Today on TeleGeography Explains the Internet, we welcome Michael Martin, formerly a global network and security architect at McKinsey.
Michael has extensive experience and knowledge in the enterprise network space. I wanted to get his take on the industry’s state of implementation of network automation among enterprises.
We explore the topic fairly deeply, examining what can be automated and what enterprises should consider when automating various processes. We talk about the human infrastructure element that rears its head when moving toward automation and issues or oversights to look out for.
Of course, security has to be a part of the automation conversation so we get into that as well. We also touch on the human capital issue regarding skills gaps and the impact of automation on the network team itself.
Here’s a quick glimpse of our discussion. You can listen to our entire conversation below (or anywhere you get your podcasts, of course).
Greg Bryan: You’ve identified what you want to automate. You’re finding the best tools to make that automation happen. But a common theme on this show is the idea that the old way of thinking of the network was kind of like IT. And whatever sort of business your enterprise is in is saying: okay, well, we have these things that we’re doing, and let’s assume there’s a network underneath that we can do those things with.
Whereas, I think a lot of WAN managers are wrapping their minds around the network being a part of those kinds of business goals now, right?
So, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that aspect of integrating.
Not just, “How do we have a network that works underneath everything that the company is doing?” but more thinking about “How does the network work with whatever kind of business you’re in, whatever the enterprise’s business goals are?”
Michael Martin: So, if you’re thinking about—if you’re just looking at network connectivity—that’s sort of ubiquitous now, right? It’s very rare that you can’t get online somehow.
Now, with that all said, just because you can get connectivity doesn’t mean that it’s quality. I probably wouldn’t try to do a video podcast stealing my neighbor’s internet, right? Being connected to their guest network.
The thing about the network now—and I think that this is what people are still struggling and coming to terms with—is that the network represents this one place of visibility and vulnerability all wrapped into one.
The thing about the network now—and I think that this is what people are still struggling and coming to terms with—is that the network represents this one place of visibility and vulnerability all wrapped into one.
So, on one hand, you have bad actors all the time trying to create, collect data, capture data, compromise, and whatever. And at the same time, you have people who are constantly trying to figure out there’s no network boundary.
There is no such thing as a private data network. And, inevitably, that concept of the private network is it wasn’t necessarily a security tenant. It was just: who am I connecting my Banyan Vines network to? The business next door? Most enterprise networks were closed systems anyway. When they became potentially public networks or quasi-public networks is when businesses started connecting to the internet.
And then businesses had to go through the discussion of, yeah, there’s a public side. And then there’s this private side. And then we had these firewalls that said: if you’re behind the firewall, you can do whatever you want. And if you’re outside the firewall, you’re not allowed in, right?
Well, that’s all gone, right?
But even software doesn’t work that way anymore. So really, the way I try to frame networks and why they’re so important is because that’s how you see what’s going on. It’s what you see in terms of the traffic, transactions, the behaviors. That’s the visibility you have.
So what I’ve been seeing more and more is networking and network security really are sort of the same thing. You can’t have security if you don’t have visibility.
The only way you really have visibility is with the network. And you can make this argument: I can abstract away from that, right? But, inevitably, as soon as you connect a device to a network, depending upon the configuration of the device, that device is now a target and it’s compromisable.
The only way you really have visibility is with the network. And you can make this argument: I can abstract away from that, right? But, inevitably, as soon as you connect a device to a network, depending upon the configuration of the device, that device is now a target and it’s compromisable.
And that’s one of the reasons why automating your network is so critical, because if you are having to respond to an event, if you have a supply chain event with one of your networking vendors and you have to push out code upgrades to thousand devices, automation is a real big friend of yours at that moment, right?
Greg: Right, so you’re not just whack-a-mole-ing every possibility that comes along, but prepared for them instead.
Listen to the full episode below.
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