Simplifying and Automating Network Operations with Fortinet AIOps

Network operations have changed more in the last few years than in the 40 years before it. Much of this transformation is due to fundamental shifts in the enterprise’s focus on application use, the value of user experience, and prioritising outcomes over speeds and feeds. This includes things like the adoption of multi-cloud networks, the growing reliance on SaaS applications, the transition to a large remote workforce and the collaboration tools needed to support them, the rapid adoption and acceptance of IoT and personal devices on the network, and digital savvy consumers who demand performance and personalisation.

According to IDC, over 90% of large enterprises now have a hybrid, multi-cloud solution in place that includes a combination of on-prem, private cloud, and public cloud environments, with organisations now using an average of 2.2 public clouds and 2.2 private clouds. But that’s just the start. IDC also predicts that by 2023 over 50% of new IT infrastructure deployment will be at the Edge, creating a whole new network environment that will need to be managed and secured. And according to Gartner, at least 60%+ of enterprises will have an explicit strategy and timeline for SASE adoption in place by 2025 that will encompass user, branch, and edge access, up from just 10% in 2020.

To help address end-to-end availability and performance concerns in the new enterprise networks, Network Operations must also transform. Network operators must invest in analytics and automation, improve integration with DevOps, and bolster their coordination with security to better support their digital business. NetOps 2.0 goes beyond traditional network operations management to incorporate core DevOps values like network agility, network automation, and network orchestration. In the most recent Network Operations 2.0 report from Gartner, the use of NetOps 2.0 principles will grow by 40% between now and 2023, helping organizations reduce application delivery times by 25%. Today, Fortinet introduced two new offerings to accelerate AIOps Network Operations: FortiMonitor and FortiAIOps.

AIOps is central to transforming Network Operations Center (NOC) strategies and solutions. Today’s digital business model means that more users on more devices from more locations need to access business applications and resources faster than ever before. AIOps helps automate and enhance IT operations through analytics and machine learning (ML), offloading the manual analysis and correlation that miss issues buried in mountains of data and create critical bottlenecks that can affect employee and customer user experience.

The Fortinet Fabric Management Centre - NOC environments enables this NetOps transformation by leveraging Fortinet’s AIOps Network Operations technology to observe, correlate, and respond to events across heterogeneous and distributed networks.

Observe – Because Fortinet has the breadth of coverage across LAN, WAN, and Cloud, we help customers and partners quickly identify and understand performance and connectivity anomalies, from user to application access. By simplifying and converging monitoring across Wireless, Switch, Firewall, SD-WAN, and SASE solutions into a single console, Fortinet AIOps can ensure and maintain customer satisfaction ratings no matter where they connect from.

Correlate – AIOps also enhances the ability to analyze device, LAN, WAN, and Cloud events quickly and thoroughly by incorporating and accelerating policies designed to identify the root causes of end user performance issues. This enables NOC teams to cut through noisy alerts and bring those critical issues to the surface that are affecting business so they can be quickly—and automatically—resolved.

Respond - By Integrating SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response) technology into Network Operations, organisations can further unlock the power of enterprise network automation by leveraging AI/ML and automation to remediate issues before they arise, helping to maintain optimal user experience and reduce customer churn.

NOC Maturity Model

Of course, not every enterprise is at the same place in the development of their NOC, nor do they all need the same set of solutions. Fortinet provides a range of products and services that help organizations implement an effective NOC strategy that can scale as their organization grows. There are generally three types of NOC Analysts, each requiring additional layers of technology building on the stages before. This is a short summary of the typical roles and responsibilities of NOC personnel for each level, and the technology each requires according to recent report from Gartner -

• Level 1: Most commonly, network engineers at this level should be responding to monitoring tool-detected anomalies and declared incidents that require resolution. They also need tools to help them respond to other monitoring events that require additional actions.
  • Tools: FortiManager, FortiAnalyser, FortiMonitor, Best Practice Service

• Level 2: These engineers typically have advanced training and higher skills than those operating at Level 1. They need to be able to respond to and resolve advanced networking incidents that could not be resolved at Level 1 and have been escalated. They need to be able to leverage additional tools, knowledge, and insights to improve incident diagnosis and recovery.
  • Tools: FortiMonitor, FortiManager, FortiAIOps

• Level 3: This is usually smallest team, focused on the most complex incidents and problems. This is also the team that most commonly interfaces step with the application support engineering team.
  • Tools: FortiMonitor, FortiAIOps, FortiSOAR, SD-WAN Orchestrator

Simplifying and Automating Network Operations with Fortinet AIOps Network Operations

As networks continue to evolve, staying out ahead of critical network events is crucial—especially as organizations transition to digital business model. These complex and dynamic environments require new tools, like AIOps, to quickly identify, investigate, and respond to threats, to keep the network running at optimal speeds, and to ensure the best possible user experience.

Fortinet has a wide range of tools designed to provide visibility and control across the most diverse and complex networks. We invite you to learn more about Fabric Management Center - NOC— our AIOps Network Operations—here. We also urge you to try out our solution and reach out to your Fortinet Sales representative or channel partner if you want to evaluate the latest Fortinet Fabric Management Center–NOC solution.

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