Itential launched new API Services that enable organizations to implement NetDevOps concepts and move toward Network Infrastructure as Code.
Itential said its solution was designed for DevOps and NetOps teams to accelerate the move toward software-driven networks through automation and agile network operations. NetDevOps allows organizations to adopt CI/CD pipelines with the ability to build, test, validate and deploy changes before they are made to the network.
Itential’s NetOps pipeline capabilities include:
- Build – Create the building blocks of your infrastructure
- Dynamically render configurations from a library of expert built templates that combine reusable chunks of configuration to create composite configurations. Transform data from one format into another and run optimizers to eliminate redundant or poorly designed config.
- Test – Ensure your infrastructure change does what you intend it to do
- Simulate the change before you make it and compare simulation outputs to known desired outcomes. Check to see if your change affects any pre-existing functionality.
- Validate – Ensure that your changes are safe
- Check that a configuration is error free, before you deploy it to a device. Run a security scan to see if you’re running compromised software and run a security scan to see if you’re exposed to network threats.
- Deploy – Deploy your infrastructure changes to your network
- Leverage tools like Ansible, Terraform, SDN Controllers, and Orchestrators to push changes to your network. Update operational support systems to stay in sync with your network changes and keep track of your changes by tagging and versioning them when you deploy.
“The complexity of today’s networks, combined with the lack of investment in modern application concepts, has created a situation where network management applications are constraining the ability to support business and consumer demands,” said Chris Wade, CTO, Itential. “By incorporating a Network Infrastructure as Code approach to automation, enterprises can use Itential’s modern agile software development principles to build, test, validate, and deploy network changes and adopt existing investments in the infrastructure as code ecosystem.”