Wednesday 19 April 2017

Zero-touch deployment: Integration of Managed Objects into Network Management Systems

Many Telco vendors market their OSS product suite with a special feature called “Zero-touch deployment”.
Though it may sound a new jargon for few folks in Telecom industry especially in NMS domain, it is NOT !!
Primary objective of this feature is to bring efficiency by speeding up Service Assurance and Delivery. ZTD is nothing but an automation solution which is introduced to reduce manual errors and speed up deployment process.
What’s the core Strategy ?
CSPs shall gain advantages from Zero-Touch Installation deployment to bring their newly added Managed Objects(Physical Network Elements/Virtual Infra) with a short span of time into NM. Principally, automation reduces the amount of time between you add a new network element in the Telecom Network to when it’s fully operational in a CSP production environment, fully here means including FCAPS ready.
What is Zero Touch Deployment here ?
Once the device to be deployed & integrated is configured, commissioned and install all necessary s/w to make it operational, when NMS Admin wants to integrate this Managed device with the NMS, he/she needs to click ZERO TOUCH DEPLOYMENT software which will take care of deploying & integrating with NMS.
What are the Steps for achieving Zero Touch Integration Deployment ?

These steps may vary based on customer needs and also depends on Telco CSP Environment, however the main purpose would remain the same.
Note: Few Security configuration may be involved during this Deployment & Integration process.
What are the benefits?
Now assume that there are ‘N’ number of devices (Telco equipments) to be integrated with NMS for Monitoring & Control purposes, there is a high chance of manual errors plus time consuming tasks foreseen. With the help of ZTD it can be meritoriously minimized.
In a nut shell, it is nothing but automating few steps in Network Management !!!