What Is Network Automation?
Network automation involves the use of software in managing network devices and performing critical network functions – such as running jobs and active scripts or remediating issues – without any intervention from network administrators. With network automation, oversight is still required, but day-to-day operations can be executed without putting unnecessary strain on IT.
Why Implement Network Automation?
Staffing is generally the biggest reason behind organizations using network automation software. When you have a small IT team, certain things need to be offloaded – whether that’s done through a managed service provider or the use of automation software. There is often simply not enough bandwidth among IT teams to support all day-to-day processes.
The improved efficiency that comes with streamlining network processes is usually the second biggest reason. Having specific workflows built into network operations means operations run smoother and employees are less likely to create unintended issues by deviating from outlined processes.
What Is A Network Automation Tool?
A network automation tool allows IT to schedule and set up jobs and workflows so that a network can run on its own. As is the case with Fortra’s Intermapper network monitoring software and its automation platform Automate, a network automation tool can also be used to optimize network performance as well as monitor network devices and traffic.
You can also combine alerts from Intermapper with the power of automation scripts from Automate to reduce day-to-day manual network activities. Network automation helps you assure a rapid response to network alerts and frees you from making the fix yourself.
How Does Our Network Automation Tool Work?
Once you’ve installed Intermapper and Automate on the same Windows platform, you'll need to enable the integration. Then it's easy to set up the desired action in Automate, attach it to the correct device, and set Intermapper to trigger the command whenever the alert sounds. Intermapper will receive the alert and execute a call to Automate to complete a pre-defined response.
Once the back-end work is done, the products will alert and act together just as you've instructed them to resolve the network issue.
7 Network Automation Tool Options to Consider
1. Intermapper + Automate
Users can combine alerts from Intermapper network monitoring software with the power of automation scripts from Automate to reduce time spent on manually performing network activities. Intermapper and Automate ensure a rapid response to network alerts and free IT from the burden of being on call and making fixes themselves.
2. Solarwinds
Solarwinds uses automation to make changes to how devices are configured as a port of organization wide updates or as a result of specific events occurring.
3. ManageEngine
ManageEngine's automation capabilities are used in the process of notifying administrators when an alarm occurs and the subsequent running of a preprogrammed script.
4. Netbrain
Netbrain uses automation to troubleshoot network issues as well as streamline some of the day-to-day responsibilities of network administrators.
5. PRTG Network Monitor
PRTG Network Monitor from Paessler is well known in the IT world for its network monitoring capabilities. Similar to Intermapper and Automate, PRTG can be used in conjunction with other Paessler solutions to automate responses to network events.
6. Intential
Intential is an automation execution platform tailored to network and infrastructure automation. Intential specializes in centralizing the management of network automation processes.
7. CISCO NSO
CISCO NSO specializes in streamlining workflows and processes across multivendor networks as well as providing actionable insights from network data to users.
Try a Sample Task: Restart a Service
If you've installed a trial of Intermapper and Automate, you can try out the interface yourself. We've created a sample task to show you exactly how it works. In the task, you'll restart a failed device with our network automation tool.
Just download the task, then get a quick step-by-step of how it works by watching the video. You'll see just how fast and easy it is to remediate network problems—no manual intervention required.
Network Automation FAQs
What are types of network automation?
There are a few different types of network automation. The first is the ability to automate remediation tasks involving fixes to specific issues among network devices. The next is the ability to automatically manage configurations and back them up for network device components. And finally, there is the automation of day-to-day network administration tasks by solutions that are prompted by specified triggers and actions.
Is network automation easy to learn?
Network automation is moderately easy to learn but it depends on the software’s approach to network automation. If the software requires knowledge of scripting or coded languages, there will be more of a learning curve. However, if the automation component is already built into the software with a drag and drop functionality, there will much less of a learning curve.
What skills are required for network automation?
The most important skill is having an understand of your network processes and what your end goals and objectives are for implementing network automation. Administrators need to understand their automation needs and what they expect from a solution. This is the foundation of any network automation strategy and it is very useful when it comes to comparing automation solutions.
How do you achieve network automation?
Network automation in its simplest form is the offloading of network actions to a solution. Achieving this end result requires finding a software that supports the automation of the actions you desire and also establishing optimal directives and triggers for prompting these actions to occur within the software.
How One ISP Cut Outages from 2 Hours to 2 Minutes with a Network Automation Tool
An internet service provider covering a large rural area had a problem: their remote equipment kept failing. Getting a technician out to resolve the issue took hours—leaving customers dissatisfied. Using network automation, the ISP configured network self-healing, cutting their downtime to virtually nothing, saving them time and money and keeping customers happy.
Ready to Create Your Own Self-Healing Network?
Resolve network issues even faster when you combine network monitoring with the power of automation. Get started with a free 30-day trial.