The document discusses improving network operations and IT management using Neo4j and graph databases. It highlights that networks can be represented as graphs and illustrates scenarios involving proactive and reactive approaches, such as dependency and root cause analysis. The summary also indicates that the adoption of graph databases is on the rise among various sectors, suggesting a transformative impact on data-driven decision-making.

1. Taming the Complexity
of Network & IT Ops
Improving Network Operations With Neo4j & Graphs

2. Ryan Boyd
Developer Relations @ Neo Technology
Jeff Morris
Head of Product Marketing @ Neo Technology

3. Agenda
• Networks are Graphs
• Network & IT-Operations with Graphs
• Network Upgrade and Helpdesk Scenarios
• The Neo4j Sandbox Topology
• References and Resources
• Q&A

4. Networks are Graphs

5. network topology

6. Mesh
Router
Gateway
Router
Router
Router
Mesh
Router
Router
Router
Mesh
Router
Gateway
Access
Point
CPU
CPU CPU
CPU
Mobile
Mobile Mobile
Mobile
Base Station
CPU
CPU
CPU
CPU
Access Point

7. Relational
Database

8. This is data modelled as graph!
Graph
Database

9. Network & IT-Operations
with Graphs

10. Typical IT organization

11. Sys Admins
Servers, on-premise virtual machines,
cloud virtual machines, etc.
Network Admins
Switches, Routers, Egress Points
App Admins
I.e. Salesforce, Marketo, SAP, Oracle
Apps, Tableau, SharePoint, DBA’s etc.
Internal Users
HR, Sales, Marketing, Data Analysts,
E-staff etc.
Numerous Customers & Partners

12. Router
Servers
Servers
Apps
FirewallCloud
Switch
Apps
Network Admins
Switches, Routers, Egress Points
Sys Admins
Servers, on-premise virtual machines,
cloud virtual machines, etc.
App Admins
I.e. Salesforce, Marketo, SAP, Oracle
Apps, Tableau, SharePoint, DBA’s etc.
Internal Users
HR, Sales, Marketing, Data Analysts,
E-staff etc.

13. Router
Servers
Servers
Apps
FirewallCloud
Switch
Apps
Network Admins
Switches, Routers, Egress Points
Sys Admins
Servers, on-premise virtual machines,
cloud virtual machines, etc.
App Admins
I.e. Salesforce, Marketo, SAP, Oracle
Apps, Tableau, SharePoint, DBA’s etc.
Internal Users
HR, Sales, Marketing, Data Analysts,
E-staff etc.

14. Router
Servers
Servers
Apps
FirewallCloud
Switch
Apps
Network Admins
Switches, Routers, Egress Points
Sys Admins
Servers, on-premise virtual machines,
cloud virtual machines, etc.
App Admins
I.e. Salesforce, Marketo, SAP, Oracle
Apps, Tableau, SharePoint, DBA’s etc.
Internal Users
HR, Sales, Marketing, Data Analysts,
E-staff etc.

15. Router
Servers
Servers
Apps
FirewallCloud
Switch
Apps
Network Admins
Switches, Routers, Egress Points
Sys Admins
Servers, on-premise virtual machines,
cloud virtual machines, etc.
App Admins
I.e. Salesforce, Marketo, SAP, Oracle
Apps, Tableau, SharePoint, DBA’s etc.
Internal Users
HR, Sales, Marketing, Data Analysts,
E-staff etc.

16. Router
Servers
Servers
Apps
FirewallCloud
Switch
Apps
Network Admins
Switches, Routers, Egress Points
Sys Admins
Servers, on-premise virtual machines,
cloud virtual machines, etc.
App Admins
I.e. Salesforce, Marketo, SAP, Oracle
Apps, Tableau, SharePoint, DBA’s etc.
Internal Users
HR, Sales, Marketing, Data Analysts,
E-staff etc.

17. Network & IT operations
Proactive Reactive

18. Proactive Scenario:
Dependency Analysis

19. Best,
John Lewis
Network Administrator
Email
#newyork
#london
#funstuff
#graphicdesign
#product_team
#marketing
#staff_info
#IT_maintenance
Slack
Premise:
We are the Network admins at the company ACME and we’re
planning on doing maintenance on a switch on a Friday afternoon.
Network Admins
Sys Admins
Notify Hi, maintenance scheduled for Switch IP 10.2.5 on Rack 5 on
Friday, May 28 @ 3-4pm.
@channel Hi, maintenance scheduled for
Switch IP 10.2.5 on Rack 5 on Friday,
May 28 @ 3-4pm.

20. Premise:
We are the Network admins at the company ACME and we’re
planning on doing maintenance on a switch on a Friday afternoon.
Sys Admins
(Servers & Other Hardware)
Network Admins
(In Charge of Switch)
The Telephone Game

21. Premise:
We are the Network admins at the company ACME and we’re
planning on doing maintenance on a switch on a Friday afternoon.
Network Admins
Sys Admins
App Admins 10+
(Marketo, SalesForce, Publishing Tools etc.)
(Servers & Other Hardware)
(In Charge of Switch)
The Telephone Game

22. Premise:
We are the Network admins at the company ACME and we’re
planning on doing maintenance on a switch on a Friday afternoon.
Network Admins
Sys Admins
App Admins
Internal Users
10+
(Marketo, SalesForce, Publishing Tools etc.)
(Employees in Sales, Marketing, Legal, HR, etc)
(Servers & Other Hardware)
(In Charge of Switch)
500+
The Telephone Game

23. Network Admins
Sys Admins
App Admins
Customers
Internal Users
10+
(Marketo, SalesForce, Publishing Tools etc.)
(Employees in Sales, Marketing, Legal, HR, etc)
(Servers & Other Hardware)
(In Charge of Switch)
500+
10’000+
The Telephone Game
Premise:
We are the Network admins at the company ACME and we’re
planning on doing maintenance on a switch on a Friday afternoon.

24. 49%

25. Dependency Analysis
Demo

26. Reactive Scenario:
Root Cause Analysis

27. Helpdesk
Customers
App Admins
Internal Users
Sys Admins
Network Admins
Organization Hierarchy

28. Premise:
It’s 5 pm on a Friday in the summer. Most staff have left for the day, but the
Helpdesk remain on call. The staff starts receiving numerous complaints.

29. Premise:
It’s 5 pm on a Friday in the summer. Most staff have left for the day, but the
Helpdesk remain on call. The staff starts receiving numerous complaints.
CRM system
Oracle Financials
Tableau

30. Premise:
App Admins
6-6.45pm
Starts
investigating
8pm
Oracle App
Admin
On-call Sys
Admin
Slow fiber connection
to the SAN detected
5pm
Complaints
begin
Helpdesk Network
Admin
9pm
Issue is a bad
fiber connector
10pm
System
operational
Helpdesk
It’s 5 pm on a Friday in the summer. Most staff have left for the day, but the
Helpdesk remain on call. The staff starts receiving numerous complaints.

31. Premise:
Impact:
• Outage lasted 5 hours
• 3 helpdesk staff involved
• 3 on-call app admins
• 3 on-call sysadmins
• 2 on-call network admins return to the office
• Total people time until resolution: 55 hours
It’s 5 pm on a Friday in the summer. Most staff have left for the day, but the
Helpdesk remain on call. The staff starts receiving numerous complaints.

32. Helpdesk Root Cause
Demo

33. Premise:
Impact after switching to graph:
• Outage lasts 45 min
• 3 helpdesk staff involved
• 2 on-call network admins are involved
• Total people time until resolution: 3.75 hours
It’s 5 pm on a Friday in the summer. Most staff have left for the day, but the
Helpdesk remain on call. The staff starts receiving numerous complaints.

34. Network are Graphs!
Neo4j enables you to quickly traverse a
network graph for proactive impact analysis
Neo4j significantly increases the speed when
performing root cause analysis
Summary

35. Who’s using Neo4j?

36. Government Commercial clients
Who’s Using Neo4j?
Institutions
Local Governments
Law Enforcement
Military & Intelligence

37. Neo4j Adoption by Selected Verticals
SOFTWARE
FINANCIAL
SERVICES
RETAIL MEDIA & OTHER
SOCIAL
NETWORKS
TELECOM HEALTHCARE

38. “Graph analysis is possibly the single most effective
competitive differentiator for organizations pursuing
data-driven operations and decisions after the design
of data capture.
“By the end of 2018, 70% of leading organizations
will have one or more pilot or proof-of-concept
efforts underway utilizing graph databases.”
Towards Graph Inevitability

40. Valuable Resources
neo4j.com/sandbox
neo4j.com/use-cases/network-and-it-operations/
neo4j.com/product
Sandbox
www.linkedin.com/company/neo-technology_2
github.com/LendingClub/mercator
neo4j.com/resources
Use Cases

41. Thank you!

43. “Forrester estimates that over 25% of enterprises
will be using graph databases by 2017.”
Towards Graph Inevitability

44. Towards Graph Inevitability

46. ACME Helpdesk
CRM very slow
admin • apps
new
#16783247
CRITICAL New May 28, 2017
3.30pm
CRM taks ages to respond
admin • apps
new
#16783248
CRITICAL May 28, 2017
3.31pm
# Priority Status DateSubject
New
new
#16783247
CRITICALCRM taks ages to respond
admin • apps
May 28, 2017
3.33pm
New
Oracle Financials is slow
admin • apps
new
#16783247
CRITICAL New May 28, 2017
3.30pm
Something wrong with Financials
admin • apps
new
#16783248
CRITICAL May 28, 2017
3.31pm
New
new
#16783247
CRITICALCan’t access Tableau
admin • apps
May 28, 2017
3.33pm
New
new
#16783247
CRITICALTableau is insanely slow
admin • apps
May 28, 2017
3.33pm
New
original

47. ACME Helpdesk

48. Example Reactive Scenario
Helpdesk overload
Customers
App Admins
(Marketo, SalesForce, Publishing Tools etc.)
Internal Users
(Employees in Sales, Marketing, Legal, HR, etc)
Sys Admins
(Servers & Other Hardware)
Network Admins
(In charge of network)
Helpdesk

55. #IT_maintenance
#newyork
#london
#funstuff
#graphicdesign
#product_team
#marketing
#staff_info
@channel Reminder of the scheduled maintenance
on FX31QR on Friday, May 28 @ 3-4pm.
Hi, reminder of the scheduled maintenance on FX31QR on
Friday, May 28 @ 3-4pm.
Best,
John Lewis
Network Administrator

57. sysadmin@acme.com
›
ALERT: Scheduled maintenance for FX31QR
appadmin@acme.com
Hi, maintenance scheduled for Switch IP 10.2.5 on Rack 5 on Friday, May 28 @ 3-4pm.
/John
John Lewis
Network Administrator
***
ACME Company
San Francisco, CA

58. sysadmins@acme.com
›
ALERT: Scheduled maintenance for Switch on Rack 5
Hi, maintenance scheduled for Switch IP 10.2.5 on Rack 5 on Friday, May 28 @ 3-4pm.
/John
John Lewis
Network Administrator
***
ACME Company
San Francisco, CA

59. sysadmins@acme.com
›
ALERT: Scheduled maintenance for Switch on Rack 5
Hi, maintenance scheduled for Switch IP 10.2.5 on Rack 5 on Friday, May 28 @ 3-4pm.
/John
John Lewis
Network Administrator
***
ACME Company
San Francisco, CA