A lightning talk presentation which was presented at the LINX89 meeting (London Internet Exchange) about the path that Allegro took towards automating many of our business processes and network provisioning elements to build the UK's first fully automated wholesale carrier.

1. Network automation
________________________________
Andy Davidson, Allegro Networks Ltd
andy.davidson@allegro.net
18th November 2013

2. Revolution
Automation is not the product
Automation is the enabler
Consistency
Speed of Delivery
Ease of Support
Speed to integrate
Compliance
Integrated OSS/BSS
Confidence
Commodity
Devolved control

3. Can’t Get There From Here
Automation has been possible for decades
Tricky part is the business process tie-in
Business or customer need  Network Action
(Why else do an activity?)
This is the source of complexity
This is also where state anxiety lives

4. Losing My Provision
Take one single crappy process and automate it out of existence
Don’t worry too much about your software today. If this thing catches on, you’re binning your early code anyway
You are exclusively focussed on delivery, saving money, saving effort, removing pain, learning

5. Shiny Happy People
Feedback is a critically important part of the process
Useful right away
“Are people actually using it” is the best
Manual processes outside of engineering likely to be the most painful
We automated a sales pricing function first
People will bring all manner of junk to automate

6. It Happened Today
Network engineering and programming are different
skills
Cross-functional teams
Smallest units of work possible
Kanban cycle
• Continuous integration
• Release often – why not today!

7. Superman
Your collection of tools eventually becomes a stack
Refactor into sellable areas:
Public client
Administrative client
API
Develop your API as if it is public right away
(And then you can release it! Ours is coming soon!)
Your stack becomes your automation product

8. Aftermath
A more pluggable world
Up & Downstream

9. Accelerat
e
Roadmap:
Transit via web client (portal.allegro.net)
Additional data centres (~30)
Expose API
Private circuits

10. Let me in
XML / “Touch the Router”
Netconf
XML
Expect(!)
Abstraction
JUNOS Space
HP ANM
Cisco Intelligent Automation
AutoMate
Requires more waiting
Requires more testing

11. All the right friends
Hard to find good conversations about automation avoiding:
Those panning for gold in the shape of SDN
Vendors wanting to sell junk network management software
People who just want to nick your leads
“Developers” with empty OSS “projects” on GitHub
Ideally, one day we will have:
Documented wishlist & best practice
Pluggable upstream and downstream services
Reliable standards adherence from vendors
Differentiated, competitive market for automated wholesale services!

12. andy.davidson@allegro.net
+44 161 200 1610