Greatest Community Automation Instruments for 2022

Community automation software program is software program that automates the administration, configuration, testing, deployment, and operation of bodily and digital gadgets inside a community. It prevents human error and lowers operational bills incurred by guide community administration. These instruments are utilized by IT groups to execute duties like community configuration administration, capability planning, community gadget mapping, community audits, and working system upgrades.

Community automation instruments can automate a number of completely different motion gadgets for an enterprise community. These are among the commonest automations obtainable:

Asset Stock Administration

Community automation software program is commonly used not solely to doc the property of a corporation, but in addition to routinely replace their statuses, alert for upgrades, and notify community directors for efficiency and upkeep wants.

Gadget Setup and Administration

To make sure you choose the fitting community automation software program, listed below are just a few concerns to make.

Distributors

You must think about whether or not to pick a single or multi-vendor surroundings, relying in your enterprise wants. It’s key to find out the variety of distributors it would take to fulfill all of your software program wants.

Interfaces and integration

After selecting distributors, it is advisable to know that they are going to preserve compatibility with industry-standard interfaces. If a vendor affords interfaces with extensions which might be troublesome to combine right into a broader surroundings, your integrations might find yourself being restricted.

Safety and compliance

Community automation software program wants so as to add worth within the areas of community safety and governance and compliance. Think about instruments that may automate routine community monitoring in addition to instruments with built-in community safety protocols to lighten the load on IT groups.

The Pink Hat Ansible suite of community automation instruments has been a longtime favourite of bigger enterprise community directors, particularly with the added capabilities that got here with Ansible’s acquisition by Pink Hat in 2015. With its wide-ranging assist for community gadget and IT surroundings configurations, Pink Hat affords a powerful product that comes with the next price ticket than among the different merchandise on the record. However to match that worth level, it constantly scores increased than most in efficiency metrics like general velocity and value of the UI. Pink Hat Ansible has historically solely supplied on-premise options however has elevated its open hybrid cloud choices in recent times.

Options:

• Pink Hat Insights with knowledge visualization and analytics
• Position-based entry management
• Supported, precomposed content material collections
• Open hybrid cloud technique
• Automation governance for compliance and procurement

Professional: Automation content material can simply be managed, shared, and audited throughout a corporation through YAML.

Con: Preliminary setup and coaching, notably for his or her playbooks, has been rated as extremely advanced. Some customers have additionally expressed that the open-source strategy limits the true assist infrastructure obtainable for buyer questions.

NetBrain is a community automation device that makes a speciality of community monitoring. The answer offers intensive visible aids to your group whereas they work to optimize your community, with a combination of sturdy documentation and knowledge visualization designs. 

NetBrain notably excels in demystifying hybrid community environments, decoding and mapping the complete hybrid community in order that your community administrative group can handle all forms of community gadgets from one management panel.

Options:

• Adaptive automation for troubleshooting
• Dynamic mapping with end-to-end visibility
• Management-plane modeling
• Runbooks for command line automation and enhanced incident collaboration
• Absolutely automated diagnostics through APIC controller

Professional: NetBrain affords among the strongest UI and visualization/mapping options available on the market.

Con: NetBrain is proscribed to a Home windows Desktop deployment generally.

Micro Focus’s Community Automation software program is steadily carried out in authorities and repair sector organizations, with many customers highlighting their thorough strategy to compliance administration throughout a big community. Their two essential packages for enterprise-level automation are NA Premium version and NA Final version, which is Premium plus further community compliance options. For a powerful configuration and compliance resolution that provides top-tier assist, many prime firms select Micro Focus to fulfill their networking wants.

Options:

• Automated compliance and configuration duties
• Community Administration Practitioner Portal
• Imply time to restore (MTTR) enhancements
• Early detection of safety vulnerabilities
• Automated change administration practices

Professional: Upgrades, upkeep, and entry to assist are top-tier.

Con: The consumer interface is taken into account outdated and troublesome to navigate.

Ahead Enterprise is without doubt one of the most mathematically pushed choices within the community automation market, utilizing this spine to create an correct backup mannequin of your community infrastructure that adjusts to adjustments and behavioral predictions over time. In case your group is struggling to implement or handle a selected characteristic on this software program, Ahead affords a number of alternatives for hands-on coaching and tutorials on their web site, together with Ahead Fixes. These are quick movies that their group information to stroll customers by way of user-submitted queries, which all prospects are eligible to submit.

Options:

• Native Community Question Engine (NQE)
• Ansible integration with Ahead modules
• Mathematical mannequin to repeat your complete community infrastructure
• On-premises or cloud choices
• Dashboard with Community Complexity and Community Verification panes

Professional: The REST API options, together with NQE, make it doable and easy to visualise knowledge and efficiency metrics throughout multi-vendor platforms. Their assist group can also be very responsive and keen to make adjustments to the device based mostly on buyer suggestions.

Con: Visualizations develop more and more advanced and troublesome to handle for bigger enterprise community architectures.

ManageEngine Community Configuration Supervisor is a community change, configuration, and compliance administration (NCCM) device that scales with rising enterprise networks. Their Eternally Free plan is a superb possibility for small companies that solely handle a small variety of gadgets and functions, but when that enterprise grows over time, they will simply improve to a paid plan and follow the software program with which they’re already acquainted. No matter what you are promoting’s measurement and expectations from a community automation device, ManageEngine’s resolution is a superb possibility for organizations that need further assist for change administration.

Options:

• Firmware vulnerability administration
• Compliance auditing options
• Configuration change alerting
• Distant firmware upgrades
• Change evaluate and approval mechanism

Professional: Cell administration and insights can be found for options like configuration adjustments and backups, startup-running conflicts, and consumer exercise monitoring.

Con: A number of of the obtainable gadget templates are outdated and it will probably take an prolonged time frame to get requested ones added to your portfolio.

This SolarWinds automated community configuration administration and backup resolution is one piece of the SolarWinds Orion Platform, which mixes the NetPath, Community Perception, and PerfStack options throughout its portfolio to permit customers to handle configuration, efficiency monitoring, and troubleshooting all from one built-in dashboard. By itself, the answer primarily focuses on configuration administration, zeroing in on compliance, backup, and vulnerability assessments. 

Options:

• Baseline and configuration drift administration
• Automated swap configuration
• VLAN configuration and troubleshooting
• Community vulnerability scanning and infrastructure administration
• Community Perception for Cisco and Palo Alto

Professional: Fast, bulked, standardized configurations are doable throughout the platform.

Con: There are considerations concerning the safety of the device, particularly within the space of privilege administration.

Cisco DNA Middle is a community administration device that focuses on scalability, whereas nonetheless sustaining an emphasis on safety at each stage of your community’s development and improvement. The DNA Middle device covers a whole lot of community deployment and compliance expectations, with options akin to community gadget onboarding, community segmentation, and scalable entry insurance policies constructed into the framework. Customers typically praise the navigability of this device, and the Cisco assist group receives excessive marks as properly.

Options:

• DevNet open APIs
• Finish-to-end visibility and community stock
• Automated gadget onboarding and deployment
• Software program picture administration
• Enhanced AI/ML-powered analytics

Professional: Cisco DNA Automation affords a number of Cisco safety integrations, together with Umbrella, Stealthwatch, firewalls, and wIPS.

Con: This device affords few choices for patrons that wish to combine legacy or outdoors vendor instruments into their community automation processes.

vRealize Automation SaltStack Config is the software program configuration administration element now obtainable to customers in VMware’s vRealize Automation device. SaltStack, a full stack utility and infrastructure automation device, was acquired by VMware in October 2020, remodeling the device into vRealize Automation SaltStack Config. The mixed forces of those two groups and platforms now embody stronger workflow and built-in serverless automation, in addition to elevated software program configuration, safety, and infrastructure capabilities.

Options:

• Out there for virtualized, hybrid, and public cloud environments
• Automation and orchestration for digital, public, and personal cloud VMs
• Agent, agentless, and API-based knowledge middle administration
• Occasion-driven updates
• Prebuilt CIS and DISA STIGs content material

Professional: The “self-healing” methods enabled by event-driven automation and auto-remediation make fast community repairs and upgrades doable.

Con: Customers point out the steep studying curve and lack of sandbox experimentation alternatives.

Puppet Enterprise is an open-source enterprise-level community administration and automation device that optimizes difficult, intertwined workflows throughout your community. By its open-source format, Puppet Enterprise notably shines within the areas of community orchestration and programmable infrastructure. Customers can get began with Puppet Studying VM, a free model of Puppet Enterprise that permits you to run as much as 10 nodes whilst you check out the product.

With marketed prospects akin to Google, NYSE, and Cisco and their portfolio of integrations with prime gamers like HashiCorp and VMware, Puppet Enterprise is a confirmed enterprise resolution that may again up the various community infrastructures and expectations of huge companies.

Options:

• Alternative between agent-based or agentless automations
• Mannequin-based and task-based scaling
• Steady supply
• Puppet Forge workflow automation
• Puppet Comply safety and compliance enforcement

Professional: Infrastructure-as-code and configuration-as-code enable a whole lot of freedom for builders to customise automation options.

Con: As an open-source device, Puppet Enterprise affords little within the assist area, which is very troublesome for customers who aren’t conversant in the Ruby programming language.

This community administration and automation device from BMC specializes within the administration of safety vulnerabilities, configurations, compliance, and provisioning. BMC TrueSight Automation is a very sturdy software program possibility for directors who’re involved with safety, compliance, and common vulnerability administration. Their native safety dashboards deal with a two-pronged strategy of analyzing vulnerabilities and setting repair or configuration priorities as a response. The device emphasizes auto-remediation by way of Cisco safety advisories, Nationwide Vulnerability Database (NVD) steerage, and vulnerability administration APIs for exterior vendor merchandise on the community.

With BMC TrueSight Automation, you’ll be able to allow further security measures like single-sign-on (SSO), automated imports of approved customers, role-based entry controls, and multi-server administration by way of a single console.

Options:

• SmartMerge Know-how for automated roll-back and alter monitoring
• Patching and picture updates
• Discovery, drift detection, remediation, and reporting security measures
• Position-based entry management
• Export occasions to log administration options through syslog

Professional: The dashboard interface is very user-friendly for compliance administration and coverage creation.

Con: Customers are desirous about BMC rising their capabilities by way of exterior integrations, with both Pink Hat Ansible or Home windows instruments.

Progress WhatsUp Gold is a community monitoring device that allows customers to determine and repair community issues shortly earlier than finish customers are conscious of them. WhatsUp Gold offers enterprise-grade community monitoring software program that helps its prospects routinely uncover and map out their complete community to acquire the knowledge they require to streamline troubleshooting. It permits customers to make sure bandwidth is optimized for crucial functions and companies; automate logging; configuration and asset administration; and preserve, audit, and restore gadget configurations.

Options:

• Unified view covers heterogeneous environments and distributors to offer customers with visibility of every thing on their networks.
• Discovery scan permits automated discovery of all gadgets on consumer networks and the way they’re linked.
• Presents community maps within the type of interactive workspaces to empower customers to create a imaginative and prescient of their networks.

Execs: The flexibility to observe completely different networking environments is beneficial on condition that prospects have a tendency to mix a number of distributors. 

Con: Progress WhatsUp Gold has an online interface that could possibly be extra strong.

Syxsense Handle is a cloud-based endpoint administration resolution that spans throughout servers and desktops. It permits community directors to configure and entry each in-network and out-of-network endpoints. It’s hosted in Microsoft Azure and offers cross-platform assist for Home windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Except for endpoint administration, Syxsense Handle permits customers to handle Web of Issues (IoT) gadgets.

Options:

• A light-weight agent, Syxsense Handle depicts a whole image of what number of endpoints exist in a community, no matter whether or not they’re distant, roaming, or within the cloud.
• Offers customers with better management over their environments with correct detection and speedy deployment of patches. 
• Shoppers can enhance their knowledge administration and intuitively share discoveries throughout the enterprise by way of interactive dashboards and stories.

Execs: The platform’s skill to handle IoT is an actual plus given the expansion of edge computing. 

Con: The interface and the admin portal will be sluggish.

Community automation software program optimizes experiences and outcomes, not solely to your community directors, but in addition for customers all through the group. For those who implement a community automation device that matches your explicit enterprise’s wants, you’ll reap the next advantages:

Strategic Position Shifts for Workers

Community automation instruments automate a number of of the duties that sometimes require intensive guide working hours out of your group. So long as these instruments are arrange accurately from the start, your group will spend more and more much less time on these routine, sometimes unskilled duties. This shift of their workday routine will enable further time for them to deal with strategic planning for the enterprise and different enterprise duties that require their human talent and experience.

Decreased Human Error

Whether or not it’s a misconfigured gadget or a forgotten network-wide alert a few compliance or safety concern, networks are all the time weak to poor administration and human error. Most community administration expectations have historically been dealt with by a person or a group of community directors, however with a rising community and variety of guidelines, rules, and updates to remember, even probably the most skilled directors could make a mistake that negatively impacts one or dozens of customers.

Community automation takes one appropriate motion, and thru the method of automation, makes positive that that very same appropriate motion will be replicated and multiplied at any time when it’s wanted sooner or later. However community automation solely improves accuracy when these instruments are correctly configured from the outset; if you happen to check a device and ensure its efficacy from the beginning, it would prevent from the potential for human error on community administration and deployment duties sooner or later.

Upkeep and Safety Assist