According to Deloitte, advanced networking is the unsung hero of our digital future. Technology forces dependent on networking are transforming enterprise and service provider architectures.

IoT, serverless computing, exploding volumes of shared data, and automation all require advanced connectivity and differentiated networking. With Fabric based networks that are easy to set up in seconds and operate at cloud speed, the network becomes the enabler for digital transformation.

But imagine the following situation: It’s 2 in the morning and your network is down and you need to find the root cause. When failure happens, cross-domain automation tools will ensure that you have a good night of sleep. Automated Remediation can act as tier 1 support: it troubleshoots, fixes known problems, and escalates to humans when needed.

Next to catastrophic outages, when a network experiences a breach, engineers must identify that a breach has occurred, determine which segment it affects, disconnect it, and figure out how to fix the problem. If the breach occurs in the cloud or in a software-defined network environment, it’s difficult to provide the fix in minutes.

Automated security responses to detected well-known security breaches are serious and need to be addressed much quicker. Extreme Workflow Composer can ensure that the response is consistent, always on, faster than ever, identify the right fix, and apply it without human intervention.

Extreme Workflow Composer is the commercial solution available from Extreme and based on the open source project Stackstorm. A great use case for cross-domain and closed-loop automation can be found here –  Use Case – Verizon Digital Media Services with their project Crayfish.

Here is a short summary of the benefits outlined by the Verizon team:

• Focus developers on work that generates a higher return
• Standardize routine and mundane tasks.
• Improve collaboration across departments.
• Reduce server downtime.
• Improve security by implementing firmware updates and security patches.

If done right, the transition to workflow-based automation is an excellent way to socialize and codify tribal knowledge. Instead of everyone having their own approach — we bring the tribe together, come up with a common workflow, and enable everyone to contribute future knowledge gained to a single bottom line.