The future will bring a lot of changes for telecoms, internet and cable service providers: more data, more devices and more services. Cisco's research predicts that by 2021, annual global IP traffic will reach 3.3 zettabytes (that's 3.3 trillion gigabytes).

There are two ways things can go for service providers. They can buckle under the pressure. Or they can find new operational approaches, that help them grow their business by creating the agile, powerful services their customers need.

Proactive Control with Cisco Crosswork

For service providers who want to maintain their competitive edge, the key will be automation: programming large, complex workflows so they can take care of themselves. Automation improves the way your network functions by reducing human error, inconsistencies, and service disruption. It allows you to stay on top of operations, with time to focus on what really matters.

Automation isn't simple. But our engineers have spent a long time working out how it can best be supported. The result is Cisco Crosswork, a new framework for approaching network operations. With its three key pillars -mass awareness, augmented intelligence, and proactive control -it enables service providers to work with unprecedented precision and efficiency.

Cisco Crosswork gathers comprehensive data and then runs this through a sophisticated analysis, enabling actionable insights. At its heart is theCisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO), which uses advanced data models for intent-based networking, and is proven to work across network elements from different vendors.

This creates many benefits for service providers. It helps them protect themselves against ever-evolving security threats, maintain stringent service level agreements, and discover valuable new revenue streams.

Transforming Level 3's* Network

One service provider that has adapted to meet new customer demands is Level 3 (*now part of CenturyLink). Level 3 realised that their customers increasingly expected instantly available services with less complexity and less overhead -and that included capacities like integrating third-party cloud services.

Powered by the Cisco NSO, the business put together apowerful set of programmable wide area networksthat enabled it to automate a wide range of services in markets around the world.

This meant that Level 3 could design and deliver services more quickly, using a single modelling language and a single data store. The company was able to automate tens of thousands of tasks monthly, offer bandwidth scalability of up to 300%, and enable the management of 5,000 network devices around the world. Services could be adapted within minutes or even seconds while running, with no disruptions.

Innovation Through Automation

Results like these explain why many service providers are considering automating their networks as they look to ensure they are capable of meeting new challenges. Intelligent, end-to-end automation offers them a transformed landscape. Instead of constantly trying to play catch-up with events, they can make more informed decisions, using information about the service, the end user, and all of the multi-vendor devices in their service chain.

We want to help service providers bring about a shift in their approach to running networks. To move away from managing functions in separate silos, towards a world of intelligent, holistic operations. Forward-looking service providers understand that if they can transform their network in this way, they will boost their innovation and effectiveness for years to come.

Find out how you can maintain your business' competitive edge by introducing proactive control to your network.

Read more about the benefits ofCisco Crosswork