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The Tech Break

The Bird Rock Systems Approach to Network Systems & Operations

Sep 22, 2021 / by Larry Hoehn

The Bird Rock Systems Approach to Network Systems & Operations

Your network is the backbone of your IT infrastructure and plays a critical role in your daily business operations. When COVID-19 forced many organizations to shut their physical offices and move to remote work, having a well-designed and flexible network capable of responding to your evolving business needs became even more critical.   

In the latest episode of Log on with Larry, we sat down with the experts from Cisco to discuss network systems and operations best practices, learn more about their Network Services Orchestrator (NSO), and gain some useful insider advice from both the Bird Rock Systems and Cisco teams about how to effectively leverage this technology. 

Cisco’s Network services Orchestrator: Linking Your Infrastructure to Your Network Automation & Orchestration Tools 

Network systems are continually evolving so that networks can be designed more easily, abstracting the physical and virtual infrastructure, management systems, and network domains. This evolution means that services are constantly being monitored using an end-user perspective to ensure they perform as anticipated and offer an exceptional user experience. 

All services are delivered on demand; the NSO activates services programmatically without the need for manual coding. As a result, your network is now capable of translating high-level service intent into concrete network actions, allowing your network to dynamically respond to changes within the network. 

By addressing the full lifecycle of services, from fulfillment to activation testing, as well as ongoing monitoring and assurance, NSO offers a flexible and holistic approach to network systems and operations, creating a more agile network than ever before. 

How to Take Advantage of Everything Cisco’s NSO has to Offer  

To best integrate technologies like Cisco’s NSO, organizations in all verticals should choose their network services platforms wisely. 

Make sure your network services platform is: 

  1. Vendor and technology agnostic:This ensures that your platform is able to integrate seamlessly with any technologies you choose to leverage rather than locking you in with a specific vendor, product, or service. 

  2. Self-service-based:Choosing a self-service platform puts you and your team in the driver’s seat, allowing you to access the tools and information you need to make informed decisions. 

  3. Cost-effective: Choosing a solution that fulfills your needs and suits your budget frees up funds for other initiatives, allowing you to better invest in your organization’s future. 

Before committing to a solution, make sure you participate in a proof of concept, which will allow you to: 

  • Test the solution for yourself 
  • Ensure it delivers on the capabilities it boasts 
  • Verify that it integrates seamlessly with your existing technologies   

Optimizing Your Network Systems & Operations: A Brief Guide 

Most organizations go about upgrading their IT and network infrastructure and add value to their business by adopting new technologies that offer increased efficiency and enhanced agility at a lower price point than their existing solution. 

The Bird Rock Systems team has been helping organizations like yours effectively leverage personalized, comprehensive security and IT solutions since 2003. Our goal is to help organizations discover new ways to leverage and deploy new apps, services, and infrastructure in sustainable ways, reduce costs, minimize maintenance problems, and improve processes for diagnosing and resolving ongoing problems. 

When we work with an organization like yours to optimize your network systems and operations, we begin with a network assessment and IT assessment, which includes consolidating the data from the various solutions you are already leveraging into one central tool. This approach frequently involves collaborating across the traditional silos, which not only gives us the information we need but can help encourage ongoing cross-silo communications. 

Next, we use the intel we have gathered to optimize your environment, using the central tool from earlier to control the configuration of all your current solutions both on-prem and on the cloud. 

Finally, we use the central tool to both automate the work we completed in the previous step (giving your team ongoing access to an up-to-date pool of information) and set up visibility and reporting so you always know exactly what’s happening on your network and can effectively consolidate that information into an easily readable format for reporting and compliance purposes.  

Though we use this general approach for all organizations, we always fine-tune the details as we go to ensure our approach is best suited to meet your organization’s unique needs.  

Your work is important, and you need a network that is able to keep up. A good NSO will help you save time and money by automating critical services, offering full network visibility, and freeing up team members from maintenance and troubleshooting duties so they can focus on tasks that better support your organizational goals.  

For more information about NSOs, how your organization could benefit from one, and tips and tricks on getting the most out of your NSO solution, make sure to join us for Log on with Larry. Log on with Larry features interviews with technology advocates and influencers, so you can get the 411 on the latest IT trends

Topics: Networking

Larry Hoehn

Written by Larry Hoehn

Larry Hoehn leverages his enterprise technology certifications and experiences to create and oversee technical forecasts for strategic planning while also assuring that your I.T. business goals are being met. He is accomplished in analyzing current issues, recommending solutions, developing best practices, and determining effective technology architecture. He has been with Bird Rock Systems since 2011.

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