At the heart of configuration compliance is a standard, and that standard is a Golden Configuration. Without the ability to define a Golden Configuration file quickly and easily for a set of devices, network teams will struggle to bring the network into compliance and maintain compliance.
Why It’s Time to Modernize Your Golden Configuration
The network team is responsible for running the most secure and reliable network possible, and they cannot accomplish that lofty goal by attacking a modern problem with legacy tools. Instead, enterprises should invest in a modern solution for their network teams that enable them to collaborate together to create and maintain Golden Configuration standards across the entire network, whether physical, virtual, or cloud. Without a modern solution that can automate Golden Configurations, compliance, and remediation the network will continue to exist in a state of unneeded and unnecessary risk.
Itential provides a complete platform for network teams to work together to build dynamic and flexible Golden configuration templates in a single, central application.
Legacy Tools
Itential Configuration Manager
Limited, static configuration template. Using text files to store a standard configuration template is static, inflexible and will limit the ability to ensure the network is operating correctly.
Robust flexible Golden Configuration tree. A dedicated application that supports teams collaborating, using a tree structure to segment applicable configurations. Configurations are reusable and support dynamic elements like variables, regular expressions, and Jinja2 templates.
Gaps in support for CLI devices. Relying on a solution provider to write code to support a new CLI type is a problem. If a device isn’t supported, you can’t define a standard, and check for compliance. This leaves large portions of the network exposed and vulnerable.
Support for any CLI syntax from any vendor. Itential supports all of the top network vendor’s CLIs by default. We understand that supporting any device’s CLI is critical so a customer can quickly define a CLI syntax themselves and integrate the new device into the application, ensuring that Golden Configurations can be created for these devices and checked for compliance.
No compliance for API-based networking. Compliance is required across the entire network, and that includes network solutions that use API methods of management instead of CLI. Without proper API support, a Golden Configuration cannot be built for these types of network elements.
Complete API integration for modern networking. Build your Golden Configurations for CLI and API based network devices and services in a single application, allowing network teams to treat API-based networking services like they were traditional network devices.
Unable to effectively manage secure access to tools. Multiple tools for multiple users leads to chaos in the network. Managers need insight on what tools are available to which users, and accountability when they are used.
Complete RBAC control. Secure access to a platform that provides the right people with the right tools with access to the right devices or services in the network. Integration with AAA systems, and logging for every action executed.
A Modern Approach to Golden Configuration with the Itential Automation Platform
Itential’s configuration management capabilities not only enable teams to build Golden Configurations, but it also provides the ability to assign groups of devices to the Golden Configuration tree and generate a compliance report for every device in a single click. If any devices are out of compliance, automated intelligent remediation of the device is available when the network team is ready to make changes.
