The Data Center Evolution
The data center has evolved to become a critical part of enterprise infrastructure by hosting critical services, ensuring a secure environment for data, and providing high performance connectivity to users. Data centers are built using a complex mix of network hardware, software overlays, underlays, and controllers that must be managed and secured despite the constant changes required due to enterprise applications and services. This is placing an increased burden on network operations teams to manage the creation of, and ongoing changes associated with, complex and precise configurations. Manual methods of managing network operations are slowing down innovation and inhibiting the network from keeping up with the speed of business. To reach the speed you need, your data center must be agile, and it must be automated.
Automating & Orchestrating Data Center Operations
Orchestrating network changes is necessary to meet the demand for faster deployment of applications and services, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of security. Itential uniquely delivers the ability to automate and orchestrate the deployment of any ongoing changes across all your data center technologies and ensure those changes maintain compliance.
Outcomes
Reduce Security Risks
Incorporate automated compliance validation to reduce security risks that may occur as a result of network changes.
Innovate Faster
Quickly create new orchestrations and easily expand existing automations to include new vendors and technology within the data center.
Increase Velocity of Changes
Deploy and manage changes at scale to enable the network team to do much more in much less time.
Enable Self-Service
Enable end users to order applications in a self-service manner and deliver the necessary infrastructure within minutes.
Itential Data Center Automation & Orchestration Use Cases
Streamline Day 0/1 Device Onboarding & Deployment
Zero-touch deployment and provisioning for top-of-rack devices, routers, switches, and software overlays.
VXLAN & BGP-EVPN Deployments
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
Mitigate Config Drift & Ensure Network Compliance
Automate device backups and bulk configuration changes, standardize all devices configurations with Itential’s Golden Configuration templates and mitigate config drift with automated remediation of configuration on routers and switch fabrics and automations.
Network Configuration Management
Firewall Configuration Management
Port Turn Up Configuration Changes
Orchestrate Across Multi-Domain, Multi-Vendor Networks
Automate network operations across a single domain or extend automation to orchestrate management across multi-domain and multi-vendor networks, integrating with IT systems for full closed-loop orchestration.
Multi-Domain Orchestration (ITSM, IPAM, etc.)
Major U.S. Airline Leverages Itential to Automate Software Upgrades, Reduces Time from 4 Months to 4 Hours
“Before Itential, our best engineer took 4 months to write an Ansible script for upgrades that, with Itential we had working by lunch.”
Manager of Network Engineering, Major U.S. Airline
Results Snapshot
Automation Time Reduced from
4 Months to 4 Hours
Automation Participation
Expanded Across Multiple teams
Cisco IOS Software Upgrades
Orchestrated End-to-End Process
Enhance & Accelerate Data Center Automation with Itential’s Low-Code Orchestration Platform
Itential supports multiple southbound options for interacting with the network and data center elements, including Cisco NSO, Ansible, scripting, Terraform, cloud APIs, and SDN controllers; allowing users to orchestrate even the most complex multi-vendor networks. Users can gain greater velocity for their data center deployments by leveraging the capabilities of the Itential Platform as well as our collection of pre-built components, to immediately start implementing orchestrating in their data centers and can dramatically reduce the time normally associated with development, testing, and deployment of orchestrated workflows.
Users can gain greater velocity for their data center management and operations by leveraging the capabilities of Itential’s automation and orchestration solution such as:
Low-Code Workflow Canvas
Drag-and-drop workflow canvas for network engineers and non-programmers to build integrated workflows that enable the automation of any CLI-based network devices and API cloud services.
Configuration Management & Validation
Orchestrate network device and software overlay configurations with Itential’s federated inventory of network CLI devices and API services together for easy visibility and management. Quickly create and manage Golden Configuration templates that can be used to validate changes for compliance against traditional CLI devices and modern API services.
Leverage Existing Automation
Whether it’s using Python, Ansible, Terraform or any other technology, Itential allows you to take any existing automations and integrate them into Itential’s Platform so they can be augmented with pre-check 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, monitoring tools, and any network technology with Itential’s library of open integrations to 100+ systems.
Pre-Built Workflows for Data Center Use Cases
Increase the networking team’s productivity right out the gate by leveraging automations from Itential’s growing library of Pre-Built Workflows and assets. The library includes many ready-to-run data center orchestrations like software upgrades, EVPN provisioning, and network device changes that can help network teams overcome change backlog and free up more time.
Learn More with Itential Content
Blogs
- Data Center Evolution & The Importance of Infrastructure Orchestration Technology
- Overcoming the Automation Limitations of Network Domain Controllers for VXLAN Data Center Changes
- If You’re Not Automating Your Data Gathering, It’s Time to Start
- More Impact, Same Effort: Orchestrating Your Automations
- NetDevOps, Self-Service, & Evolving the Network Change Process to be Consumable by Everyone
- Scaling Network Automation: Scripts vs. Integrated Workflows
- Automating Network Changes from Ticket Creation to Ticket Closure
Other Resources
- How to Publish & Expose Network Automations as a Service with Itential
- Network Automation & Orchestration Evaluation Guide
- Network Automation vs. Network Orchestration
- Itential Automation Platform Demo Overview
- How Itential Helps NetDevOps Teams to Rapidly Design & Build Network Automations (NFD 31)
- How to Deliver Self-Service Network Automation with Itential & ServiceNow
- Network Automation & Orchestration Maturity Model
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