Winter is coming, and according to Cisco's 2020 Global Networking Trends Report, so is intent-based networking (IBN).

Cisco conducted a web-based survey of 505 IT leaders and 1,566 network strategists across 13 countries about the current state of their networks, their network aspirations over the next two years, and their network operational and talent readiness. 

The survey found maximizing business value to be IT’s No. 1 priority with 40% of respondents naming it their top concern. But seeing the top of the mountain is one thing, and getting up there is another. In order to maximize business value, IT teams will require greater insight into data along with the right tools.

“That's why IT teams are embracing intent-based networking, AI and machine learning — because the business demand it," said Scott Harrell, SVP and GM of Cisco enterprise networking, in a statement. 

Of course, Cisco has a vested interested in promoting intent-based networking. The vendor first announced its IBN efforts in July 2017 and has since rolled out these capabilities across its entire networking portfolio.

Still, Cisco's findings suggest IBN will be the next “IT girl” of networking in the coming years — essentially the second phase of SDN.

Some 41% of those surveyed claim to have at least one instance of SDN in at least one of their network domains. SDN has given network operators a way to design, build, and operate their networks through a centralized view. 

But over the past two decades, networks have come under increased traffic demands and scrutiny as both businesses and consumers increasingly rely on network connectivity for sales, customer service, internal communications, and document sharing. 

Simply put: IT operators need visibility into both the network and its data, and Cisco expects IBN to pick up where SDN left off in providing a feedback loop that can indicate what is or is not working, and why. 

The idea is that SDN provides a natural, solid foundation for an IT infrastructure evolution where added DevOps capabilities will afford network operators more control over network operations.

IBN comes into play to close the feedback loop and “unlock the potential and intelligence to the data that the network and infrastructure provides.” At the same time, it's offering assurance in a “predictive and proactive manner that your network is doing what it's supposed to do and identifying issues whether it's security, operations, applications related or in some cases, business related, back to IT to pick corrective actions,” explained Prashanth Shenoy, Cisco’s VP of marketing in an interview with SDxCentral. 

However, only 28% of respondents indicated having reached SDN or IBN on Cisco’s Digital Network Readiness Model, yet 78% expect to their networks to move beyond SDN or IBN within the next two years.  Likewise, only 4% indicated that their currently deployed networks are intent-based, and 35% plan to be within two years.

"Frankly, we were extremely surprised by the findings, too,” Shenoy admitted. "First of all, it's their [our customers'] confidence and belief that they can do that. Whether they will actually be able to — we'd have a look two years from now.” 

Enthusiasm is high, no doubt, but it’s too soon to say whether IBN is deserving of the hype. 

Shenoy attributes this confidence to the concept of open and programmable infrastructure that is API driven. “If you can have these APIs expose the data from the network and use that for network analytics, for security analytics, for application analytics, you can get to the IBN page,” he explained. 

Single action controllers have been on the market for some time now and have simplified the process to export data through APIs and allows for the controller to take corrective action.

In that light, controllers are already in place to offer assurance, integration, workload protection, security, and analytics all without having to re-architect the entire network.

“All you need is to turn the data, turn on telemetry in your system, and have that analytics engine sitting with the controller to analyze the data and spew out your insights,” he explained. 

The survey's respondents appear to be confident — and perhaps overconfident, at that — considering the current maturity phase of AI and ML, and how much they will need to mature. 

“They still feel confident that the tools can be given to them, which are machine learning capable or AI enabled, today, and in the next year or two is going to help them get to this space,” Shenoy claimed.