Low-Code Workflow Orchestration

Itential’s Design Studio is an application that enables network practitioners with no programming experience to quickly build powerful end-to-end workflows for network automation and orchestration in a low-code, drag-and-drop canvas. Within the platform, customers have the ability to download from a freely available library of 100+ pre-built use cases, adapters, and transformations to help teams run their first workflows within days instead of months.

Workflows are built in Itential’s Design Studio using a low-code, drag-and-drop canvas. API integrations with different IT systems and networking controllers are presented as tasks that can be dropped onto the canvas with logical paths and operations, linking tasks together into a logical workflow. Itential’s Studio includes the ability to build pre-check and post-check templates, input validation forms and data transformations, and use these in the automation workflow. A background in programming is not necessary to use Itential.

Projects provide a workspace that enables automation teams to better collaborate and organize workflows and assets making it simpler to manage over time, especially as workflows grow more complex.

The Itential platform is not intended to be the “source of truth” for the network, it integrates with both network and IT systems to allow you to build a workflow to determine the current network state before automating any changes. However, using the Lifecycle Manager application it is possible to define and store details in Itential associated with a network device or service which can be used for automation and reporting throughout the different stages of its lifecycle.

Yes, the ability to run separate, distinct workflows as a child job is available within a parent workflow. This makes it possible to build modular workflows that focus on a specific function, like opening a change request ticket in an ITSM, and reusing that as a child job in other workflows. This allows multiple teams to work within the design studio to build and manage automations that are specific to their domain. Network teams can focus on building automations related to networking tasks and leverage workflows that another team builds and maintains for processes like opening and updating change request tickets, or communications notifications to different teams.

Yes, Itential supports closed-loop automation with event triggers (Kafka, RabbitMQ, NETCONF, etc.) or through API webhook triggers to start any workflow. Any data made available through these triggers is available to be used within your workflow or as input to any pre-existing automation script (BASH, Python, etc.) or Ansible Playbook.

Workflows built in Itential’s Design Studio can be published and made available through Operations Manager. In Operations Manager, teams can define which users and groups can run or manage a workflow and schedule it to run once or on a recurring basis.

The Itential Platform supports both traditional CLI-based networking devices as well as API-based networking services and building automations across either follows the same methodology in the Design Studio.

Itential’s Design Studio includes tools to quickly create pre-check and post-check functions using Command and Analytic Templates for CLI-based devices. CLI commands can be defined and executed, and the output of these commands can be captured and parsed. These templates do not require any form of code. Additionally, any API tasks that are available through integrated network systems, or any network automation scripts can be used in a workflow to build the most robust pre-check and post-check process needed.

Yes, they can. Instead of throwing away any existing automations your team may have invested in, Itential supports the ability to integrate these valuable automations by onboarding them in Automation Gateway, where they can be decorated and made available through an API interface. Automation Gateway supports nearly any script that can be run from a Linux command line, and has additional integration support for Ansible, Terraform, Nornir, and Netmiko. Automation Gateway also serves as a system to organize, test, run, and publish scripts across the entire network team and helps foster the ability to collaborate and share automations together.
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Yes, Itential provides a freely available library of assets that cover a variety of popular use cases for both traditional networking and cloud networking and managing tasks in IT systems. These assets come bundled with documentation, workflows, and any other assets needed to get running quickly in the platform. The full library of Modular Workflows, Example Use Cases, Integrations, and Transformations are available from the Itential Automation Marketplace and integrated into the Itential platform so you can easily search and install assets as you need them.

Itential supports multiple methods of providing self-service capabilities for a worfklow. Any workflow created in Itential’s Design Studio can be published in Operations Manager. Operations Manager provides the ability to define the individuals and groups who can manage or run a workflow from within the platform. For self service capabilities outside the platform, a workflow published can also be accessed through a RESTful API so it can be integrated into other systems and processes, if so desired.