Ansible vs Cisco NSO: Why you can't go wrong with either

Written by Derek Winchester

It's no secret, the world of business is one that is ever-changing. These changes are not only being fueled by uncontrolled variables that have occurred outside of the professional realm, but they are also fueled by various technological advances within the professional realm. In particular, there has been a vast array of advances made in the IT realm. These innovations have resulted in IT becoming increasingly vital to business operations, which, has caused many businesses to turn to automation to boost their infrastructure without drastically increasing their costs. With that in mind, the following is a closer look at Ansible and Cisco NSO and how both of these tools can be equally beneficial in terms of automating your business.

Ansible and Cisco NSO: Welcome to automation

For those who are yet unfamiliar, automation is a process that is implemented to help companies streamline certain aspects of their business or systems, enabling them to operate automatically and with little to no human intervention. Using tools such as Ansible and Cisco NSO offers DevOps approaches and can help make processes much simpler. No matter what your business goals may be or what level of business you are doing presently, automation can make a world of difference. Automation can provide businesses with the following benefits:

?         Optimize human labor force: One of the top benefits of automation is that it helps companies to optimize the efficiency of their human labor force. Given that automation enables certain processes to operate automatically, this eliminates the need for these tasks to be completed by humans. Ultimately, this allows you to use your human employees in ways that are more beneficial to the company.

?         Reduce operation costs: Additionally, automating a task can essentially account for the work done by three or more employees. This makes for lower operation costs.

?         Boost safety: Automation can also be used to complete tasks that are dangerous for your human employees. This makes for a major boost in safety in many industries.

?         Faster ROI: Since automation is a personalized process that is based on each company’s unique goals and needs, it can allow for a faster return on investment. In other words, automation can be used to help improve and automate processes that are the most costly or tedious.

?         Improve planning: Given that the automation process means that robots will be completing a portion of the work, this makes these aspects much more consistent and predictable. Therefore, you will be able to better plan things such as scheduling, inventory, and more.

?         Easy integration: Since various tools help companies implement automation, this typically makes integration quick and simple.

What is Ansible, and what are the advantages of using Ansible for automation?

Ansible is an open-source automation tool that is used to help automate tasks such as configuration management, provisioning, application deployment, and intraservice orchestration. It can be highly useful for those working in IT environments as they are often complex and typically require rapid scaling that can be difficult to complete in a timely fashion by human employees. Moreover, it also provides users with the following advantages:

1.       Authoritative: No matter what level of automation you are interested in, Ansible it up for the task. It allows users to model even the most complex IT networks.

2.       Ease of use: Another benefit of Ansible is that it is very easy to use. Ansible requires no special information, coding, or skills to set up and use.

3.       Free: One of the best features of Ansible is that it is a free tool.

4.       Effective: Given that the tool does not require users to install any additional software, Ansible leaves more room on your server for other software and programs.

5.       Flexible: Ansible can be customized, based on your company’s unique goals and needs. It makes it possible to facilitate entire applications, regardless of the type of environment in which it’s being deployed.

6.       Agent-free: Ansible does not require the use of separate management structures, nor does it require software or firewall ports on the system being automated.

Additionally, Ansible offers the following features:

?         Application deployment

?         Configuration management

?         Security and compliance

?         Orchestration

?         Cloud provisioning

What is Cisco NSO, and what are the advantages of using Cisco NSO for automation?

Cisco NSO is one of the leading and most trusted automation tools in existence. It is an orchestration platform for hybrid networks that affords users with life-cycle service automation that is comprehensive. It serves as a foundation for revenue generation and makes it possible for users to deliver high-quality services quicker and easier. Additionally, Cisco NSO offers the following advantages:

?         Model-driven: One of the top benefits of Cisco NSO is that it allows users to create and change services by using standardized models. This eliminates the need for complex custom coding or unnecessary service disruptions. This also makes mass scalability quick and simple.

?         Tried and tested: Cisco NSO is one of the oldest automation tools on the market. It has been in existence for over a decade and has been used successfully by large enterprises and small providers alike.

?         Life-cycle management/agility: Cisco NSO/Devnet also provides users with life-cycle management which supports updates, creation, and the deletion of network services.

?         Multi-vendor environments/full automation: Cisco NSO is a unique automation tool because it works in multi-vendor environments which makes for a seamless performance spanning a wide array of settings. Cisco has the most versatile multi-vendor support systems on the market and it is constantly expanding to include new vendor drivers.

?         Transactional integrity: Cisco NSO also offers transactional integrity which makes for fail-safe operations based on the real-time assessment of the network. It also makes a reliable rollback path for the network manager which helps to protect systems from failed updates and more.

What does the future hold for both of these automation tools?

No matter which of these tools you choose to use, they both offer a wide variety of benefits that can help your company become more efficient and productive. Moreover, although each of these tools is highly useful as is, it seems that they will become increasingly essential in the future. For instance, given that we are in an age in which remote work is becoming more common than ever, automation is becoming a must for companies of all sizes. This is due to the fact that many companies have been forced to downsize their number of employees, limit the number of people working at one time, and create safe methods of producing various products without risking the spread of germs and viruses. This has made automation tools more in-demand than they have ever been. Tools such as Cisco NSO and Ansible can help with tasks such as

?         Provisioning servers

?         System monitoring

?         Configuring servers

?         Configuring networks

?         Configuring firewalls

?         Network compliance

?         Software testing

?         Core security tasks

?         And more

Therefore, no matter which of these tools you choose to use, you will be able to enjoy highly flexible tools. Each of them affords your company easy scalability, as well as a reliable method of managing a wide variety of tasks that will help you manage and maintain your workforce, no matter where they may be located. As automation is becoming increasingly necessary to sustain businesses, tools such as Cisco NSO and Ansible will serve as an innovative method of cutting costs, boosting safety, improving planning, and much more.