Most multi-homed networks need to engineer and control the traffic flow for both performance and economical reasons. This is commonly done by manually tweaking the configurations of BGP routers, on an trial-and-error basis. Engineers make manual changes in the routing policies without a clear understanding of the effects on the traffic flow.
A strategy to adopt when implementing BGP would be routing optimization automation, in order to mitigate and alleviate some of the issues and problems inherent in BGP. From a purely economical and financial point of view, the implications of BGP optimization automation are:
1. Improved network stability and reduction of downtime, leading to avoidance of revenue loss and reduced cost of troubleshooting and service restoration.
2. Improved operational efficiency, including faster and automated problem resolution – also reduce the chance of human errors.
3. Productivity savings and reduced labor costs – less engineering time spent on network troubleshooting and customer care – because of the network stabilization and congestion, blackouts rerouting. Engineers would be able to spent their time on strategical projects as opposed to operational issues, rolling out new services ( IPv6) , implementing ITIL for network operations, and work on other projects.
4. More network insight through comprehensive analytics – better network management and planning.
5. Overall competitiveness increase and future business benefits based on these.
Actually, when margins are tight it is very hard to find a competitive advantage between multiple similar businesses. Companies bringing innovative technologies and continuously evolving their networks would win the competition in the long run.
To summarize, the overall effect of implementing routing optimization automation for network infrastructure management typically results in cost savings and solid, positive ROI. Areas for cost savings include improved network stability, improved operational efficiency, productivity savings and reduced labor costs, better network insight and overall competitiveness increase.