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What is Network Automation?

Posted on: 23 January 2024

Network Automation and NetDevOps are hot topics in the network engineering world right now, but as with many new concepts, it can be confusing to decipher the meaning from the noise in the quest to achieving optimal efficiency and agility of network operations.

A useful starting point would be to first define what network automation is not:

Network automation is not just automated configuration generation or inventory gathering
It is not just using the same network management system (NMS) as today but faster
It is not just performing patching and OS upgrades faster, or network engineers suddenly becoming software developers
Network automation is not going to work in isolation of changing lifecycle and deployment processes, nor is it a magic toolbox of all-encompassing applications, frameworks and code.

At CACI, we view network automation as both a technology and a business transformation. It is as much a cultural shift from legacy deployment and operations processes as it is a set of tools and technology to implement speed, agility and consistency in your network operations. Infrastructure is changing fast, and with Gartner reporting 80% of enterprises will close their traditional data centres by 2025, the only constant in networking is that change will persist at faster clip.

So, how does Network Automation work? What differentiates network automation from NetDevOps? What difference can it make to modern IT operations, and which best practices, technologies and tools should you be aware of to successfully begin your network automation journey?

How does Network Automation work?

Network Automation implements learnings from DevOps developments within the software development world into low-level network infrastructure, using software tools to automate network provisioning and operations. This includes techniques such as:

Anomaly detection
Pre/post-change validation
Topology mapping
Fault remediation
Compliance checks
Templated configuration
Firmware upgrades
Software qualification
Inventory reporting.

In understanding how these differ from traditional network engineering approaches, it is important to consider the drivers for network automation in the post-cloud era – specifically virtualisation, containerisation, public cloud and DevOps. These technologies and approaches are more highly scaled and ephemeral than traditional IT Infrastructure, and are not compatible with legacy network engineering practices like:

Using traditional methodology to manage infrastructure as “pets” rather than “cattle”
- Box-by-box manual login, typing CLI commands, copy-pasting into an SSH session, etc.
“Snowflake networks” which don’t follow consistent design patterns
Outdated (or non-existent) static network documentation
Lack of network validation and testing.

Network automation aims to change all this, but to do so, must overcome some obstacles:

Cross-domain skills are required in both networking and coding
Some network vendors do not supply good API or streaming telemetry support
Screen scraping CLIs can be unreliable as CLI output differs even between products of the same device family.
Cultural resistance to changes in both tooling and practice
Lack of buy-in or sponsorship from the executive level can compound these behaviours.

What differentiates network automation from NetDevOps?

You may also have heard of “NetDevOps” and be wondering how – or if – this differs from network automation. Within CACI, we see the following key differences:

We often see our clients use a blend of both in practice as they go through the automation adoption curve into the automation maturity path, from ad-hoc automation, through structured automation, into orchestration and beyond:

What difference can network automation make to modern IT operations?

Network automation aims to deliver a myriad of business efficiencies to IT operations. This has proven to be transformational across our wide and varied client base, with improvements demonstrated in the following ways:

Increased efficiency

Much of networking is repetition in differing flavours – reusing the same routing protocol, switching architecture, edge topology or campus deployment. A network engineer is often repeating a task they’ve done several times before, with only slight functional variations. Network automation saves time and costs by making processes more flexible and agile, and force-multiplying the efforts of a network engineering task into multiple concurrent outputs.

Reduced errors

Networking can be monotonous, and monotony combined with legacy deployment methodology can cause repetition of the same error. Network automation reduces these errors – particularly in repetitive tasks – to lower the chances of reoccurrence. When combined with baked-in, systems-led consistency checking, many common – but easily-avoidable – errors can be mitigated.

Greater standardisation

Networks are perhaps uniquely both the most and least standardised element of the IT stack. While it is easy to have a clean “whiteboard architecture” for higher-level concerns such as application development, the network must often deal with the physical constraints of the real world, which, if you’ve ever tried to travel to a destination you’ve not been to before, can be messy, confusing and non-sensical. Network automation ensures the starting point for a network deployment is consistent and encourages system-level thinking across an IT network estate over project deployment-led unique “snowflake” topologies.

Improved security

Increased security often comes as a by-product of the standardisation and increased efficiency that network automation brings. Most security exploits are exploits of inconsistency, lack of adherence to best practice or related – which ultimately pivot around “holes” left in a network (often accidentally) due to rushing or not seeing a potential backdoor, open port, misconfiguration or enablement of an insecure protocol. When combined with modern observability approaches like streaming telemetry and AIOps, network automation can help enforce high levels of security practice and hardening across an IT estate.

Cost savings

Given its position as the base of the tech stack, the network is often a costly proposition – with vertically-integrated network vendors, costly telco circuit connectivity, expensive physical world hosting and colocation costs, and so on – the network is often a “get it right first time” endeavour which can be cost-prohibitive to change once live and in service. Network automation encourages cost savings through the creation of right-the-first-time and flexible network topologies and in performing design validation which can minimise the amount of equipment, licensing, ports and feature sets required to run a desired network state.

Improved scalability

As both consumer and enterprise expectations of scale are set by the leading web scalers of the world, the enterprise increasingly expects the flexibility to scale both higher and lower levels of the IT stack to larger and more seamless sizes, topologies and use cases. Network automation aids in achieving this through the enforcement of consistency, modularisation, standardisation and repeatability for network operations.

Faster service delivery

IT service delivery is increasingly moving away from being ticket-led to self-service, with the lower-level infrastructure elements expected to be delivered much faster than the traditional six-to-eight-week lag times of old. As telco infrastructure moves through a similar self-service revolution, so too does the enterprise network require the ability for self-service, catalogue-driven turn-up and modularised deployment. Network automation enables this by optimising network performance to the required parameters of newer services and applications in the modern enterprise.

What are the best practices for network automation?

Network automation is as much a cultural transformation as it is a technology transformation. Much as DevOps disrupted traditional ITIL and waterfall approaches, NetDevOps similarly disrupts current network engineering practices. We find the following best practices to be beneficial when moving towards network automation:

Choose one thing initially to automate

Pivot around either your biggest pain point or most repetitive task
Don’t try to take on too much at once. Network automation is about lots of small, repeated, well-implemented gains which instil confidence in the wider business
People love automation, they don’t want to be automated. The biggest barrier to adopting automation will be keeping colleagues and stakeholders on-side with your efforts by showing the reward of that they provide to them and to the wider business.

Choose tooling carefully

Stay away from the “latest shiny” and pick open, well-used tools with large libraries of pre-canned vendor, protocol and topology integrations, and human-readable configuration and deployment languages
Maintain your specific business context during tool selection
Think ahead for talent acquisition and retention – writing custom Golang provisioning application might be handy today, but you could struggle to get others involved if the author decides to leave the business.

Optimise for code reusability

Build and use version control systems such as Git, GitHub and Azure DevOps from day one and encourage or even mandate their use
Advocate for the sharing of functions, modules, routines and snippets written within code, runbooks, IaC and state files within scrapbooks and sandpits. The flywheel of productivity increases exponentially within NetDevOps as increasingly more “we’ve done that before” coding and practices accelerate the development of newer, more complex routines, IaC runbooks and functions
Code should be written with reuse and future considerations in mind. While it may be tempting to “save ten minutes” so as to not functionise, modularise or structure code, this will catch up with you in the future.

Use templating for configuration generation

Templating programmatically generates the vendor-specific syntax for a network device based on a disaggregated, vendor-neutral input format (such as Jinja2, Mako or Markdown) which is later combined with data (such as specific VLANs, IP Addresses or FQDNs) to generate the vendor-specific syntax (such as Cisco IOS, Arista EOS or Juniper Junos) for the network device
The act of creating the templates has an added by-product of forcing you to perform design validation. If your design document doesn’t have a section covering something you need template syntax for, it could well be due for an up-issue
Templates become a common language for network intent that are readable by all network engineers regardless of their individual network vendor and technology background, aiding in time to onboard new staff and ensuring shared understanding of business context around the IT network.

Which tools, frameworks and languages enable network automation?

There are a myriad of network automation tools, frameworks, languages and technologies available today. Deciphering these can be confusing, but a good starting point is categorising the distinct types of network automation tooling available:

Network Configuration and Change Management (NCCM)

Enable patching, compliance and deployment (rollout)
Often align to network management systems (NMS) or BSS/OSS (Telco space)

Network Orchestration

Enable programmatic device access (CLI, API, SSH, SNMP)
Often align to DevOps engineering usage

Policy-based Automation

Abstract network device box-by-box logic into estate-wide, policy-driven control
Often align to industry frameworks and controls (SOC2, HIPAA, CIS, PCI/DSS)

Intent-Based Networking Systems (IBNS)

Translate business intent through to underlying network configuration and policy
Are starting to become the “new NMS”

It would be exhaustive to list all possible tools, frameworks and languages available today, but these are some of our most seen within our client base today. Our current favourites can be seen in What are the most useful NetDevOps Tools in 2023?:

Tools

Terraform – An open-source automation and orchestration tool capable of building cloud, network and IT infrastructure based on input Infrastructure as Code (IaC) code via HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) that defines all attributes of the device and configuration blueprint required. Terraform is highly flexible and has a vast array of pre-built modules and providers for most network engineering concerns via the Terraform Registry.
Ansible – An open-source automation and orchestration tool typically used to configure within the device rather than provision the underlying Baremetal or cloud infrastructure the cloud, network or IT device sits atop, which is based on input IaC code via YAML that defines the attributes and device configuration required. Ansible is versatile and has a large cache of pre-built runbooks and integrations for network engineering concerns via Ansible Galaxy.
NetBox – The ubiquitous, open-source IP Address Management (IPAM) and Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) tool, which acts as the Network Source of Truth (NSoT) to hold a more detailed view of network devices, topology and state than could be achieved via alternative approaches such as spreadsheet or CMDB. NetBox is highly customisable, with a rich plugin ecosystem and customisable data models via YANG to adapt around business-specific topology data models.
Git – The de facto version control system, which is the underlying application that powers GitHub and GitLab and supplies a mechanism to store IaC, configuration and code artefacts in a distributed, consistent and version-controlled manner. Git is pivotal in enabling the controlled collaboration on network automation activities across a distributed workforce while maintaining the compliance and controls required within the enterprise environment.

Frameworks

Robot framework: A generic test automation framework allowing network automation code and IaC runbooks to run through acceptance testing and test-driven development (TDD) via a keyword-driven testing framework with a tabular format for test result representation. It is often used in conjunction with tools such as pyATS, Genie, Cisco NSO and Juniper NITA.
PEP guidelines: Short for Python Enhancement Proposals (PEP), these are to Python what RFCs are to network engineering, and provide prescriptive advice on setting out, using, structuring and interacting with Python scripts. The most commonly known of these is the PEP8 – Style Guide for Python.
Cisco NADM: The Cisco Network Automation Delivery Model (NADM) is a guide on how to build an organisation within a business around an automation practice, addressing both the human aspect as well as some of the tooling, daily practices, procedures, operations and capabilities that a network automation practice would need to take traction in an IT enterprise landscape.

Languages

Python: The de facto network automation coding language, utilised as the underlying programming language in tools from NetBox, Nornir, Batfish, SuzieQ, Netmiko, Scrapli, Aerleon, NAPALM and more, popularised by its extensive network engineering-focused library within PyPi. Python is the Swiss army knife of NetDevOps, able to turn its hand to ad-hoc scripting tasks through to full-blown web application development using Flask or API gateway hosting using FastAPI.
Golang: An upcoming programming language, which benefits over Python in terms of speed via a compiler-based approach, parallel-execution, built-in testing and concurrency capabilities when compared to Python. On the downside, it has a significantly steeper learning curve than Python for new entrants into the realm of development and has far fewer network engineering library components available to use.

What does the future of network automation look like?

The demand for network automation and NetDevOps professionals is undoubtedly on the rise, a trend that we at CACI expect to continue as budgetary pressures from the macroeconomic climate accelerate and trends like artificial intelligence (AI) begin to challenge the status quo and push businesses to deliver seamless, scalable network fabrics with more expectation of self-service and less tolerance of outage, delay or error. We see more of our clients moving up through the automation maturity path towards frictionless and autonomous network estates and expect this to accelerate through the coming years with ancillary trends such as NaaS (Network as a Service), SDN (Software Defined Networking) and NetDevOps set to continue and embed the NetEng Team firmly into the forthcoming platform engineering teams of tomorrow.

How can CACI help you on your network automation journey?

With our proven track record, CACI Network Services is adept at a plethora of IT, networking and cloud technologies. Our trained cohort of high calibre network automation engineers and consultants are ready and willing to share their industry knowledge to benefit your unique network automation and NetDevOps requirements. We are a trusted advisor that ensures every team member is equipped with the necessary network engineering knowledge from vendors such as Cisco, Arista and Juniper, along with NetDevOps knowledge in aspects such as Python for application Development, NetBox for IPAM and NSoT, Git for version control, YAML for CI/CD pipeline deployment and more.

Our in-house experts have architected, designed, built and automated some of the UK’s largest enterprise, service provider and data centre networks, with our deep heritage in network engineering spanning over 20 years across a variety of ISP, enterprise, cloud and telco environments for industries ranging from government and utilities to finance and media.

Get in touch with us today to discuss more about your network automation and NetDevOps requirements to optimise your business IT network for today and beyond.

DORA & NIS2: Key considerations for senior management

Posted on: 30 November 2023

In our increasingly digital world, safeguarding the digital infrastructure and information systems that uphold financial companies is now critical. Two key regulatory frameworks, DORA and NIS2, have emerged as essential regulations designed to enhance the protection of financial companies’ operations and systems.

My first blog of the four-part DORA and NIS2 blog series introduced the new financial regulations in-depth. In the second blog, I explained how these new regulations will impact UK financial companies. This blog will explore the key considerations around DORA and NIS2 for senior management.

In light of DORA and NIS2 taking effect, it is integral that senior stakeholders within financial companies are aware of the considerations that must be taken to effectively comply with these regulations and adhere to them accordingly. A few of the key considerations for senior management to be aware of are as follows:

Navigate the cost of compliance

It is important for senior management within certain financial companies to consider that complying with regulations may accrue significant financial costs. This is particularly likely in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Becoming digitally resilient and implementing the necessary measures to meet DORA requirements may require a hefty investment in technology, resources and expertise. This may, however, prove small in comparison to the cost of a breach, incoming fine, loss of reputation or even customers.

Carefully assess maturity and capabilities

The maturity and complexity of a financial company’s governance and internal practices will affect the challenges it faces in complying with DORA. Companies with lower maturity profiles may need to invest more resources and effort to meet DORA’s requirements. At every maturity level, it is vital for senior management to conduct thorough evaluations of the current state, identify any existing gaps and allocate the appropriate resources for compliance.

Turning requirements into actions can be complicated

DORA introduces new compliance obligations and expectations for financial companies. It requires them to embed digital resilience throughout their operations, develop a Digital Resilience Strategy, implement a Digital Resilience Framework and address areas such as operational resilience testing, threat intelligence sharing and third-party risk management. Senior management must prepare themselves for the likely challenging undertaking of understanding the specific requirements and translating them into actionable steps across the wider business.

Ensure third-party service providers’ compliance

Financial companies often rely on third-party ICT service providers to support their operations. DORA also applies to these service providers, imposing additional compliance obligations and oversight requirements. Therefore, it is critical for senior management to verify that third-party providers adhere to the prescribed standards and align with DORA’s requirements, which may involve renegotiating contracts or conducting due diligence to ensure compliance.

Adhere to the compliance timeline

While the European Parliament has approved DORA, it is only set to enter into force in 2025. Conducting a thorough gap assessment, developing a roadmap and implementing the necessary changes can be time-intensive, particularly due to the complexity of the requirements and potential need for significant operational adjustments. Therefore, senior management must plan compliance efforts and resources accordingly to align with the designated timeframe.

How can CACI help?

With over 20 years’ experience in helping deliver effective IT and security strategies to financial companies, CACI can help you navigate the changes and challenges brought on by DORA. Our experienced security and compliance experts can bolster your understanding of your network assets, help you conduct maturity assessments, address compliance gaps regarding the fulfilment of DORA implementation requirements, and much more.

For more information, please read our recent whitepaper “Compliance with DORA and NIS2: Essential steps for UK financial companies”, which explores the impact of DORA and NIS2 on financial companies in the UK, key considerations for senior management and best practices for achieving compliance. You can also get in touch with the team here.

Network Automation: Should it matter to your business?

Posted on: 30 March 2023

PT Barnum once said, “Comfort is the Enemy of Progress!”

Keeping up with the rapid technological changes is essential for staying competitive, as is developing new ways to utilise your current technology capabilities.

With this in mind, have you explored how automation can benefit your business with increased productivity, reliability and reduced operating costs.

Let’s discuss a few areas where automation can change how your business works whilst futureproofing the solution.

Over the years, your business has grown, evolved and expanded. This can create highly complex configurations making network management, security update and innovation more tedious, expensive and challenging to implement.

In another instance, fast-growing companies look for further improvements in efficiency and productivity to ensure they get the best out of their teams and attract the best talent.

Network automation tools have been created for over 20 years and ClickOPS is still prominent, with more than 30% of enterprise network actions being automated. Nevertheless, there is renewed interest in concepts like GitOps and NetDevOps, which are quickly gaining popularity.

How does automation benefit you?

As detailed by MicroFocus, a Japanese financial institution stated that “Network automation has proven extremely effective for configuration management. Managing approximately 300,000 interfaces and 45,000 modules with Excel just isn’t feasible. It automatically collects firmware, CPU, power supply, and other detailed information from network devices, making real-time information management possible. As a result, the company can reduce information collection man-hours by 30% and increase the efficiency of various management tasks.”

Automating manual tasks or processes can improve accuracy and efficiency, so your IT team can focus on critical functions and strategic projects. You may tap into their creative and critical skills to discover their hidden talents.

Network automation allows you to complete changes and migrations with fewer resources, altering your teams to be more strategic and efficient, resulting in less human error.

Currently, most network maintenance is manual, logging into routers, switches, device discovery, and more. Consider what your teams can work on if they are not tied up with mundane but essential changes or provisioning.

It is essential to maintain regulatory compliance, but do you know that process automation can help your business to build a compliance program? The selected process is completed the same way every single time, which reduces the errors made. How does 100% accuracy in your audit trail sound?

Banks and financial institutions can easily find themselves over their heads with many rules and regulations to comply with. Fortunately, automation makes it easier. By automating complex banking workflows, such as regulatory reporting, banks can ensure end-to-end compliance coverage across all systems.

To deal with the ever-increasing complexity of networking, infrastructure and hybrid working environments, automation can make your teams more productive, the network more reliable, and the business easier to scale up.

So, as we said at the beginning, will you stay in your comfort zone or will you embrace the opportunity to use our specialists’ expertise to develop a strategy that will maximize your future opportunities.

How CACI can help

We have a great team of Network and Automation specialists who are happy to align with your strategy. We can futureproof your business to stand out from competitors by efficiently leveraging the full advantage of automation tools.

Get in touch with us today to find out more.

Note:
Nomura Securities Case Study (microfocus.com)

How to find the right IT outsourcing partner

Posted on: 17 March 2023

Looking to work with an IT outsourcing provider? Finding the right partner to deliver your requirements can be a tricky and time-consuming process. But, done right, a successful outsourcing relationship can bring long-term strategic benefits to your business. We asked our experts to share their top tips on how to find the right IT outsourcing partner.

Evaluate capabilities

Having the right expertise is the obvious and most essential criterion, so defining your requirements and expectations is the best way to start your search.

When it comes to narrowing down your vendor choices, it’s important to consider the maturity of an organisation as well as technical capabilities. “The risk of working with a small, specialised provider is that they may struggle to keep a handle on your project,” warns Brian Robertson, Resource Manager at CACI. Inversely, a larger organisation may have the expertise, but not the personal approach you’re looking for in a partner. “Always look for a provider that demonstrates a desire to get to the root of your business’s challenges and can outline potential solutions,” Brian advises.

Find evidence of experience

Typically, working with an outsourcing provider that has accumulated experience over many years is a safe bet; however, Daniel Oosthuizen, Senior Vice President of CACI Network Services, recommends ensuring that your prospective outsourcing provider has experience that is relevant to your business, “When you bring in an outsourcing partner, you want them to hit the ground running, not spending weeks and months onboarding them into your world.” Daniel adds, “This becomes more apparent if you work in a regulated industry, such as banking or financial services, where it’s essential that your provider can guarantee compliance with regulatory obligations as well as your internal policies.”

So, how can you trust a provider has the experience you’re looking for? Of course the provider’s website, case studies, and testimonials are a good place to start, but Daniel recommends interrogating a vendor’s credentials directly, “A successful outsourcing relationship hinges on trust, so it’s important to get a sense of a vendor’s credibility early on. For example, can they demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your sector? Can they share any details about whom they currently partner with? And can they confidently talk you through projects they’ve completed that are similar to yours?”

Consider cultural compatibility

“When it comes to building a strong, strategic and successful outsourcing partnership, there’s no greater foundation than mutual respect and understanding,” says Brian. Evaluating a potential provider’s approach and attitudes against your business’s culture and core values is another critical step in your vetting process. As Daniel says, “If you share the same values, it will be much easier to implement a seamless relationship between your business and your outsourcing partner, making day-to-day management, communication and even conflict resolution more effective and efficient”.

While checking a company’s website can give you some insight into your prospective provider’s values, it’s also worth finding out how long they’ve held partnerships with other clients, as that can indicate whether they can maintain partnerships for the long-term.

However, Daniel says, “The best way to test if a provider has partnership potential is to go and meet them. Get a feel for the team atmosphere, how they approach conversations about your challenges, and how their values translate in their outsourcing relationships.” Brian adds, “Your vision and values are what drive your business forward, so it’s essential that these components are aligned with your outsourcing provider to gain maximum value from the relationship.”

Assess process and tools

Once you’ve determined a potential outsourcing provider’s level of experience and expertise, it’s important to gain an understanding of how they will design and deliver a solution to meet your business’s needs. “It’s always worth investigating what tech and tools an outsourcing provider has at their disposal and whether they are limited by manufacturer agreements. For example, at CACI, our vendor-agnostic approach means we’re not tied to a particular manufacturer, giving us the flexibility to find the right solution to meet our clients’ needs,” Daniel explains

Speaking of flexibility, determining the agility of your potential outsourcing provider’s approach should play a role in your selection process. “There’s always potential for things to change, particularly when delivering a transformation project over several years,” says Brian, adding “that’s why it’s so important to find a partner that can easily scale their solutions up or down, ensuring that you’ve always got the support you need to succeed.”

Determine quality standards

Determining the quality of a new outsourcing partner’s work before you’ve worked with them can be difficult, but there are some clues that can indicate whether a vendor’s quality standards are in line with your expectations, says Daniel, “A good outsourcing partner will be committed to adding value at every step of your project, so get details on their method and frequency of capturing feedback, whether the goals they set are realistic and achievable, and how they manage resource allocation on projects.”

Brian also recommends quizzing outsourcing providers about their recruitment and hiring process to ensure that you’ll be gaining access to reliable and skilled experts, “It’s easy for an outsourcing provider to say they have the best people, so it’s important to probe a little deeper. How experienced are their experts? How are they ensuring their talent is keeping up to date? What is their process for vetting new candidates? All these questions will help to gain an insight into an outsourcing provider’s quality bar – and whether it’s up to your standard.”

Assess value for money

For most IT leaders, cost is one of the most decisive factors when engaging any service; however,
when looking for an IT outsourcing partner, it’s critical to consider more than just a provider’s pricing model. “Contractual comprehensiveness and flexibility should always be taken into account,” says, Brian. “A contract that is vague can result in ‘scope creep’ and unexpected costs, while a rigid contract can tie businesses into a partnership that’s not adding value.” He adds, “Ultimately, it comes down to attitude, a good outsourcing provider can quickly become a great business partner when they go the extra mile.”

Daniel agrees and advises that IT leaders take a holistic view when weighing up potential outsourcing partners, “Look beyond your initial project, or resource requirements and consider where your business is heading and whether your shortlisted providers can bring in the skills and services you need. After all, a truly successful outsourcing partnership is one that can be relied on for the long haul.”

Looking for an outsourcing partner to help with your network operations? Contact our expert team today.

Delivering data & insights to provide Bright Horizons with a new approach to childcare

Posted on: 29 November 2022

Highlights

• Bespoke data dashboard and InSite tools
• Acorn geodemographic data for multiple propositions and locations
• Customer and employee profiling to assess community need
• Enabling demand-led growth for genuine customer value
• Rapid report generation to inform many stakeholders

About Bright Horizons

Trusted by families to look after their children for over 30 years, Bright Horizons is an award-winning nursery provider. The company operates over 300 community and workplace nurseries throughout the UK: each is individually designed to serve the needs of its community. Bright Horizons provides tailored childcare for corporate clients and for families, at home, at work and in local settings.

The Challenge

Bright Horizons initially approached CACI for data to support their new site opening and acquisition insight programme. Property Asset Manager Oliver Brookes needed reliable data that was quick and easy to interpret for new site and location decision-making.

Marketing Manager Eddie Thorogood saw a further opportunity to use demographic data to support Bright Horizons’ proposition development and to better understand existing as well as potential catchments.

The Solution

CACI provided Acorn demographics, profiling and mapping, giving insight into specific postcodes and communities. High level demographic maps are instantly visible in InSite’s Locator tool.
Eddie explains: “The blend of data creates reliable and up-to-date information about the demand for our services, to support decision-making about how and where we can expand our operations so we can deliver high quality childcare where it’s needed. It also helps us improve our business model, so we can manage our portfolio and flex and balance our sites to meet changing needs.”

The Benefits

Bright Horizons’ three pillars are ‘people, quality, growth’. Eddie emphasises, “We’re not about just growing for the sake of it. We always want to be where we are needed – where parents can find us and our services will be useful. With this data insight at local level, we can provide a clear picture of community and workplace need to our senior leadership team, so they can sign off new facilities.”

Eddie explains

We have a complex business where everything is audience-centric, so we have multiple offerings. It’s a deeply human business – it’s all about nurturing young children.
The CACI data and dashboard reporting gives us tools to look through every single lens, to understand all the factors that matter to people.

Eddie Thorogood, Marketing Manager, Bright Horizons

Find out more

Please view the full customer story here. If you want to learn more or have any questions please get in touch with us.

How to spot a failing outsourced relationship

Posted on: 8 November 2021

A relationship breakdown is never easy, not least when it’s with your IT outsourcing partner. But what makes a seemingly good relationship go bad, and can you spot the signs of impending IT outsourcing failure before it’s too late? To get some insight from both sides of the relationship, we asked Backbone Connect Co-founder and Director, David McLeod, as well as our own CACI Network Services Sales Director, Liam Delaney, to share their outsourcing experiences, reveal the red flags to watch, and the secret to maintaining a successful relationship with an IT outsourcing partner. Here’s what they told us…

1. Communication has broken down

One of the earliest warning signs that your relationship with your IT outsourcing partner is flagging is that the frequency of your communication has dropped. “There’s always a honeymoon period with any new outsourcing relationship – the energy levels are high, and contact is constant,” explains David. “The issues arise when that contact becomes less routine and conversations turn forced and fractious,” he continues.

“Confusion about how a team should communicate with their outsourcing partner can also lead to protracted conversations and frustrations from both sides of the relationship if they’re not clearly defined at the outset,” says Liam. Further, changes over time can significantly contribute to communication barriers. “Through the duration of any long-term outsourcing relationship, team members leave, and a legacy starts to develop, which limits the potential of your outsourcing partnership,” says David. Liam agrees, “Whenever there’s a major personnel change on either side of the partnership, it’s time to review the service and make sure that it’s still meeting your needs.”

2. The vision has become (or already was) blurry

While both David and Liam agree that a successful IT outsourcing relationship is one that evolves over time, Liam highlights the necessity of starting the relationship with clear expectations. “You can’t outsource a problem that you can’t define,” he warns. “Outsourcing partnerships can bring a wealth of expertise and experience into your team as well as achieve cost savings, but you need to be clear on what success you’re looking to achieve.” If the goals aren’t clear, it can be difficult for an outsourcing provider to take effective action.

David also advocates working with outsourcing partners whose cultural values align with your business to ensure longevity in the relationship. “Your business’s culture is the one constant, unchangeable thing, so it should be one of the key measures you use when considering any potential outsourcing provider.” He adds, “Put simply, if you’re wearing t-shirts, and they arrive in business suits, you’re likely to have a problem.”

3. Fingers are being pointed

“When something goes wrong and blame is being thrown around, you stop being on the same team and your pathway forward becomes blocked,” says David. Liam agrees, “A good outsourcing provider is one that acts as an extension of your team, always looking to add value and deliver positive outcomes, especially when tackling an unexpected challenge.”

While it’s important to understand why a problem has occurred, both David and Liam agree that maintaining open, honest and constant communication can ensure both sides of an outsourcing relationship resolve conflicts and challenges together, although David notes that “when you seem to have a stream of issues, a stigma can become attached to the outside party, making it difficult for that partnership to continue effectively if it’s not addressed.”

Liam says that establishing a communications flow which facilitates continuous feedback is one way to avoid minor problems becoming bigger issues, although he also acknowledges the value in a proactive vendor – “At CACI, we’re always trying to anticipate our clients’ potential roadblocks and challenges, so we’re providing solutions before something becomes a problem.”

4. Your contract has become a constraint

A contract provides both parties in an outsourcing relationship the benefit of structure and protection, but it can become a barrier to progress when projects pivot in a new direction. Working with a vendor that can be flexible and offer an element of elasticity in their approach can help to avoid partners becoming stuck in a bind.

However, the size of an outsourcing provider can also impact on how agile a partner can afford to be, warns David. “Smaller organisations are typically more agile than bigger providers, but they can be highly volatile as they grow and evolve, which can lead to issues later. On the flip side, a very large outsourcing provider may not be able to offer the personal, value-add partnership that you’re looking for.”

Liam also advises that businesses pay attention to the finer details when firming up their outsourcing requirement. “It’s important to consider the unexpected and unusual use case scenarios. You can’t capture everything, but having awareness and alerting your vendor of the potential changes and challenges ahead means they can be prepared to act and adapt, preventing your project from coming to a standstill.”

5. You’re not growing together

“A clear sign that your outsourced relationship isn’t working is when you start to feel anchored,” says David. An outsourced relationship that continues to evolve and enhance your business as it grows is one that is truly valuable according to our experts. One way to form a relationship that adds long-term value is to select an outsourcing partner that has a wider capability offering. “I’m always thinking about the longevity of a relationship, looking beyond the initial requirement, and thinking about what else we can do to add value to our clients,” says Liam.

Nonetheless, capability isn’t the only thing to look out for. As Liam explains, having a future-focused mindset is also critical to a long-standing relationship. “I believe that the most successful partnerships are the ones where the provider brings both vision and value. They’re not just focused on what the client currently does, but they’re looking at what else they can be doing to improve.”

However, both our experts noted that, like any relationship, an outsourcing relationship requires investment and trust to realise its full potential. “It’s all about building and nurturing a partnership,” says Liam. David agrees and adds, “Trust is critical, and it’s not established overnight. Take the time to get the basics right – once you’ve got that with the right partner, you can achieve much bigger things.”

Looking for an outsourcing partner to help with your network operations? Contact our expert team today.

3 network transformation opportunities – and how to make them happen

Posted on: 28 September 2021

With digital transformation initiatives high on many organisations’ agendas and the impact of COVID-19 changing how most of us work forever, network transformation has never been more important.

And the truth is, there are a wide range of network transformation vendors to choose from. But most take a transactional approach to network transformation, delivering little value beyond the basic works carried out.

Rather than an “in and out” service, great network transformation relies on an end-to-end partnership-based approach, with your vendor working closely to understand all your requirements. It can also sometimes mean working across multiple lines of business and projects to deliver network transformation programmes at scale.

In working on multiple network transformation projects with one of our major transportation clients, there were some interesting opportunities we’d like to share. Here are three potential opportunities to be had by working with a network transformation specialist.

Opportunity #1 – Turn spare network capacity into additional revenue

For organisations with vast internal networks, there’s significant opportunity to commercially monetise spare capacity and offer greater flexibility to customers.

With a significant fibre network across its estate stretching tens of thousands of miles, our client realised that any spare capacity could be used for commercial applications to help generate additional revenue.

Using an end-to-end delivery process, we developed and launched a dark fibre service to help our client deliver connectivity as a service, in a way that was repeatable and efficient.

We kicked off the project by mapping out the client’s service lifecycle to identify any capability gaps. Once this was established, we brought together a selection of our client’s stakeholders virtually and ran interactive workshops to walk through draft processes, focusing on providing end customer service.

Following a successful service launch, several end customers now use our client’s services, with our client driving continuous improvements across the network. And we’re now working with our client to deploy the service across its wider network and develop a service model and approach for future deployments – allowing our client to develop its offering.

Opportunity #2 – Tackle customer complaints to strengthen relationships

In large organisations, it can often be a challenge to discover and resolve issues that directly impact customers. Following the regionalisation of our client’s legacy telecom assets, our client found that many of its asset managers were concerned about whether its legacy voice estate was fit for purpose.

Working with our client’s leadership team, we devised and managed a service improvement plan, which involved understanding the issues and what was needed to resolve them.

To help stakeholders mobilise the plan, we set up management reporting processes and acted as an intermediary between our client’s leadership and account management teams.

In just four weeks, we helped our client reach a resolution around its legacy voice estate, and moved the focus to other areas of concern – delivering improved service to our client’s regions.

Opportunity #3 – Dramatically reduce data centre costs

Outdated technology can be a significant drain on resources. And while it can be all too tempting to throw money and resources at the problem, this strategy can often cause more problems than it solves.

Our client had an ageing data centre infrastructure which was interfering with its ability to deliver a reliable service. What’s more, it was keen to ensure its mission-critical applications were always available. With its legacy technology approaching end of life and support, we recommended an infrastructure migration.

We worked closely with key stakeholders to create a test organisation at the start of the project to support the migration, helping our client build two new data centres with modern technology stacks.

Ensuring a thorough assurance process was used throughout to maintain regulatory compliance, we oversaw the design, implementation, and migration phases. And to confirm all programme deliverables were managed correctly, CACI developed a project management and testing platform using Jira and Zephyr.

By working closely with our client throughout the project, we helped the company save £40K and delivered the project two months ahead of schedule. Looking to the future, we’re now working with our client in an advisory role, helping it to shortlist an operating partner.

Network transformation: a world of opportunity

While network transformation opportunities can be wide-ranging and cover several lines of business, it’s important to select an outsourced vendor that also understands the importance of being a familiar point of contact.

Often embedded in clients’ teams for maximum impact, our end-to-end services allow our clients to benefit from a portfolio of skills and resources, helping them free up their teams to focus on more strategic activities.

To find out more about how we can help you design and implement network services – and even unite third party stakeholders – across your organisation, get in touch with our team of experts today.