There are a number of advantages we’ve gained from technology innovation. One that is arguably delivering the most benefit is automation, especially in open networking. It helps us eliminate timely and complex manual processes, saving time and controlling costs. At the same time, it helps to reduce the number of errors that occur when humans are in control.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the U.S. military. While humans have the ability to make decisions based on information outside of what technology can capture, this leads to both good and bad outcomes. It also leaves room for error. As such, a number of IT professionals, both in and out of the military, are turning to software-defined networking as a means to automate complex and vulnerable systems, taking them out of the control of human engineers.
This concept was explored in a recent CIO post, highlighting the experience of Major General Sarah Zabel, vice director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (News - Alert) (DISA), the organization responsible for providing IT support for all U.S. combat operations. A common request among those looking to Zabel and her team for support is to eventually make networks run themselves, embracing automation at its full value.
DISA is the perfect example as its infrastructure generates roughly 10 million alarms per day, supporting 4.5 million users and 11 core data centers. Of the 10 million alarms, roughly 2,000 become trouble tickets. Issues range from users who can’t get into Outlook to a lost circuit that causes a battlefield surveillance drone to abort its mission to hacking. In fact, DISA logs as many as 800 billion security events per day.
With so much going on, that means that DISA needs to evolve, which causes roughly 22,000 changes to its infrastructure each day. Unfortunately, a lot of those changes have to be done manually, by humans. Zabel’s desire would be for less human interaction and the benefits associated with automation, such as faster service provisioning, fewer errors and less labor. Under current operation, DISA is always deliberately overstaffed.
One step toward the desired automation is the adoption of software-defined networking. It’s been in intensive testing at DISA and is just now being moved into operations. Not only does the technology provide opportunities to leverage open networking and automation to save staff, it can also save DISA from being locked into certain vendors. Full acceptance and operation will require a cultural change, but the benefits are already apparent. The key to success will be in delivering exactly what customers want – operational circuits at all times.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson