How AI is rewriting the rules of network engineering

AI is coming for your network… but not as you expect

Seasoned IT professionals are no strangers to technology transformations and weathering the storms associated with them. Artificial Intelligence (AI), however, presents different, unique challenges to your network. Everyone is talking about the changes that AI will bring to your work, but few are talking about the changes AI application workloads bring to the design, architecture and operations of your network.

What changes are coming to network engineering and automation due to AI?

The advent of AI means that now more now than ever before, the architecture, design and operational excellence of your network matters. Network automation is coming to the fore to deal with the changes AI requires of networks, including: 

• High throughput transactions facilitated via features such as RoCE Adaptive Routing (AR) 
• Parallelised datagram transmission through AI network protocols such as RoCE, InfiniBand and other RDMA-based approaches 
• Dense port connectivity to interconnect numerous distributed GPU and TPU processors required for generative AI (GenAI) training and model processing 
• Lossless packet transmission to optimise LLM training runs and prevent the need for costly retransmission that can lead to AI training data corruption 
• Extreme bandwidth utilisation from bursty elephant flows which can flow up to the line-rate of the connected NICs. 

AI workloads such as GPT, LLM and ML have different requirements of your network to traditional IT workloads. Legacy ITSM approaches also won’t cut it for AI-enabled business applications. It isn’t just routers, switches, firewalls and cables – it’s the 24/7 backbone of your organisation’s competitive advantage. 

This is FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) all over again; only this time it’s not going away – AI is here to stay. Humans driven through ITIL don’t work 24/7 at 100% capacity like AI does, which is where automation comes in. Specifically, network automation facilitated through expert NetDevOps practices and tooling. 

How CACI can help

Embracing the power of automation will lead to a robust and agile network infrastructure for your organisation. With over 20 years of experience with all aspects of network engineering – data centre, service provider, hybrid cloud and beyond – including complimentary offerings in delivery assurance and DevOps, CACI has networked, designed automated some of the UK’s most successful companies in financial services, telecommunications, utilities, government and public sector. 

Our renowned network automation and NetDevOps services revolutionise your network infrastructure by leveraging advance technologies required for AI workloads. From configuration management to network monitoring and troubleshooting through observability, we streamline your operations, improve efficiency and maximise your network performance. 

A few of the many benefits of CACI’s network automation services include:

• Automating network provisioning and troubleshooting: Eliminating manual network provisioning and expediting network troubleshooting through assisted alarm and event correlation 
• Enhancing network understanding and management: Codifying an understanding of the network topology in a structured data format and integrating network provisioning workflows into IT Service Management (ITSM) tooling 
• Improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness: Reducing the risk of network deployment mistakes and rework and minimising costs through a modularisation of network configuration approach 
• Optimising resource utilisation and talent management: Increasing ROI through reuse of codified “Network Functions as Code” and retaining in-demand network engineering talent through use of modern network deployment working practices. 

Don’t let your network get left behind by the AI network revolution. – Contact CACI today to navigate AI and bolster your network ready for the AI-enabled, LLM-led, ML-fed future.