ClickOps Is Dead—and Agentic AI Killed It

Connecting hybrid multicloud environments has always been difficult, and the ongoing explosion of distributed AI workloads certainly won’t make it easier. Self-service portals were meant to simplify things, but instead, they gave rise to ClickOps.

Organizations use ClickOps because it seems quick and easy, especially compared to API integration that requires special coding knowledge. Unfortunately, the easy way typically doesn’t provide the best results. ClickOps makes teams stick with what they know, because then they don’t have to figure out new menu options. In short, it discourages network agility.

I’ve worked with many organizations that still don’t fully understand the risks of ClickOps. And today, the risks are bigger than ever. Today’s AI workloads demand consistently high performance and flexibility, and businesses that continue to rely on ClickOps simply won’t be able to meet that demand.

Fortunately, there is a better way. New agentic AI capabilities can enable agile, intelligent networks, with no manual configuration required. This means enterprises can leave ClickOps where it belongs: in the past.

The risks of ClickOps: A refresher for the AI era

The biggest risk of using a self-service portal for network management is that whatever options you pick, it will implement. It’s a tool that serves a specific purpose, and that purpose is to execute your architecture, not to figure out the best architecture for your needs.

Even if your chosen network architecture has serious flaws in it, the portal won’t point those flaws out to you. This can cause serious problems:

• Resilience: Redundant connectivity is essential to keep hybrid multicloud environments running properly, but some leaders simply fail to consider this. They build single-stranded connections because that’s the quickest and easiest thing to do in a self-service portal. Without redundancy, the first outage that impacts their network would be enough to take them offline entirely.
• Workload placement: Distributed AI requires the right workloads in the right places, and the “right places” change often. ClickOps makes optimizing workload placement a slow, manual process. It’s also highly error-prone; a single mis-click could lead to poor performance for AI workloads, which in turn would lead to AI-driven decisions based on outdated information.
• Missed opportunities: The cloud providers and their respective portals are constantly introducing new features and capabilities. ClickOps forces users to deploy by trial and error—assuming they even find out the new capabilities exist in the first place. I’ve seen first-hand that some Equinix customers will take years to start fully capitalizing on our new features, because ClickOps makes it harder to change the way they’ve always done things.

On top of all this, ClickOps leads to concentration of institutional knowledge. When team members leave the organization, all their ClickOps experience walks right out the door with them. The remaining employees are left to figure things out for themselves.

Agentic AI for network management is the new alternative to ClickOps

In my previous blog post on ClickOps, I talked about how API integration could be a helpful alternative. I mentioned how it could abstract away the complexity of managing cloud infrastructure, essentially creating a layer of separation between your applications and the infrastructure they run on.

Adoption of API integration for network management didn’t happen as quickly as I hoped. Even after hearing about the dangers of ClickOps, there are still many organizations that consider APIs to be too steep of a learning curve.

The good news is that networks have grown far more agile and intelligent to keep up with the workloads that run on them. Today’s customers can replace ClickOps with AI agents that manage and optimize their networks, effectively skipping over the API era altogether.

AI agents can identify network issues and automatically address them in real time. They can help organizations bring new innovations to market quickly, connect with the right AI ecosystem partners instantly, and ensure consistently high performance. This is in stark contrast to ClickOps, where responding to network issues would mean either:

• Undertaking slow, manual updates
• Just ignoring the problem and hoping it resolves itself

Managing networks with agentic AI is also much simpler than API integration. There’s no need for special coding knowledge, so there’s no learning curve to prevent adoption. It truly is the best of both worlds: It’s easier than API integration, and it provides much better results than ClickOps.

Introducing a new generation of intelligent networking capabilities

At Equinix, we recognize the key benefits of intelligent networking, and helping customers move on from ClickOps is high on the list. It’s part of why we recently announced Equinix Fabric Intelligence™, an AI-native networking control plane. It’s designed to enable networks that are both agile and easy to manage.

One component of this solution is Fabric Super Agent, our AI agent for autonomous network deployment and management. Equinix customers can use Fabric Super Agent to manage networks via natural language prompts. Working in the Equinix portal, Slack or Microsoft Teams, they can simply tell the agent what they want. This means they no longer have to figure out the needed configuration for themselves.

Fabric Super Agent can also perform tasks asynchronously or autonomously. When the agent recognizes a flaw in the current network architecture, it can address the problem without waiting for direct instructions. This could include isolating a network segment in the aftermath of a security breach or automatically scaling capacity to respond to unexpected traffic spikes.

Furthermore, Fabric Super Agent helps address issues that commonly arise around ClickOps. If a user writes a natural language prompt to request a single connection, the agent may suggest a secondary connection to improve redundancy. This positions the user to make an informed decision about something that they might otherwise have overlooked.

What this means for networking leaders

The advent of Fabric Super Agent promises to redefine how enterprises manage their networks in the AI era. The implications of this are clear:

• ClickOps may not be dead, but it is dying: I sincerely believe that agentic AI will be the final nail in the coffin for ClickOps. Once users try Fabric Super Agent, they’ll see that there’s simply no reason to continue doing ClickOps. Managing networks autonomously can be just as easy, while also providing much better performance and agility.
• Cutting through multicloud complexity: There’s no such thing as the “right” network; there’s only the network that’s right for now. A successful AI strategy requires moving workloads across different clouds to adjust to changing conditions and take advantage of new services. Fabric Super Agent enables seamless connectivity across cloud environments, with no coding knowledge required.
• The right balance for regulated industries: Businesses are struggling to scale networks globally while also meeting local requirements around digital sovereignty. This is hard enough without ClickOps slowing them down. Fabric Super Agent can help organizations apply policy-driven controls to consistently enforce compliance across different jurisdictions. This is especially helpful for regulated industries like financial services and the public sector.

Learn how to leave ClickOps behind

For leaders who truly understand the drawbacks of ClickOps, it’s never been easier to do something about it. With Fabric Super Agent and the rest of the Equinix Fabric Intelligence portfolio, you can get the network you need, before you even know that you need it.

To learn more, read the white paper, “Why intelligent networks are essential in the AI era.”