Inventing the wheel - Network Orchestration at scale#

Tom Merlin Eichhorn (DE-CIX)

• Why: A from-first-principles rebuild of network orchestration for a global IXP — the design principles (source of truth, event-driven architecture, digital twin for pre-deployment validation) are transferable to any complex network automation project.
• What: DE-CIX's orchestration stack built on three pillars: a central source of truth for configuration management, an event-driven architecture for service orchestration, and a scalable design for rapid global growth. A "digital twin" (Shadow) mirrors production to validate and test new software iterations in parallel, minimizing risk before deployment to real hardware. The talk covers architectural choices, design principles, decision-making frameworks, testing rigor, and lessons learned.
• How: The Shadow stack mirrors the production environment so new orchestration software can be validated against a realistic copy before touching real hardware. Config management is tightly integrated with the source of truth; service orchestration is event-driven rather than batch/polling.
• Where applicable: Any complex network automation or orchestration project — the digital-twin validation pattern and event-driven orchestration principles are broadly transferable. DE-CIX-specific scale (global IXP) but the lessons are explicitly framed as generalizable.