Secure, Automate, and Take Control: Why Every Organization Needs a Network Orchestration Framework

With security more important than ever, organizations need to be able to automate their networks in order to take control of them. A network orchestration framework is the answer.

With the introduction of hybrid cloud, public cloud, and on-premises network infrastructures, organizations are now faced with an increased number of application deployment options. For example, an organization might have different application deployment requirements in each location.

In the past, companies could use one deployment tool and simply migrate their applications as required. However, they are now faced with the challenge of managing multiple deployment strategies. This requires complex systems to ensure the deployment is performed efficiently, safely, and securely. It can also be complicated if the business wants to roll out different applications to different locations at different times.

Startups and traditional businesses alike have found that network orchestration is a great way to cope with the changes in their industry by focusing on the things like application delivery, agility, and efficiency.

What is Network Orchestration?
An IT infrastructure typically consists of applications, devices, domains, networks, and people. Network orchestration is a process that manages and automates the interactions between these network components to provide quick, error-free, and secure services to its end users.

Application Delivery Challenges in Modern IT

1. The rapid adoption of CI/CD methodology in app deployment

a.  As IT processes get more agile, development teams are driven to commit code changes more frequently than ever. This has turned the network ecosystem into an expansive and complex infrastructure.
b.  Simply put, every organization is looking to implement an error-free and agile application delivery process with CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) to assure 100% reliability, end-to-end security, and faster accessibility to its end user.

2. Increase in data consumption requiring more network bandwidth

“By 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 463 exabytes globally “

a.  The next big surge in data consumption will be driven by the cloud, IoT, and 5G. It will require an increase in bandwidth. This means more applications, more data, a higher number of web servers, and more potential for performance issues, data loss, and security breaches.
b.  Such requirements directly translate into more stress on application delivery controllers (ADCs) than ever experienced.

3. Hybrid/Multi-Cloud environment

a.  Multi-cloud, multi-tool, multi-vendor approach to manage a diverse ecosystem has become the standard for all legacy and modern enterprises.
b.  The result: Varied and complex network architectures, multiple management dashboards, different certificate security policies, and n-number of APIs to manage, thus creating challenges.

4. Increased cost for seamless app experience

a.  Today’s high-tech IT environment demands proper regulations and management policies to run a business successfully. If not maintained correctly, the costs involved in maintaining such infrastructure can be enormous.
b.  The various costs associated with developing and maintaining an application include upfront costs, maintenance costs, hardware replacement costs, upgrade costs, and utility costs to run the app. These costs should be aligned with the company’s budget to avoid financial complications.

5. ADC Management

a. Some primary challenges that businesses face in the realm of ADC management include:

    • Lack of centralized app visibility spread across diverse environments
    • Lack of Collaboration and Need for Self-Servicing IT
    • Managing Dynamic Change Requests
    • Frequent Backup and Upgrade Requests
    • Optimizing ADC Configurations

b. Additionally, lengthy resolution times due to a lack of collaboration across application teams are another significant problem that can arise.

6. Data Security

“Data-security issues impact one in three service providers.”

a.  Data security and compliance have become a top priority as organizations look to utilize their existing infrastructure to its maximum capacity as well as scale to cloud environments.
b.  As data storage on the cloud continues to increase, challenges such as ransomware, phishing attacks, cloud misconfiguration, and unauthorized access to data pose huge threats to an organization.
c.  Attacks, such as DoS, flood a website with an overabundance of traffic and makes it difficult for users to access the required services.
d.  This directly impacts service providers who have the diligent duty to assure their customers that their network traffic is not compromised or manipulated.

In a nutshell,

A network orchestration framework can help organizations take control of their networks

The big surge in data consumption will be driven by the cloud, IoT, and 5G. More applications, increased internet traffic, a higher number of web servers, and more potential for data loss and breaches. Such requirements directly translate to more complex networks and the need for reliable connectivity. 92% of organizations still deploy some applications on-premises, but only 53% of them host app security technology there. AppViewX ADC+ is an end-to-end low-code application infrastructure, network orchestration, and security solution designed for hybrid/multi-cloud environments. Using ADC+, organizations have reported ~90-95% automation of the entire F5 Big-IP provisioning and management process.

PROBLEM: Modern IT Demands and Challenges

Modern IT Demands and Challenges

SOLUTION: ADC Automation with Network Orchestration

Network Orchestration

IT demands Network Orchestration.

What’s the key driving factor that makes Network Orchestration a must-have for any organization? The answer is simple:

Improved ROI

Let’s dive deep into how Network Orchestration can bring about an increase in ROI.

A. Multi-device (depth) and multi-vendor (width) automation – Change and Configuration Management:

In the Network Orchestration process, every action performed by the devices in the loop is validated and documented to streamline the decision-making process. An automated solution, like ADC+, can detect even the smallest change in the network infrastructure and make an instant decision, thereby reducing the operator’s workload.

B. Comprehensive ADC Management and Automation for the Application Delivery Platforms:

Automation and Orchestration simplify network operation and optimize management workloads – providing businesses the power to manage an infinite number of physical and virtual devices at any given time, irrespective of the ecosystem.

C. Holistic visibility into the network infrastructure:

Network Orchestration tools provide real-time monitoring and high visibility into the network infrastructure from an application perspective with real-time dashboards.

D. Self-servicing of network operations:

Conditions and policies are two key aspects of Network orchestration. Network orchestration with self-servicing capabilities makes it easier for DevOps teams to provision application and infrastructure services, including load balancers, WAFs (web application firewalls), and TLS certificates.

E. Reusability of workflows:

Reusing workflows brings about consistency in delivering services and provides improved quality. This, in turn, results in consistent business and sustained customers.

F. Provides airtight security with every layer – from the Physical to the Application layer:

Network orchestration solutions, such as AppViewX ADC+, ensure network and application security by providing s certificate provisioning and lifecycle management. It integrates with all major CAs and SSH vendors to provide a safe, secure, and encrypted environment for applications. This way, you can rest assured your applications are secure from threats and breaches at every level.

Build a Future-Forward Network Orchestration Infrastructure with AppViewX

AppViewX ADC+ is a product built for accelerating the secure deployment of applications across very complex hybrid multi-cloud environments. It offers holistic automation and orchestration solutions that cut across network layers, vendors, and environments (on-prem, private, and hybrid clouds)

Centralized App Delivery Orchestration

AppViewX is an end-to-end low-code network orchestration and security solution. It handles high-level network operations like real-time monitoring and reporting, key/certificate provisioning and management, context-aware troubleshooting and auto-remediation, and self-servicing capabilities. Using ADC+, organizations have reported ~90-95% automation of their entire F5 Big-IP provisioning and management process and upto 70% reduction in (Turn Around Time (TAT). Automate your entire network lifecycle today!

AppViewX ADC+: Feature-rich ADC Management and Automation platform

Low-code automation

  • Configure workflows without writing any code
  • Visual Workflow provides a studio of 300+ ready-to-use network components by abstracting all the code that goes into them,
  • Just drag-and-drop to create even complex workflows

Compliant in both hybrid/multi-cloud environments

  • Accurately abstract hardware, software, open-source, and cloud solutions from end-users requesting application delivery services
  • Enforce compliance even in multi-cloud data centers.

No compromise on Security

  • Efficiently orchestrate GSLB, DNS, load-balancing, firewall, WAF, certificate, network, ITSM, and notification services in the multi-cloud infrastructure.
  • Through the pre-packaged solutions, enforce deployment standards defined by an organization without compromising on security

Automate your infrastructure without compromising security or performance.

Tags

  • ADC management
  • Application Delivery Platforms
  • Data Security
  • hybrid cloud
  • load balancers
  • network orchestration
  • Network Orchestration Framework

About the Author

Haripriya Muralikrishnan

Senior Specialist - Technical Writer

Haripriya is a technical information developer and content strategist.

More From the Author →

Related Articles

Preparing For India’s New Data Protection Act With Secure Identity Management

| 9 Min Read

Kubernetes: Now, With Less Complexity

| 13 Min Read

Managing BIG-IP CVE Vulnerabilities Using ADC+

| 4 Min Read