How Cisco DNA Center Is Improving our IT Operations

What if we could have a system to view and manage everything in the network? Today, we’re answering that question within Cisco IT as we transition our corporate network to Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA) and making a parallel transition to Cisco DNA Center to complement our network management strategy. We’re already seeing benefits for IT operations from our initial use of Cisco DNA Center and we expect more over time. These improvements include capabilities to automate:

Workflows across disparate systems and streamline operations across Cisco domains

Provisioning of plug-and-play devices, essential for our goal of delivering a “branch as a service” implementation for remote offices

Detection and remediation when network device configurations are out of compliance

Routine upgrades to software images in network devices

We expect that implementing Cisco DNA Center as a management system combined with the Cisco DNA controller solution for the corporate network will produce significant time savings for our IT operations teams. For example, Cisco DNA Center will help our engineers identify and solve issues faster because the singular view will help them quickly pinpoint the problem and focus the right resources on solving it.

We also expect time savings for routine management tasks such as distributing and verifying policy changes across hundreds of devices, an effort that is very time-consuming today even with a scripted model. We’re also exploring the time-saving potential of integrations offered by Cisco partners for connecting their network management tools with Cisco DNA Center.

By adopting Cisco DNA Center we’re improving our network management now and starting the evolution to a future where the network operates as an intent-based platform for IT and business applications. Learn more about our implementation in this Cisco IT Brief: Using Cisco DNA Center for Network as a Platform.