Intent-based Networking

Imagine and get it done, automatically

What is intent-based networking?

While the software defined network successfully segregated the different layers of network, that is the management plane, control plane and data plane, it missed a fundamental requirement. How to translate the business needs into a network solution. This is where intent based networking comes into the picture.

Intent-based networking (IBN) allows the users to define what to do and not really worry how it is done and get a feedback if the implementation was as per the business need. Once the business intent is translated into policies and activated, the solution auto-corrects itself and keeps on doing so to assure the quality and intent of service.

So, what’s wrong with the current network?

The current network we have is all managed manually despite having a lot of tools to aid. Current tools are meant for management of specific devices but not really understand what was intended as a service or policy. After implementation, the results depend on what configuration was done in the equipment. Verification of intent is based again on manual tests and reports. Automatic correction doesn’t happen and system feedback is hard to be understood.

With intent based networking, the intent is linked directly with assurance of service. Not only does the network capture and translate the business intent, a closed loop improvement ensures that what was intended is implemented even when the network changes.

How it is done?

Intent-based networking allows to have a transparent connection between the underlying infrastructure and business intent. Intent based network translates the business intent into policies, activates the network by doing configuration of all physical and virtual infrastructure network-wide as per the policies, providing assurance by analytics and machine learning confirming the desired outcomes by recommending continual improvements. That’s how the network pretty much works for you rather than you working for the network. 

How is it different from software defined networking?

Intent-based networking works over Software-defined networking by adding two more layers, translation and assurance. Activation of networks is still performed under SDN. However, software-defined networking itself has multiple components from users to applications. Users are connected to access network, which in turn may have WAN connections to the data center where servers are residing. Hence, integrating software defined access (SDAccess), software defined WAN (SDWAN) and software defined Data Centre (SDDC) with multi-cloud integration is important to reap full benefits of intent-based networking. 

Why do i need to know about this?

With development in artificial intelligence and machine learning, true automation of intent-based networking would be the future of networks worldwide. It is important to understand the intent-based networking now because all the upgrade and migration projects undertaken for the next 5 to 10 years by an organization, should fit under the umbrella of intent-based networking for your business to enable it anytime it desires without making huge changes to the infrastructure. This includes access network, WAN network, data center and automation.

Authored by

Adnan Shabbir

(Image credits- various including Cisco, VMWare, Gartner)