Businesses constantly seek to optimize their infrastructure, improve operational efficiency, and ensure business continuity. Knowing this, virtualization has emerged as a powerful solution to achieve these general objectives, as it is the sole foundation of cloud computing. It better enables organizations to create virtual representations of their IT environment including servers, storage, virtual machines, and networks, among others.

At WEI, we understand the benefits of virtualization, which essentially allows IT teams to improve their resource efficiency, simplifies device management with a software-defined VMs, minimizes downtime, and fast tracks provisioning into existing workflows. Ultimately, our VCDX certification allows our network and virtualization experts to empower customers, across all industries, to better realize the full potential of their VMware enterprise environment and take ownership of their hardware. Being one of just a handful of value-added resellers based in New England that hold this certification, our VCDX capability is a major differentiator as we serve customers across the globe.

So, what exactly is the VCDX certification, and why is it a critical resource for the enterprise? We recently spoke with our VCDX-certified Senior Architect and Virtualization Ambassador, , to find out. Mark earned his VCDX nearly 15 years ago and was one of the first non-VMware employees to earn the certification. Notably, he achieved this without today’s architectural guidance and mentors to lean on, although Mark proudly makes himself available as a mentor to today’s aspiring candidates.

Tech Talk: Identifying Proper Cluster Design For The Enterprise

Understanding The VCDX Certification

VMware Certified Design Expert stands as the highest credential offered by our longtime partner, VMware. It validates an individual’s in-depth knowledge, skills, and experience in designing and implementing complex VMware environments. In doing so, the expert must show they can articulate what an environment’s requirements are, identify what the customer’s desired outcomes are, identify constraints, and then identify risks for the business. During the certification process, the candidate must create detailed, logical documentation, effectively present and defend their design choices in front of a panel, and have a thorough understanding of all design aspects.

While the VCDX itself does not require passing a written exam, there are two mid-tier exams that must be passed before moving on to VCDX. These prerequisites include:

1. Obtaining the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) credential.
2. Securing both the VCAP-Design and VCAP-Administration certifications within a specific track.

“The certification process involves a comprehensive written exam, a detailed design submission, and a grueling defense of the design in front of a panel of VMware experts,” Gabryjelski shares. Earning these credentials demonstrates proficiency in both designing and administering VMware solutions. While VCDX-DCV focuses on advanced data center design expertise, VMware offers a comprehensive range of certification tracks beyond DCV, as follows:

• Cloud Management and Automation (CMA) Track
• Security (SEC) Track
• Network Virtualization (NV) Track
• End-User Computing (EUC) Track
• Application Modernization (AM) Track

These tracks cater to both beginners and experienced professionals, validating the essential skills needed to integrate and manage the technologies that deliver your desired business outcomes. Covering a wide range of technology areas, these tracks provide the flexibility to choose the path that best aligns with your virtualization career goals.

Why VCDX Certification Matters Today

As businesses embrace virtualization to drive agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, the demand for highly skilled virtualization professionals is increasing. Here’s how the VCDX certification empowers WEI to address this growing need for customers:

1. Unmatched Expertise: As indicated above, VCDX-certified engineers can design, deploy, and manage complex virtualized environments with exceptional efficiency and precision. This means asking the right questions and making the best IT decisions the long-term ramifications in mind.
2. Strategic Design: A VCDX-certified engineer can suggest and design virtualized solutions that align perfectly with your organization’s specific needs and future goals. They can consider scalability, security, performance, and compliance factors to ensure your virtual infrastructure is properly future-proofed.
3. Problem-Solving Prowess: The VCDX program equips professionals with the ability to scope a VMware environment through an advanced lens that is focused on grasping the specific requirements for the customer’s IT systems, desired business outcomes, and identifying the limitations that must be considered when designing solutions.
   
   WEI Tech Talk: vSphere Upgrade and Why Infrastructure Testing Is Important
   
   

Beyond Certification: The Commitment To Empower Clients

Gabryelski also underscores WEI’s commitment to enabling customers through . This investment in customer enablement sets WEI apart, allowing clients to take ownership of their hardware and maximize its value while knowing they can rely on WEI for support and expertise. In a regularly scheduled workshop program, Gabryjelski leads workshops based on the following solutions, all designed to put customers in a better position to own and operate their environment:

• vSphere
• Disaster recovery workflows
• Backup and recovery strategy
• Introduction to PowerShell
• Introduction to Kubernetes

“I think that’s a huge differentiator, because it enables our customers,” says Gabryjelski. “What we end up doing is training our customers. They put themselves in a great position to own and operate, and they know they can come back to us for some assistance if they need it, or even another set of eyes, as they’re planning their next update or upgrade or migration activities.”

Partnering For Success

Choosing the right solutions provider can significantly impact your organization’s success. Under WEI’s VCDX guidance, our network and virtualization team can help you optimize your VMware enterprise deployment. Here, we can effectively collect and assess customer requirements to develop an architectural design that includes virtual infrastructure, configuration suggestions, and deployment validation methods. This also includes producing well-organized documentation, presenting and justifying solution choices, and comprehensively understanding all aspects of the design.

Drawing from his experience, Gabryelski shares how having direct access to a VCDX at WEI has accelerated a customer’s tech stack. He recounts a scenario where a longstanding customer with a sizable ESX infrastructure (80-90 ESX hosts) sought guidance on hardware replacement as the hardware was approaching unsupported status.

Through collaborative discussions, Gabryelski’s careful evaluation of the situation revealed deviations from best practices, which, although minor, provided an opportunity to make improvements. The customer initially requested a straightforward hardware swap, but an opportunity arose to guide them towards a more future-proof strategy. As vSphere’s next version approaches, it will introduce a new patching strategy. Recognizing this, the approach shifted to not only replacing old hardware but also rethinking the cluster’s structure to align with future requirements. This proactive strategy aims to minimize the need for further adjustments and additional projects in the coming years as the new hardware is integrated into the system.

Final Thoughts

We understand that your VMware environment is a major component to your overall IT infrastructure. To achieve your business goals, you deserve a reliable and experienced IT solution provider and partner to design, implement, and manage your virtualized data center with confidence.

Contact WEI today to learn how we can support you through strategic designs and innovative solutions to transform your infrastructure and help your business thrive in today’s dynamic digital landscape.

Next Steps: In this episode, the WEI Tech Talk Podcast welcomes WEI Senior Architect and Virtualization Ambassador Mark Gabryjelski. Mark has been practicing VMware since 2000 and is VCDX #23. Known as “Gabs” around the industry, he is one of the first non-VMware employees to have earned the certification.

Today’s episode will explain what the VCDX certification is and why it elevates WEI as an IT solutions provider. Mark also explains what his journey was like in earning his certification and how the program has evolved over the past several years. The content for this episode was recorded in January 2024.

The post The VCDX Advantage: Redefining IT Solutions With Virtualization Expertise appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

As the leader in the virtualization landscape, VMware introduced in April 2023. With its impressive improvements in security, automation, and storage, the new update prioritizes stability and expands on the groundwork of . This means customers can expect a seamless approach to VM management and improved cluster design that will not require new license keys. After a recent conversation with VMware expert , we identify and summarize our findings of Update 1

Key Features Of vSphere 8 Update 1

Although most customers typically wait for the first major patch before upgrading, there are three key features in this latest update that have already proven to drive efficiency and unlock new potential for enterprise VMs. After all, it is the best of the vSphere releases to date for running cloud-native and on-premises workloads.

1. Simplified Lifecycle Management

Prior to vSphere 8 Update 1, vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) only supported standalone ESXi hosts through by vCenter using vSphere APIs. Now, with Update 1, standalone ESXi hosts don’t just have the full vSphere Client support, but users can compose a desired image, remediate, check compliance, and more. All these functions make it possible to perform all vLCM functions on standalone hosts that were limited to the vSphere clusters mentioned above.

2. Improved Security And Identity Management

Update 1 allows administrators to define custom image depots for standalone ESXi hosts, addressing potential remediation issues caused by high-latency connections between hosts and vCenter. With these improvements, vSphere 8.1 provides the same level of control and efficiency as managing vSphere clusters.

To further enhance the security and compliance features of vSphere 8, the new update now incorporates Okta identity federation support for vCenter and improvements to ESXi Quick Boot. With this support, enterprises benefit from modern cloud-based identity management and multifactor authentication through the safekeeping of user credentials separate from vSphere.

3. Empowering Workloads With AI And ML

While not all businesses utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), emphasizes the importance of accommodating critical on-premise workloads. Fortunately, vSphere 8 Update 1 is equipped with more capabilities such as improved GPU assignment and workload scalability. These upgrades enable businesses to efficiently manage larger workloads as needed and leverage the potential of AI and ML technologies.

It’s important to note the availability of these capabilities depends on if your enterprise is using a public cloud and if the vendor offers these options. While most public cloud vendors are transitioning to vSphere 8.1, the inclusion of physical GPUs in the public cloud will vary based on the hardware offerings of each provider. Therefore, enterprises should ensure their cloud provider supports the necessary hardware capabilities.

Integrating vSphere 8 Update 1 To Your Existing Cluster Design

From the perspective of a vSphere software administrator, Update Manager has been renamed to vSphere Lifecycle Manager. However, from the VMware perspective, they are still maintaining two separate products: vSphere Lifecycle Manager and Update Manager. This is important because there is the belief that there will no longer be Update Manager available in vSphere 9. This changes the way admins add and maintain hardware that belong to the same vSphere cluster. Challenges could occur when scaling and maintaining hardware within the same cluster due to firmware differences.

To adapt to these changes, Mark Gabryjelski recommends maintaining homogeneous clusters with identical hosts and resources by using the following best practices:

• Plan out your VMware clusters and membership. Different generation clusters cannot use the same driver. While purchasing equipment is important, you must also consider the hidden soft costs associated with maintaining the environment.
• Instead of replacing old hardware, acquire new clusters and migrate workloads. This may alter infrastructure management but ensures compliance with the new rules, designs, and physical characteristics

Fortunately, vSphere 8 Update 1 streamlines updates for administrators, especially those still using vSphere 6 or having just transitioned to vSphere 7. When it’s time to upgrade to vSphere 8 and future versions, like vSphere 9, these approaches will better support the best practice of homogeneous clusters with identical hosts and resources.

Final Thoughts

Staying current with the latest vSphere releases guarantees businesses will leverage the full potential of their VM environments. VMware’s vSphere 8 Update 1 marks a major milestone in simplified management, enhanced security, and advanced workload capabilities to meet customer needs and improve operations.

If you are looking to upgrade and scale your VMs and workloads, WEI recommends embracing this new update to stay competitive and achieve greater business efficiency. As always, it is important to seek guidance from a reliable IT solutions provider to carefully plan and implement such upgrades to ensure a smooth transition and maximize the benefits of vSphere 8 Update 1.

Next Steps: WEI’s Mark Gabryjelski, who has been practicing VMware since 2000, and ESX since 2002, explains in the video below why it is wise to regularly perform an optimization assessment on an enterprise’s cluster infrastructure.

The post Boosting Your VM Environment: A Comprehensive Look at vSphere 8 Update 1 appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Due to no staffing, our pharmacy will be closed on Thursday, December 21, 2022.

For months, signs reading like this have been a frequent occurrence at retail pharmacies across the country. Amid a national shortage of pharmacists and technicians, pharmacy closures and reduced hours have become the new norm. As a result, pharmacies have extended wait times to fill prescriptions, had less availability for vaccines and patient consults, and have seen growing customer dissatisfaction.

The sad reality is that the shortage is likely to worsen. But technology can help retail pharmacies weather the talent shortage.

According to the , the U.S. will see at least a 2 percent decline in pharmacists over the next ten years. Fewer workers and the upsurge in online retailers and tech-enabled startups entering the healthcare delivery space will make competition for qualified talent fierce.

Can Technology Help Retail Pharmacies Weather the Talent Shortage?

The short answer is yes. While there is no one perfect solution to overcome a worker shortage, implementing new technologies can alleviate many issues created by a lack of employees. For example, the manufacturing industry has struggled to fill jobs for more than a decade due to the “great retirement” of baby boomers exiting the industry and a lack of interest among younger workers to enter the sector. In response, manufacturers have invested heavily in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to reduce human involvement in repetitive and physically demanding tasks. The impact has been greater efficiencies, fewer injuries, and less quality issues on production lines.

While the pandemic ushered in many technology changes for retail pharmacies, more opportunities remain available.

According to a survey by Surescripts, nearly half of pharmacists (48%) reported an increase in technology use in the 18 months following the pandemic. The survey concluded, however, that “there still appears to be plenty of room for technology to improve everyday workflows and frustrating processes.”

Five Areas Technology Can Make the Biggest Impact on Retail Pharmacies

Technology leaders feel a growing pressure to find technology solutions to combat their retail pharmacy’s staffing issues. Digital transformation initiatives may be considered across the company, but which ones can significantly impact labor-related issues? WEI has implemented solutions to tackle five of retail pharmacies’ most pressing needs, resulting in reduced capitalized costs, shortened time to market, minimized operational expenses, and an improved customer experience.

1. Reduce Prescription Fulfillment Delays
   

Prescription verification is a critical last step in the filling process that requires a pharmacist’s sign-off. When faced with a shortage of pharmacists, stores may be forced to delay filling patient prescriptions for hours or even days, worsening patient dissatisfaction.

Fortunately, new virtual verification technologies can alleviate this issue. A pharmacist working miles away can be sent a high-resolution image of the medication to verify the prescription remotely. The highly secure technology solution complies with state laws and is a game changer for retail stores, helping prevent delays and gain efficiencies with existing staff.

2. Eliminate Medication Dispensing Errors
   

A technician (or a pharmacist if technicians are in short supply) spends considerable time manually processing hundreds of prescriptions daily. Unfortunately, as with many manual processes, human errors occur, a study in Patient Safety News reported that 68% of medication errors occur during administration.

With the introduction of digital drug dispensing systems (DDS), pharmacies have experienced zero errors and accelerated prescription processing. Per a study published in Innovations in Pharmacy, manual processing generated an average of 2.73 errors per month, while the DDS yielded zero errors. In addition, the digital system filled more prescriptions per month than staff members did by hand.

Such systems, which involve medication management software and medication dispensing machines, provide a dependable approach to medication management across locations. And these systems free up pharmacists to spend more time on profitable offerings, such as point-of-care testing, medication adherence services, and personal consultations.

3. Improve Medication Inventory Visibility
   

Another area ripe for improvement is medication inventory management. The timely availability of medications for patients directly impacts patient safety, satisfaction, and outcomes. Unfortunately, many stores rely on manual, error-prone methods, such as “eyeballing the bottle,” to capture inventory levels, methods that can cost companies millions of dollars annually.

For pharmacies to successfully manage real-time prescription medication inventory and monitor prescription expirations, planning teams need the right tools and technology. Automated systems, including wireless digital scales that communicate with a company’s inventory management system, are being utilized to support chain-wide inventory counts, forecasting, and replenishment.

4. Eliminate Manual Monitoring Activities
   

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have enough day-to-day tasks to attend to without the added responsibility of checking refrigeration temperatures. But to ensure a pharmacy remains CDC, VFC, and FDA compliant, these checks are required.

The introduction of cloud-based wireless temperature sensors enables remote temperature monitoring of vaccine and medication storage units and automated validation and data backups for compliance managers. Such systems are easily scalable to ensure compliance across multiple locations.

5. Streamlines Processes and Clerical Tasks
   

As noted above, pharmacists are spending more time handling paperwork and other clerical tasks. The widespread use of mobile technologies has created new opportunities for pharmacies to digitize many paper-based processes. This assistance is vital for teams that may be shorthanded or are busy retraining green personnel.

Retail Pharmacies Turn to Technology Partners to Support Digital Initiatives

Developing and implementing the right solutions is a massive undertaking for most in-house retail technology teams. By partnering with WEI, nationwide pharmacy retailers have a knowledgeable technology advisor who proves solutions work and delivers efficiently and accurately to go to market quicker. Our tailored solutions can:

• Reduce capitalized costs: We standardize across locations by combining best-of-breed technology and award-winning expertise.
• Shorten time to market: By providing effective material planning and inventory stocking strategies we enable fast rollouts. Our integrated logistics drive efficiency and accuracy.
• Minimize operational expenses: Our solutions reduce in-store installation efforts and generate savings via custom integration, fulfillment, and delivery programs.
• Improve customer experience: With innovative, scalable, agile response to evolving in-store technology.

Next Steps: Would any of the above-mentioned technologies help your nationwide pharmacy retailer locations? Let’s talk. We have developed technology solutions that can be quickly implemented to solve these pressing challenges. Complete the form below to request a call from a member of our technology team.

The post 5 Solutions to Alleviate Challenges From Retail Pharmacy Staffing Shortages appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

For your modern IT organization to be successful, you need to be more visible, expedite service delivery, and place more emphasis on enabling the business to extract value from data.

In this article we discuss the modern-day challenges IT organizations face and how HPE GreenLake with Nutanix can provide three key solutions.

Modern Enterprise Challenges

There is a disconnect between business objectives and business demands when it comes to IT organizations. According to ESG research, “nearly nine in ten organizations expect to run 50% or more of their workloads on-premises.” IT departments, however, are held to a different standard: the hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Does your IT department find itself spending too much time managing individual infrastructure components due to two systems you have to manage (on-premises and hybrid cloud)? With the lack of IT resources, this fuels the growing adoption of cloud services, and the high number of additional workloads stretches your IT departments too thin. On top of that there has been a limited amount of talent or budget to support your IT department which affects the scalability of an organization to meet the myriad of demands.

How HPE And Nutanix Meet Business Expectations

Modern organizations need to implement a cloud-like, consumption-based model for their IT departments. This is where HPE GreenLake and Nutanix Enterprise Cloud come into play for your business.

is a fully managed, scalable IT infrastructure service offering a cloud-like consumption model for on-premises infrastructures. Your organization can choose the most appropriate services based on your needs and have the option to pay as you go. HPE GreenLake is easily scaled with the added advantage of an onsite buffer when extra capacity is needed.

Nutanix delivers a complete IT infrastructure with the agility, scalability, and simplicity of the cloud, and the security, performance, and cost predictability of traditional on-premises infrastructures. It satisfies application workloads from end-user computing environments with VDI to mission-critical database applications that serve as the backbone of the business.

HPE GreenLake With Nutanix: 3 Key Solutions

Thankfully, your organization doesn’t have to choose between the two services as HPE and Nutanix have collaborated to better support customers. concentrates on three key solutions to address modern IT organization challenges:

1. End-User Computing Infrastructure: As an end-user, computing infrastructure releases your IT personnel from routine, labor-intensive tasks to instead work on value-added initiatives by providing you faster and easier deployment and management to your VDI and DaaS infrastructures. This enables your IT department to supply users with the applications they need with strengthened security.

2. Database Infrastructure: The consolidates disparate workloads into one efficient management platform by streamlining your database deployment, management, and operations. Your organization can rapidly provision, clone, patch, refresh, and perform backups, while the pay-as-you-go model drastically reduces expenses by eliminating upfront capital expenditures.

3. Private Cloud Infrastructure: Private cloud infrastructure provides IT organizations the ability to reliably deliver applications and data at any scale and provision, update, and perform disaster recovery with one click. It allows your organization to support business-critical workloads by bringing together the agility of on-premise with the security and flexibility of a private cloud.

For your modern IT organizations to thrive, you must embrace an as-a-service delivery model. HPE GreenLake with Nutanix supports your IT department in their journey to better align resources to your specific lines of business and has a wide variety of applications and infrastructure demands.

Interested In HPE and Nutanix’s Solutions?

To keep up with the demands of the digital world, enterprises must prioritize efficiency as the key focal point of their IT modernization strategy. HPE GreenLake with Nutanix enables your enterprise IT department to use the tools you need to be successful on your own terms. The strategic partnership between HPE and Nutanix has paved the way for improved operational efficiency, agility, and customer-centricity. If you’re ready to make the change now, contact WEI to find out how you can successfully implement HPE and Nutanix solutions to improve your organization’s end-user computing, database, or private cloud infrastructures.

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In today’s multi-cloud era, desktop virtualization is at the top of the list of IT priorities for organizations of all sizes. Business leaders wish to deliver virtual desktops and applications that offer the flexibility to respond to rapidly changing demands without the complexities associated with managing on-premises infrastructure.

VMware Cloud on Dell EMC is delivered as-a-service to your data center and edge locations. This allows business leaders to offload infrastructure management tasks and focus more on high-priority IT initiatives.

In the article below, we break down the top five desktop virtualization challenges in today’s multi-cloud environment and how VMware Cloud is helping to solve these challenges.

1. Selecting The Right Infrastructure

The public cloud operating model provides numerous advantages including increased business agility and economic benefits. This has led many organizations to shift away from on-premises infrastructures. Enterprises have sought solutions that enable migrating or extending the capabilities of their virtual desktop and application environments. However, a do-it-yourself approach can result in a less than ideal infrastructure that delivers inconsistent performance and places limitations on scaling.

for both traditional and modern applications. For customers that need to remain on-premises, VMware Cloud on Dell EMC simplifies your VDI deployment by delivering a best-in-class solution that enables organizations to take full advantage of the efficiencies of the public cloud operating system while eliminating the need to reskill staff or refactor applications.

2. Interoperability Between Deployments

As business leaders’ top priorities have become cloud adoption and desktop virtualization, environments have become increasingly heterogeneous. This has allowed organizations to take advantage of differentiated services, however it has also created a management challenge. To mitigate this challenge, enterprises need a platform that delivers unified infrastructure and operations, providing consistency across deployments.

VMware Cloud on Dell EMC brings a compelling value proposition to customers looking to extend capacity for VDI deployments. Applications teams can utilize existing tools, removing the friction of migrating desktops and applications to a new infrastructure.

3. Personalizing And Managing Your VDI Deployment

Enterprises face a pressing need to rapidly deliver a great user experience to remote workforces. For large scale deployments, balancing the need to deliver a seamless customized experience while ensuring security of applications and data presents tremendous challenges.

With on Dell EMC, customers can leverage the same enterprise-grade capabilities and tools used in their on-premises deployments. Business leaders can utilize the Just-in-time Management Platform (JMP) to deliver personalized, non-persistent desktops and applications in seconds.

4. Scaling To Meet Increased Demands

Capacity issues and resource constraints can result in costly consequences for any enterprise. The inability to respond to business needs and support rapid onboarding of new users negatively impacts productivity and profitability.

VMware Cloud on Dell EMC has the ability to support long-term growth and scale IT resources to meet increasing demands on business leaders. The portal also allows customers to add hosts as needed and offers sophisticated sizing tools to meet current requirements and anticipated needs.

5. Ensuring Security Of Desktops and Applications

Desktop virtualization can mitigate threats at endpoint, end-users error, and use sophisticated tactics against cybercriminals. Having the capability to modernize VDI infrastructures to defend against threats can be unmanageable and the reuse of established procedures and security protocols can be troublesome.

The on VMware Cloud on Dell EMC delivers consistent security features with full lifecycle management. Business leaders will no longer need to monitor for potential vulnerabilities in VDI deployments. Automatic testing and rollout of security patches eliminate the requirements to maintain numerous testing and staging environments. This reduced downtime saves business leaders time and money.

Interested In VMware Cloud On Dell EMC Solution?

Running virtual desktops and applications on-premises requires a significant investment in time and resources. VMware Cloud on Dell EMC provides an enterprise-grade, fully managed infrastructure-as-a-service solution that meets every challenge associated with managing on-premises VDI deployments.

NEXT STEPS: Get a full 360-degree view of VMware’s hybrid cloud solution in our white paper below.

The post How VMware Cloud Solves The Top 5 Desktop Virtualization Challenges in Multi-Cloud Era appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

We could probably list 80 things to know about , but for the sake of brevity, we will keep it to single digits. We say this because there is so much to this all-inclusive network management platform. This solution is the next step in network evolution. Its singular yet expansive platform includes a variety of tools that integrate with so many network functions and technologies. Some of these include network management, automation, virtualization, analytics, assurance, security, compliance and IoT connectivity. Cisco DNA Center is at the epicenter of Cisco Digital Network Architecture, which is Cisco’s architectural blueprint for today’s expansive enterprise networks. Regardless of the complexity of your hybrid architectures that incorporate multiple campuses, remotes branch and cloud architectures, Cisco DNA Center can help simplify it.

1. Cisco DNA Center is all about Automation

One of the primary objectives of is to us to automate workflows and deployments across disparate systems in order to streamline operations across domains. Automation has a number of advantages. It frees your staff from the routine drudgery of mundane tasks, allowing them to focus their time and efforts on value added projects that benefit the organization. Automation removes the element of human error out of the equation, which ensures uniform configurations. This eliminates security gaps and overlooked vulnerabilities. Automation can ensure that the necessary resources are deployed to accommodate in accordance with real-time demand.

2. Cisco DNA Center is based on something called Intent-Based Networking

The idea of an intent-based network has been around for more than a couple of years now. It is a new approach to networking in that the network admin can now define and input what the needs of the network are into the IBN software controller. This ensures that the network works in conjunction with the needs of the business. The controller than translates these named intentions and construes them into policies, which are then deployed automatically and then validated throughout in order to assure optimized performance levels. Intelligent analytics continually verify the stated performance objectives in order to assure these desired states, all without any human intervention. Automated and guided remediation is then induced to correct problems before they can be disruptive.

3. Made by Cisco, but still open and inclusive

Cisco DNA Center servers as the epicenter of the Cisco’s digital network architecture. Current Cisco components such as switches, routers and wireless infrastructure devices are inherently aware of . However, you do not have to have an exclusive Cisco network to benefit it. DNA-Center is a totally open and extensible platform that contains multi-vendor software development kits that allow interaction with network equipment from other vendors. It can also integrate with other management tools through its API structure.

4. The Cisco DNA Center dashboard provides 360-degree visibility

Cisco DNA Center serves as the one-source epicenter of the network. This means total visibility across the wide divide across the complex hybrid architectures of today. Its inclusive dashboard provides an intuitive and simple overview of the network health and status of your network. Drill down menus provide the control points to setup complete automation, orchestration, assurance and analytical functions available within the . The geolocation of your network devices is now completely irrelevant and multiple cloud environments no longer require multiple management interfaces.

5. You can vastly reduce deployment and provisioning times with Cisco DNA Center

Imagine having the ability to deploy and provision network infrastructure devices without any human intervention. That can be your new reality in a Cisco DNA enterprise. Provisioning is now driven by automated policies. With integrated SD-WAN tools, you can greatly accelerate remote branch deployments without the need for someone being on site. Automated provisioning not only deploys a needed device, it deploys it when needed and verifies the success of the deployment.

6. Cisco DNA Center takes the guesswork out of network performance capabilities

You cannot make assurances about your network unless you can accurately predict the performance of your network for required workload fluctuations and conditions. Cisco DNA Center utilizes machine learning to predict future network performance. These predictions are based not just on active performance data, but actual contextual business and operational insights. These insight captures allow you to truly understand the behavior of your users and their interaction with the applications that drive the business process.

7. Security is job #1 for Cisco DNA

You cannot talk about network management solutions today without discussing cyber security. An intent-based network is a secure network. In addition to 360-degree network visibility and automated configuration and deployment verifications, the intelligent analytical nature of Cisco DNA Center detects and mitigates threats in real time. This is possible by conscripting all of your network devices as security sensors, providing constant streams of information concerning suspicious traffic patterns and behavioral anomalies. Threat alerts are then followed by micro segmentation actions and guided remediation.

8. Lower Costs

Your network should help propel your business to new levels, not hold it back. Cisco DNA Center ensures that your network works for your business, ensuring that workloads and applications operate with optimal performance. Optimal performance equates to optimal cost structure. There are many induced cost reductions such as streamlined network operations, reduced complexity and diminished threats. Cisco DNA Center leverages the power of automation to its fullest capacity concerning so many of the manual tasks that consume labor costs in traditional networks. This is one solution that pays for itself each, and every day through greater efficiencies and productivity measures.

[Featured Video]

5 Things to Know about IBN with Cisco DNA Center

NEXT STEPS: Learn more about Cisco DNA Center in our White Paper titled “Make Your Network Work For You With Cisco DNA Center”

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