Network Automation

Communications service providers (CSPs) provide a vital lifeline for citizens and enterprises globally, and even more so today, as unpredictable events can drive massive changes in network needs and traffic patterns overnight. Modern challenges require modern networks, and CSPs must embrace cloud and virtualization as they look to deliver the 5G and edge computing services that will drive growth and improve customer experiences. Increasingly, CSPs consider automation and AI as essential to their businesses.

AI and automation are two drivers of this transformation. In fact, according to Appledore Research, the network automation software market will grow 5 times in the next 5 years—reaching up to USD 25 billion by 2025.2 In fact, 76% of leading CSPs surveyed are using or plan to use AI to automate self-diagnostics and problem detection.3 Yet limited automation and the lack of realtime visibility across the total network, and dynamic converged environments, have hindered their ability to deliver services fast enough and substantially reduce costs. IBM Cloud Pak® for Network Automation is an AI-powered, telco cloud platform that enables the automation of network operations so CSPs can transform their networks, evolve to zero-touch operations, reduce operating expenses (OpEx) and deliver services faster. CSPs can now rapidly design, deploy and scale new services in minutes instead of days so customer service response times can be improved by up to 6x.4

IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation provides a full suite of automation and AI features to orchestrate, operate and optimize multivendor network functions and services while evolving to autonomous operations. By combining IBM Watson® AIOps technology from the IBM Cloud Pak® for Watson AIOps, you can gain insight to both improve client experiences and drive network efficiencies. In addition, IBM and Red Hat® open-source industry leadership, coupled with a joint multivendor ecosystem, allows CSPs to rapidly onboard certified virtualized network functions (VNFs) and containerized network functions (CNFs). Normalized lifecycle modeling Standardized operations for all network functions (xNFs) to enable model-driven automation with continuous integration continuous delivery (CI/CD) toolchains Intent driven orchestration Models the desired service operational state rather than preprogramming workflows Service design and testing Automation for the service itself and underlying resources for test, preproduction, and production environments

Summary:

IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation helps CSPs reduce operational costs, deliver services faster, onboard network functions with greater ease from any vendor and evolve to zero-touch operations. Improve business process and service assurance while lowering operations costs. Allows users to continuously optimize both business processes and network operations. Combined with IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps, CSPs can gain insights across complex data sets to proactively detect and resolve anomalies with closed-loop operations before they impact end users. Customer service response times can now be improved by up to 6x.4 Accelerate the delivery of networks and services through AI-powered automation. Provides a single point of control with intent-driven orchestration so users can now model the desired service operational state, rather than manually preprogramming workflows. CSPs can rapidly design, deploy and scale new services in minutes instead of days with up to 80% less operations effort. Run on any cloud, anywhere, and manage virtually any network vendor infrastructure. It’s open and optimized for hybrid multicloud, multivendor core, access and edge networks. IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation is built on Red Hat OpenShift® software, a leading container platform, and offers an ecosystem to rapidly onboard certified VNFs and CNFs. Almost 30% of the top Fortune Global 500 companies use OpenShift, including two of the top three telecommunications companies. IBM brings the depth and breadth of our industry expertise, with an open ecosystem of value-added partners, to modernize and monetize networks. With IBM’s AI-powered automation, CSPs can execute data driven decisions to improve profitability, accelerate growth, deliver services faster and provide better customer experiences. IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation is part of the IBM Automation platform, a set of shared automation services that help you get insight into how your processes run, visualize hotspots and bottlenecks, and use financial impact information to prioritize which issues to address first