GigaOm Outlines Importance of NetDevOps, Names Itential Fast Moving Leader

In many of the “Networking Trends for 2023” pieces that seem to have sprung up everywhere with the turn of the year (including our own), we’re seeing lots of emphasis on NetDevOps. This approach, taking DevOps methods and best practices and translating them to suit network operations, is seen as a vital step for network teams to be able to face their always-growing deluge of network changes and configuration management operations.

One of the recent DevOps influences is a pronounced “shift left” in technology infrastructure and development. More organizations are looking to adopt a strategy to create more dynamic, automated systems and speed development time by including business goals, testing, and other key concerns earlier, or further “left,” in the development cycle.

With this shift left gaining steady momentum in the world of networking, the recent Radar Report for NetDevOps from GigaOm comes at an ideal time. The report, which names Itential as a market leader in the space, emphasizes NetDevOps as “a new sector evolving to meet the needs of agile networking” and evaluates the landscape “based on the following table stakes…Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), automated workflows, state awareness, infrastructure as code (IaC), policy creation, on-demand elasticity, and self-service access.” You can check out the full report here.

The market of innovative solutions in the NetDevOps sector has rapidly matured, and GigaOm “anticipate[s] rapid evolution in the next 18 to 36 months.” As it stands, the top of the market is a combination of bleeding-edge startups and some of the most established names in networking. I’m thrilled that Itential is among the group of companies that are establishing a new and critical market for NetDevOps, and it’s a strong validation of our successful growth and innovative approach to be considered one of just six “leaders” in the category.

In its overview of the Itential Automation Platform (IAP), GigaOm shares the key reasons why they identified Itential as a top leader in NetDevOps:

• Flexibility: Purpose-built for workflow automation, Itential’s flexible and versatile on-premises and SaaS approaches provide out-of-the-box, customizable, and reusable components to simplify and accelerate multi-vendor network automation initiatives.
• Modular Architecture: Rather than forcing customers to separate the network and system models upon which it acts, Itential federates data and logic and models workflows independently of underlying network products, providing an open, module architecture incorporating existing management platforms and tools.
• 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 for Physical & Cloud Networks: Simplifies the building of Golden Configurations for CLI-based network device or API-based cloud services, enabling network and cloud teams to quickly build rules and verify compliance.
• Rapid Time to Value: SaaS platform allows organizations to evaluate Itential in a full, feature-rich cloud environment with training courses designed to accelerate onboarding and time to value.
• API-First Integration: By utilizing APIs to integrate with network platforms, ITSM solutions, and other technologies in your infrastructure, Itential can seamlessly work across your current network and can flexibly adapt when you adopt new network tools and platforms.
• CI/CD Pipelines: Itential enables users to incorporate CI/CD pipelines into network automation and orchestration efforts. You can incorporate pipeline calls to the platform to execute automated network changes during testing and deployment, and Itential automation assets can be managed via CI/CD pipelines for code control, versioning, and testing.

Unique Ways Itential Supports NetDevOps and Enables Network Infrastructure as Code

The Itential Automation Platform was designed to be used by developers and network engineers without specific engineering knowledge or code-writing capabilities. Its advanced integration capabilities allow for easy integration with any IT systems, network technologies, orchestration tools, and custom-built scripts for end-to-end network automation and easy integration with CI/CD pipelines and toolchains.

Some examples of how Itential can enable this transformation, which is built on the fundamental operational model that integrates networking, DevOps, and IT, include:

• NetOps Infrastructure as Code via Itential Automation Workflows: NetOps teams can design, build, and publish automations using the Itential Automation Platform’s low-code and no-code workflow capabilities.
• NetDevOps Infrastructure as Code via CI/CD Pipelines with Itential: Developers can incorporate pipeline calls to the Itential Automation Platform to execute automated/orchestrated network changes during testing and deployment phases. Additionally, Itential assets like workflows, templates, forms, and data transformation can be managed via CI/CD pipelines for code control, versioning, and testing of network automations and orchestrations.
• CI/CD Pipelines Orchestrate Network Automation via Itential’s APIs: Leverage CI/CD pipelines to consume atomic network capabilities and features from the Itential Automation Platform.
• Ease of Integration: Onboard existing NetDevOps assets and incorporate them into more complex workflows and orchestration activities with the robust CLI and script-based technology support in the Itential Automation Gateway (IAG).
• Implementation Flexibility: Access over 300 open-source, pre-built adapters for common network and IT systems available out-of-the-box, enabling Itential to automatically generate objects related to third-party systems when integrated and present those objects for end-to-end network configuration, compliance, and automation.
• Broad Support for Use Cases and Technologies: See the value of automation with powerful integration capabilities and a broad suite of tools for end-to-end automation that deliver value and drive efficiency for any domain and any use case across your network.

With an influx of competition expected to enter the NetDevOps market in the coming years, our team is committed to developing a platform that continues to exceed the table stakes GigaOm and other market analysts have set. The recognition from GigaOm is a testament to the increasingly important NetDevOps movement and the unique way Itential equips networking teams with the tools they need to treat network infrastructure like software.

To dive deeper into how to put this into practice, check out a recent webinar our CTO Chris Wade held with Futuriom’s Chief Analyst Scott Raynovich – in this talk, the pair explore NetDevOps including its history, the elements that make it up, and the organizational, cultural, and technical challenges its adoption can present. Additionally, Itential and Futuriom partnered up to publish a white paper on the subject, which you can download and read here.