How to Mitigate and Prevent Network Automation Risk

Network automation platforms have many self-evident benefits. They empower NetOps teams to accomplish a lot more in a lot less time. More specifically, network engineers can automate simple tasks so that they can focus on more important, big-picture objectives.

These platforms can streamline multiple processes before uniting them into a single, seamless flow. Perhaps most powerfully, network automation allows teams to be proactive rather than reactive regarding updates/upgrades, incidents, and everything in between.

The result? A meaningfully improved experience for every stakeholder and, therefore, every customer.

The question, then, is this: if automation is so powerful, and if the platforms that it powers allow for such sweeping transformation within NetOps, why are some network engineers reluctant to implement them?

What automation risks, if any, do these operators consider as they look at adding such a platform to their existing tech stack and infrastructure?

The answer is that automation risk, while a real factor, is by no means insurmountable. Network engineers should acquaint themselves with automation risk, yes, but they should also be aware that the challenges that come with process automation can be anticipated, avoided, and overcome where needed.

That's the focus of today's conversation: automation risk, and what your team of network engineers can do to be aware of it without compromising incident response, or service delivery.

Automation Risk: Key Factors to Be Aware Of

Whether you're unsure what your NetOps team might be concerned about, or are an engineer yourself and are simply looking to learn more about the process automation landscape, we've got you covered with our guide of five key automation risk factors below:

1. Compatibility and Integration Obstacles

This is the first, and arguably the most understandable, automation risk that network engineers contend with when it comes to implementing new IT technology.

The notion of adding a new platform to an existing tech stack and digital ecosystem (especially to one that's been around for a long time) can be a formidable one, as engineers consider a few subfactors:

• Equipment Compatibility: Routers, firewalls, switches, and other legacy network devices are not always well-suited to integrating new software. This constitutes the most immediate automation risk when it comes to integration.
• Interface Combability: Network equipment sometimes come with their own interfaces. It might also comprise different cables, connectors, or ports than what your networking engineering team can currently work with.

2. Lack of Expertise

Automation risk isn't ‘just' about hardware and software. It's also about something a bit more abstract: the learning curve.

Some network engineers might see automation risk in the form of unfamiliarity with a given platform. That discomfort comes in a few forms:

• The Setup: Configuration, testing, troubleshooting, and everything else that comes with the initial setup form an involved and time-consuming process for even the most experienced network engineers... and a potential intimidation factor for lower-level personnel.
• The Learning Curve: Leading network automation platforms have made inroads toward less intensive, low-code solutions, but even those can still require a lot of careful study at the beginning. Network engineers might be concerned about how long it could take to learn any specialized scripting, configuration, or API knowledge.
• Ongoing Use: Network automation, like everything else having to do with IT, is not a one-and-done project. It requires fine-tuning and adding new automations to ensure continuous ROI. If a new network automation platform seems complex to learn, network engineers might feel fatigued at the prospect of continuously staying on top of that learning.

3. The Investment Factor

Even if your network engineering team is on board with one orchestration solution or another, you still need to convince the leadership and other stakeholders that this is a sound idea from an ROI perspective.

This is another common form of automation risk, and it comes in a few flavors:

• Platform Investment & Setup Costs: Another automation risk to consider is what comes right after getting a new solution out of the box; namely, the cost of licenses, training, and other potential onboarding elements. This can seem especially intimidating to small firms, especially if they have to contend with a limited budget for user licenses.
• Long-Term Costs: Every network automation platform requires continuous attention, maintenance, upgrades, and monitoring. All of that constitutes an inevitable automation risk/cost center that many network engineers are leery of.

4. Losing Oversight and Control

Another automation risk that network engineers might see in adopting a platform is losing control over the network ecosystem.

That control is obviously key to keeping the trains running, and when network engineers worry about losing it, that concern often manifests in the form of:

• Reduced Visibility: Once a new process automation solution is in place, network engineers may feel that they're giving up direct control of certain aspects of the network. While automation can streamline those aspects, engineers may be concerned that they will have given up the same level of oversight or fine-grained control over network configurations and changes that they had before.

5. Resistance from Established Organizational Culture

Advocates for automation might find their work cut out for them when it comes to winning support from a cultural angle, including from such potential obstacles as:

• Organizational Resistance: In some cases, network engineers may face resistance from their peers. Some teams may be skeptical due to perceived automation risk or due to fear of change, especially if there is an established way of conducting processes manually.
• Change Management: Introducing automation requires careful planning and coordination. If mismanaged, this can lead to confusion, inefficiencies, and even costly disruptions such as downtime. Engineers might hesitate to use automation platforms in environments where change management processes are lacking or poorly defined.
• Cultural Change: Some network engineers might see a process change as a cultural change and warn about automation risk from that particular angle. Even if IT personnel determine that process automation can only help workplace practices, their peers might still be wary of any sort of alteration (even a positive one) to the status quo.

Automation Risk in a Nutshell

All told, network engineers' perception of automation risk often stems from concerns over security, control, cost, configuration, and the potential for mistakes.

It can add up to a lot of resistance to even positive change and force process automation stakeholders to consider overcoming it both respectfully and expediently.

Fortunately, if you're one of those stakeholders, we've got the details on how to do just that!

Network Automation Risk: The Keys to Overcoming Skepticism

By now, we've extensively covered the major pillars of risk automation: compatibility, familiarity, cost, control, and culture.

These pillars are at the heart of automation risk concerns at firms worldwide, and they can prevent organizations from implementing and benefiting from transformative process automation and orchestration.

However, as formidable as this opposition to change can be, it is not unbeatable.

To put it simply, the key to mitigating automation risk and winning over sponsorship is to go about implementation in a gradual manner.

Sound too good to be true? Here's a more detailed breakdown:

1. Overcoming Compatibility Concerns

There's an effective two-pronged approach when it comes to tackling automation risk as it relates to compatibility, and each prong has to do with a very important factor: time.

First, on the organizational side, automation champions have to make it clear that network engineers would have plenty of time to ascertain what platform they would use and how well it plays with existing systems.

Constantly emphasizing that element and a commitment to establishing clear testing and validation processes go a long way toward convincing skeptical personnel. It reassures them that both their time and the state of the existing digital environment are being respected.

However, that strategy alone might not win over every skeptic.

That's where the other prong of this strategy comes in—finding a leading network automation platform that can provide thousands of integrations right out of the box and is designed to meld into existing IT infrastructures at an expedient pace.

Such platforms take less time and effort to set up while also assuaging concerns about new integrations.

2. Training and Support

This one-two strategy revolves around making network engineers walk away from meetings feeling respected and supported. It's common for these personnel to wonder how much time getting trained on new software will take away from their existing duties.

Building out a training schedule that allows for as much gradual integration and question-asking as possible is a must here.

Another must is using a platform that has the integration capabilities we discussed earlier, but that is also supported by a dedicated team of experts. Leading platforms in the network automation space understand that technical training is an involved effort, and will go great lengths to help.

An easy way to tell how committed a vendor is to mitigating automation risk is seeing how dedicated their team is not ‘just' at the beginning, but throughout your automation journey.

3. Cost-Effective Measures

Best-in-class, enterprise-grade automation platforms understand that your organization's needs are unique.

That means from a financial perspective that they're dedicated to helping you pick and choose the platform elements that are most helpful to your network engineers.

Ergo, if you're looking to win over a stakeholder who's on the fence about process automation's potential costs, try to understand their feelings and worries, bring those concerns to your automation expert or support team, and work together to create a solution that can at least meet some initial goals.

Once you've done that, make sure to tie that initial effort to subsequent success within your organization, and you'll have a much easier time of getting more support.

4. Command and Control

One of the biggest automation risks that network engineers see is control loss within their environment.

Automation champions can counter this concern by finding a network automation platform that espouses a decentralized, 360-degree view of the entire digital ecosystem.

This approach guarantees that network engineers will lose neither visibility nor control while also supercharging your existing network processes.

5. Genuine Experience Improvement

It can be difficult to convince culture champions to embrace change, but it's not impossible. Many skeptics see process automation purely as the sum of its parts: new software that might be worth the automation risk.

But the truth is that process automation is much more than software, and the positive change it enables goes far beyond processes.

When NetOps and ITOps teams can work together, it has a positive effect on the entire organization, not just that cohort.

When employees across the organization have an improved experience, that's guaranteed to impact the business.

Risk Equals Reward

It's understandable for stakeholders and engineers to be concerned about automation. But the truth is that not automating is a greater risk than automation risk.

The truth is also that this process is a busy, involved undertaking. But if you understand the pillars of automation risk and approach countering them as has been laid out here, you're guaranteed to find success not ‘just' in achieving process information, but also in achieving the transformative success that comes with that goal.

Ready to take the first step? Request a demo.