Network Orchestration
Orchestrate across hybrid, multi-cloud network and automation domains.
Your Challenges
Enterprises have adopted a hybrid model of operation with applications and services hosted in both on-prem data centers and multiple cloud environments. With more applications and services migrating to the cloud, network teams are faced with key challenges around technology integration, skills, and complexity associated with managing bespoke automation domain silos.
Trends driving the evolution from automation to orchestration:
- Shift to the cloud creates new complexity in managing workloads across various on-prem and cloud technologies.
- Requirements to centralize and orchestrate automation across siloed network domains and tools.
- Inability to integrate technology across public cloud, private cloud, and traditional enterprise infrastructure.
- Increased business needs to deliver services same day.
- Lack of skills to support diverse and changing environments.
- Need for self-service consumption of network services from external systems and teams.
Why Orchestration is Needed to Scale Automation
Most network teams are doing some form of task automation, such as writing scripts to automate a single activity such as a configuration change or utilizing controllers such as SD-WAN and data center management tools. While this type of narrow-scope automation is worthwhile, it has marginal benefit. Domain automation provides modest increases in productivity at the individual engineer level within that domain but has minimal impact on the overall business because it fails to incorporate a broad enough set of activities to reduce overall effort and end-to-end process execution times.
To expand and scale automation strategies, network teams need to shift thinking from tools and scripting and focus on an end-to-end orchestration-centric approach.
Itential’s Unique Network Orchestration Capabilities
Itential is the only orchestration platform built to support hybrid multi-cloud network infrastructure, making it easy for enterprise organizations to standardize and maintain network configuration and compliance, reduce manual operations, and simplify hybrid multi-cloud network management. The Itential Platform is an enterprise-grade, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), low-code solution that seamlessly integrates with any IT system, network, and cloud technologies and any existing automation tools, enabling end-to-end closed-loop process orchestration. With over 300+ Pre-Built Automations for top use cases and integrations to any system, Itential enables enterprise teams to maximize ROI on existing investments and start automating quickly.
Increase the Value of Your Existing Automations
The Itential Platform provides out-of-the-box functionality for integrating with all existing network automation tools and technologies across every domain – from controllers to custom code. With Itential, leverage and extend existing investments in automation technology and skillsets, while increasing the value and usage of these assets by leveraging them in orchestration workflows and exposing them securely so other teams, programs, and platforms can utilize them.
Rapid Integration & Data Transformation Capabilities
Itential’s API-first, integration approach to network orchestration is redefining how we manage complex, distributed networks. The Itential Platform is the only solution that can integrate with any network (physical, virtual, and cloud) or automation tool, and any IT system, and transform data between them into a common language (JSON) delivering a unified, real-time federated view of your network resources. Our patented approach simplifies network orchestration in that users do not need to learn multiple technology types and can reduce time and effort in deploying, managing, and maintaining network infrastructure.
Low-Code Workflow Flexibility
The Itential Platform is built on a true low-code paradigm, not only for creation of integrations but also for designing of automation/orchestration workflows. Network teams can easily design and build orchestrations using Itential’s low-code, drag-and-drop workflow canvas for rapidly creating visual workflows that connect automation domains and IT systems for closed-loop automation – saving significant time and reducing the effort to enable rapid orchestration flow creation and management.
Ease of Use & Rapid Time to Value
Itential maintains an open source repository of pre-built workflow orchestrations that end users can deploy immediately, enabling anyone, regardless of skillset, to participate directly in the development, testing, and operation of network orchestrations. These out-of-the-box pre-builts enable users to build flexible and reusable content pieces that can be standardized and centralized for maximum control and compliance for end-to-end orchestration.
Orchestration-as-a-Service
The Itential Platform is built on a modern technology stack designed to scale up to the largest networks in the world. Itential’s fully managed cloud offering is the fastest way to implement orchestration at scale and our SaaS platform eliminates all manual software and infrastructure maintenance services, so you can deploy quickly and get started in minutes. Additionally, Itential includes Pre-Built Automations and Integrations with most popular CI/CD tools, enabling Itential users to easily create orchestration CI/CD pipelines for greater scale and faster service introduction.
Business-Value Focused
The Itential Platform provides visibility to the orchestration environment in real-time, enabling teams to define and track metrics that quantify the business value of the system. Organizations can measure and optimize their orchestrations to maximize the impact to the business. Additionally, Itential customers experience immediate return on investment and greater velocity gains through orchestrating network operations.
Global Manufacturing Company Achieves Zero Trust Networking by Orchestrating IT Service Requests with Itential
This global manufacturing company had a growing workforce and numerous facilities worldwide and found that a reliance on scattered pockets of automation scripts to provision new systems posed a significant scalability challenge. They adopted Itential to orchestrate end-to-end processes saving 834 manual hours and automating 1670+ ticket requests per year, reducing their time to fulfill network requests from days to just minutes.
“We would have never been able achieve zero trust networking without the help of Itential. Their platform’s robust and flexible integration capabilities are what set them apart, providing our team with the tools they need to orchestrate entire processes in our own ecosystem.”
Senior Network Director, Global Manufacturing Company
Frequently Asked Questions
How is network orchestration different from simple task automation?
Automation executes single tasks, like pushing a config change or running a script. Orchestration coordinates multiple tasks across domains and systems, validating requests, invoking the right tools (Ansible, controllers, cloud APIs), enforcing policies, and updating ITSM. This ensures safe, consistent, end-to-end change.
Why is multi-domain orchestration necessary now?
Networks span physical, virtual, cloud, and SDN environments. Domain-specific tools automate their silos, but without orchestration, changes require manual coordination across teams. Orchestration unifies workflows across domains to reduce errors, delays, and outages.
How does Itential integrate with existing automation tools?
You don’t throw anything away. Itential ingests Ansible Playbooks, Python scripts, Terraform plans, and controller APIs as workflow steps. This lets you standardize and reuse existing automations inside orchestrated, governed processes.
What is “low-code workflow flexibility”?
It’s a drag-and-drop design canvas where network engineers can assemble workflows without needing to be full developers. You can visually connect steps like pre-checks, script execution, API calls, and approvals, while still supporting custom code where needed.
How does orchestration improve compliance and audit readiness?
Workflows include pre-change validations, golden config checks, and post-change verifications. Every step is logged with user, timestamp, and result. Drift detection and rollback are built-in, so audits can be answered with evidence instead of manual effort.
Can workflows be exposed to other teams for self-service?
Yes. Itential lets you publish orchestration workflows as self-service catalog items or APIs, so developers, NOC, or SecOps teams can request network changes under governance without direct device access.
What deployment options are available for orchestration?
Itential supports both SaaS (for faster adoption and minimal infra management) and on-premises deployments (for strict regulatory or security environments). Gateways ensure execution happens securely near the devices.
How quickly do organizations see value with orchestration?
Most customers start with 1–2 workflows (like VLAN provisioning or firewall changes) and see measurable cycle-time reductions within weeks. Cross-domain orchestrations (data center + WAN + cloud) typically prove ROI in 3–6 months.
What metrics should we measure to show orchestration ROI?
Key metrics include request-to-fulfillment cycle time, number of manual touchpoints avoided, change failure rate, drift incidents, and audit prep hours. Customers also track adoption via number of workflows published and self-service requests executed.
How does orchestration support AI Agents or AI-driven automation?
AI Agents can suggest or request changes, but through Itential they must pass through governed orchestration workflows. That means every AI-triggered action is validated, approved, logged, and rollback-ready, avoiding the risks of scripts being run unchecked.
Learn More with Itential Content
Blogs
- Building Scalable Systems to Evolve from Automation to Orchestration for a FinTech Network
- How Security, Application, & Network Teams Can Reap the Rewards of a Centralized Orchestration Platform
- More Impact, Same Effort: Orchestrating Your Automations
- High-Code + Low-Code: How Network Teams Can Have the Best of Both Worlds for Network Automation
- Why Build AND Buy Is the Model for Network Automation Success
- From Consumer to Producer: Why It’s Time for a New Era in Network Automation
- Scaling Network Automation: Scripts vs. Integrated Workflows
- The Team Sport of Deploying, Managing, & Scaling Application Infrastructure
- Why Advanced Enterprise Organizations Should Invest in a Network Orchestration Platform
Other Resources
- Orchestrate Your Network Automations: Building Workflows to Integrate with your IT Ecosystem (NFD 36)
- EMA Research: From Scripts to Platforms – The Path to Scalable Network Automation
- Network Automation & Orchestration Maturity Model
- Network Automation vs. Network Orchestration
- S&P Global Delivers Same Day Network Services Through Self-Service Automation with Itential
- The Complete Guide to Evaluating Orchestration Platforms
- Packet Pushers: Innovating Healthcare IT – Automating NetOps at RUSH University Medical Center
- Evolving the Network Automation Journey from Python to Platforms @ NAF AutoCon0
- How to Audit Network Security Vulnerabilities from Cisco PSIRTs with Itential’s Automated Configuration Compliance