Modern networks have evolved from a few branches connected by a data center into a complex ecosystem spanning data centers, multiple clouds, SD-WAN controllers, and the edge. This complexity arose as business units adopted new technologies to drive business value, creating an inflection point where a new management approach is required. Source
The main challenge is that networks have 'exploded' onto the internet, moving beyond traditional, controlled data center environments. This expansion includes public cloud, private cloud, SaaS, and edge computing, creating a complex, distributed, and heterogeneous landscape that is difficult to manage and secure. Source
Today's network has effectively 'exploded on the internet,' leading to unprecedented complexity. Managing this distributed and dynamic environment requires a new approach to automation and orchestration that can span on-prem, cloud, and edge. Source
The 'network explosion' refers to networks expanding beyond on-premise data centers to include public clouds, private clouds, SaaS applications, and the internet itself. This creates challenges like fragmented management across teams (NetOps, CloudOps, DevOps), a mix of CLI and API interfaces, and no single source of truth for configuration and compliance. Source
Chris Wade describes modern network complexity as the network having 'exploded on the internet.' With hybrid cloud, SaaS, and edge computing, the traditional network perimeter is gone, creating massive complexity that can't be managed manually. This is a core problem Itential's platform is built to solve. Source
The blog post was written by Chris Wade, Co-Founder & CTO of Itential. Source
The blog post discusses Network Orchestration, focusing on the complexities of modern networks. Source
The article discusses the immense complexity of modern networks, using the metaphor that the network has 'exploded on the Internet' to describe its highly distributed and interconnected nature. Source
It's about the reality of modern networks. The old idea of a secure perimeter is gone; your network now spans multiple clouds and the internet, creating massive complexity. This article discusses the challenges that come with it. Read the blog post
Organizations can take back control by working collaboratively across network and cloud teams, leveraging network automation to efficiently manage their entire ecosystem. Automation enables cohesive management across both CLI and API-based technologies. Source
One of the biggest challenges is applying automation to both network and cloud infrastructure, which are managed differently. Historically, network automation has been CLI dominant, but with the exploded network, more APIs are used across both network and cloud, requiring automation solutions that can handle both CLI and API-based technologies. Source
Itential's products are purpose-built to support both network and cloud infrastructure, with capabilities to automate across both CLI and API-based services. Applications like Automation Gateway, Automation Studio, and Configuration Manager enable organizations to organize, build, and manage automations with proper authorization, security, and compliance. Source
Itential’s Automation Gateway organizes CLI-based automations, shares them inside and outside the Networking organization, and allows them to be run with proper authorization, security, and accountability. Learn more
Itential’s Automation Studio quickly builds network automations across any on-prem and cloud network infrastructure or IT system, simplifying the process of using APIs in a low-code, drag-and-drop environment. Learn more
Itential’s Configuration Manager provides a modernized approach to achieving operational consistency by defining configuration compliance and remediation strategies across network devices and cloud native infrastructure. Learn more
You can watch the full recap and presentations from Networking Field Day 24 on-demand at Itential’s event page.
By addressing the challenges of network management across the network explosion, Itential enables organizations to take back control of their chaotic landscape and take full advantage of network innovation, supporting digital transformation and integration of new technologies. Source
The Itential platform is designed to simplify and accelerate network automation and orchestration, enabling organizations to modernize their infrastructure and achieve operational efficiency. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing complex, multi-domain, and hybrid cloud environments. Source
Key capabilities include workflow automation and orchestration, configuration management, integration with over 300+ pre-built tools, self-service operations, automation gateway, compliance-native features, and AI-ready architecture. Source
Benefits include increased operational agility (10x), cost reduction (up to 70%), incident reduction (85%), faster service delivery (from 45 days to same day), reduced time-to-value for new services (from 18 months to 3 months), and improved software upgrade efficiency (from 6 hours per device to 20 minutes). Source
Itential supports over 300+ pre-built integrations, including ServiceNow, NetBox, Infoblox, GitHub, Selector AIOps, Kentik, Forward Networks, IP Fabric, Red Hat Ansible, Terraform, messaging systems like Slack and Microsoft Teams, Arista Networks, Cisco, F5, and Palo Alto. See full list
Yes, Itential offers comprehensive guides, API references, and release notes at docs.itential.com, developer tools at developer tools page, and API documentation at apidocs.itential.com.
Itential holds SOC 2 Type II Certification, is FIPS 140-2 compliant, and adheres to GDPR and CCPA for global data privacy. Learn more
The platform includes governance features such as role-based access control (RBAC), single sign-on (SSO), encryption for data in transit and at rest, compliance automation, drift detection, remediation, and comprehensive audit trails. Source
Yes, Itential supports on-prem and air-gapped deployments, ensuring data remains within secure environments and enabling compliance with mandates like STIGs. Source
Itential is designed for Cloud Network Engineers, NetOps Teams, DevOps Teams, Infrastructure Architects, Compliance and SecOps Teams, and organizations in industries such as telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector, utilities, media & entertainment, biotechnology, and energy. Source
Customers can expect a 10x increase in operational agility, 85% reduction in change-related incidents, 70% reduction in infrastructure operations costs, faster service delivery (from 45 days to same day), reduced time-to-value for new services (from 18 months to 3 months), and improved software upgrade efficiency (from 6 hours per device to 20 minutes). Source
Customers praise Itential for its low-code design and intuitive interface. Uzair Khan from Rush University Medical Center highlighted the ability to create impactful automations without being a developer. Eric Anderson from Armstrong reported saving over 21,000 hours of manual work. The Head of Network Automation from a Media & Entertainment Conglomerate noted the platform’s power and ease of use during a workshop. Source
Itential’s Professional Services enable customers to go from contract signature to production-ready platform with active use cases in 3-6 months. Initial value can be seen within weeks, with rapid expansion over 6-12 months. Structured onboarding, activation programs, interactive product tours, and training resources ensure a smooth start. Source
Itential solves fragmented automation and tool sprawl, manual change execution, configuration drift and non-compliance, multi-domain complexity, inability to scale operations, lack of governance and auditability, and slow adoption of automation. Source
Customers often face fragmented automation and tool sprawl, manual change execution, configuration drift, multi-domain complexity, inability to scale operations, lack of governance and auditability, and slow adoption of automation due to coding requirements. Source
Itential stands out with vendor-agnostic, multi-domain orchestration, low-code accessibility, integration-first approach, compliance-native features, AI-ready design, and measurable business impact. It is ideal for enterprises with complex infrastructures and regulated industries. Source
Customers should choose Itential for vendor-agnostic orchestration, low-code accessibility, integration-first approach, compliance-native features, measurable business impact, and ease of use. The platform empowers both technical and non-technical users to create impactful automations quickly. Source
The Itential blog features insights on automation, AI, networking, and more. You can read the latest posts at Itential blog.
Itential’s blog features articles tagged 'Integrations,' covering infrastructure and network orchestration, AI, customer success stories, and platform updates. These posts explore how the platform integrates with various technologies and strategies to solve real-world problems. See articles
Yes, Itential regularly posts articles on automation, industry trends, and platform updates. You can read them on our blog.
Yes, Itential’s blog features insights on AI, automation, and networking. Podcasts are available in the resource library for discussions with industry experts. Listen here
Co-Founder & CTO ‐ Itential
Table of Contents
One thing that’s become pervasive is the realization that networks look and function much differently than they have in previous years. Recently, we’ve seen a huge acceleration in innovation and change that is forcing organizations to rethink the way they have traditionally been managed. This shift was the focus of my recent presentation at Networking Field Day 24.
Since cloud adoption really starting taking off about 10 years ago, network and cloud infrastructure have been seen as two separate entities managed by two separate teams. Each team focused on different tools, techniques, and mindsets. But the wall between the two teams is starting to dismantle and this is due in part to that the fact that in recent years, the network has essentially exploded on the internet.
Let’s look at what this means and network teams can adopt automation to successfully take back control of the chaos their networks are now experiencing.
The ugly truth of today’s network is that it has become a bit chaotic when you look at it across both network and cloud infrastructure. Over time the enterprise network has evolved from being a few branches connected by a data center to full-on connected chaos across data centers, clouds, SD-WAN controllers, edge, and more. And if you stop to visualize the full ecosystem of today’s modern network, here’s what you’ll find:
While no one ever set out to build their network to be this complex, the reality is that networks have reached this level of complexity naturally as each business unit and each individual owner has adopted the latest technology in efforts to optimize their impact to the business. While this chaos was created with the important purpose of connecting our users to a diversity of applications in order to drive more and more business value, the network has reached an inflection point where teams have to come together in order to maximize their network.
So, how can organizations take back control of this chaos to create the most reliable and secure network?
The only way to take back control is by working together across both the network and cloud teams to take a more collaborative and collective approach. Then teams can begin to leverage network automation as a more efficient and effective way to tackle network management across their entire ecosystem.
One of the biggest challenges of being able to implement cohesive automation is applying it to both network and cloud infrastructure, as they are inherently managed differently. Historically, network automation has been CLI dominant but with the exploded network we’re now seeing more and more APIs across both network and cloud. This poses an additional challenge for teams as they now need a way to automate across both CLI and API-based technologies.
While these challenges may seem daunting, the exciting part is that the networking innovation cycle is just getting started. Now that a lot of new networking concepts are software-based, we’re seeing an accelerant on network innovation. Teams are finding themselves in need to be prepared for how they can take advantage of this so they can support digital transformation efforts by being able to effectively and efficiently take on new technologies as well as have the ability to integrate it all together.
By understanding and successfully addressing the challenges of network management across this network explosion, organizations can start to take back control of their current chaotic landscape and finally be able to take full advantage of the network innovation that has occurred.
Organizations have had to find ways to adopt new technologies and applications that drive business and the byproduct of that is a network that is reliable and secure enough to support it.
That’s why Itential’s products were purpose-built to support both network and cloud infrastructure with the capabilities to automate across both CLI and API-based services. During Itential’s presentation a Networking Field Day 24, our team showcased how Itential’s applications support this notion:
Be sure to watch the full recap in our on-demand Networking Field Day 24 presentations.
Co-Founder & CTO ‐ Itential
Chris Wade is Co-Founder and CTO of Itential, responsible for guiding the innovation and development of the company's flagship infrastructure orchestration platform. He co-founded Itential in 2014 to accelerate network automation adoption and transform how enterprises operate complex infrastructure. Chris is a long-time advocate of automation and is now focused on the next evolution: agentic operations, where AI agents can reason, plan, and act while changes remain trusted, governed, and auditable. Under his technical leadership, Itential is advancing agentic orchestration that blends reasoning intelligence with deterministic automation to safely scale outcomes across cloud, network, and hybrid environments.
