Network Automation
What is network automation?

Network automation uses intelligent software to execute specified tasks that are often considered tedious, time-consuming, or complex. It can be implemented during design, configuration, deployment, and ongoing network operations for improved IT efficiency and resourcing, greater network visibility and control, and a more responsive and proactive response to critical issues.

Network automation in action.
  • Network automation explained
  • Why is network automation important?
  • What are the benefits of network automation?
  • Challenges of implementing network automation
  • The role of artificial intelligence in network automation
Network automation explained

Network automation explained

Network automation simplifies operations and creates a secure, high-performance, always-on network from Day 0 through Day N. With the appropriate network services in place, several key areas of operations can be optimized, including: 

  • Asset management that provides better visibility and control with a unified view of the entire network (from access points, network switches, and gateways to clients and applications) and facilitates lifecycle management including licensing. 
  • Configuration and orchestration that enables zero touch provisioning, deployment, and configuration changes for new and existing network devices across campus, data center and remote sites. When cloud-based services platforms like HPE Aruba Networking Central are used, complex CLI programming and scripts are replaced with centralized policies, further reducing the need for IT intervention. 
  • Change and release management that streamlines regular software upgrades with zero downtime, supports rollback to the previous state of network devices, and can implement role-based access control (RBAC) to track and ensure that only authorized users have access for network modifications. 
  • AI-powered performance monitoring and troubleshooting that proactively detects network, security and application performance issues using dynamic baselines and resolves them with machine learning-based recommendations before users are impacted. Automated SLAs are established through peer comparisons. Instant alerts are triggered upon breaching these predefined thresholds.
  • Improved security by ensuring complete visibility, authentication, and enforcement of consistent network and security policies that seamlessly adapt to user and device behavior, regardless of the location. This approach involves continuous monitoring and addressing of security and compliance requirements, aligning with the principles of a Zero Trust model. Network automation also minimizes human errors in configurations across multiple deployments, ensuring network uptime and security. 
  • HPE Aruba Networking provides network automation via its cloud native, microservices-based platform, Central. Please refer to the table below for details.

How can you automate your network with HPE Aruba Networking Central?

Steps
Use cases
Features

1. Identify network devices and assign licenses to them 

Asset management

  • Automated license management
  • Unified platform with GreenLake for compute, storage, and networking 

2. Design network topology and configure devices

Configuration and orchestration

  • Zero touch provisioning
  • UI-based network wizard and fabric wizard 

3. Test configuration and perform upgrades without downtime

Change and release management

  • Comprehensive audit trail
  • Auto roll back

4. Identify and monitor issues before it affects your network

Performance monitoring and troubleshooting 

  • Create and manage Experience Level Agreements with Dynamic Baselines
  • AI Search, AI Assist and AI Insights, Webhooks/API

5. End-user Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

Testing network, SaaS, and web applications

  • User Experience Insight (UXI) for monitoring application and network performance

6. Identify, authenticate, and provide role-based access policies to clients and devices

Security

  • Cloud Auth
  • Policy Manager
  • AI driven firmware recommendation

7. Consume network infrastructure in a subscription-based or flexible consumption model 

Network-as-a-service

  • Outsource network operations
  • Flexible consumption options

HPE Aruba Networking Central

Unify cloud-native network management across branch, remote, campus, data center, and IoT networks with AI-powered insights, workflow automation, and edge-to-cloud security.

Related topics

Network management

Network Monitoring