How can you ensure network automation aligns with service capacity management frameworks?

1 Define your capacity objectives

Before you automate any network tasks or processes, you need to have a clear understanding of your capacity objectives. These are the goals and metrics that you want to achieve and measure for your network performance, availability, scalability, and resilience. Your capacity objectives should be aligned with your business and customer requirements, as well as your service level agreements (SLAs) and service level objectives (SLOs). You should also consider the trade-offs and risks involved in different capacity scenarios and plan accordingly.

2 Design your automation workflows

Once you have your capacity objectives, you can design your automation workflows to support them. Automation workflows are the sequences of actions and steps that your network automation tools execute to perform a specific task or process. For example, you can automate the provisioning, configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting, and scaling of your network devices and services. You should design your automation workflows to be consistent, repeatable, and adaptable to different capacity situations. You should also ensure that your automation workflows are well-documented, tested, and validated before deploying them.

3 Monitor and analyze your capacity data

Network automation generates a lot of data that can help you monitor and analyze your capacity status and trends. You should collect and store your capacity data in a centralized and accessible location, such as a database or a dashboard. You should also use tools and methods to process, visualize, and report your capacity data in a meaningful and actionable way. For example, you can use graphs, charts, tables, alerts, and notifications to display your capacity data and identify any issues or opportunities for improvement. You should also use analytics and machine learning to discover patterns, insights, and predictions from your capacity data and optimize your automation workflows accordingly.

4 Review and adjust your capacity plans

Network automation is not a one-time project, but an ongoing process that requires constant review and adjustment. You should regularly evaluate your capacity performance and compare it with your capacity objectives and expectations. You should also solicit feedback from your customers, stakeholders, and network teams to assess their satisfaction and needs. Based on your findings, you should update and refine your capacity plans and strategies to align them with your changing business and network environment. You should also leverage your automation workflows to implement your capacity changes quickly and efficiently.

5 Automate your capacity management processes

Finally, you can also automate some of your capacity management processes to enhance your network automation alignment. For example, you can automate the collection, processing, and reporting of your capacity data to save time and resources. You can also automate the analysis and optimization of your capacity data to improve accuracy and responsiveness. You can also automate the execution and verification of your capacity changes to reduce errors and risks. By automating your capacity management processes, you can increase your network automation maturity and effectiveness.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?