Network Process Automation (NPA)
The power of Cloud Providers comes from NPA. It enables them to make safe and frequent network updates, increasing their network security, availability, and productivity. Most importantly, NPA grows margins and eliminates CTEs.
CATASTROPHIC TERMINAL EVENTS (CTEs)
In today's network processes, manual steps lead to ad hoc node changes. Hence, there are considerable differences between known and actual network states. This inaccurate Situational Awareness (SA) increases the risk of CTEs like unexpected downtimes and compromised networks.
NPA eliminates ad hoc node changes by automating all process stages. Hence, there are minimal differences between known and actual network states. This accurate network SA enables NPA to eliminate CTEs.
NPA enables accurate Network Situational Awareness (SA)
to eliminate CTEs
Manually performing pre & post safety checks, traffic shifts and rollbacks, increases unknowns which cause CTEs
Generated configuration, Automated safety checks, traffic shifts and rollbacks eliminate CTEs
NPA OUTCOMES
Today's network processes rely on humans for safety. To safely update a network, you need to know the state of all its nodes in realtime. But it is not possible to compute this state manually, and hence for safety, you need maintenance downtimes.
Cloud Providers developed NPA because they cannot schedule maintenance downtimes. NPA determines the current state by analyzing hundreds of data points per node every second. Knowing this state enables NPA to update live networks safely.
NPA gives you game-changing outcomes
by guaranteeing safe updates
Remove Vulnerabilities
Security vulnerabilities in network firmware are now routine. However, enterprises continue to run vulnerable code because upgrading firmware is disruptive.
By enabling safe live updates, NPA can instantly deploy security patches and remove your network's vulnerabilities. AWS, for example, secures its network by doing weekly firmware upgrades.
Eliminate Downtimes
NPA also eliminates unplanned downtimes due to human errors and network conditions. Instead of relying on an update's correctness, it constrains the update to follow a sequence of known safe states.
NPA's safe-state approach, taken from Distributed Systems, is more robust than change verification methods because it accounts for changing network conditions.
Cut Costs
NPA increases personnel productivity by over 20x. It eliminates the need for manual change review processes, saving enterprises hundreds of person-hours per update. Further, by removing maintenance windows, NPA also eliminates operational stress and the need for large NOC teams.
AWS, for example, uses NPA to manage thousands of nodes per engineer. Similarly, Facebook estimates that its NPA, Facebook Auto Remediation, is equivalent to 200 engineers.
NPA TECHNOLOGY
NPA systems use machine learning to codify networking domain knowledge (NDK). They use NDK modules to determine network states, evaluate safety checks, and find optimal node update paths.
Rain's NDK modules codify the best practices of Cloud Providers and are operational out-of-the-box. They are regularly updated to keep them current. Rain's NDK modules eliminate the need for expensive professional services.
Rain's NPA Solutions work out-of-the-box without expensive professional services
Rain’s NPA solutions mirror your existing network processes making it easy to phase-in their adoption. They provide extensive REST APIs to integrate with your existing ITSM/ITSL applications.