Ansible in Action: Managing Network Infrastructure with AAP

Tim Lam, a network engineer, had been successfully managing his network of 150 devices using custom PowerShell scripts and a FortiManager appliance. This setup worked like a charm for his Fortinet devices—he would insert the necessary variables, generate configuration files, and apply them quickly to new devices. The FortiManager appliance handled policy updates, firmware upgrades, and all the essential network management tasks for his devices. It was simple, fast, and reliable.

However, as Tim's network grew alongside an increasing number of AI projects, things started to change. New devices from different vendors, like Cisco, Juniper, Huawei, and CheckPoint, were added to support the expanding infrastructure. While his original process still worked for his Fortinet devices, managing other brands became cumbersome. Each vendor required its own tool or script, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies across the network.

Tim started to notice that managing a multi-vendor network with several different tools was becoming more complex. What worked well for a few devices wasn’t scaling as easily to a larger environment. He began to worry about potential errors and the time it took to maintain consistency across so many different systems. Manual processes were no longer efficient, and he realized that to manage his growing network, he needed something more powerful and unified.

That’s when Tim discovered Ansible Automation Platform (AAP). At first, he was skeptical—after all, he already had his reliable scripts and appliances. But when he explored AAP, he realized the potential it held for his network. AAP offered a centralized automation platform where he could manage all of his network devices, regardless of brand, using simple playbooks. He could now automate tasks like security compliance checks, firmware updates, and configuration changes across his Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet, CheckPoint, and other devices, all from a single platform.

Unlike his old system, where mistakes could occur due to human error or inconsistencies between devices, AAP ensured that even if a playbook was run multiple times, the configurations would always remain correct and consistent across all devices. This gave Tim the confidence to push updates or configuration changes to hundreds of devices at once, without worrying about breaking anything.

But Tim’s role was evolving. He began working closely with other network teams across the organization, and they needed a way to segregate tasks and responsibilities without creating silos. Ansible made this easy by allowing role-based access control (RBAC), where each team could access only the specific parts of the network they were responsible for, ensuring security and efficiency.

In the end, Tim realized that AAP didn’t just replace his old tools—it transformed his entire approach to network management. He was able to manage a growing, multi-vendor network with ease, reduce manual work, and ensure consistency and security across the board.