Boundless Automation

Large Cisco Meraki networks are tedious to manage through the dashboard alone, and Boundless Automation exists to cut that work down. It is a software-as-a-service platform from Boundless that uses the Meraki APIs to automate deployment, configuration and administration, and the company says this improves reliability and reduces human error.

Who it is for

The tool targets the people who run many Meraki organisations at the same time, namely enterprise IT departments and managed service providers. Boundless has recently widened its range to cover Catalyst Center as well as Meraki, and describes its solutions as made for teams managing Cisco networking in the cloud at scale.

Applications in the stack

The platform is a set of ready-made automated applications:

• Batch network creation: deploy hundreds or thousands of networks from a CSV file within minutes.
• Audit and compliance: define golden models, then check networks and flag the ones that do not match.
• FlexTemplates: copy configuration standards to create or migrate organisations.
• Monitoring and custom dashboards: see all managed organisations in one view.
• Migration: move networks and devices between Meraki organisations with fewer errors and in less time.
• Backup and roll-back: save configurations and recover quickly from a misconfiguration or attack.
• Guest WiFi: manage public WiFi across several sites with captive portals and several sign-on methods.
• Access control: set up custom, granular access levels and manage users across hundreds of organisations in bulk.

Another tool translates Catalyst switch command-line configurations into cloud-ready ones.

What it changes for a provider

Because the apps centralise every managed organisation in a single dashboard, operations that would be repeated one by one can run at scale. The company says this lowers operating costs, standardises new rollouts and improves the compliance of the networks it touches. It also says its users include IT service providers around the world and that it aims to deliver strong service and support.