These slides—based on the research webinar from leading IT research firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA)--shares insights from, “The Future of Data Center Network Automation,” a research report based on a survey of more than 350 technology decision-makers and in-depth interviews with network engineers and architects from multi-billion-dollar companies.

1. The Future of
Data Center
Network Automation
Shamus McGillicuddy
Vice President of Research
shamus@enterprisemanagement.com
Twitter: @ShamusEMA

2. Watch the On-Demand Webinar
• The Future of Data Center Network Automation On-Demand
Webinar: https://info.enterprisemanagement.com/the-future-of-
data-center-network-automation-webinar-ws
• Check out upcoming webinars from EMA here:
https://www.enterprisemanagement.com/freeResearch

3. | @ema_research
Featured Speaker
Shamus McGillicuddy is the vice president of
research at Enterprise Management Associates
(EMA), where he leads the network infrastructure and
operations practice. He has more than 15 years of
experience in the IT industry. His research focuses on
all aspects of managing enterprise networks,
including network automation, AIOps-driven network
operations, multi-cloud networking, and WAN
transformation.
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 3
Shamus McGillicuddy
Vice President of Research
Network Infrastructure and Operations

4. | @ema_research
Sponsors
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 4
| @ema_research

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Agenda
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 5
Research
Goals and
Methodology
1 2 3
The Value of
Data Center
Automation
Solution
Strategies
4
Challenges
and Best
Practices

6. Research Goals and
Methodology

7. | @ema_research
Research Goals and Methodology
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 7
Methodology
Survey of 359 technology professionals directly involved in selecting,
implementing, and using automation solutions
One-on-one interviews with a select group of practitioners
Goals
Understand the state of data
center network automation
strategies
Identify best practices

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Demographics
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 8
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.
Job Titles
20% IT/Network architects
15% Managers/Supervisors of technical teams
15% CIOs/CTOs
10% Directors of technical teams
10% Network engineers
6% Network automation engineers/developers
Groups
Industries
9% Cloud providers
19% Communications service providers
72% Enterprises
25% Retail/Wholesale/Distribution
12% Finance/Banking/Insurance
11% Manufacturing
4% Healthcare/Medical/Pharma
4% Software
Geography
60% United States 40% Europe
Revenue
| @ema_research
Company Size by Employees
21% Small enterprise (250 - 999)
60% Midsized enterprise (1,000 - 4,999)
19% Large enterprise (5,000+)
25% IT executive suite
20% Information security/SecOps
16% IT/Network architecture
11% Network engineering
6% IT/Network governance
6% DevOps
6% NetOps
6% Data center operations
10% $30 million to $100 million
25% $100 million to $500 million
30% $500 million to $1 billion
33% $1 billion or more

9. The Value of Data
Center Automation

10. | @ema_research
The Payback of a DCNA Investment
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 10
Priority business benefits Automation ROI
48% of orgs that measure
ROI expect a payback
within two years
41% Operational efficiency
36% Reduced security risk
34% Improved compliance
32% Agility
31% Network/App resiliency

11. | @ema_research
Perspective From Engineers
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 11
“I’ve seen some network changes take 15 days before we
implemented automation, and now that same process takes a couple
minutes. When an engineer has everything they need to execute a
change right in front of them, it leads to high-quality work with a quick
turnaround time.”
Network automation engineer,
$3 billion North American retailer
“We’re trying to reduce human error. When I was in the financial
industry, one of my colleagues pushed a command to solve an issue
with a load balancer. The change didn’t go through as
expected…which led to downtime at a major stock exchange.”
Network design engineer,
$25 billion global pharmaceutical company

12. Solution Strategies

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74% of Organizations Have 2+ DCNA Tools
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 13
93% develop their own software
Why?
• Security/compliance issues 49%
• We need functionality aligned to our environment 43%
• We need to close gaps in tools we bought 34%
98% use commercial tools
Why?
• Security/compliance requirements 37%
• Fast time to value 36%
• Better cross-team visibility into data 35%
• Breadth/depth of functionality 35%

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What Are They Using?
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 14
Intent-based networking
21% are using extensively
57% making limited use
Most enthusiastic about its value for
implementing networks
86% believe digital twin
technology would be useful
78% require automation to be
extensible to public cloud
Solutions that organizations are using or planning to use

15. | @ema_research
Integrated Network Assurance Features
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 15
89% say integrated
monitoring and
troubleshooting is
important to data
center network
automation solutions
Top monitoring priorities
Security/compliance risk
Overall application and network performance
Network device health

16. | @ema_research
Network Data
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 16
Most essential data for
DCNA pipelines
• Configuration info 44%
• Inventory data 40%
• Network device metrics 36%
• Network flows 36%
• Security policies 35%
48% of organizations gather at
least some data manually
51% of these organizations say
manual processes undermine
automation effectiveness
1. Automation takes too long
2. Lack of change visibility/verification
3. Security vulnerabilities
A source of truth that automates
data collection and
management is essential

17. Challenges and
Best Practices

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© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 18
Total Success is Rare
Challenges with
planning/evaluation
39% Understanding how
automation interacts with other
systems
36% Projecting costs
36% Assessing/Evaluation tech
Challenges with
implementation
44% Infrastructure issues (poor
APIs, legacy issues)
44% Integrating/Contextualizing
with overall app service delivery
40% Testing/Validating
implementation
Challenges with
adoption/use
42% Data problems
40% Understanding impact on
app behavior/performance
37% Software bugs/stability
37% User adoption/trust
Only 23% of survey takers believe their DCNA strategies are very good
| @ema_research

19. | @ema_research
How to do Better, From the Networking Trenches
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 19
“It’s not an overnight thing.
You need time to learn scripting,
coding, to get used to it. Leadership
needs to provide that hands-on
experience, like in a lab.”
Network design engineer,
$25 billion global
pharmaceutical company
“We are using [one vendor] for
everything, but there are other
systems we could be using. We need
better tools to do more advanced
automation. We need to be open-
minded to other [vendors and tools].”
Network engineer,
$3 billion North American
medical research company
“We get so busy with operations and
deployments and outages and
software upgrades that automation
can keep getting pushed. It’s funded
and supported, but there is no
dedicated group to get it done.”
Network architect,
$50 billion global
consulting company

20. | @ema_research
DCNA Best Practices
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 20
CIOs/CTOs should
Set policies that encourage using automation
Encourage working with new vendors
Use open-source when developing
internal tools Add extensibility to the cloud
Consider intent-based networking
Look for opportunities to consolidate
tools
Integrate DCNA with automation of
LAN, WAN, cloud networks
Integrate network assurance features into
automation
Embrace AIOps, especially to boost ease of
use and data management
Integrate with DevOps toolchain

21. | @ema_research
The Data Center Network Automation Report is Now Available
Learn more and download:
https://bit.ly/3v4Ukv1
© 2022 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 21