Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO)
The bridge between intent and action
NSO provides a robust bridge linking network automation and orchestration tools with the underlying physical and virtual infrastructure. It includes a rich set of northbound software interfaces and APIs that allow straightforward northbound integration. An extensible southbound device abstraction layer means NSO works with multiple vendors and multiple technology domains.
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NSO features
Proven in large and complex environments
NSO is trusted technology in production at large enterprises and service providers. In fact, the world's top 10 service providers use NSO.
Broad multivendor support
Sophisticated device abstraction capabilities enable you to automate a wide variety of Cisco and third-party devices, tools, and services.
Cross-domain orchestration
Your workflows and processes span technology boundaries and your automation tooling should do the same. NSO can automate across technology domains and coordinate domain-specific controllers.
Rich northbound software interfaces
A wide array of APIs and software interfaces help to simplify integration with OSS/BSS, DevOps toolchains, CI/CD pipelines, and other tools and scripting.
NSO ecosystem
NSO is the anchor for a collection of technologies, partners, and solutions that you can draw from to meet your unique needs.
NSO platform
The core NSO product is a powerful, flexible, extensible toolbox for network automation and orchestration needs.
Core function packs
Core Function Packs extend the functionality of NSO to address specific needs such as VNF orchestration, SD-WAN networking, or cloud collaboration.
Solution partners
Third-party solutions build upon and augment NSO capabilities in areas like workflow and assurance.
Integrated solutions
Standalone automation and orchestration solutions take advantage of NSO technologies.
How people are using NSO
"The time we gain back through automation is very impressive. Some aspects of network configuration used to take four hours, but now take only twenty minutes […] Overall, we have had a 20% reduction in operational expenses year over year in the last two years."
- Jose Manuel De Arce, Operation Support System Manager, Telefónica
Read about Telefónica’s success with NSO Watch their NSO deployment story
"Cisco's model-driven approach to network automation and service orchestration is enabling Orange to drastically speed delivery of services across our entire lifecycles."
- Christian Gacon, VP of Wireline Networks and Infrastructure, Orange
Read Orange news release
"Equinix accelerated its cloud aspirations by using Cisco NSO for self-provisioning of its Cloud Exchange service."
- Gorken Yigit, Research Analyst, Analysys Mason
- Glen Ragoonanan, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason
Read Equinix case study
"Cisco Open Network architecture has enabled us to dramatically increase our ability to provide a highly responsive customer experience. The flexibility and open nature of the Cisco solution will equip us with the tools to innovate new services at a rapid pace and keep ahead of our competition."
- Sadahiro Sato, VP of ICT Innovation, SoftBank
Read SoftBank case study
"NSO’s model-driven approach to network automation and service orchestration is enabling Telstra to improve network service outcomes for our customers. Our deployment of NSO is providing our customers with new levels of quality services faster."
- David Robertson, Director for Network Transport & Routing Engineering, Telstra
Watch how Telstra is transforming Read Telstra news release
"Reliance Jio added 160M subscribers in 18 months while supporting 10 times the internet capacity of the world’s largest providers."
Accelerate service orchestration
Rapidly automate provisioning, OS upgrades, port activation, and more with Cisco NSO Service Packs. Leveraging best practice use cases and extensive expertise, you can activate new services faster.
NSO at Networking Field Day 23
Hear from our very own ex-network engineer Jason Belk as he presents a brief overview of the NSO architecture as well as delivers demos of the NSO CLI and performs basic config management.
NSO and the DevOps toolchain
Cisco NSO serves an important role in your DevOps strategy by acting as a bridge between your toolchain and the underling infrastructure you need to control. This white paper explores how NSO ingrates into and strengthens your DevOps toolchain.
NSO in other Cisco solutions
Crosswork Automation and NSO
NSO is an integral component of the Cisco Crosswork Network Automation solution for service providers. Crosswork enables service providers to proactively manage their end-to-end networks, with a suite of machine-learning, intent-based and closed-loop solutions to ensure faster innovation, extraordinary customer experiences, and operational excellence.
Managed Services Accelerator and NSO
Services made simple. Built on NSO, Cisco Managed Services Accelerator (MSX) is a multi-tenant, multi-service, multi-vendor, service creation and delivery platform that helps managed service providers quickly, easily, and cost-effectively develop and deliver managed services to business customers.
Recommended resources
NSO on DevNet
Dive into developer resources organized by topic and watch this year’s Developer Days sessions.
Cox Network automation strategy
Learn about how Cox uses NSO and two automation use cases, producing benefits in commercial deployments.
Heavy Networking podcast
Tune in for a discussion on reasons why automation readiness isn't about your routers.
NSO session at Cisco Live
Learn how to map out your organization’s automation journey along with what tools and technologies are needed for a comprehensive strategy.
CCI and Cisco on theCUBE
Learn how NSO and CCI Systems are partnering to empower mid-market service providers on their automation journey.
Webinars
Network source of truth promotes trust in automation
Enterprise Management Associates presentation: Learn how to establish a network source of truth to drive a successful network automation pipeline.
The economic benefits of network automation
ACG presentation: Get the results of a new study on ROI and TCO benefits of network automation and orchestration for service providers.
5G network slicing and cross-domain orchestration
Analysys Mason presentation: Explore network slicing market data, evolving architecture options, and how automation drives commercialization.