Inventing the wheel - Network Orchestration at scale#

Tom Merlin Eichhorn (DE-CIX)

• Why: DE-CIX's ground-up rebuild of network orchestration for a global IXP — covers source-of-truth, event-driven architecture, and testing discipline that any network automation team can learn from.
• What: A from-first-principles orchestration stack for DE-CIX's global network, built on three pillars: a central source of truth for config management, an event-driven service orchestration architecture, and a scalable design for rapid global growth. Includes a "digital twin" (Shadow) that mirrors production for pre-deployment validation of new software iterations.
• How: Not specified in detail in the abstract — the talk promises architectural choices, design principles, decision-making frameworks, and testing approaches. The Shadow digital twin mirrors production to validate new software before deployment to real hardware. (from abstract only — no slides available)
• Where applicable: Applicable to any complex network automation project. DE-CIX-specific scale (global IXP) but the principles (SoT, event-driven orchestration, digital twin validation) are broadly transferable to DC and SP networks.