BTEX 2021: How to Run Your Network Like Bilbo Baggins

We named our session There and Back Again' and yes,this is a reference to The Hobbit,says Puneet Duggal, Field Solution Architect, speaking at CDW's BTEX 2021virtual event. This is also our role as IT professionals; understanding,securing and optimizing how data flows to and from where it needs to go.

In The Hobbit,a Hobbit-hole is a place of comfort. That is where we as engineers findourselves. We're doing the same things in the same ways over and again. But howmuch has been changing in the IT industry? Your network needs to change to keepup. Without modernizing what, where and how you're building and operating, yournetwork is going to be bottlenecking the performance of what you're trying todo.

How networktechnology changed in 2021

The last year and a half has been like never before,says Duggal. We went from an office-centric model to a remote-centric model,and had to do that in days or weeks. Virtualization changed everything. You'reable to do so much more with the same physical hardware. But now, cloud haschanged things even more.

And with the migration to the cloud, comes increased security risks. Our customers are constantly asking themselves, How secure is secure enough?'

What doesintent-based networking mean, and how is it different from software-definednetworking?

I'm very excited about intent-based networking,because it promises to increase network availability and agility, says DamianAlfonso-Robaina, Field Solution Architect at CDW. These are two key elementsfor organizations to succeed in the digital transformation journey.

Intent-based networking is an evolution fromsoftware-defined networking (SDN). SDN already transformed the network fromhardware-centric to software-centric. Intent-based networking is built on thesame principles and includes most of the benefits and characteristics of SDN,like policy-based systems, API-based communications and controller-ledarchitecture. But intent-based networking goes further, and it adds awarenessand assurance.

If we use machine learning capabilities to getreal-time, granular visibility of what is happening in the network at alltimes, and combine these with automation and AI, we can have assurance, whichtakes remediation actions to make sure the network is configured, and workingas it is intended to. And all this with a policy-based system that is inheritedfrom software-defined networking.

In a nutshell, intent-based networking will takebusiness intent, and translate it to policies that can be automated andconsistently applied to network devices and infrastructure.

Businessbenefits of intent-based networking

Intent-based networking has been identified as one ofthe top IT solutions for the near future, and the next big thing in networking,says Alfonso-Robaina. It can dramatically transform network operations bycontinuously monitoring the network, and has the ability to predict futureevents.

These will give IT operations teams the ability to move from a reactive approach to a more proactive and predictive approach with faster problem-solving, faster direct containment and continuous compliance, while reducing risk, downtime and optimizing IT operations, which will drive business efficiencies. The IT team will spend less time doing manual, device-by-device configuration, chasing and fixing problems in a break/fix model and will have more time for tasks that will enable business.

Can you manageyour campus, data centre and the cloud as one network?

The main goal is to get to that multidomainintegration, says Alfonso-Robaina. Traditionally, the network has beendivided in areas. It follows a modular design where we build solutions forareas that focus on specific requirements that sometimes are even unique foreach of these areas. It makes sense and is more efficient that way. But becausethe business objectives and goals are enterprise-wide, the benefits fromintent-based networking are more impactful when they are applied consistentlyacross the whole network architecture and all the domains.

Now, the most important solution providers are tryingto build correlations of data between these domains when intent-basednetworking is implemented on each domain. This correlation of data includesaccess, policies, identities, SLAs, and the idea is that we could take a policythat would integrate all these elements to be defined once and applied for eachof these domains consistently.

Intent-based networking also changes how data movesacross the network. With SDN, we used southbound APIs to talk to a networkdevice and to control those network devices. Northbound APIs have been used forcommunication with orchestration tools, monitoring tools. And now we can usethe API-based communication east-west to create that correlation of databetween the different controllers. This is important to create that multidomainintegration.

Using an example from a healthcare organization,Alfonso-Robaina states that A hospital will have different applications in thedata centre; HR applications, electronic medical records, medical images. Thenwe have medical devices, IoT, patients, visitors, HR staff who could beaccessing applications or printing documents. And the doctors and nurses thatneed to access those electronic medical records.

So the business intent in this case will be toguarantee secure and privileged access for those doctors and nurses to theelectronic medical records in the data centre and the network, be able tocreate those secure assets, and pass that information across to prioritize andsecure that traffic and get to the data centre.

Alfonso-Robaina says that CDW has been helpingcustomers go from a manual-centric approach to the self-driving network of thefuture. We try to take customers on this journey so they can move from wherethey have silos, hardware-centric, device-by-device, manual configuration ofvisibility, to where they can get to an intent-based approach.

How to updatenetworks for the future

As teams startmoving to private and public cloud models, you want to start focusing on waysto minimize complexity and provide the performance needed with increasedvisibility so that you can have assurance, says Duggal. A device-by-deviceapproach that uses applied, specific command line interface does not scale fora distributed, dynamic environment that we have today.

By treating infrastructure like software, using infrastructureas code, you're able to define consistent ways to provision, configure anddeploy infrastructure. You really had to learn different languages for thecampus, branch and data centre, different security projects and even the cloud.Investing time to learn a programming language allows you to use that languagefrom now on to be much more agile in your technology domains across all ofthose changes that are required.

This is where DevOps comes into play. The mainobjective of DevOps is to increase efficiency by encouraging collaboration andcommunication between teams, says Duggal. Making manual changes in networkinfrastructure wastes time and increases the possibility of human errors.Infrastructure as code applies DevOps practices to ensure automation scriptsare free from errors.

Network automation can align networking with IToperations and tools enabling the network workflow to be much more agile.Network automation includes automating the management, configuration, testingand deployment of virtual and physical devices within a network to asoftware-based approach to architecture to increase your reliability.

Can a modernnetwork be applied to a smaller business?

We're not all running Google data centres, admitsDuggal. We need to take a look at who are we, what systems are we running andhow can we make the right decisions?

At the same time, these trends exist for a reason.They're happening in the industry, they're things that you're thinking Hey, itwould be great to have this.' We're seeing that our manufacturing partners arebuilding this intelligence under the hood, taking decades of experience andhaving the machines operate themselves in this intelligent manner. And whatyou're seeing is a simple, GUI-based solution that allows you to just point andclick. So if you can do online shopping, you can manage a complex globalnetwork now. It is becoming that simple.

How CDW canhelp clients achieve digital transformation

CDW is uniquely positioned to help organizationsaddress the complex requirements for their digital transformation, saysDuggal. Our approach helps clients achieve maximum value throughout theprocess, and as quickly as possible. To us, success with digital transformationrequires a strategic partnership. We help our clients define whattransformation means for their organization, simplify the complexity byorchestrating a comprehensive solution that meets each client's specific goalsand needs through the combination of our strengths – your teams' and ours.

To borrow from TheLord of the Rings, it's like in the great stories, the ones that reallymatter, full of darkness and danger. This is the unknown of distributed data,automation, convergence with security. No one is a master of everything. Evenif you do not understand some of it yet, you can bring value to yourinfrastructure, your operations and your business to enable growth.

Digital transformation will bring good to thisworld, Duggal concludes. New technology and ways of operating yourinfrastructure are worth learning about and utilizing.

So, one network to rule them all – and in thedarkness, bind them.

To learn moreabout how CDW can help you create efficiencies, drive growth and enhance yourbottom line, visit CDW.ca/digitaltransformation. And besure to bookmark this page for more coverage of BTEX 2021.