Empowering Efficiency Using Juniper Apstra for Data Center Automation

0:00 [Music]

0:04 hey everybody and welcome back to

0:06 centrally speaking I'm Scott this is

0:08 Dean uh this is another in our series of

0:11 of various data center topics today

0:14 we're going to talk about intent-based

0:15 networking or IBN intent-based

0:18 networking isn't just a drinking game

0:20 where every time you hear a marketing

0:21 person say the word but it actually has

0:23 some applicability so so Dean tell me

0:26 your definition of intent-based

0:28 networking we get a little bit sick and

0:30 tired of three-letter acronym so

0:32 intent-based networking for me um you're

0:35 familiar with with some of these smart

0:37 home appliances and stuff my my wife God

0:40 L she's getting all Picasso in the house

0:43 and I'll be sitting down at night and

0:44 all of a sudden a light will pop on

0:46 right next to him what was that she said

0:48 oh it's it's like it's on a timer I've

0:50 got a routine set up and she's starting

0:52 to automate stuff in the house and I'm

0:54 not loving it but um I've got a friend

0:57 who I really think did a great job

1:00 automating his house um in an intent

1:03 based fashion so uh this friend of mine

1:06 is British and uh you know what the Brit

1:09 like to do at 4:00 every afternoon they

1:11 like to get into the pub and have a

1:12 drink so uh my buddy Daz has got a a

1:15 whole Alexa routine says Alexa it's

1:18 happy hour and the lights di down uh

1:21 Alexa goes into watch mode the air

1:23 conditioning goes down in Florida air

1:25 conditioning goes into an economy mode

1:27 you know all these bits and pieces

1:29 happen automat now he could do it

1:30 manually quite easily but he's got the

1:34 gift of time now CU he just has to say

1:36 Alexa it's happy hour his intent is to

1:39 go out and meet some friends and have a

1:41 drink in the pub okay but he's now

1:43 automated the whole house to do that so

1:45 when I think about intent-based

1:46 networking I think about how can I

1:50 leverage such a tool that'll give me the

1:53 gift of time so I don't have to worry

1:55 about it and it and it's consistent it

1:57 delivers what I need it it Provisions

1:59 what I need needed to do and it goes

2:01 into some sort of watch mode and it

2:03 alerts me when there's an issue of some

2:05 sort so for me the simplest analogy is

2:08 my my buddy's automated house uh and I

2:11 think when I think about data centers

2:13 being intent based that's kind of what I

2:15 think about yeah yeah I think so he's

2:17 declaring what he wants with some simple

2:20 terms and then letting an automation

2:22 tool get to that intended state which is

2:26 turn down the lights and shut off the

2:27 air conditioning I'm heading out to the

2:29 pub when he gets home he says Alexa

2:31 we're home and boom automatically goes

2:33 back to declares the intended State and

2:36 the system handles the rest right

2:38 exactly so that's that's exactly what

2:40 we're doing so this is what abstra is

2:42 with juniper abstra is this intent-based

2:44 networking solution that lets you

2:47 declare what you want the network to do

2:50 declare what a network service needs to

2:53 look like and then after handles the

2:55 rest and and so it is an automation tool

2:59 MH it is a tool that lets you design

3:02 your network so it's a design tool it

3:05 will help with deploying of the network

3:07 and provisioning of the network um and

3:09 then it will configure the network to

3:11 match that intent and so it's a

3:14 multi-step process we we're going to

3:16 Define what we want the network to look

3:18 like without even really considering the

3:20 network devices we're going to Define

3:22 that intent or that we're going to

3:25 declare what that intent is and then

3:27 we're going to tell the abster system to

3:29 go Implement that intent an apster will

3:31 provision boxes configure Services

3:34 Define routes and IP addresses and all

3:37 of the Machine level stuff that needs to

3:39 happen and we'll do it in the language

3:41 of the machine that it's talking to and

3:43 so this is important right so back to

3:45 that house analogy well if we're going

3:47 to talk to the light switches that's a

3:49 different language than the air

3:53 conditioning let's say in a data center

3:55 you've got some juniper gear and you've

3:57 got some Cisco gear and you've got some

3:58 Arista gear well we kind of all speak a

4:01 different language at least when from a

4:03 management perspective and so abro will

4:06 translate that intent into each of those

4:09 languages and we'll implement the

4:10 Juniper specific configuration and the

4:13 Cisco and the Arista and the Sonic

4:16 without you needing to even understand

4:18 what those languages are so that's

4:20 really where the power comes in from an

4:22 automation point of view is I can

4:24 declare this intent and then automate

4:26 the thing and that's neat right it's

4:29 nice that we can automate but heck a lot

4:31 of people can automate in in some ways

4:34 and so where this becomes really

4:35 powerful is what you do with that once

4:37 you've declared it once you've

4:39 implemented that intent now we know what

4:42 the network is supposed to be because we

4:43 use the tool to to create the state and

4:48 then we can monitor the network and

4:49 constantly compare against that state or

4:51 compare against that single source of

4:53 truth that is your intent model and so

4:56 as an operations tool as a monitoring

4:59 tool as a visibility tool we have this

5:02 really powerful mechanism to always

5:04 ensure that the network is operating as

5:06 intended and can really quickly identify

5:09 what went wrong when it's not operating

5:11 as intended so so intent-based

5:13 networking and data center context is

5:17 declaring what you need and then doing

5:19 something with that Declaration on the

5:21 back end and knowing that the network is

5:24 operating as intended as all times and

5:26 that's what we're doing with abstra

5:27 peric sounds like I need my wife to do

5:29 rst of course so she can uh rather than

5:31 just have light bulbs flash on randomly

5:33 around the house she can actually uh do

5:35 a better job bit like my buddy I would

5:37 love abster to be able to manage the

5:39 light bulbs but what we're going to do

5:40 is focus on making sure we do data

5:42 center really really well and we'll let

5:44 the other guys figure out light bulbs

5:46 excellent excellent well listen thanks

5:47 Scott look and thanks everybody for

5:48 joining us I hope you found that

5:50 interesting maybe a little bit

5:51 entertaining as well appreciate your

5:52 time

5:54 [Music]

5:58 cheers