Introduction to Network Agility

So what is 'Network Agility' anyway?

Network Agility is a new term that refers to an innovative discipline in software architecture:

The ability of network software to automatically control and configure itself and other software assets across any number of devices on a network.

You might see ‘network agility’ used sometimes when referring to hardware configuration of routers etc. – but this web-log is all about software agility across a network to serve a configured set of Business Process goals.

If your eyes are rolling to the back of your head, and you find yourself thinking ‘how will this help me reach Level 12 in GroundScape 3?’, sorry, you’re at the wrong site – internet media games and such like live in a different cyber-county altogether.

If, however, like me, you think ‘hey, this could be some useful slick stuff, then you’ve definitely hit the right link.

Network Agility, as a software discipline, borrows from many fields, both technical and commercial.

On the tecchie side, Network Agility solutions leverage techniques from areas such as:

• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
• Object-oriented Design
• Architectural patterns
• Loosely-coupled data streaming (read: Web Services 2)
• Iterative Methodologies
• Artificial Intelligence
• Inductive Scheduling
• On-Demand Computing
• Utility Computing

Commercially, Network Agility is about solving real-world business problems using existing technology – i.e. it forms a three-way bridge between Business Processes, hardware resources, and software assets.

The Network Agility bridge takes, as input: 1) the Business Processes – i.e. what the network must achieve in real business terms; 2) the hardware that resides within the network; and 3) the set of software assets that run on this hardware.

Much of this input can be obtained through automatic discovery – finding the hardware, its types and locations, software, licenses etc. The Business Processes can be inferred to a certain degree, but it is the BPs that business managers need to be able to control and organize.

Of course the hardware that lives on the network at any given time is what it is, but the software can take a variety of forms - some assets may be licensed software products and some as blocks of software service code that can be accessed via some service portal - like (but not necessarily) Web Services. These services may reside in-house, or they may be 'on-demand' via an on-line subscription service. Indeed, the primary motivation of Network Agility is to make the most efficient use of the resources available, wherever they may reside, and to identify areas where Business Process goals are not being satisfied to some benchmark level (and ideally to offer possible solutions).

Network Agility tools are then in a position to optimize the existing hardware to run software assets as needed to achieve the Business Process goals. Typically, the hardware/software mix requirements will change dynamically over various time segments (weekly, quarterly, annually etc.), and step changes will be required from time to time when Business Process goals change/evolve/are updated (e.g. during/after a company re-organization).

The benefits to business of the Network Agility approach are obvious - huge cost savings in software licensing and significantly higher efficiency of hardware assets - leading to an elevation of overall productivity from the network and the staff that use it.

This first blog on Network Agility gives a 'tip-of-the-gigabit' view of what Network Agility is about and the problems it solves.

In the next blog, I’ll talk about how Network Agility forms a quantum leap from traditional network management solutions, and how today’s on-line software services fit in to the Network Agility arena.