Network automation has changed the way IT teams manage hybrid-cloud networks. Organizations reduce operational costs, improve service delivery and enhance overall network performance all by streamlining manual tasks and automating routine processes.

With that said, traditional automation tools often struggle to keep pace as networks grow in scale and complexity. To address these challenges, innovative solutions are emerging to empower network engineers with advanced capabilities.

One such solution is NetBrain Technologies, a provider of network automation and dynamic mapping solutions. NetBrain’s platform has been instrumental in helping organizations automate network operations, troubleshoot issues and optimize network performance.

But NetBrain doesn’t want to stop there. They want to continue to evolve with the network management landscape. Therefore, NetBrain recently unveiled its latest innovation: Next-Gen Release 12 (R12). New capabilities include a GenAI LLM Co-Pilot to assess, orchestrate and summarize network automation results with natural language, and Golden Engineering Studio.

By analyzing vast amounts of network data, GES identifies optimal network settings, or “golden configurations.” These configurations are then used to create automated tasks, known as “golden intents,” which proactively monitor the network for deviations.

GES is particularly beneficial for legacy networks that may lack comprehensive documentation. By reverse-engineering these networks, teams uncover underlying design principles and generate automated workflows to maintain network health and security.

This proactive approach to network management empowers NetOps teams to shift from reactive troubleshooting to continuous monitoring and optimization.

“Our early-adopting customers are in awe of the new reverse engineering capability within Golden Engineering Studio. Organizations often struggle to understand the intentions of the network’s original architects, which limits their ability to diagnose and address problems or anticipate the consequences of network changes,” said Song Pang, senior vice president of engineering at NetBrain. “This helps them understand these intentions, detect problems and spot configuration drift before they cause outages.”

And as for the new AI-powered Co-Pilot feature, it allows users to ask questions in natural language for intuitive problem resolution improving troubleshooting, change management and observability workflows. The Co-Pilot rapidly orchestrates NetBrain automations, uses intent-based reasoning to chain different actions together and returns the diagnosis results in natural language or summarize them into other formats such as a table, map or dashboard.

This AI Co-Pilot functions as a technology translator for human users to interact with no-code automation without training. It acts as a virtual self-service option that allows other operations and security teams to gather network information.

“Humans no longer have to figure out how to fix network problems alone. The fixes are already built into reverse-engineered golden configuration templates,” said Pang. “The ability to troubleshoot network problems, protect it for safe changes, and have real-time observability for proactive network operations is a game-changer for our clients.”

NetBrain’s R12 also introduces Triple Defense Change Management, which uses GenAI to assess potential network impacts before, during and after configuration changes. This helps prevent outages and security vulnerabilities.

Additionally, R12 offers a hierarchical dashboard with geo-location capabilities to provide tailored network visibility at various organizational levels. The platform also strengthens integrations with third-party tools like ServiceNow (News - Alert), enabling smooth automation triggers and result retrieval.

These combined advancements will no doubt strengthen network teams to automate complex tasks, optimize network performance and mitigate risks.