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The vision for intelligent and predictive network operations
Adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud is absolutely critical for organizations to remain agile. However, this underscores the need for intelligent and continuous network operations–the promise that the network is doing what it needs to do, in line with business intent. For example, if you have global operations, you may want to ensure that users in a specific geographical region are being served out of the nearest datacenter at all times.
To realize this vision, you need proactive network operations that can predict and heal network failures, driven by AI/ML recommendations and remediation. These systems also need to maintain an equilibrium between automation and control, to support customers who are at different points in their journey from reactive towards proactive network operations.
In the first phase of fulfilling this vision for intelligent network operations, Network Intelligence Center offers four modules: Connectivity Tests and Network Topology, both in beta; Performance Dashboard and Firewall Metrics & Insights in alpha; with several other modules to follow.
Network Topology: Visualize complex networks with insights
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is the first cloud provider to provide comprehensive visibility into your global GCP deployment (not just your single VPC) and its interaction with the public internet, including an organization-wide view of the topology, and associated network performance metrics with Network Topology.
Visibility is especially important in cloud to gain trust and confidence since customers do not own the infrastructure. Visualizing cloud topologies is also complicated by the fact that a cloud network is really a mesh, making it hard to understand and navigate the differences between on-premises and cloud environments. Network Topology lets you visualize and navigate your network with structure and insights, simplifying network monitoring and troubleshooting, and helping you fulfill your compliance requirements.
Further, Network Topology provides useful performance metrics for various nodes and edges, enabling metrics-driven troubleshooting, policy checks, and architecture and capacity optimization. For instance, you can easily visualize how your users are being served worldwide and if they are being served optimally out of their nearest geographical regions. You can quickly search through complex networks and drill down into exactly what matters to you, shrinking troubleshooting time. In the event of a network issue, you can go back in time up to six weeks to track the evolution of the network’s topology, to diagnose issues quickly.
“Network Intelligence Center has been transformational for us to optimize our network operations. Using Network Intelligence Center we discovered that data transferred to a particular GCE region was significantly higher than expected. By looking at Network Topology we were able to diagnose and fix this issue, and save significant costs,” said Rob Lyon, Enterprise Architect at Kochava, a mobile app analytics company.
“Network Intelligence Center helps us quickly identify and troubleshoot network problems. We’ve gained full situational awareness of our network topology, saving us time on monitoring network health,” said Jason Cradit, Senior Director of Technology at Pivvot, a real-time location data and analytics company.
