Enterprise networks have become complex. They were designed and deployed to meet a specific set of business requirements at a specific point in time. Configuration modifications were rare, and manual or semi-automated processes together with strict change control procedures were enough to maintain reliability and consistent service levels across the organization.
Business needs have shifted dramatically. The adoption of cloud services, business application-focused requirements and evolving security policies require IT organizations to continuously deploy configuration changes. The common approach of either manually performing changes necessary or simply replacing the complete device configuration, rebooting and hoping it will function, creates unacceptable risks and potential network interruptions. Therefore, enterprises are looking for better ways to automate the management of their networks through leveraging existing capabilities to optimize performance and reducing operational risk through standardization and best-practice architectures.