Transforming Network Infrastructure Management with NetBox Cloud at a F500 Software Company
Overview
A Fortune 500 global leader in enterprise software solutions with customers worldwide faced significant challenges in managing their complex network infrastructure. With thousands of devices spread across global data centers and a mission-critical backbone network that demands zero downtime, they needed a comprehensive solution to centralize their network documentation and support automation initiatives.
The solution came through the backbone engineering team who discovered and implemented NetBox Cloud, which has since expanded beyond its initial use case to become a critical source of truth for multiple teams across the organization. What began as a solution for IP address management has evolved into a foundation for network automation, change management, and cross-team collaboration.
Background
This enterprise technology company operates a sophisticated global network infrastructure that includes:
- Mission-critical backbone networks connecting data centers worldwide
- Complex routing infrastructure with redundant paths for reliability
- Multiple business units with independent networking needs
- Various networking equipment from multiple vendors
Before NetBox Cloud, the company relied on disconnected systems and manual processes for network documentation and IP address management. This fragmented approach was difficult to scale, created information silos, and introduced risk to critical infrastructure changes.
The NetBox Revolution: Building a Better Way
A senior network engineer’s journey with NetBox Cloud began while seeking a better solution for IP address management. “When I joined, I realized our approach wasn’t going to scale. I started researching available tools and discovered NetBox, which is how we ultimately brought it into our organization.”
The initial implementation focused on the backbone network team’s needs, but the value quickly became apparent. “I realized there were many other areas in NetBox that we could use for different purposes.”
Recognizing the inadequacy of their previous “best effort” approach to IP management, the network team collaborated with a principal architect and colleagues from other groups to form a virtual team focused on global IP address management across the entire company. This laid the foundation for a more systematic, scalable approach to network documentation.
As the team gained confidence with NetBox, they began expanding its use beyond the backbone team. “We’ve migrated significant amounts of data to NetBox in recent months. It’s not only our core IP data but also information from multiple business units. We’re now working on utilizing additional NetBox objects for tracking specialized network resources like DDoS protected prefixes.”
The expanding adoption reflects NetBox’s flexibility to support diverse use cases across the company’s network infrastructure, becoming an increasingly central component of their network management strategy.
Unleashing New Capabilities: The Game-Changing Benefits
The NetBox implementation has delivered significant benefits across multiple domains:
Enhanced Automation
NetBox provides a reliable foundation for the company’s automation initiatives. As the senior network engineer explains, “We have a sophisticated automation system that constantly monitors different aspects of the network. NetBox serves as our source of truth for comparing what’s observed with what’s intended.”
This source of truth enables the team to automatically detect configuration drift and implement remediation workflows, improving network reliability and reducing manual effort.
Unified Network Documentation
One of the most valuable outcomes has been centralizing network documentation across previously siloed teams. “Once we started documenting our edge and backbone in NetBox, we realized we could expand to include more devices, more details, rack information, power details, and so on.”
This comprehensive view enables teams to quickly locate assets, troubleshoot issues, and make informed decisions about network changes.
Improved Change Management
The backbone team is particularly excited about NetBox’s branching and change management capabilities, which align perfectly with their careful approach to critical infrastructure changes. These features enable them to model changes before implementation, enforce proper review processes, and maintain strict control over who can modify different parts of the network.
“The backbone is our most mission-critical infrastructure. The team is extremely sensitive to failures in that environment,” notes an engineer familiar with the implementation. “When they experience drift in the backbone, it can be catastrophic.”
NetBox’s branching capabilities address this concern by providing a safe way to model and review changes before implementation, reducing risk to this critical infrastructure.
Cross-Team Collaboration
NetBox has become a collaboration platform that brings together previously disconnected teams. The Global IPAM virtual team is a prime example, uniting specialists from different parts of the organization around a shared source of truth.
“We’re dedicating time to improve our entire IP address management process. We recognized our previous approach wouldn’t scale, which led us to explore better tools,” explains the senior engineer, highlighting how NetBox has enabled a more strategic approach to cross-team resource management.
The Road Ahead: Future Plans with NetBox Cloud
The team continues to expand their NetBox Cloud implementation and explore new capabilities:
Data Center Infrastructure Management
The team is evaluating expanding NetBox to include complete data center infrastructure management. “The next step is to bring in our data center team to use NetBox,” says the senior engineer.
Enhanced Security and Connectivity
As a security-conscious organization, they’re exploring new connectivity options to further enhance the security of their NetBox Cloud implementation. They’re working closely with NetBox Labs to implement the most secure connectivity architecture for NetBox Cloud with their environment.
Advanced Automation
The backbone team is particularly interested in NetBox’s capabilities to support their automation initiatives. They’re working on leveraging NetBox data to build automation for configuration deployment while maintaining necessary human oversight for critical infrastructure.
As the senior network engineer summarizes their experience: “I’m happy with how things are going so far and they seem to be getting even better every day.”
Conclusion
This enterprise technology company’s NetBox Cloud implementation demonstrates how a strategic approach to network documentation can deliver value far beyond its initial use case. From its beginnings as an IPAM solution for the backbone team, NetBox Cloud has expanded to become a critical platform supporting multiple teams and use cases across the organization.
The value extends beyond simple documentation – NetBox Cloud now serves as the foundation for automation initiatives, improves change management practices, and facilitates collaboration across previously siloed teams. As they continue to expand their implementation, they’re discovering new ways to leverage NetBox Cloud to improve network reliability, operational efficiency, and cross-team collaboration.
