Cisco Service Provider Group Debuts 5 New Automation Capabilities

The group of service providers of Cisco today introduced its new Crosswork Network Automation system for service providers. The system uses networks based on intention to help operators predict change and react in near real time. Crosswork includes five separate services. "Each of these could have been their own unique launch," said Jonathan Davidson, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco service provider networks.

The company has been making a great effort with its intention-based network since last June when Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins introduced The Network Intuitive.

It may seem that the business of Cisco service providers is getting into action based on network attempts. But Davidson said: "We've been driving the infrastructure driven by intention for years, I think it's been five years since we acquired Tail-f and changed it to" Network Services Orchestrator. "It's a tool driven by the intention to implement services to throughout its life cycle. "

Davidson said that the first work in networks based on intention "came from the domain of the service provider". He made a "big leap forward with ACI," he said. And the launch of Network Intuitive last June "took it to a whole new level - we are applying these technologies back to the domain of the service provider."

Crosswork Network Automation provides service providers with the tools to describe what they want to do and deliver. Extends Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) and WAN Automation Engine (WAE) capabilities.
Crosswork network automation

The five new services that are announced today are:

Cisco Data Platform. It presents an open source and commercial data analysis platform. The open source platform uses the platform code of the Linux Foundation for network data analysis (PNDA).

Cisco Network Insights This is a cloud-based analytics to solve large-scale routing problems. It is a software as a service (SaaS) delivered in the cloud that allows operators to understand what is happening in their Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) infrastructure.

Cisco Situation Manager This software uses machine learning to correlate events across an operator's infrastructure, logically grouping events so that staff can more quickly determine where problems occur. It also includes a social aspect for staff to share information quickly through common tools such as Slack. "The Situations Administrator has the ability to find a problem that has existed in the past, take information from the repository and apply it directly within the situation in which he is working," Davidson said.

Cisco Health Insights includes intelligent sensors, intelligent alerts and intelligent solutions to monitor and optimize the network; and Cisco Change Automation is an application that automates the application of operations and provides closed circuit control. "These two tools work together," Davidson said. "Once a human being has participated in an event the first time, there is no reason for a human to get involved next time." Closed-loop automation means that if a problem occurs and is solved, then the next time the problem occurs, an alert is issued and the problem is automatically resolved.

Davidson said that Crosswork helps operators with problems they have been complaining about. "We hear that more than 50 percent of network interruptions are caused by human beings writing directly on consoles," he said. "In addition, they have difficulties to understand what happens in all their infrastructure."