Network automation is the process of automating the configuration, management, testing, deployment, and operations of physical and virtual devices within your network. Every day, network tasks and functions are performed automatically. With the combination of hardware and software-based solutions, large organizations, service providers, and enterprises need to implement network automation to control and manage repetitive processes and improve network service availability.
Network automation is the rapid expansion of network infrastructure required to support the exponential growth of network traffic generated by video, social media, data, and applications’ usage. Additionally, as computing power continues to decline in cost and virtual computing continues to grow, network automation becomes more important to many businesses. Various types of network automation can apply to local area networks, virtualized environments, data centers, and public and private clouds.
Network automation tools support functions ranging from basic network mapping and device discovery, to more complex workflows like network configuration management and the provisioning of virtual network resources.
Network automation also plays a key role in software-defined networking, network virtualization and network orchestration, enabling automated provisioning of virtual network tenants and functions, such as virtual load balancing.
The features of Network Automation comes with a lot of benefits which includes Lower cost, improved business continuity, increase strategic workforce, Greater insight and network control, Increase business agility.