Nokia, in collaboration with research firm Analysys Mason, revealed that operators can expect up to a 65% cost avoidance after implementing IP network automation across three operational categories.
According to Analysys Mason, Nokia’s market share ranks as one of the leading vendors in the network automation and orchestration space. To define, network automation is a key driver for improved network services agility, greater operational efficiency, and increased network availability.
Larry Goldman, the chief analyst and project director, Analysys Mason, said, “Our study shows clear benefits at the domain layer, and we highly recommend operators automate network management processes for their IP services. Network automation will be critical to enable future network slicing-based business models. Operators should also look for a network automation platform such as the Nokia NSP to reap the benefits of automation and ensure the efficient and automated management and control of network slice-based services.”
Quantifying the benefits from network automation at the domain controller layer, Analysys Mason interviewed a group of global operators on their network automation strategies and results, collecting more than 60 data points.
The Nokia-commissioned study focused on network automation implemented for the operator’s service fulfillment, network lifecycle management, and network and service assurance processes with the Nokia NSP. NSP is the domain controller for multivendor IP, optical, and microwave networks, enabling operators to automate a plethora of network management processes.
65% cost avoidance at the domain controller is the result of multiple factors:
- Process automation reduces the labor time required for manual workloads by up to 68%
- The time needed to roll out new services is reduced by up to 88%
- The time spent processing errors is reduced by up to 85%.
- Automating alarm correlation and root cause analysis offers up to 71% improvement to the mean time to repair (MTTR)
Mike Thompson, head of IP network automation at Nokia, said, "While we have seen significant network automation gains for service delivery, the greatest savings are achieved by automating network lifecycle management. There are still many manual tasks in the areas of network and service migrations, device provisioning, and upgrades that can benefit significantly from network automation. Automation not only improves operator productivity but significantly reduces outages caused during maintenance windows. Network and service assurance automation enables operators to identify root causes, automate restoration, and fix network issues significantly faster.”