Cisco Cisco Prime Infrastructure 3.0 Information Guide

 

 

Cisco IT Case Study 

Wired and Wireless Network Management 

© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. 

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●  Integrated management of wired and wireless network 

devices 

●  Improved configuration management 
●  Automated deployments everywhere 
●  Better management of IP addresses 

●  Implement Cisco Prime Infrastructure as part of a 

broader deployment of the Cisco Prime framework for 
network management 

●  Lower total cost of network ownership 
●  Reduced costs for implementing network services 
●  Time savings for deploying branch offices and campus 

sites 

●  Faster recovery from network problems 
●  Fewer resources required for network administration 
●  Ability to introduce a new services automation model 

and support the Internet of Everything 

●  Plan for expanded wireless management 
●  Create more processes for automated deployment 
●  Test the planned deployment in a lab environment 
●  Provide training for the network management culture 

shift 

●  Enhanced capabilities for configuration management 

and service assurance 

●  Enable enterprise networking as a service (ENaaS) 
●  Comprehensive service assurance capabilities 

 

Single Management with Cisco Prime Infrastructure 

Cisco IT integrates network management for improved operations, lower costs, and 
Internet of Everything readiness. 

Challenge 

The Cisco

®

 core network continues to grow, with more users, 

devices, applications, and services. In Cisco IT, we realized the 

previous network management systems, which managed the 

wired and wireless networks separately, would not be able to 

keep pace. 

Additionally, those management systems were built from a 

combination of Cisco products, third-party products, and 

internally developed scripts that focused on specific network 

elements or management tasks. Many capabilities were not 

integrated, which often meant duplicate or overlapping 

management activities and other operational inefficiencies.  

“We wanted an integrated management system for wired and 

wireless network elements to help deliver the new services 

model faster, reduce outages, and support a better network 
operations experience,” says Mohit Agrawal, senior architect, 
Cisco IT. “Also, as we prepare for the Internet of Everything 

[IoE], we need a management system that will scale to support 

very large numbers of wireless devices and offer capabilities for 
asset tracking and location services.” 

Cisco IT wanted to use the new system for managing wireless 

devices initially, then transition over time from the traditional 

system for wired network management. We defined several 

requirements when looking for the new network management 

system. 

● 

Integrated network management. A primary requirement was a single system and user interface to 

manage the inventory and configuration of all wired and wireless elements. Also important was the ability to 

integrate with other Cisco Prime

™ management tools. 

● 

Improved configuration management. We knew that a significant number of network outages are caused 

by configuration changes and with as many as 7500 configuration templates used by Cisco IT, these 

changes were very difficult to manage. We wanted improved tools for managing device configurations and 

changes as well as for distributing new software images. These tools would help to reduce problems when 

maintaining and upgrading network elements, especially in branch offices.