Channel Manager's Playbook - Volume 5: International Agent Opportunities

This can ensure that something as simple as an interface description or a VLAN name follow the designed naming conventions. We can deterministically build everything without concern over whether a BGP (border gateway protocol) peering was built correctly. Therefore, if your BGP peers should always “send communities,” then ZTP is your best bet in being 100 percent deterministic. That’s compared to an engineer who may mis- takenly skip a line of configuration due to manual configuration from the CLI. After provisioning is complete, these same platforms can be used to main- tain networks. For example, using tools like Ansible, network engineers are beginning to build complex platforms and create front- and backend systems to manage an entire network infrastruc- ture. Imagine that the source of truth of an environment now exists within your automation platform’s backend database instead of text files of configu- rations that may or may not be current and relevant. Clearly, the benefits of this paradigm are enormous. Engineers can build plat- forms that routinely check for changes in the live environment and can take action against rogue configurations that do not meet implemented design. For example, automation in the system can detect if a network engineer modifies an Access Control List (ACL) that leaves certain systems vulnerable. This integrated au- tomation employs a series of probes and watchdogs that revert the configuration to a properly functioning state that is kept in the backend databases within configu- rable intervals. Using the same example, changes to ACL can be deployed to hun- dreds, if not thousands, of devices with the click of a button. What makes this even more powerful is that an engineer can input an ACL rule in a single format once, and the automation platform can in turn transform this rule, so that it can be enabled on a variety of devices in a mixed-vendor environment. Thus, through network automation and ZTP, operators can eliminate vendor lock-in, increase adoption of new platforms, and reduce overall network costs. Strategic Peering For organizations building a global IP backbone, strategic PoP placement and peering are essential to gaining the best possible performance and routing visibil- ity. With many choices of carrier-neutral vendors and facilities available, organi- zations can plan their backbone and net- work locations within close proximity of nearly any network needed for intercon- nection. The benefits include direct peer- ing with major transit providers, Internet exchange points, cloud service providers and direct cross connects with custom- ers, business partners, CDNs, etc. When combining strategic PoP place- ment and peering, organizations can ef- fectivity shorten the cable between their network and customers, along with any networks needed for building resources, such as cloud service providers and CDNs. As an example, a network can be built in major markets on both coasts. On the East Coast, PoPs built in the New York and Washington D.C. metro areas offer many options for establishing peer- ing to networks of choice. Likewise, add- ing PoPs in the San Francisco Bay Area 12 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK