It's quite easy for network professionals to understand the benefits of automating network operations, such as reducing manual errors and saving time, which provides tactical wins that quickly improve day-to-day operations. Yes, there is still distrust of automated processes, but with more discussion around how to properly de-risk and assure network automation (see, Jeremy Schulman's recent NANOG presentation), the switched-on network engineer of today understands the potential of automation and the importance of exploring and implementing it properly. Or at least, should be curious about what automation could do for them and their team and want to try it out in their network environment.
However, frustratingly, convincing leadership to invest in network automation can be challenging. They may be too removed from operations to properly see the business benefits, too risk averse, or stuck in a mindset that begets stagnation. As Itential's Kristen Rachels recently pointed out, the "biggest inhibitors to maximizing the business benefit of automation were not technical, they were cultural and organizational."
Individual-led automation efforts can be risky without proper buy-in, resulting in inefficiencies, errors, security risks, and team conflicts due to incomplete or inconsistent automation processes. Enterprises must prioritize network automation as a strategic business initiative that deserves the necessary resources and attention to ensure success.
And the fun part? If you're the one who understands this need, it’s on your shoulders to convince leadership that this should be a business priority, and not performed in isolated pockets. Advocating for the best solution can be uncomfortable when an organization is comfortable with the old way of solving problems. To overcome this, framing network automation as a business strategy is key. While a network team frustrated by out-of-date or incomplete documentation sounds like your problem, a user-impacting network outage because of a lack of insight into the network is everyone's problem.
One of the most compelling arguments for automation, of course, is its impact on the bottom line. Significantly reducing manual errors and repetitive tasks, and increasing operational efficiency and productivity translates into substantial time and cost savings for your organization. Network engineers can focus on higher-value tasks, while automation takes care of routine operations. Automation prevents enterprises from misusing their most valuable resource - top talent - on repeatable tasks.
Additionally, automation minimizes the risk of human errors that can result in network outages or downtime, which can result in expensive lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction. On the higher end, the cost of downtime can hit $9000 per minute. When presenting a business case for automation to your boss, emphasize the tangible cost savings and increased productivity that automation can bring to your organization.
In today's ever-evolving threat landscape, network security should be a top priority for organizations. Automation can play a pivotal role in enhancing network security. By automating security processes such as patch management, configuration audits, and threat detection, you can ensure consistent security policies across your network and reduce the risk of human error. Automation also enables rapid response to security incidents, allowing for quicker detection and remediation of security threats. With automated security processes in place, you can strengthen your network's defenses and reduce the risk of security breaches, which can have severe financial, reputational, and legal consequences for your organization. Highlight how automation can bolster your organization's security posture when making a business case for automation to your boss.
Network assurance is a key part of this, and anyone looking into methods of automating their network security should take note of how network assurance can help prevent cybercrime.
Business is fast-paced, and organizations need networks that are agile and scalable to keep up with changing requirements. Automation can help achieve this agility and scalability. By automating network provisioning, configuration management, and deployment of new services, you can accelerate network changes and ensure consistency across your network infrastructure. This allows your organization to respond quickly to changing business needs, such as adding new branches, deploying new applications, or scaling up network capacity.
Automation also enables network engineers to test and validate changes in a controlled environment, reducing the risk of network disruptions. Emphasize the importance of agility and scalability in the modern business landscape and how automation can enable your organization to stay ahead of the competition when presenting a business case for automation to your boss.
S&P Global saw the value of this when faced with a huge merger - here, Guruprasad Ramamoorthy, Global Head of Network Architecture, Engineering, and Operations, explains how automated network diagramming and modeling helped: "We were able to quickly model the behavior that we needed to build a day 1 experience for our employees across companies working on a large and complex merger."
The bottom line
Reduce labor costs associated with firewall management by enabling engineers to work on more strategic tasks. Streamline the change management process, reducing the need for costly downtime during firewall rule updates which can result in increased productivity and revenue generation.
The secure edge
Minimize the risk of human errors resulting in misconfigurations or security vulnerabilities. Ensures the consistent enforcement of rules. Enables rapid response to emerging threats (e.g. malicious IP addresses or suspicious traffic patterns).
The agile future
When new network services are provisioned, firewall rules can be applied consistently and rapidly, regardless of environment (on-prem, cloud) or location.
The bottom line
Network engineers are highly skilled individuals who don’t generally enjoy the tedious task of updating network documentation. Their skills could be better used on strategic tasks.
New team members can understand the network quickly and bring value faster.
The secure edge
Manually updating documentation opens up an organization to a higher rate of human error and continuously out-of-date documentation. This can be dangerous when decisions need to be made quickly; teams relying on incorrect documentation may inadvertently introduce vulnerabilities into the network.
The agile future
In order to grow, or pivot a network management strategy, knowledge of the network must be accurate and easily shared. New team members need up-to-date and accurate documentation to ramp up confidently. A fully documented network makes mergers, acquisitions, migrations, and additions far simpler.
The bottom line
Key metrics like fault isolation time and Mean Time to Resolution will be lowered.
Not only does this mean less likelihood of expensive outages, but also more time for strategic tasks.
The secure edge
Incidents compromising security are solved faster. Fewer vulnerabilities in the first place thanks to consistency in security policy applications and automated updates.
The agile future
Proactive troubleshooting also means fewer network outages and more predictable business continuity as your organization grows and changes.
These are just simple examples to demonstrate how, through keeping (1) budget, (2) security, and (3) agility top of mind, you can succinctly create a compelling case for some simple automation wins that can help change the mindset of slow adopters.
An automated network assurance platform is key in providing the confidence that automation is having the desired effect. Want to try IP Fabric? Here's our free, self-guided demo. Or you can reach out to us to schedule a free tailored demo for a personalized look at network assurance to solve your specific challenges.
It's quite easy for network professionals to understand the benefits of automating network operations, such as reducing manual errors and saving time, which provides tactical wins that quickly improve day-to-day operations. Yes, there is still distrust of automated processes, but with more discussion around how to properly de-risk and assure network automation (see, Jeremy Schulman's recent NANOG presentation), the switched-on network engineer of today understands the potential of automation and the importance of exploring and implementing it properly. Or at least, should be curious about what automation could do for them and their team and want to try it out in their network environment.
However, frustratingly, convincing leadership to invest in network automation can be challenging. They may be too removed from operations to properly see the business benefits, too risk averse, or stuck in a mindset that begets stagnation. As Itential's Kristen Rachels recently pointed out, the "biggest inhibitors to maximizing the business benefit of automation were not technical, they were cultural and organizational."
Individual-led automation efforts can be risky without proper buy-in, resulting in inefficiencies, errors, security risks, and team conflicts due to incomplete or inconsistent automation processes. Enterprises must prioritize network automation as a strategic business initiative that deserves the necessary resources and attention to ensure success.
And the fun part? If you're the one who understands this need, it’s on your shoulders to convince leadership that this should be a business priority, and not performed in isolated pockets. Advocating for the best solution can be uncomfortable when an organization is comfortable with the old way of solving problems. To overcome this, framing network automation as a business strategy is key. While a network team frustrated by out-of-date or incomplete documentation sounds like your problem, a user-impacting network outage because of a lack of insight into the network is everyone's problem.
One of the most compelling arguments for automation, of course, is its impact on the bottom line. Significantly reducing manual errors and repetitive tasks, and increasing operational efficiency and productivity translates into substantial time and cost savings for your organization. Network engineers can focus on higher-value tasks, while automation takes care of routine operations. Automation prevents enterprises from misusing their most valuable resource - top talent - on repeatable tasks.
Additionally, automation minimizes the risk of human errors that can result in network outages or downtime, which can result in expensive lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction. On the higher end, the cost of downtime can hit $9000 per minute. When presenting a business case for automation to your boss, emphasize the tangible cost savings and increased productivity that automation can bring to your organization.
In today's ever-evolving threat landscape, network security should be a top priority for organizations. Automation can play a pivotal role in enhancing network security. By automating security processes such as patch management, configuration audits, and threat detection, you can ensure consistent security policies across your network and reduce the risk of human error. Automation also enables rapid response to security incidents, allowing for quicker detection and remediation of security threats. With automated security processes in place, you can strengthen your network's defenses and reduce the risk of security breaches, which can have severe financial, reputational, and legal consequences for your organization. Highlight how automation can bolster your organization's security posture when making a business case for automation to your boss.
Network assurance is a key part of this, and anyone looking into methods of automating their network security should take note of how network assurance can help prevent cybercrime.
Business is fast-paced, and organizations need networks that are agile and scalable to keep up with changing requirements. Automation can help achieve this agility and scalability. By automating network provisioning, configuration management, and deployment of new services, you can accelerate network changes and ensure consistency across your network infrastructure. This allows your organization to respond quickly to changing business needs, such as adding new branches, deploying new applications, or scaling up network capacity.
Automation also enables network engineers to test and validate changes in a controlled environment, reducing the risk of network disruptions. Emphasize the importance of agility and scalability in the modern business landscape and how automation can enable your organization to stay ahead of the competition when presenting a business case for automation to your boss.
S&P Global saw the value of this when faced with a huge merger - here, Guruprasad Ramamoorthy, Global Head of Network Architecture, Engineering, and Operations, explains how automated network diagramming and modeling helped: "We were able to quickly model the behavior that we needed to build a day 1 experience for our employees across companies working on a large and complex merger."
The bottom line
Reduce labor costs associated with firewall management by enabling engineers to work on more strategic tasks. Streamline the change management process, reducing the need for costly downtime during firewall rule updates which can result in increased productivity and revenue generation.
The secure edge
Minimize the risk of human errors resulting in misconfigurations or security vulnerabilities. Ensures the consistent enforcement of rules. Enables rapid response to emerging threats (e.g. malicious IP addresses or suspicious traffic patterns).
The agile future
When new network services are provisioned, firewall rules can be applied consistently and rapidly, regardless of environment (on-prem, cloud) or location.
The bottom line
Network engineers are highly skilled individuals who don’t generally enjoy the tedious task of updating network documentation. Their skills could be better used on strategic tasks.
New team members can understand the network quickly and bring value faster.
The secure edge
Manually updating documentation opens up an organization to a higher rate of human error and continuously out-of-date documentation. This can be dangerous when decisions need to be made quickly; teams relying on incorrect documentation may inadvertently introduce vulnerabilities into the network.
The agile future
In order to grow, or pivot a network management strategy, knowledge of the network must be accurate and easily shared. New team members need up-to-date and accurate documentation to ramp up confidently. A fully documented network makes mergers, acquisitions, migrations, and additions far simpler.
The bottom line
Key metrics like fault isolation time and Mean Time to Resolution will be lowered.
Not only does this mean less likelihood of expensive outages, but also more time for strategic tasks.
The secure edge
Incidents compromising security are solved faster. Fewer vulnerabilities in the first place thanks to consistency in security policy applications and automated updates.
The agile future
Proactive troubleshooting also means fewer network outages and more predictable business continuity as your organization grows and changes.
These are just simple examples to demonstrate how, through keeping (1) budget, (2) security, and (3) agility top of mind, you can succinctly create a compelling case for some simple automation wins that can help change the mindset of slow adopters.
An automated network assurance platform is key in providing the confidence that automation is having the desired effect. Want to try IP Fabric? Here's our free, self-guided demo. Or you can reach out to us to schedule a free tailored demo for a personalized look at network assurance to solve your specific challenges.
