Beyond automation: why networking teams need orchestration

Networking teams have heavily invested in automation to manage growing workloads, but they encounter persistent issues such as outages and incident management challenges due to the limitations of automation, which is effective for individual tasks but cannot handle complex, multi-system processes. To address these challenges, orchestration is proposed as a solution, coordinating workflows across systems, people, and processes, ensuring that tasks are not just automated in isolation but integrated into cohesive workflows. This approach enhances governance, auditability, and compliance while reducing manual effort and risk. As network operations become more complex, orchestration helps networking teams manage incidents, firewall rules, access requests, and certificate operations efficiently, ultimately improving visibility, consistency, and security across environments. The transition from mere automation to orchestration empowers networking teams to meet escalating operational demands while maintaining system performance and reliability, extending their capacity beyond individual headcount and enabling sustainable scaling.