To deliver network automation at scale, you need the power of three

In two recent blogs (Boost your bottom line with automated service delivery, and From theory to practice: Delivering real-world efficiencies with Intelligent Automation), I wrote about how to start small with automation to minimise risk and generate near-instant ROI, and moved on to how you can take those initial use cases and expand them to support network automation initiatives at scale.

Expanding on these themes, I wanted to add some more thoughts on delivering large-scale automation projects and how best to go about it. To boil it down, let’s look at the three key pillars of any successful, large-scale automation project. Don’t start before you know what you’ve got (and how valuable it is):

1.      Discovery is the first step to automating your network at scale. You need to know exactly what you have, what stage every component is at in its lifecycle, and how every asset is contributing to your revenues. With these insights, you can make good decisions about which assets to bring into your automation environment, which ones to leave where they are, and which need to be ‘sunsetted’ ASAP.

This kind of in-depth discovery seems like a big ask, but it’s actually easier than you think – even when you’re dealing with multiple legacy systems, unconnected OSSs, and the like. To help you unravel the bird’s nest, Ciena's Blue Planet Inventory (BPI) solution provides a centralised view of all your network components, from underlying fibre and optical equipment, to multi-vendor IP-layer equipment. Moreover, it provides an end-to-end view of the customer services running on top of that equipment.

2.      Get the right team in place to champion and drive your automation strategy. Automation projects are delivered by people, so you need the right team in place. By bringing skilled, passionate automation ‘champions’ together in a centre of excellence, you can deliver bigger automation projects faster. 

Another benefit of creating a centre of excellence is that you get full control of your automation journey, which means you’ll rely less on costly external consultants. This ensures you can deliver automation projects at scale when the time is right, maximise cost efficiency for new development projects, and stay in control of your transformation strategy.

3.      Use agile development sprints to accelerate your projects. Many carriers are still using large programs of work to deliver automation at scale. With multiple milestones, tangible outcomes are often slow to be delivered, with a corresponding delay in ROI.

The way to overcome this is to use an agile, DevOps style development approach that delivers new iterations of code on a continual basis. This means you can deploy new automation use cases incrementally and to speed up your return on investment.

Ciena can help you to automate at scale

At Ciena, we have helped numerous carriers to build and embed a culture of software automation and create clear, achievable automation strategies. We also have the know-how and smart network technologies needed to design and deploy large-scale automation projects, helping you maximize the efficiency and agility benefits of automation across your network.

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help, feel free to get in touch.