What is orchestration
In a constantly evolving world, IT infrastructures and networks are also becoming increasingly complex and distributed. Therefore, there is an increasing need to combine multiple automated activities and their respective configurations into groups of systems and machines. Orchestration is the solution that allows you to create automated workflows that manage activities in a coordinated and integrated way, thus moving from complex and interconnected problems to unified and consistent solutions.
Automation and orchestration are related, but different concepts. In particular, the first concerns the automated execution of repetitive tasks, eliminating manual intervention on individual systems. Orchestration, on the other hand, concerns the automation of an entire workflow that involves multiple phases of automation in different systems, ensuring the completion of the entire flow or cancellation in the event of errors. Then the automations are integrated into business processes and orchestrated so that their execution is automatic.
The fields of application of orchestration are many: IT, logistics, production, industrial automation and many others. In the IT context, orchestration makes it possible to manage cloud services, configure servers and distribute applications, improving the efficiency, scalability and security of infrastructures. But it is in the context of complex networks, such as those of Telco operators, that orchestration has the greatest benefits. The orchestration of Telco networks impacts the configuration of access equipment, multiple IP devices (switches, routers and firewalls), authentication systems, assigning IP addresses to devices, to allow efficient communication and ensure that data is sent to its right recipient. Complete automation in network management involves, in addition to the configuration of services, the monitoring of the resources involved for automatic detection and resolution of problems.
For example, the provisioning of broadband voice and internet services for consumer and especially business customers requires the configuration of fiber or copper access devices, depending on the access technology, multiple IP devices, authentication, DHCP, etc. If the access is via a mobile network, it is necessary to configure the Fixed Wireless Access service in the core network.
Then, thanks to the centralized and automated management of networks, computers, servers and more, it is possible to coordinate and control devices in an integrated manner to ensure optimal operation and greater efficiency of network resources.
What are the advantages of orchestration
- Agility, flexibility and efficiency: with agile, flexible and efficient network management, it is possible to reduce downtime and costs by increasing the productivity of end users. For example, to respond quickly to business needs, the programming and configuration of devices can be modified and adapted to the applications and end users.
- Simplified updates and maintenance: since network orchestration allows network updates and maintenance to be managed in a centralized and simplified way, these can be applied quickly and securely, minimizing the risk of incompatibility or service interruptions.
- Security and control: thanks to the complete vision and the possibility of granularly controlling access to resources, orchestration allows you to monitor performance, prevent traffic congestion, apply security policies, identify, isolate and quickly resolve any problems or threats. In addition, thanks to the automation of activities, the risk of human errors is reduced, improving the quality of service for end users.
How network service orchestration works
Network orchestration uses software and other innovative tools to coordinate and manage activities in a centralized way. The main phases of operation are:
- Preparation: network devices must be designed to support orchestration and automation activities, through the installation and configuration of software for managing M2M protocols.
- Information collection: for each type of device, rules and policies are defined for service configuration, monitoring and reconciliation.
- Automation: configuration, monitoring and reconciliation rules are automated using software that automates activities on the individual device.
- Coordination: the orchestrator coordinates network activities between different devices, ensuring the consistency and cohesion of the configuration. This is done in a centralized way, using software for managing execution workflows.
- Integration: Network orchestration can be integrated with other services, such as applications and security, to ensure end-to-end infrastructure management. This allows you to create a more comprehensive and flexible service management ecosystem.
- Monitoring and analysis: the configuration data of the services and supporting resources are often integrated with monitoring and resource status data updated in real time. Orchestration allows you to monitor performance and analyze network metrics to identify any problems, anomalies and to improve the user experience.
Orchestration is, therefore, the ideal solution that allows improving the automation and efficiency of network management while ensuring, at the same time, the consistency and cohesion of the configuration.
The orchestration solutions available on the market can be classified into:
- Policy Based (PBA): This is the most basic type of orchestration, which abstracts the configuration of the individual device and allows centralized control of configurations. However, it still needs external workflow engines to cover network service orchestration use cases.
- Software Defined Networking (SDN): separates the control plane from the network plane and bases automation on programmable control tables. It has been successful in SD-WAN and data centers, but has not been widely adopted in networks.
- Intent Based Orchestration (IBO): This is the most advanced type of orchestration because it can abstract intents down to the business level and the orchestrator can derive the required configuration and implement it on the network. Intent-based orchestration involves various steps, guided by workflows, such as validation, enrichment, inventory management, transformations, consistency checks, deployment on multiple devices in multiple domains and automatic roll-back management. In the event of a failure, XNO (Xacria Network Orchestrator) excels when it comes to flexible and scalable Intent Based Orchestration.
Why choose the Xacria solution
Xacria Network Orchestrator is a comprehensive “zero-touch” network provisioning platform that combines the best features of network automation and intent-based orchestration.
Thanks to XNO's automation capabilities, it is possible to define and execute thousands of configurations, uploads and discovery activities on a wide range of devices, while the orchestration capabilities allow you to configure complex network services that involve multiple devices (multi-vendor, multi-model), multiple systems, across multiple domains and to manage automatic rollback in case of problems.
XNO offers different integration models to meet your needs, including zero-code provisioning with “off-the-shelf” components for simple use cases and microservice-based development oriented provisioning for more complex integrations on multiple platforms with different protocols and interfaces (for example, SOAP, REST, CORBA, legacy or proprietary protocols, etc.)
For this purpose, XNO provides an SDK for developing and integrating microservices.
Contact us for more information
