Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
analysysmason.com
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | i
Contents
1. Executive summary 1
5. Conclusion 12
List of figures
Figure 2.1: Service agility is underpinned by automation and virtualization ................................................... 3
Figure 2.2: IT and network organizations are approaching automation and virtualization from NFV and
SDN angles respectively, driving the case for collaboration and convergence ................................................ 6
Figure 3.1: TM Forum Open Digital Business Enablement System [Source: TM Forum, 2018]..................... 7
Figure 3.2: Siloed OSS/NMS create process and data complexity that is difficult to automate ....................... 8
Figure 4.1: Five steps towards operational automation .................................................................................. 11
1. Executive summary
Network automation is an imperative if operators are to deliver services with sustainable levels of agility and
profitability. Automation enables the network to adapt to events and demands rapidly and efficiently, and
supports a new speed of digital business. However, operators cannot buy all the automation they need off-the-
shelf: they need to build and/or customize it for their own purposes and environments. This means overcoming
cultural, organizational and technical barriers, bridging the separate and often antagonistic roles IT and network
departments play today in managing the physical network.
Network virtualization and its emphasis on automation has started to break down technical barriers as IT and
network organizations increasingly need to work in each other’s domains. Network organisations are
investigating software-defined networking (SDN) as a means of automating key manual interactions with
network elements, and IT organizations are being asked to support network functions directly with data
center/cloud components and associated automation. It is clearly desirable for the two departments to start
sharing tools, knowledge, best practices, cloud-native software development and operations (DevOps)
approaches as their roles converge. Operators that encourage this cross-domain fertilization accelerate the
cultural change necessary to build an automated and adaptive network. 1
This paper assesses the value of a cloud-native platform for operational automation, which can be shared by IT
and networking organizations. A common automation platform, with shared tools and capabilities, is a practical
means of encouraging everyone to ‘speak the same language’ and share knowledge. Common tools help blur the
boundaries between separate teams and accelerate the cultural change necessary to enable digital operations.
The TM Forum has defined the requirements for such a platform, pointing out that it should have five key
attributes. The platform should:
• be data-centric, with a shared data layer populated directly from the network as the authoritative source of
truth
• conform to cloud native principles, with platform functionality embedded in microservices and exposed
through open APIs, supporting rapid enhancement, continuous development and scaling, key benefits of
cloud native computing
• enable artificial intelligence-driven, adaptive management of the network, trained on all the telemetry data
that it collects and analyses
• drive decisions in real-time to optimize network operations and support a network-as-a-service platform
business model whereby network capabilities are exposed through the platform as services for consumption
by customers in flexible ways and by partners as elements to which they add further value.
Once the cloud-native platform is in place as the foundation for IT/network organizational collaboration,
operators should use it to address simpler automation challenges first and progress to more-complex automation
activities as joint IT/network teams build experience and trust together. We recommend five operational
automation steps that operators can take, which can be carried out sequentially, in parallel or overlap with one
another as the organization’s confidence in automation grows. For example, the network organization can ask
1 For more information about Analysys Mason’s definition of the adaptive network, see From autonomous to adaptive: the next
evolution in networking. Available at www.analysysmason.com/autonomous-to-adaptive-networks-white-paper.
for IT help in learning new tools for building resource adapters, APIs and configuration scripts as a starting
point, while IT can solicit network engineering support to understand the behaviour of, and requirements for,
virtualized network functions (VNFs) as they build lifecycle management automation.
We expect to see growing numbers of operators converge their IT and network organizations around a cloud-
native automation platform over the coming years as a critical means of implementing network virtualisation
and use cases, including 5G use cases. Early adopters of such a collaboration environment are likely to enjoy a
significant market advantage as their new speed of digital operations drives additional revenue and customer
acquisition.
In a telecoms environment, service agility is predicated on the ‘softwareization’ of the network and the
concomitant ability to automate its operations (see Figure 2.1). The virtualization of network functions (NFV)
and the introduction of programmable network control (SDN) allows the network to be manipulated flexibly and
programmatically at speeds far surpassing manual interactions with physical boxes. Installing or upgrading a
piece of network software even in a remote location, requires the execution of a few lines of code and the
automation is replicable across hundreds and thousands of installations with minimal overheads and delays.
Once the right automation is in place, operators can introduce new virtualized network functions (VNFs)
quickly and easily to support new services, accelerating time to market and reducing market entry costs.
Automation changes the speed with which network data can be harvested from, and used to drive decisions back
into, the network, enabling the network to adapt rapidly to changing conditions. An adaptive network that can
self-configure, self-monitor, self-heal and self-optimise is key to agility and lean operations. Automated systems
can collect and analyse vast amounts of networking data in near real-time, faster and more cost-effectively than
highly trained human operatives. Operations staff are still needed to create the policies that drive automated
decisions, audit the outcomes of those decisions and deal with exceptions. However, as networks become larger
and more complex due to traffic growth and new 5G and virtualization technologies, operators will need to
harness the speed that automation brings to deliver services at acceptable agility levels and price points.
Creating operational automation for an adaptive network is an extensive and complex exercise. Since network
virtualization will be applied gradually, the automation must integrate with traditional processes used in the
physical network and carefully subsume them over time. Automation-builders with coding skills will need to
work alongside operations staff with networking expertize. NFV introduces a new execution environment for
virtualized functions – the NFV infrastructure (NFVI) – which contains commodity, data center and cloud
components: commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers and white box switches, virtualization mechanisms and a
virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM). Although these data center and cloud components become an integral
part of the end-to-end, virtualized network topology, networking personnel have little experience of them. The
IT department is the constituency best placed to build the automation for the NFVI, but it may not appreciate the
subtle demands of the network on this environment without help.
The barriers to operational automation are cultural and organizational, not technical. They require a new
contract between the IT department, which understands software and supporting virtualization and COTS
hardware technologies, and the network organization, which understands the behaviour and constraints of the
network. Both sides need to work closely together if operators are to exploit the potential of network
‘softwareization’ and become truly agile.
The IT organization builds process (workflow) support for the fulfilment and assurance of customer-facing
services but many of the individual steps in these processes, such as the configuration/activation of individual
network elements or the identification of a service-impacting network fault, need to be manually implemented
by the network organization. This leads to back-and-forth manual handovers between IT and network
departments, which add cost, complexity and error. There are many reasons for the often-fraught relationship
between IT and network organizations, such as the following.
• IT/network departments have different priorities and objectives. Network departments do not always
consult IT departments as extensively as they could on how easily new network elements will integrate with
existing operational systems (OSS), what interfaces they will provide or what their management needs will
be. As a result, when new network elements arrive and are deployed, IT departments are often blamed for
the long period of time that it takes to operationalize them. Network departments fear losing out on new
service revenue: IT departments are aggrieved that their network colleagues have increased the complexity
of their integration environment by failing to seek their advice on the new equipment’s operational
requirements. Network organizations’ tendency to bring in new network elements to run new services while
maintaining multiple previous generations of equipment supporting existing services, encourages the
proliferation of management silos. This means more integration complexity, further slowing down the pace
of change and adding cost.
• ‘Not invented here’ attitudes to automation abound. IT may implement automation to help with process
consistency and rigour, but it cannot enforce its use. Network engineers are used to manually changing
network element configurations to ‘get the job done’ and are notorious for not informing the IT keepers of
key data systems – such as the inventory system – that they have done so. It is all too easy for the network
and its OSSs to lose synchronicity, resulting in ‘dirty’ data and configuration errors that can cause order
fallouts or even bring down the network. Both outcomes can be costly in terms of lost business and
reputational damage.
• IT and network departments use disparate management tools and approaches. Feedback between IT
and network departments has historically been slow because they are separate organizations dealing with a
common activity – the management of the network – using different tools and systems. The network
organization deals with element and network management systems (E/NMS) within the network operations
center (NOC); and the IT department deals with network and service operational support systems (OSS) of
record. If E/NMS are integrated at the software level with the IT department’s OSS, a certain amount of
automation can be supported; otherwise, the two departments interface with each other manually.
To overcome these organizational barriers, operators are beginning to look at Agile/DevOps ways of working
that bring together different organizational functions and help them collaborate. Agile/DevOps methodologies
replace the waterfall model where each team creates an output and ‘throws it over the wall’ to the next function
in the process. The waterfall model is anti-agility in that its phases are sequential and therefore time-consuming
to execute; and it can result in expensive rework if upstream requirements become misaligned with downstream
outputs over time. An Agile/DevOps model supports the incremental, collaborative and holistic development of
outputs. It eliminates the communication and responsibilities gaps between those specifying and creating the
outputs (‘developers’) and those deploying and operating them (‘operations’). DevOps has a specific meaning in
the software world but its lessons on collaborative working can equally apply to network/IT organizations that
need to create the automated, virtualized network together.
IT organizations are being asked to support NFV with data center/cloud components and associated automation
(see Figure 2.2). They know how to run IT applications in such environments, but they are not familiar with the
specific behaviours and requirements of network functions. VNFs can behave very differently from IT
applications, especially when they are chained together as network services, and make many more demands on
the cloud to ensure they can execute with the right levels of performance and availability.
Network organizations are investigating software defined networking (SDN) as a means of expanding near
real-time control over the network (see Figure 2.2). SDN involves the automation of key manual interactions
with network elements, for example, for activation, configuration and monitoring/data collection purposes.
Building this automation requires knowledge of scripting and data modeling languages, application
programming interfaces (APIs) and other code-related skills. Network engineers, who have spent their careers
manually manipulating command line interfaces to network boxes, realise they need to acquire similar
programming expertise to their IT colleagues.
As IT and network organizations increasingly need to work in each other’s domain, they can benefit from a
closer relationship with one another. Many operators are bringing their IT and network operations teams
together in a single organization, through executive mandate. Changing the organizational structure, however,
may not be sufficient to force people from different backgrounds out of their comfort zones to sit, talk and work
together. Operators need a hands-on method of encouraging collaboration and shared experience if they are to
break down remaining barriers within their new combined organizations. A common automation platform, with
shared tools and capabilities, is a practical means of encouraging everyone to ‘speak the same language’ and
share knowledge, the essence of collaboration. Common tools help blur the boundaries between separate teams
and accelerate the cultural change necessary to enable digital operation
Figure 2.2: IT and network organizations are approaching automation and virtualization from NFV and SDN angles
respectively, driving the case for collaboration and convergence
The TM Forum has defined an end-to-end architecture for future business and network operations. TM Forum
has specified the requirements for implementing this architecture as a cloud-native platform that can be used by
both IT and network organizations and joint IT/network teams working on network operations. The network
operations platform is a subset of the holistic TM Forum Open Digital Business Enablement System shown in
Figure 3.1.
© Analysys Mason Limited 2018 3: Requirements for a cloud-native platform for automated operations
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | 7
Figure 3.1: TM Forum Open Digital Business Enablement System [Source: TM Forum, 2018]
In line with the TM Forum’s best-practice thinking, the cloud-native operations platform that serves converged
IT/network teams should have five key attributes:
© Analysys Mason Limited 2018 3: Requirements for a cloud-native platform for automated operations
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | 8
Figure 3.2: Siloed OSS/NMS create process and data complexity that is difficult to automate
In a data-centric network operations architecture, all the data from an inherently distributed system – the
network – is collected in one place, leveraging recent advances in database technology. The data is then
available in real-time to any stakeholder/task that needs it, with both IT and network operations sharing the
same source of truth. A data-centric architecture enables the logical centralisation of network control and
management – the goal of SDN. This is a further incentive to bring IT and network operational teams together.
Centralization enables teams to work with a common platform while still interacting with network data, for
example, to view the SLAs of customer-facing services, end-to-end network topology, the configuration status
of physical and virtual network assets, from the perspective of their own functional responsibility.
A data-driven, cloud-native operations platform encourages IT and network teams to use the same data models
and tools, enabling knowledge-building and sharing across the organizations. For example, customer-facing
services and network elements can be modelled using industry standards, such as TOSCA and YANG; both IT
and network operations staff can work with common templating and scripting tools and languages, such as
Vagrant, Python and Ansible to create automation components such as resource adapters, service templates and
configuration scripts. This is both a productive and cost-efficient way of achieving network automation.
© Analysys Mason Limited 2018 3: Requirements for a cloud-native platform for automated operations
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | 9
APIs between them. TM Forum envisages that framelets will be realised as microservices that will eventually
run in containers for maximum speed and flexibility of deployment. The framelet concept supports the modular
implementation and extension of the architecture with new functionality as it emerges. A microservices-based
approach also enables the cloud-native platform to support multiple operational capabilities that are today
realised as separate and non-data sharing systems. For example, the path computation engine (PCE), policy
subsystem and alarms can all be implemented as microservices that run on the same platform and benefit from
its data-centric architecture.
This approach allows for the rapid integration of new operational capabilities, including the incorporation of
microservices from open-source platforms such as ONAP. All the microservices in a cloud-native platform are
integrated once and can be called as trusted services by multiple platform-based tools/systems, as described in
our report on the digital network and operations platform (DNOP).2 Each operator will choose its set of
microservices according to its business requirements, enabling operators to differentiate themselves from
competitors. Operators can then gain competitive advantage from the microservices-based composition of their
platforms and the automation capabilities the platforms support.
A microservices-based architecture is essential to achieving the development velocity, high reliability, rapid
feedback and reduced operational costs that are the hallmarks of cloud-native operations.
The TM Forum envisages that a common operations platform will have an event-driven model that will be
governed by artificial intelligence. In other words, it will enable AI-driven, adaptive management of the
network. This AI capability will be knowledge-driven, based on learnings from all the network telemetry data
collected and analysed in the platform. The vast, end-to-end data set on which the platform will be built is tailor-
made for the implementation of AI. AI systems will also learn from the success or otherwise of automation
applied within the platform and will use this knowledge optimally to adapt it. As operators increasingly trust the
knowledge-driven automation that will be refined through the application of AI, the TM Forum expects that
network operations will become highly autonomous.
2 For more information, see Analysys Mason’s Defining the digital network and operations platform for 5G and future networks.
Available at www.analysysmason.com/defining-dnop-5g-rma16.
© Analysys Mason Limited 2018 3: Requirements for a cloud-native platform for automated operations
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | 10
IT and network operations staff will need to adapt to the new velocity of network management and control such
a real-time platform brings. They will also need to develop the right governance around real-time change
management, both as applied by the platform to the network and within the platform itself as its microservices
are updated using continuous integration.
For example, the NaaS business model will be key to monetizing network slices, which customers and partners
will be able to populate with services selected from an operator’s NaaS catalog to meet specific latency
requirements or provide differentiated service characteristics. In our network slicing report, we describe a future
phase of slicing in which applications will navigate through operator networks themselves, self-selecting the
resources they need and creating ephemeral slices ‘on the fly’, in a networking version of IT serverless
architecture.3 This will require applications to be able to negotiate with the platform services they consume, a
further development of the platform business model.
The journey to a knowledge-driven, adaptive network will take time and will require many incremental steps.
IT/network organizations will need to collaborate to achieve this goal and a cloud-native platform provides a
common meeting point where they can learn quickly from each other. IT and networking teams can use the
cloud-native operations platform to address simpler automation challenges first and progress to more complex
automation activities as they build experience and trust together. The five steps described below can be carried
out in parallel or overlap with one another as confidence in automation grows.
Windstream is an example of an operator that uses a cloud-native operations platform to bring its IT and
network operations teams together. By picking a solution with a strong DevOps framework and one based on
3 For more information, see Analysys Mason’s Network slicing: the future of connectivity in a 5G and fibre era. Available at
www.analysysmason.com/network-slicing-connectivity-rma16-rma18.
© Analysys Mason Limited 2018 4: A cloud-native operations platform supports the roadmap to NaaS
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | 11
data model-driven configuration and a microservices architecture, Windstream wanted to spur internal,
converged IT/network groups to innovate on new services rather than depend on vendors.4
4 For more information, see Analysys Mason’s Windstream: Intelligent multi-layer, multi-domain network automation with SDN.
Available at www.analysysmason.com/windstream-ciena-sdn-rma16.
© Analysys Mason Limited 2018 4: A cloud-native operations platform supports the roadmap to NaaS
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | 12
5. Conclusion
Operators that have already started on their journey towards an automated – and therefore self-adapting –
network recommend that others start as soon as possible: there are no benefits to delay. Leading operators say
that by embarking on an automation strategy, they have been forced to confront issues that they had not
anticipated and to uncover implications that they would not otherwise be aware of. This is a valuable exercise
because every organization is different and needs to adapt automation to its own circumstances: it cannot simply
apply an industry blueprint and expect success.
However, operators can adopt industry best practices, such as IT/network collaboration, to help them automate
quickly and efficiently. Overcoming long-standing cultural barriers to working across organizational boundaries
is the hardest part of any transformation. Therefore, operators need an effective strategy to break these barriers
down. Providing IT and network departments with a platform that enables them to share a common set of tools,
data refreshed directly from the network and access to advanced capabilities such as AI and analytics,
encourages collaboration and reduces cost and complexity in the operator environment. When the platform is
built on cloud-native principles, it inherently supports the agile development and cloud-native operational
automation at the heart of DevOps. IT and networking staff can equally benefit from a DevOps approach as they
increase their responsiveness to customer demand and productivity.
Operators already using such a platform are moving quickly towards the goal of a highly automated, highly
adaptive network. We expect to see growing numbers of operators consolidate their operational automation on a
single, cloud-native platform over the coming years as the foundation for their 5G networks. First movers are
likely to enjoy a significant market advantage as their new speed of digital operations drives new revenue and
customer acquisition.
The Blue Planet Intelligent Automation Platform is a programmable software suite that uses deep networking
knowledge to drive adaptive optimization of operator services and operations. Blue Planet plays a central role in
Ciena’s Adaptive Network vision that expands on autonomous networking concepts, which allow operators to
maintain control while transforming today’s static network into a dynamic, programmable environment driven
by analytics and automation.
Blue Planet’s open, vendor-agnostic approach supports the integration of third-party technologies and vendors.
The platform’s open, published REST APIs enable integration with operational support systems (OSS) such as
order management and inventory systems, and customer portals, as well as open southbound interfaces to
orchestrate services across underlying multi-vendor physical or virtual resources. The platform is built on open-
source technologies, such as Docker, Cassandra, Kafka and others.
The platform is supported by a DevOps Toolkit and an open community that enables collaboration among
internal product development, IT, and network operations teams to improve operational agility, increase
innovation, and accelerate ‘concept-to-revenue’ times for new services. These resources give network operators
greater control over their infrastructure and reduce their dependence on professional services associated with
integrating network resources and developing new services.
• Blue Planet Multi-domain Service Orchestrator (MDSO) – simplifies the end-to-end management and
automation of network services across multi-vendor physical and virtual networks
• Blue Planet NFV Orchestration (NFVO) – automates the delivery and lifecycle management of NFV-based
network services
• Blue Planet Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) – domain controller for automating the complete service
delivery lifecycle across Ciena packet-optical networks.
• Blue Planet Analytics (BPA) – an integrated network analytics and machine learning framework for
deriving actionable insights from network performance data
• Network Health Predictor (NHP) – an analytics application for BPA that enables proactive network
assurance in multi-vendor networks by predicting network element (NE) failures before they occur.
Caroline Chappell (Research Director) is the lead analyst for Analysys Mason’s Software-
Controlled Networking research programme. Her research focuses on service provider adoption
of cloud, and the application of cloud technologies to fixed and mobile networks. She is a
leading exponent of SDN and NFV and the potential that these technologies have to enhance
business agility and enable new revenue opportunities for service providers. Caroline
investigates key cloud and network virtualisation challenges and helps telecoms customers to
devise strategies that mitigate the disruptive effects of cloud, supporting a smooth transition to the era of
software-controlled networks.
Analysys Mason is a trusted adviser on telecoms, technology and media. We work with our clients, including
communications service providers (CSPs), regulators and end users to:
We have more than 220 staff in 14 offices and are respected worldwide for exceptional quality of work,
independence and flexibility in responding to client needs. For more than 30 years, we have been helping clients
in more than 100 countries to maximise their opportunities.
Consulting
• We deliver tangible benefits to clients across the telecoms industry:
• communications and digital service providers, vendors, financial and strategic investors, private equity
and infrastructure funds, governments, regulators, broadcasters, and service and content providers.
Research
• Our dedicated team of analysts track and forecast
the different services accessed by consumers and
enterprises.
• Clients benefit from regular and timely intelligence, and direct access to analysts.
© Analysys Mason Limited 2018 Analysys Mason’s consulting and research are uniquely positioned
Converging IT and network teams: a cloud-native automation platform is the catalyst for successful operations | 17
We provide dedicated coverage of developments in the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sectors,
through a range of research programmes that focus on different services and regions of the world
The division consists of a specialised team of analysts, who provide dedicated coverage of TMT issues and
trends. Our experts understand not only the complexities of the TMT sectors, but the unique challenges of
companies, regulators and other stakeholders operating in such a dynamic industry.
Each subscription programme provides a combination of quantitative deliverables, including access to more
than 3 million consumer and industry data points, as well as research articles and reports on emerging trends
drawn from our library of research and consulting work.
Our custom research service offers in-depth, tailored analysis that addresses specific issues to meet your
exact requirements
Alongside our standardised suite of research programmes, Analysys Mason’s Custom Research team undertakes
specialised, bespoke research projects for clients. The dedicated team offers tailored investigations and answers
complex questions on markets, competitors and services with customised industry intelligence and insights.
For more information about our research services, please visit www.analysysmason.com/research.
For more than 30 years, our consultants have been bringing the benefits of applied intelligence to enable
clients around the world to make the most of their opportunities
Our clients in the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sectors operate in dynamic markets where change is
constant. We help shape their understanding of the future so they can thrive in these demanding conditions. To
do that, we have developed rigorous methodologies that deliver real results for clients around the world.
Our focus is exclusively on TMT. We advise clients on regulatory matters, help shape spectrum policy and
develop spectrum strategy, support multi-billion dollar investments, advise on operational performance and
develop new business strategies. Such projects result in a depth of knowledge and a range of expertise that sets
us apart.
We look beyond the obvious to understand a situation from a client’s perspective. Most importantly, we never
forget that the point of consultancy is to provide appropriate and practical solutions. We help clients solve their
most pressing problems, enabling them to go farther, faster and achieve their commercial objectives.
For more information about our consulting services, please visit www.analysysmason.com/consulting.