Cloud, SD-WAN, Data Center, Wireless, and Network Applications, the management of these network concepts requires us to re-think how we have traditionally managed networks.
As a result, organizations and even entire industries are slowly starting to realize why they must invest in network automation in order to optimize network and infrastructure operations, lower costs, and simplify and/or increase agility in an effort to support new levels of innovation and company growth.
With network complexity increasing, network automation and orchestration tools have evolved from niche tools to robust solutions that are advancing network programmability and transformation. To help infrastructure leaders identify the right tools needed to support this evolution, Gartner released their 2020 Market Guide for Network Automation and Orchestration Tools that identifies various approaches, use cases, and solutions. With that, Gartner suggests the following for network infrastructure leaders looking to deliver innovation and evolve how they manage and operate their networks:
- Deliver improved network agility to support organizational requirements by focusing on network automation and orchestration and measuring the relevant business outcomes.
- Enhance their network automation and orchestration initiatives by selecting tools and refreshing infrastructure that expose as much functionality as possible via APIs.
- Accelerate their automation/orchestration transition by identifying the necessary orchestration-related culture issues and skills missing from their organization and choosing vendors that will help fill those gaps, as well as adjusting training and hiring patterns.
- Accelerate digital and cloud initiatives by treating network automation and orchestration as a strategic priority and investing in personnel and tooling accordingly.
- Mature automation and orchestration initiatives by implementing complementary tools and managing them with a view toward enabling AIOps leading to improved digital activities.
Itential is pleased to have been included in the Market Guide as a “Pure-Play Network Orchestration Vendor” to consider when evaluating automation solutions or approaches. Itential’s API-first approach to automation and orchestration is re-defining how networks are managed and our products enable organizations to realize operational efficiency regardless of where they are in their automation journey. The Itential Automation Platform was purpose-built to simplify the management of multi-domain and multi-vendor networks, by providing a low-code environment that enables network engineers and IT to participate in automation and easily bridge the gap between their legacy and new technologies so that organizations can accelerate their digital transformation initiatives.
To learn more about the key drivers of network automation, how you can drive value, and how to evaluate and select the right vendor, read my blog on the Gartner Market Guide here. To learn more about Itential, schedule a meeting with one of our automation experts here.
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.