Recently, chief network architect Jason Bomar and senior network programmability engineer Danny Mendez sat down to discuss their recent success story with a client. This client specializes in commercial real estate and has buildings throughout the country.
Identifying the problem
LA Networks’ client was looking to strengthen their security posture. They knew they had a lot of equipment, including different models and software versions of routers and switches. This equipment had been deployed at various times. The customer came to LA Networks to get assistance in determining what kind of vulnerabilities were out there and how to implement the upgrades themselves.
Creating the solution
Fortunately, the customer had just purchased a solution by Cisco called DNA Center that helps with automation and troubleshooting the network and other tools designed for this task. Although DNA Center provides a list of all possible vulnerabilities, they knew that wouldn’t be sufficient since there were hundreds of devices across the country. At that point, LA Networks worked with the client to decide what equipment they needed to triage and what they needed to upgrade.
Recognizing the need for a script
LA Networks decided to move forward using a script because of its time-saving ability and the ability to improve the customer’s security footprint. When introducing the Cisco DNA center, there was an easy medium to talk through the devices from an inventory perspective. The script was designed to log in to each device, figure out what services were running. Based on that information, it would provide the actual effect of each vulnerability.
In the past, this issue was dealt with manually, sometimes taking months to go through all of the devices.
Accepting positive feedback
This was not the first time that LA Networks’ client had gone through this process. In the past, it has taken hundreds of hours. The customer was stoked that they were able to receive this report while saving time and money. The overall turnaround for the project went from hundreds of hours to less than a day. In fact, the customer has invited LA Networks back to do new projects surrounding automation.
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For more information on Cisco DNA Center, contact LA Networks.