What is Network Automation?

Network automation is the process of automating the management of a network’s physical and virtual devices using software to maximize efficiency.

What is Network Automation?

Network Automation Definition

Network automation involves replacing manual processes in network administration with software to improve the efficiency and reliability of the network. Companies leverage software to lower operating costs, reduce human errors, and boost productivity.

How Does Network Automation Work?

There are multiple ways to automate a network and its components. However, the two most popular approaches are:

Command-line or script-based automation: You can leverage standard command-line instructions and scripts to automate network components. However, with this approach, the scope of automation is limited to a particular device or module. It also requires network engineers to have a solid understanding of various programming languages. Additionally, automation through the command-line interface (CLI) of network devices is more suitable for standard processes and can fall apart if customized changes are made to the network infrastructure
Automation software: GUI-based automation software is the modern, more efficient way to manage, configure, and provision a network. These tools eliminate manual, time-consuming command-line instructions, automating your network components efficiently and quickly. An automation platform can discover devices, track all network components, and populate the network inventory with important device details, such as IP addresses and the number of ports. Having critical device information in a single, centralized repository enables you to execute several network tasks. You can create standardized configurations, design change templates, and leverage workflows with a modern network automation platform to consolidate and automate network operations

Why Should You Automate Your Network?

Organizations leverage a hybrid IT infrastructure and distributed workloads to ensure the seamless availability of their applications and infrastructure. However, this often leads to complex network configurations and poor visibility across the environment. The growing complexity of networks, combined with manual operations, may result in lengthy and unplanned downtime, hampering business operations. Complex and unresponsive networks also slow down enterprise development and deployment initiatives, which impede your business innovation capabilities.

IT automation can improve network efficiency and reliability by eliminating human errors and inconsistencies that arise from manual processes. You can also cut down on operational costs with automation.

Benefits of Network Automation

Enterprises can realize the following benefits by automating their network operations:

Reduced possibility of human errors: IT automation minimizes the need for manual intervention in complex network processes, hence reducing the likelihood of errors, such as configuration mistakes and typos. A reduction in errors also improves enterprise network resiliency and reliability, allowing you to maintain minimum acceptable service levels in network fault scenarios
Optimized network performance: You can leverage multiple network monitoring tools to help automate tasks such as network capacity forecasting to enhance your network performance. These tools regularly monitor and oversee the health of your network devices, alerting network administrators to errors such as excessive resource usage, duplicate IP addresses, and missing routes. Receiving timely alerts can optimize your network performance and accelerate service delivery
Lowered IT costs: Automation eliminates the additional time, resources, and manual effort required for network administration. This lowers the cost of IT maintenance and management in your enterprise, and automating networks keeps IT staff away from the repetitive, low-value tasks associated with network administration. You can then use the time saved to focus on strategic initiatives capable of driving productivity and innovation in your business
Deepened insights and network control: Automation provides greater visibility into network operations by helping identify and troubleshoot existing issues and predict future vulnerabilities faster. It also supports complex network analysis, correlating data from various sources, including switches, routers, and configuration files. It gives you the ability to control and adjust your network operations as required
Simplified network management: You can simplify network administration processes with IT automation. Manual network operations are resource- and time-intensive and challenging to perform regularly. Relying on automation can help you implement network configuration and change management tasks efficiently and consistently. It also reduces the risk of network downtime and ensures increased availability during peak business hours. Additionally, automation enables you to easily apply mass configuration changes to network components with minimal effort, making management faster and more efficient

What Is Network Configuration Automation?

Network configuration automation refers to the use of software for supervising and automating various device configuration management activities—from device discovery to compliance auditing—in a network.

You can leverage network configuration management software to automate bulk configuration changes to network devices, monitor those changes in real time, and receive alerts for unauthorized changes. For instance, automation software can roll out a blanket password change across your entire enterprise network in the event of a password breach. Such software enables you to create standardized device configurations and design change templates, accelerating network configuration and change management processes.

Types of Tools for Network Automation

There are various network automation tools designed to automate a network. These tools may be vendor-specific or vendor-agnostic.

Vendor-specific software can simplify network management and automation. However, for companies leveraging multi-vendor products, it can be difficult and costly to invest in such software.

In contrast, GUI-based platforms can manage all devices in a network, regardless of the vendor. These modern network configuration and automation platforms have easy-to-use interfaces and are more cost-effective in the long term than their vendor-specific counterparts. These advanced platforms easily replace different types of proprietary network management devices installed in your enterprise environment.

Below are the key features, benefits, and use cases of these automation solutions:

Schedule network configuration backups automatically: You can back up configurations from network devices such as routers and switches using network configuration automation and change management software. These tools give you the flexibility to customize the time of the backup, leveraging built-in Trivial FTP (TFTP) servers to ensure business continuity during peak hours
Execute bulk configuration changes across the network: With automation tools, it’s easy to implement bulk changes on network devices. You can change templates, standardize configurations, and roll back to previous stable configurations if you encounter errors due to bulk changes. You can also roll out these changes or configurations to newly installed network devices as needed
Ensure bullet-grade network security: Network configuration management software can provide timely alerts for unauthorized configuration changes to your network devices. Subsequently, it can fix those errors to eliminate possible security breaches or network failures. These tools can continuously monitor your network devices to scan for firmware vulnerabilities and eliminate them via remote upgrades to counter potential threats
Generate device information and configuration reports: Automation software can also generate insightful reports in multiple formats about your overall network performance and send them to your email account. Then, it can dive deep into these actionable reports to analyze your network’s shortcomings or potential vulnerabilities and fix them accordingly
Support multi-vendor network devices: Modern automation platforms can easily manage a multitude of network devices from different vendors. Out-of-the-box support for major network device vendors can help companies improve their network administration efficiency and reduce operational costs
Demonstrate network compliance: You can use automation tools for auditing device configurations and ensuring compliance with internal security policies and standards, such as DISA STIG, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. Detecting vulnerabilities across the network and fixing them via bulk change becomes simpler with regular audits using automation tools

Future Trends in Network Automation

Network automation is evolving rapidly, driven by several emerging trends and continuous innovation. Here are the key areas to watch:

Hyperautomation: This approach involves integrating multiple advanced technologies to automate complex processes. In networking, this means combining tools such as robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI) to manage and optimize network operations
Continuous innovation: The field of network automation is marked by ongoing innovation, driven by the need to address new challenges and leverage emerging technologies. Some areas of focus include:

Edge computing: As more data is processed at the network edge, automation is crucial for managing the increased complexity and ensuring low latency
5G networks: The deployment of 5G networks requires advanced automation to manage high speeds, low latency, and diverse use cases, such as Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles
Zero trust architecture: This strategy involves integrating automation with zero trust principles to enhance security by continuously verifying and monitoring network access and activities

These trends and future directions are shaping the next generation of network automation, promising more intelligent, efficient, and secure network environments.

Practical Implications of Network Automation

Analytics: Network automation tools collect and analyze vast amounts of data from various network devices and applications. This data is used to gain insights into network performance, user behavior, and potential issues. Continuous monitoring of network metrics allows for real-time analysis and quick decision-making. Using ML to predict future network behavior and potential issues enables proactive management
Anomaly detection: AI and ML algorithms detect deviations from normal network behavior, identifying potential security threats or performance issues. Systems automatically generate alerts when anomalies are detected, allowing for rapid response
Automation labs: Automation labs provide a controlled environment for testing and validating new network configurations and policies. Simulating real-world scenarios ensures automated processes work as intended. Integrating automation into the continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline streamlines testing and deployment processes
End-to-end user experiences: This involves ensuring consistent and reliable connectivity for users across different network segments and devices. Automating network policies to adapt to user needs and preferences enhances the overall user experience
Multi-vendor environments: Network automation tools that can work across different vendors create a unified and consistent management approach. This can be achieved by using open standards and APIs to integrate with multiple vendors' devices and software
Network configuration: These tools automatically configure network devices based on predefined policies and templates. They help automate the initial setup and configure new network devices without requiring manual intervention
Network device configurations: Scripts and templates can be used to standardize and automate the configuration of network devices. They automatically validate configurations to ensure they meet security and performance standards
Performance optimization: This involves automating the management of network traffic to optimize bandwidth usage and reduce congestion. Implementing automated quality of service policies prioritizes critical traffic, ensuring optimal performance

What is Network Automation?

Network Automation Definition
Network automation involves replacing manual processes in network administration with software to improve the efficiency and reliability of the network. Companies leverage software to lower operating costs, reduce human errors, and boost productivity.
How Does Network Automation Work?
There are multiple ways to automate a network and its components. However, the two most popular approaches are:
Command-line or script-based automation: You can leverage standard command-line instructions and scripts to automate network components. However, with this approach, the scope of automation is limited to a particular device or module. It also requires network engineers to have a solid understanding of various programming languages. Additionally, automation through the command-line interface (CLI) of network devices is more suitable for standard processes and can fall apart if customized changes are made to the network infrastructure
Automation software: GUI-based automation software is the modern, more efficient way to manage, configure, and provision a network. These tools eliminate manual, time-consuming command-line instructions, automating your network components efficiently and quickly. An automation platform can discover devices, track all network components, and populate the network inventory with important device details, such as IP addresses and the number of ports. Having critical device information in a single, centralized repository enables you to execute several network tasks. You can create standardized configurations, design change templates, and leverage workflows with a modern network automation platform to consolidate and automate network operations
Why Should You Automate Your Network?
Organizations leverage a hybrid IT infrastructure and distributed workloads to ensure the seamless availability of their applications and infrastructure. However, this often leads to complex network configurations and poor visibility across the environment. The growing complexity of networks, combined with manual operations, may result in lengthy and unplanned downtime, hampering business operations. Complex and unresponsive networks also slow down enterprise development and deployment initiatives, which impede your business innovation capabilities.
IT automation can improve network efficiency and reliability by eliminating human errors and inconsistencies that arise from manual processes. You can also cut down on operational costs with automation.
Benefits of Network Automation
Enterprises can realize the following benefits by automating their network operations:
Reduced possibility of human errors: IT automation minimizes the need for manual intervention in complex network processes, hence reducing the likelihood of errors, such as configuration mistakes and typos. A reduction in errors also improves enterprise network resiliency and reliability, allowing you to maintain minimum acceptable service levels in network fault scenarios
Optimized network performance: You can leverage multiple network monitoring tools to help automate tasks such as network capacity forecasting to enhance your network performance. These tools regularly monitor and oversee the health of your network devices, alerting network administrators to errors such as excessive resource usage, duplicate IP addresses, and missing routes. Receiving timely alerts can optimize your network performance and accelerate service delivery
Lowered IT costs: Automation eliminates the additional time, resources, and manual effort required for network administration. This lowers the cost of IT maintenance and management in your enterprise, and automating networks keeps IT staff away from the repetitive, low-value tasks associated with network administration. You can then use the time saved to focus on strategic initiatives capable of driving productivity and innovation in your business
Deepened insights and network control: Automation provides greater visibility into network operations by helping identify and troubleshoot existing issues and predict future vulnerabilities faster. It also supports complex network analysis, correlating data from various sources, including switches, routers, and configuration files. It gives you the ability to control and adjust your network operations as required
Simplified network management: You can simplify network administration processes with IT automation. Manual network operations are resource- and time-intensive and challenging to perform regularly. Relying on automation can help you implement network configuration and change management tasks efficiently and consistently. It also reduces the risk of network downtime and ensures increased availability during peak business hours. Additionally, automation enables you to easily apply mass configuration changes to network components with minimal effort, making management faster and more efficient
What Is Network Configuration Automation?
Network configuration automation refers to the use of software for supervising and automating various device configuration management activities—from device discovery to compliance auditing—in a network.
You can leverage network configuration management software to automate bulk configuration changes to network devices, monitor those changes in real time, and receive alerts for unauthorized changes. For instance, automation software can roll out a blanket password change across your entire enterprise network in the event of a password breach. Such software enables you to create standardized device configurations and design change templates, accelerating network configuration and change management processes.
Types of Tools for Network Automation
There are various network automation tools designed to automate a network. These tools may be vendor-specific or vendor-agnostic.
Vendor-specific software can simplify network management and automation. However, for companies leveraging multi-vendor products, it can be difficult and costly to invest in such software.
In contrast, GUI-based platforms can manage all devices in a network, regardless of the vendor. These modern network configuration and automation platforms have easy-to-use interfaces and are more cost-effective in the long term than their vendor-specific counterparts. These advanced platforms easily replace different types of proprietary network management devices installed in your enterprise environment.
Below are the key features, benefits, and use cases of these automation solutions:
Schedule network configuration backups automatically: You can back up configurations from network devices such as routers and switches using network configuration automation and change management software. These tools give you the flexibility to customize the time of the backup, leveraging built-in Trivial FTP (TFTP) servers to ensure business continuity during peak hours
Execute bulk configuration changes across the network: With automation tools, it’s easy to implement bulk changes on network devices. You can change templates, standardize configurations, and roll back to previous stable configurations if you encounter errors due to bulk changes. You can also roll out these changes or configurations to newly installed network devices as needed
Ensure bullet-grade network security: Network configuration management software can provide timely alerts for unauthorized configuration changes to your network devices. Subsequently, it can fix those errors to eliminate possible security breaches or network failures. These tools can continuously monitor your network devices to scan for firmware vulnerabilities and eliminate them via remote upgrades to counter potential threats
Generate device information and configuration reports: Automation software can also generate insightful reports in multiple formats about your overall network performance and send them to your email account. Then, it can dive deep into these actionable reports to analyze your network’s shortcomings or potential vulnerabilities and fix them accordingly
Support multi-vendor network devices: Modern automation platforms can easily manage a multitude of network devices from different vendors. Out-of-the-box support for major network device vendors can help companies improve their network administration efficiency and reduce operational costs
Demonstrate network compliance: You can use automation tools for auditing device configurations and ensuring compliance with internal security policies and standards, such as DISA STIG, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. Detecting vulnerabilities across the network and fixing them via bulk change becomes simpler with regular audits using automation tools
Future Trends in Network Automation
Network automation is evolving rapidly, driven by several emerging trends and continuous innovation. Here are the key areas to watch:
Hyperautomation: This approach involves integrating multiple advanced technologies to automate complex processes. In networking, this means combining tools such as robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI) to manage and optimize network operations
Continuous innovation: The field of network automation is marked by ongoing innovation, driven by the need to address new challenges and leverage emerging technologies. Some areas of focus include:
    Edge computing: As more data is processed at the network edge, automation is crucial for managing the increased complexity and ensuring low latency
    5G networks: The deployment of 5G networks requires advanced automation to manage high speeds, low latency, and diverse use cases, such as Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles
    Zero trust architecture: This strategy involves integrating automation with zero trust principles to enhance security by continuously verifying and monitoring network access and activities
These trends and future directions are shaping the next generation of network automation, promising more intelligent, efficient, and secure network environments.
Practical Implications of Network Automation
Analytics: Network automation tools collect and analyze vast amounts of data from various network devices and applications. This data is used to gain insights into network performance, user behavior, and potential issues. Continuous monitoring of network metrics allows for real-time analysis and quick decision-making. Using ML to predict future network behavior and potential issues enables proactive management
Anomaly detection: AI and ML algorithms detect deviations from normal network behavior, identifying potential security threats or performance issues. Systems automatically generate alerts when anomalies are detected, allowing for rapid response
Automation labs: Automation labs provide a controlled environment for testing and validating new network configurations and policies. Simulating real-world scenarios ensures automated processes work as intended. Integrating automation into the continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline streamlines testing and deployment processes
End-to-end user experiences: This involves ensuring consistent and reliable connectivity for users across different network segments and devices. Automating network policies to adapt to user needs and preferences enhances the overall user experience
Multi-vendor environments: Network automation tools that can work across different vendors create a unified and consistent management approach. This can be achieved by using open standards and APIs to integrate with multiple vendors' devices and software
Network configuration: These tools automatically configure network devices based on predefined policies and templates. They help automate the initial setup and configure new network devices without requiring manual intervention
Network device configurations: Scripts and templates can be used to standardize and automate the configuration of network devices. They automatically validate configurations to ensure they meet security and performance standards
Performance optimization: This involves automating the management of network traffic to optimize bandwidth usage and reduce congestion. Implementing automated quality of service policies prioritizes critical traffic, ensuring optimal performance

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