Breaking Free from Reactive Management with IP Fabric Pete Crocker's (Director of Solutions and Product at IP Fabric) statement, "So you're still doing firefighting, and begging for some time to be able to do Network Automation" highlights a common scenario in many network operations centers, pointing to the ongoing challenge of moving from reactive to proactive network management. This statement serves as a reminder of this challenge, urging networking teams towards network automation. IP Fabric at NetDevOps Day NYC: Pioneering the Shift to NetDevOps and Network Automation 1IP Fabric’s API-fi ..read more

Background: Before getting into the details, there are a few necessary background details that need to be understood. What is NetBox used for? NetBox is the leading solution for modeling and documenting modern networks. By combining the traditional disciplines of IP address management (IPAM) and datacenter infrastructure management (DCIM) with powerful APIs and extensions, NetBox provides the ideal "source of truth" to power network automation. Read on to discover why thousands of organizations worldwide put NetBox at the heart of their infrastructure. See: https://docs.netbox.dev/en/stable ..read more

Your SPoG tool could be a match in a forest. Only you can prevent forest fires. Enterprise networking professionals understand that their networks are not going to get less complex. The complexity isn’t going away, the business is only getting more demanding… good thing network engineers love wicked problem-solving, right? We’ve already covered all the demands placed on modern enterprise networks, but understanding the problem is half the job. We have to look at realistic ways to meet the challenge. A tempting solution is an oft-promised single pane of glass (SPoG) solution. Clean, simple dash ..read more

Is automating really the answer to increasing network complexity? There is inherent and unavoidable complexity in modern enterprise networks. With the demands of more distributed workplaces, remote services, and the necessary diversity of network vendors and technologies, this complexity isn’t going away. Complexity is not only defined by the number of network elements in your environment but the interconnections and relationships between these often differently managed domains. A siloed understanding of your responsibilities or domain without at least visibility of the whole network is simply ..read more

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 ..read more

For all the tools and tricks the 2023 network engineer has up their sleeve, the modern enterprise meets them with a new challenge. Some are brand-new problems introduced by new technologies, and some are classic struggles exacerbated by the relentless pace of enterprise operations and innovation. Both mean constantly increasing demands on the network that underpins the success of your business.  And of course, pressure on the network means pressure on network engineers, who must balance these business demands with a network that is secure, resilient, and agile.   The result is a ..read more

It’s clear we’re not putting the Artificial Intelligence toothpaste back in the tube. The last year has only seen an acceleration of AI concepts and experiments becoming applicable to enterprise workflows. If it’s improving outcomes and profitability, why not push forward, right? Uh… right? Well, this is not the place to argue for that philosophy and its potential realities. However, we can certainly speak on the complexity that AI/ML driven process adds to the network that underpins these applications and services. Somewhere, right now, a network engineer is grappling with the additional dema ..read more

In any large enterprise, the network is central to delivering key service offerings. Modern enterprises understand this, and focus has necessarily shifted from a reactive network approach to proactive network orchestration with intent as the leader. Foregrounding the desired state of the network, which mirrors business objectives, and automating network operations to bring you closer to the desired state with every decision, is a natural progression from software-defined networking approaches that attempt this on the device level. Termed intent-based networking, enterprises are looking to this ..read more

Observability - the ability to measure the internal state of a system using its outputs - has long been a goal for application and DevOps teams. It's a necessary pursuit to control any complex system. You can't truly know what you can't observe. At present, this concern is rapidly spreading to enterprise network teams. There's an uptick in interest in network observability more specifically, which involves a lot more than the logs, metrics, and traces generally considered the pillars of observability. This seems a natural trajectory for modern enterprises in 2023, whose networks are sprawling ..read more

Crystallizing an often nebulous network ideal into a practical assurance checklist that enterprises can implement There are likely a number of shiny strategies you'd like to implement to help drive better network decisions. The allure of easier infrastructure management, streamlined workflows, and happy, efficient teams keep you returning to these strategies, whether promised by vendors, espoused by thought leaders in trend reports, or heralded as the next big thing by network peers. But when it comes to concrete network strategy that you can practically implement, grand ideas and bold philoso ..read more