There are four misunderstandings about network intelligence

If you don't talk about AI after dinner, you feel like you are not a member of society. But do you really understand network intelligence? Is your enterprise network in the automation stage or the intelligent stage? The following are some misunderstandings about network intelligence:

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I think tool intelligence is network intelligence

Some people think that using intelligent tools to manage the network will make the network intelligent. However, the organic combination of communication network and artificial intelligence technology is that the network can intelligently capture business intentions, implement strategies and network status perception, and automatically deploy and predictively maintain the network. Therefore, it must rely on big data, cloud computing, and high-performance computing chips. It must also use artificial intelligence technologies such as model building and machine learning to process, learn, and analyze massive and rich network data, and promptly feed back the analysis results to all aspects of network operations to provide a reliable basis for decision-making.

However, at this stage, most enterprise networks do not have such a highly intelligent system. Some enterprises have not even fully realized network automation, let alone network intelligence. For some enterprises, network intelligence is equivalent to tool intelligence, which is a blind man touching an elephant. Although the use of network automation management tools has greatly improved the centralization of control and network utilization, there is still a long way to go before achieving network intelligence.

Think network automation is enough

Network complexity is growing exponentially, and it is necessary to configure network equipment intelligently and manage it in a refined manner. However, some companies are beginning to feel that the existing network automation is sufficient and there is no need to upgrade to network intelligence.

But in fact, managing the network is challenging because business continuity depends on network availability. A survey found that 59% of Fortune 500 companies experience at least 1.6 hours of downtime per week. Obviously, relying solely on network automation is not enough to cope with the changing status quo. Network intelligence solutions have more end-to-end network visibility and can expand intelligently as network complexity grows and demand changes.

I thought that making the network smart could save money.

In order to reduce enterprise investment, many enterprises are constantly seeking intelligent solutions to replace manpower, and network systems are no exception. So can network intelligence save money? Not necessarily, at least the initial investment will not be saved. Imagine that dynamic network intelligence requires more and more advanced network hardware equipment to build a huge data collection, analysis, and processing system, and these obviously require enterprises to continue to invest in every link.

So don’t ever think that making your network smart can save money. At least in the early stages of a project, saving money is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Intelligence for intelligence's sake

Of course, for many enterprises, if they want to have intelligent networks, they must do so within their means, and never pursue intelligence for the sake of intelligence. Otherwise, not only will limited funds have to be invested in long-term procurement and optimization, leading to tight cash flow, but also normal business development and planning may be damaged, which is really not worth the loss.

In addition to the heavy spending on software and hardware, the recruitment and training of network operation and maintenance personnel is also indispensable, because no matter how good the solution is, it ultimately requires people to implement, test and operate it, and these soft costs are often not low.

Conclusion

Network intelligence is becoming a real requirement for enterprises to support business process management, intent-based networking, automated compliance monitoring, advanced analytics, and span complex, multi-domain, and multi-vendor environments. However, how to avoid falling into misunderstandings obviously requires enterprises to make choices based on their own strengths.