Automation Without Control Isn’t Transformation

By Dimitris Dernikas & Khurram Chaudhry

If you look anywhere in the telecommunications info sphere, it’s clear that the next steps in optimization and design are all about automation—automation, automation, automation. For anyone visiting Barcelona for MWC25 last week, it was obvious that the key message to operators was: automate your day-to-day optimization and design activities or risk falling behind. A sound message indeed.

From self-organizing networks to RAN applications, intent-based networking, and service orchestration, the promise is there for an efficient, fast-responding system that removes complexity for engineers and resolves issues before anyone is even aware of them. And yes, automation can offer a future like this.

Automation Challenges

But spare a thought for the engineers who are tasked with ensuring policy compliance within these networks.

Consider the challenge: how many systems must they control and understand? I was recently speaking with a manager responsible for network configuration at a Tier 1 operator, and his main worry was how all these emerging systems would affect his network. How does he know that the new energy efficiency system will respect the rules designed to ensure consistency and predictable behavior? And how does he manage all these systems that demand access to the OSS to execute their desired changes?

Just introducing a vendor upgrade in the network will require complex coordination if every single system interacts directly with the OSS. And let’s not contemplate the complexity of connecting to multiple OSS systems, old and new technologies, security protocols, etc.

Importance of Managing Governance in Automation

While automation is great and can bring a future of reduced OPEX, it’s critical for operators to address the governance of all optimization and design systems as well.

How do you define a layer that enforces an operator’s rules across systems like SON, service orchestrators, energy efficiency managers—rules that optimization engineers have to follow themselves? How can access to the OSS be abstracted so that these systems are easy to deploy and continue to function effectively in a multi-vendor, multi-technology environment that evolves every few months?

Control Automation with Aircom’s Orchestration System

At Aircom, we are working to provide that missing layer: an Orchestration System within the SmartCM Suite that abstracts and assures network integrity. Our solution enables operators to create and enforce rules across all external systems while offering open APIs that guarantee compatibility with diverse vendors and technologies.

But this is more than just a policy engine—it’s about creating an intelligent command and control center for your automation ecosystem. The SmartCM Orchestrator is built to:

• Provide centralized policy enforcement across disparate automation agents
• Coordinate execution order and conflict resolution among optimization, energy-saving, and service assurance systems
• Offer transparent audit trails and rollback mechanisms, so engineers remain in control even in a fully automated environment
• Simplify onboarding of new automation agents and network functions, without rewriting the rulebook each time
• Act as a mediation and abstraction layer, translating high-level intents into vendor-specific OSS actions

In short, it gives operators the ability to say “yes” to new automation tools without fearing a tangled mess of conflicting actions and broken network behavior.

Conclusion

Without an orchestration layer, automation risks becoming a fragmented, ungoverned swarm of intelligent agents, each doing their own thing with good intentions but unintended consequences. SmartCM’s orchestration system brings that structure, accountability, and strategic control back to the operator—ensuring that automation works for you, not against you.

Because in the race for automation, speed without control isn’t transformation—it’s chaos.