The Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2023 brings together global technology leaders to discuss and explore the future of this critical domain.

As the world braces for the challenges and opportunities presented by the ever-evolving technological landscape, the Gartner IOCS conference serves as a vital platform for attendees to gain valuable insights, network with industry peers, and unlock the potential for transformative growth.

Let’s take a look at the trends we can expect heading into the Gartner IOCS 2023 conference.

1. Security and Compliance as I&O Imperatives

Organizations face a multitude of challenges related to data security, regulatory compliance, and the ever-present threat of cyber attacks. With the growing complexity of network operations, it has become imperative for I&O leaders to integrate automation tightly with security.

Through the integration of security and compliance measures into their operational frameworks, organizations can ensure that their IT systems and processes remain resilient and aligned with shifting business requirements. Automation makes this possible by certifying access and security policies are applied accurately across an enterprise, ensuring no vulnerabilities are created when adjusting to new business needs, thereby fostering a secure and stable operational environment.

For example, vendors often send out common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) reports and other security notices, but they’re very easy to miss, and it can be difficult to determine their exact impact on your environment.

If a vendor notice only affects three devices on your 5,000-device network, and those three devices aren’t core to your operations, that’s a very different scenario than if an announcement affects 30 percent or more of your network. In the latter case, you’ve got to take major corrective action and upgrade a significant portion of your network. And you’ve got to be sensitive to how you fix it, and when you schedule those fixes so you’re not causing major disruptions to your network.

This ability to isolate what’s impacted, determine the extent of the impact, and schedule and perform the remediation is critical. By leveraging automation tools and technologies in these scenarios, organizations can more effectively identify affected devices and consistently apply patches or other corrective actions, thereby fortifying their defense mechanisms against potential cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

2. What Actions Leaders Can Take for Automation Success

The proliferation and increasing complexity of network devices is presenting I&O leaders with unprecedented challenges.

Whether it’s wireless access points, controllers and firewalls, or switches and routers, there are more of them than ever, and they have more and more intelligence built into them. They’ve got their own operating systems. They’ve got their own software management. A lot of them have their own unique configurations. There are many aspects you need to ensure are running properly for the devices to work the way you want them to in your environment. And one seemingly small change can negatively impact performance or make the device fail completely.

The growing number of connected devices, their increasing complexity, and the nuance required to manage them are far outstripping our ability to keep pace using legacy practices. To navigate these challenges effectively, it is essential to adopt network automation.

Leaders must leverage a data-driven approach to drive automation initiatives. By harnessing the power of data, you can make informed decisions, move away from legacy practices, and always know what you need to do to get your network back to its desired state.

The challenge is that in many environments, there is no common understanding of the full data needed to describe the current state of the network. It is usually spread across several systems — often spreadsheets and local databases — and these repositories are not documented and don’t talk to each other.

At Network to Code, we believe that the network is a stateful entity. It has a desired state, and we should define that state as a golden truth. By having accurate, consistent, and complete data about the network, we can then take what the network tells us it’s doing and compare that against the golden truth.

An agile approach, leveraging NetDevOps and the continuous improvement/continuous delivery pipeline, also instills a new organizational culture. It is incumbent on leaders to recognize and invest in this cultural shift, help re-skill team members to support NetDevOps, and empower their organizations to identify, implement, and validate continuous incremental changes as they roll out their network automation efforts.

3. Custom Frameworks and Applications Are a Thing of the Past

Once again, a hot topic at Gartner’s IOCS will be the technical debt that custom frameworks and applications present and how these items can be replaced with more flexible and responsive modern alternatives.

Custom frameworks and applications, once considered indispensable for addressing specific organizational needs, are gradually becoming obsolete in the face of growing complexities, faster rates of change, the need for greater interoperability across network devices and platforms, and the growth of scalable open source solutions.

I&O leaders are confronted with the daunting task of managing intricate networks, diverse infrastructure components, and a myriad of interconnected systems. In such a complex environment, the reliance on rigid custom frameworks and applications proves to be limiting and inefficient. There has never been more of a need for flexible, scalable, API-driven solutions that can effectively manage the intricacies of modern IT infrastructures and allow for seamless integration with other platforms and tools.

Today’s environments bring together devices from many vendors, each with their own management software, tools, and orchestrations. And this complex tapestry is different across every enterprise, so it’s easy to see why custom solutions have been needed. But as the complexity increases, custom solutions can’t keep up. Modern organizations need a flexible and API-driven integration framework that allows their chosen tools to perform at their best and offloads inefficient work to better-suited tools.

By leveraging established frameworks, organizations can benefit from proven methodologies, best practices, and industry standards, thereby streamlining operations, reducing costs, and ensuring compatibility with evolving technologies and industry trends.

We’re also seeing the prevalence of scalable open source software. There’s a misconception that open source isn’t always as fully featured or robust as some enterprise software. But in the network automation market, that’s just not the case. Some open source tools, such as Ansible and Nautobot, are the industry standard tools of their type.

Open source allows you to be more flexible and remain in control. If you need a specific feature, you may have to wait months or even years if you’re depending solely on commercial products. But by embracing open source, you stay in the driver’s seat.

There is at least some open source software in every project today. It’s been driving networking innovation for nearly a decade, and it will be a differentiator for organizations as they navigate 2024.

Don’t Miss the 2023 Gartner IOCS Conference

In today’s dynamic digital landscape, staying ahead of the curve is essential for success. The Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2023 is your gateway to transformative change and collaborative innovation in the realm of infrastructure and operations.

Network automation is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity for thriving in the digital age. At the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2023, you’ll gain the knowledge and tools you need to automate your network operations, enabling you to:

• Increase efficiency and reduce costs
• Improve network performance and reliability
• Free up IT resources to focus on strategic initiatives

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

As organizations increasingly rely on complex networks to support their operations, the need for efficient and reliable network management and operation has become essential.

Traditional manual network management processes are no longer able to keep up with these demands and network automation is an ideal solution for organizations looking to streamline their network operations and stay competitive in the market.

By embracing network automation, organizations unlock a wide range of benefits. Firstly, automation eliminates the need for manual intervention in routine network tasks, reducing the risk of human errors and enhancing overall network reliability. With automation, organizations ensure consistent configurations across their network devices, leading to improved network stability and performance.

Furthermore, network automation enables organizations to scale their network operations efficiently. As the network grows, automation allows for seamless provisioning, configuration, and management of new devices, reducing the time and effort required to onboard new network resources.

As enterprise networks continue to grow in complexity and continue to adopt automation, how do we keep up with the growing demands required of network operations?

The Increasing Demands on Network Operations

The rise of cloud computing, virtualization, and software-defined networking has significantly increased the demands on network operations.

Organizations need to rapidly deploy and manage network resources to support dynamic workloads and changing business requirements. Manual processes simply cannot maintain the speed and agility required, leading to operational inefficiencies and potential bottlenecks.

In an effort to solve the challenges posed by multi-domain networks and address the need for advanced network automation solutions, Network to Code and Cisco have joined forces to revolutionize the way organizations build, manage, and operate their networks.

Announced at Cisco Live, the premier destination for Cisco customers and partners to explore the possibilities of IT, Network to Code’s Nautobot App now integrates with Cisco Software-Defined Networking (SDN), enabling network administrators to gain a comprehensive view of their entire network infrastructure and streamline operations. Attendees at Cisco Live were able to experience the power of Nautobot App with Cisco SDN.

This integration brings together the power of Nautobot’s comprehensive network management capabilities with the versatility and scale of Cisco’s SDN solutions, including Meraki, Viptela, DNA Center, and ACI, providing automation and programmability across entire networks.

With the initial implementation, Nautobot seamlessly synchronizes data from each Cisco controller and system, allowing network administrators to access a holistic view of network inventory and related configurations from a single screen.

By harnessing the power of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and intent-based networking (IBN), Cisco and Network to Code pave the way for organizations to embrace the digital transformation journey, ensuring their networks remain agile, scalable, and secure in the face of evolving business requirements.

Driving Innovation through Partnership

To further assist enterprises in managing their complex networks, Network to Code and Cisco have expanded their relationship to help customers unlock the value of network automation.

As a Cisco Select Advisor Partner, Network to Code is in a unique position to provide customers with guidance in addressing their current business challenges and helping them navigate their network automation journey. The enhanced support from Network to Code empowers customers to derive greater value from their present and future investments in the Cisco product portfolio.

Further strengthening the relationship with Cisco, Network to Code recently became one of four companies to be named a Cisco Advanced DevNet Specialized Partner. As an official Cisco Advanced DevNet Specialized Partner, Network to Code is set to deliver comprehensive network automation support and guidance, enabling businesses to streamline workflows, improve operations, and unlock the full potential of their Cisco technologies.

Network to Code’s partnership with Cisco as an official Advanced DevNet Specialized Partner only strengthens their commitment to guiding businesses toward effective network automation.

Together, Network to Code and Cisco are enabling enterprises to unlock the full potential of network automation, enhancing network stability, reducing costs, and enabling teams to focus on strategic initiatives.

Looking Toward the Future of Network Operations

The relationship between Network to Code and Cisco is positioned to revolutionize the field of network automation by bringing to the market advanced solutions that will transform the way network engineers build, manage, and operate their organizations’ networks.

By combining Network to Code’s expertise in network automation and Cisco’s industry-leading networking solutions through these premier partnerships and integration, enterprises now have access to innovative network automation tools and frameworks that empower their organizations to achieve greater operational efficiency and agility.

The relationship between Network to Code and Cisco marks a new era in network automation, paving the way for increased efficiency and scalability in network operations.