Network Automation project for a FTSE100 company

Short Description

Hyerhub deliver key network and process automation targets at a large enterprise, saving 34 man days per month and drastically reducing the lead time for several typical networking challenges from 3-4 days to hours.

Requirement / Problem

One of our FTSE100 clients was falling behind in the adoption of network automation, and their Networking team were facing increasing pressure from other divisions to speed up processes and deliver value.

The Networking team was unable to address the problem themselves because of

• Lack of expertise or direction from the existing skillsets on the team
• Lack of infrastructure for developing software within the team
• No clear idea of customer or engineer requirements
• A short time frame or cost pressure to deliver quick automation wins

The client needed to bring in experienced consultants who could identify the quick wins for automation, then build the team and the structure for delivering software within the greater division.

Approach

Starting with an initial consultation period, Hyerhub engaged an expert consultant to identify the:

• Overall project direction
• Required infrastructure
• Size of the team
• Any quick wins or deliverables
• Timeframe to delivery

Hyerhub could then present the client with a fixed price milestone-based deliverable. This engagement was not concerned with creating an external development team, where the development process is hidden from the other employees within the enterprise. Instead, it was aimed at creating an open development environment and foundation, which would empower other engineers to develop their own ideas, as well as have the software development infrastructure in place to support them moving those ideas forward into a production state.

This project has since evolved into a larger Network Automation development and DevOps team within the FTSE100 client, and the external scrum team has now become a part of the engagement.

Results & Conclusion

All requirements we delivered on-time and have been used effectively at the client, with great success.

Key milestones that were delivered:

• Automated deliverables saving 34 man days per month
• Automated deliverables drastically reducing the lead time for several typical networking challenges from 3-4 days to hours
• Build of software development and CI/CD infrastructure using existing tools and infrastructure investments
• Creation of a 4 person external scrum team
• Management of an additional ServiceNOW developer
• High level automation approach and design communicated to the greater division
• Custom ServiceNOW integration for user front door requests

Scott is a Network Engineer turned Network Automation software developer, who supports and guides businesses transitioning to automation enabling them to realise cost, efficiency and quality benefits quickly.

He focuses on assisting companies in bringing successful Network Automation programs to life, and offering the following services through Hyerhub's resource management platform, Hubbado:

• initial automation design and consultancy
• analysis of value added or return on investment for automation projects
• advice on tools and solutions (proprietary or open source)
• fixed price software / solutions development to achieve automation outcomes
• ongoing support and maintenance of software
• process analysis and adaptation to use automation

Get in touch to learn more or arrange a consultation