By Jeff Gray, Gluware CEO & Co-Founder
The CIO Role Has Changed Forever
Today’s CIO isn’t just the steward of infrastructure. You’re the orchestrator of innovation, the enabler of digital business, and increasingly, the driver of revenue.
But here’s the hard truth: if your network is still managed manually, you’re operating with a strategic blind spot—and your competition knows it.
Complexity Is the Silent Killer
Enterprise networks have exploded in complexity. Hybrid cloud, edge computing, remote work, rapid application deployment—it’s all placed an unprecedented burden on infrastructure teams.
The result?
- Slower change cycles
- Higher operational risk
- Mounting technical debt
- Burnt-out engineers
At a time when speed and resilience define market winners, traditional approaches simply can’t keep up.
Intelligent Network Automation Equals Strategic Agility
This is where Intelligent Network Automation (INA) becomes a game-changer.
We’re not talking about basic scripting or device-level automation. True INA:
- Uses AI and intent-based models to understand what the network should do
- Automates policy enforcement, drift detection, and remediation
- Enables secure, repeatable change at scale
- Gives CIOs real-time visibility into the health, security, and compliance of their networks
Intelligent network automation is the digital nervous system for the modern enterprise.
Competitive Edge, Quantified
The outcomes speak for themselves:
- Reduce network outages by 95%
- Achieve 100% network compliance in minutes, not hours or days
- Upgrade OSs 300x faster with 0% defects to prevent and eliminate security exposures
- Reduce configuration drift 99.9%
- Shorten troubleshooting time by 90%
- Make 99% of global network changes within 24 hours
- Implement self-operating network capabilities in just 3 months
- Significantly reduce TCO by eliminating wasteful manual processes
In other words, automation doesn’t just reduce effort—it creates time. Time to innovate. Time to outpace competitors. Time to deliver what the business needs before it asks.
It’s Not About Replacing Talent—It’s About Amplifying It
The best CIOs know this isn’t about removing people from the loop—it’s about elevating them.
INA:
- Unburdens network engineers, allowing them to focus on higher-order design and strategy
- Preserves institutional knowledge through codified intent and workflows
- Attracts and retains top talent by modernizing toolsets and reducing burnout
This is how infrastructure becomes a center of excellence, not a bottleneck.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
Legacy processes might have carried you through the last decade. They won’t carry you into the next.
The CIOs who lead tomorrow’s digital-first enterprises will be those who embrace intelligent, adaptive, and automated networks today.
Intelligent Network Automation isn’t just an IT strategy—it’s a business advantage.
About the Author
Jeff Gray is the CEO and co-founder of Gluware, the leading provider of Intelligent Network Automation. As CEO, he oversees business operations and strategy, as well as the development of enterprise-leading intent-based network automation technologies adopted by some of the largest Global 2000 enterprises from Pharma to Finance. Gray has been a networking industry leader for decades, starting with the commercial development of innovative high-bandwidth networking solutions as a student at California Polytechnic State University.
Gray launched his professional career as a networking product manager in the semiconductor industry, where he developed technical networking solutions to power smart grid initiatives. He served as Vice President of Business Development for Yelofin Networks, a virtual network operator; the Director of Business Development for Firefly Communications, a Cisco learning partner; and a management consultant to Deutsche Bank. Gray later moved into managed network services where met future Gluware CSO and co-founder, Olivier Huynh Van. Together, they created the foundation for Gluware out of the mutual need to automate advanced network architectures, initially bootstrapping the company as Glue Networks.
Gray is credited with bringing the industry’s first SDN orchestration platform to market and achieving significant blue-chip enterprise adoption. He holds two United States patents for virtual private network technologies, alongside Huynh Van, and is the recipient of a United States Special Congressional Recognition and a United States Congressional Commendation for his service to the business community and entrepreneurial leadership. Gray received a B.A. from California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo.
