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A lightning talk presentation which was presented at the LINX89 meeting (London Internet Exchange) about the path that Allegro took towards automating many of our business processes and network provisioning elements to build the UK's first fully automated wholesale carrier.
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Network automation________________________________
Andy Davidson, Allegro Networks [email protected]
18th November 2013
Revolution
Automation is not the productAutomation is the enabler
ConsistencySpeed of Delivery
Ease of SupportSpeed to integrate
ComplianceIntegrated OSS/BSS
ConfidenceCommodity
Devolved control
Can’t Get There From Here
Automation has been possible for decades
Tricky part is the business process tie-in
Business or customer need Network Action(Why else do an activity?)
This is the source of complexity
This is also where state anxiety lives
Losing My Provision
Take one single crappy process and automate it out of existenceDon’t worry too much about your software today. If this thing catches on, you’re binning your early code anyway
You are exclusively focussed on delivery, saving money, saving effort, removing pain, learning
Shiny Happy People
Feedback is a critically important part of the process
Useful right away
“Are people actually using it” is the best
Manual processes outside of engineering likely to be the most painfulWe automated a sales pricing function first
People will bring all manner of junk to automate
It Happened Today
Network engineering and programming are different skills
Cross-functional teams
Smallest units of work possible
Kanban cycle• Continuous integration• Release often – why not today!
Superman
Your collection of tools eventually becomes a stack
Refactor into sellable areas:Public client
Administrative clientAPI
Develop your API as if it is public right away(And then you can release it! Ours is coming soon!)
Your stack becomes your automation product
Aftermath
A more pluggable world
Up & Downstream
Accelerate
Roadmap:
Transit via web client (portal.allegro.net)Additional data centres (~30)Expose APIPrivate circuits
Let me in
XML / “Touch the Router”NetconfXMLExpect(!)
Requires more testing
AbstractionJUNOS Space
HP ANMCisco Intelligent Automation
AutoMate
Requires more waiting
All the right friendsHard to find good conversations about automation avoiding:
Those panning for gold in the shape of SDN
Vendors wanting to sell junk network management software
People who just want to nick your leads
“Developers” with empty OSS “projects” on GitHub
Ideally, one day we will have:
Documented wishlist & best practice
Pluggable upstream and downstream services
Reliable standards adherence from vendors
Differentiated, competitive market for automated wholesale services!
