Today’s Modern Campus Network
Campus networks have evolved in performance and complexity as the needs and requirements of users have increased. Traditional wired network solutions for the campus have started to take on more complex architectures that help deliver stability, performance, and security to users. Modern campus wireless solutions have achieved higher performance, reliability, and security by adopting a controller to act as a single brain for the wireless domain. These changes have made deploying, maintaining, and securing the modern campus network more of a challenge than in the past. Network teams must ensure that complex network configurations are deployed quickly and error-free and changes made to that infrastructure later are correct and never violate security standards.
Automating & Orchestrating Campus Networks
Automation and orchestration can help in deploying new campus IDF and MDF network switches and routers faster and with fewer errors. Orchestrating network changes across wired and wireless networks helps teams get the changes done more quickly, ensure compliance, and free teams from opening, updating, and closing change request tickets.
Outcomes
Deploy Faster
Optimize time to deploy new routers, switches, and wireless access points.
Reduce Change Backlog
Orchestrate day-to-day network changes at scale, increasing efficiency and mitigating manual errors.
Reduce Security Risks
Incorporate compliance validation to reduce security risks.
Document Changes
Document changes by orchestrating change request process.
Itential Campus Automation & Orchestration Use Cases
Streamline Day 0/1 Device Onboarding & Deployment
Zero-touch deployment and provisioning for IDF and MDF devices, routers, switches, and wireless controllers and access points.
Device Onboarding
Software Upgrades
Service Turn-Up & Turn-Down
Router Provisioning
Simplify Day 2 Change Management
Orchestration of maintenance windows and configuration changes, including fully automated pre- and post-checks with intelligent analytics.
Software Upgrades
VLAN & Port Changes
Firewall Updates
Load Balancer Updates
DNS Updates
Port Turn Ups
Ensure Configuration Standardization & Compliance
Configuration compliance checks, automated remediation, and network change validation for any campus network devices, routers, switches, or wireless controller and access points.
Network Configuration Management
Firewall Configuration Management
Port Turn Up Configuration Changes
Orchestrate Across Multi-Domain, Multi-Vendor Networks
Itential mitigates the complexity of managing multiple network types and vendors by consuming and federating the systems and networks managed by those systems, abstracting the complexity from the user for simplified orchestration.
Multi-Domain Orchestration (ITSM, IPAM, etc.)
Tier 1 Service Provider Achieves 4,400% Increase in Router Upgrades Per Cycle with Itential
“By leveraging Itential to automate our router upgrades, we were able to accelerate our cycle time per router, from 4 hours to 45 minutes. Without Itential, we would not have been able to perform the necessary upgrades required each year.”
Senior Manager, Network Planning, Tier 1 Service Provider
Results Snapshot
Routers Upgraded in Maintenance Window
Increased 4,440%
Cycle Time per Router Reduced
From 4 Hours to 45 Mins
Cost Savings
$200K per Upgrade Cycle
Rapid Automation & Orchestration of Campus Networks with the Itential Platform
Itential supports automation and orchestration across all major network vendor’s campus solutions, whether they are using traditional CLI-based configurations or whether configuration is accomplished using GUI dashboards on a controller, like most wireless solutions today. Whether you are deploying all new campus routers, switches, and access-points or making changes to existing networks, you can quickly build innovative orchestrated workflows for any use case and easily integrate with your organization’s IT systems such as ServiceNow or Infoblox, to save more time and reduce manual effort.
Itential helps your team overcome the skills gap of automation and orchestration with the following features:
Low-Code Workflow Canvas
Drag-and-drop workflow canvas for network engineers and non-programmers to build integrated workflows that enable the orchestration of any CLI-based network devices and API cloud services.
Configuration Management & Validation
Federate inventory of network CLI devices and API services together for easy visibility and manage configurations of anything in the inventory. Quickly create and manage Golden Configuration templates that can be used to validate changes for compliance against traditional CLI devices and modern API services.
Bring Your Own Automation
Whether it’s using Python, Ansible, Terraform or any other technology, Itential allows you to take any existing automations and integrate them into the Itential Platform so they can be augmented with pre- and post-check processes and integrated with any common IT systems like ServiceNow, Infoblox, and Slack.
No-Code Integration with Everything
Integrate operational processes and connect your entire IT ecosystem such as ticketing, change management, inventory, network applications (DNS, monitoring, load balancing), IPAMs, ITSMs, messaging and more with Itential’s library of open integrations to 300+ systems.
Pre-Built Workflows for Campus Use Cases
Increase the networking team’s productivity right out the gate by leveraging orchestrations from Itential’s growing library of Pre-Built Workflows and assets. The library includes many ready-to-run campus automations like software upgrades, device onboarding, and network device changes that can help network teams overcome change backlog and free up more time.
Learn More with Itential Content
Blogs
- More Impact, Same Effort: Orchestrating Your Automations
- What’s the Difference Between Network Automation & Network Orchestration?
- Automating Network Changes from Ticket Creation to Ticket Closure
- Dispelling 3 Common Network Automation Myths
- Understanding the Direct & Indirect Value Drivers of Network Automation
- Why Build AND Buy Is the Model for Network Automation Success
- operationalizing network automation & enabling team-oriented development with torero
Other Resources
- Network Automation & Orchestration Evaluation Guide
- Deutsche Telekom Automates Software Upgrades, Increases Operational Efficiency with Itential
- Itential Automation Platform Demo Overview
- Major U.S. Airline Leverages Itential to Automate Software Upgrades, Reduces Time from 4 Months to 4 Hours
- How to Publish & Expose Network Automations as a Service with Itential
- Building Network Automations: Introduction to Itential’s New Workflow Canvas
Get Started with Itential
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