Modern networks are under unprecedented pressure to deliver agility, security, and operational efficiency. For network leaders, traditional manual approaches can’t keep up with the pace of change or the complexity of today’s hybrid environments. Enter NetDevOps — by applying DevOps principles to network operations, organizations can automate, orchestrate, and secure their networks at scale.
Learn what NetDevOps is, why it matters, and how to assess and accelerate your organization’s network automation journey.
NetDevOps is the application of DevOps principles — automation, collaboration and continuous delivery — to network operations. Traditional network automation often relies on isolated scripts or manual processes. NetDevOps treats the network as code, allowing rapid, reliable, and repeatable changes. This approach is essential for keeping pace with today’s dynamic, application-centric environments.
Modern network operations teams (NetOps) are under pressure as enterprise networks become more complex, dynamic, and business-critical. Several trends are driving the need for a new approach.
Over 80% of network problems stem from improper configuration and change management. This high error rate is a direct result of:
Lack of time to test network component updates: As network vendors adopt agile development processes, new versions of operating systems and applications are being delivered at a much-increased pace compared to several years ago. Most IT organizations cannot completely test one version before the next version arrives. This creates risks:
Networks are becoming more dynamic, and traditional, manual approaches to network management — like CLI-based configuration, spreadsheet tracking, and ad hoc troubleshooting — are no longer sustainable. Challenges include:
NetDevOps meets these challenges by automating change management, improving visibility, and supporting continuous validation.
NetDevOps is built on a foundation of modern IT principles that reimagine how networks are managed, automated, and aligned with business objectives. The following pillars are essential for any organization that wants to modernize its network operations:
Infrastructure as code is a DevOps concept for managing and provisioning infrastructure with automation to increase repeatability in operations for network administration and management. This enables quicker changes and lowers risk in change cycles with a better understanding of good and known states and configurations.
This approach has several advantages:
To automate network management, IaC leverages no-code and low-code automation and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and application programming interface (API) programmability to streamline network workflows, including change management. No-code and low-code automation platforms democratize network automation by making it accessible to a broader range of users, not only those with advanced scripting skills. Benefits include:
Intent-based networking takes automation a step further by allowing organizations to define the intent of the network. The system then continuously validates and enforces this state and aligns with business requirements. Key aspects include:
Reducing risk in application management while streamlining performance and delivery requires a cultural shift in operations to embrace the goals and reap the benefits of automation.
One of the common goals of NetDevOps is bringing new services and offerings rapidly to market. As operational teams work together to advance this goal through NetDevOps, they can benefit from more streamlined workflows, including change management. Network automation creates predictable, protected, and defendable change.
Through understanding of the network’s state, condition, topology, and performance, automation can build in validation network checks to ensure application flows are preserved and maintained across the network.
Businesses need to craft a more intelligent, repeatable, and scalable operational approach that is tightly alig ned with their needs. No-code intent-based network automation addresses this by improving service availability while significantly reducing business risk, operational costs, outages, and escalations.
Democratizing existing subject matter expertise in NetOps along with a live digital twin of the entire hybrid network makes it easier to quickly adopt and benefit from automation. Platforms can also capture troubleshooting steps and make those resolutions repeatable and shareable across any organization without coding or developers.
Developer-dependent, script-heavy approaches are no longer agile enough to scale with business needs. Automation scales network operations much more efficiently by leveraging programmable replication of intents.
Looking at automation as scalable units in a modular system is a more logical way to structure operational needs for scale. This can be achieved readily by building template-based automation units and replicating them on demand across all devices that meet specific criteria in any hybrid multi-vendor network.
NetBrain can help you automate, secure, and future-proof your network — without the complexity. A few key advantages of our solution include:
To see how NetBrain can improve your workflows, reach out today to schedule a demo!
