What to Look for in a Network Configuration Management Solution?

Published: March 11, 2025

Every organization is at a different point in its network configuration management journey, but one thing is certain: that journey will continue. Having capabilities the team will leverage today and likely adopt in the future as a matter of industry best practices is a wise approach. When evaluating configuration management solutions, it is worth drilling down into the following areas to make sure that the following limitations will not hamstring the solution:

1. They focus on routers and switches and do less well with firewalls and other security devices, which, if not updated promptly, can expose the organization to risk.
2. They focus on what can be done with an administrator at the keyboard and less on automating tasks to help eliminate tedious manual administration.
3. APIs are lacking, which prevents network configuration management tasks from being called from external systems and processes for proactive and integrated execution of tasks.

For organizations looking to update and enhance their approach to network configuration management, the following are some of the essential capabilities to look for in a modern solution.

Multivendor support. A configuration management solution with support only for some vendors has limited value. Supporting the top 10 or 15 vendors isn’t enough, just as it’s not enough to support network devices and not firewalls. Solutions should support as many vendors as possible (BackBox supports 180+ vendors) and provide feature parity between network devices, like routers and switches, firewalls, and other security devices.

Enhanced device discovery. A comprehensive device inventory is essential for tracking the state of backups, configurations, and updates. Network configuration management solutions should be able to collect device details (including device manufacturer, type, model number, version, and end-of-life) and build and maintain an inventory. New devices should be automatically added to the inventory during onboarding, and updates to existing device data should happen in real time. Syncing devices with an ITSM like ServiceNow for discovery goes further, streamlining ticket creation/updates/closing to ensure issues are tracked and resolved efficiently.

Single-click rollback. Speed is important when recovering from an update error. Rolling back a device to a previous backup, whether rebuilding it or restoring it to bare metal to replace it, must be simple, and nothing is more straightforward than restoring with a single click. Of course, software and backups should be stored centrally and readily available so that recovery can happen quickly in the event of a failure.

Automated compliance remediation is essential. Compliance is a critical component of network configuration management. Solutions should automatically verify that configurations are aligned with a desired standard, whether that standard is formal, like CIS Benchmarks, DISA STIGs, or PCI DSS, or informal. Once configured correctly, automated checks should monitor for drift and swiftly realign devices back into compliance. Reporting should be comprehensive and easily shareable with other teams.

Multistep updates. Device updates are complicated, especially when step updates are required to go between the current version and the most recent version of software. A configuration management solution based on automation should be able to make these multi-step upgrades seamless, as if they were just a single upgrade step.

Rich reporting and notifications. Collaboration is done through reports and notifications. Rich reporting is critical to meeting the needs of peers throughout the organization. Connections to external systems for notifications are important for managing by exception.

API integration. These days, API integration is quickly becoming a core requirement as organizations evolve toward a programmatic approach to network configuration management. Each automation should be accessible from an API to integrate with your workflows and enable proactive operational control over the work.

The Human Side of Automation in Configuration Management

Along with all the functional benefits of automation, there are also significant workplace benefits for network teams using a network configuration manager built on automation.

Eliminate repetitive manual work. One of the most effective ways to use automation is to eliminate manual tasks so that teams can do higher value and more interesting work. Better yet, network engineers should be able to use the same commands they would when interacting with devices. When they do so inside the platform, the platform should automate those commands or command sequences with flexibility in scheduling, logging, and notifications. When the platform works the way your team works, that leads to greater adoption and job satisfaction.

Improve quality of life. Network engineers are busy with IT priorities, including managing bandwidth related to working from home, supporting security and compliance teams in responding to audits, and, increasingly, determining compute needs to support AI adoption. Network teams end up spending nights and weekends managing backups and trying to keep up with configuration changes and upgrades one device at a time. Automation removes the drudgery so that teams can regain their lives while accomplishing more.

Upskill. Automations should also enable guardrails to be established for operations, allowing junior administrators to improve their skills without introducing risk. These guardrails can include logging, auditing, and video recording of sessions, as well as role-based automation permissions. Junior administrators gain valuable experience and knowledge to enhance their credentials. Research finds that employees appreciate organizations that help them grow professionally, leading to better engagement and retention. Skills training opportunities are also an effective tool for attracting new talent.

Do more with less. These days, ‘more with less’ is a mantra in many organizations. IT leaders face increasing demands on network administrators but lack the budget to hire additional staff. Backups with single-click rollbacks are a prime example of “fire and forget.” Automations like this are so reliable that people feel secure depending on them to function as intended. When administrators can trust automation to operate seamlessly, it’s as if they are multitasking, resulting in increased productivity.

Summary

BackBox helps teams conquer configuration management complexity. Our platform scales with the enterprise and uses best-in-class automation to transform configuration compliance, backups, software updates, and vulnerability remediation. Teams save time, gain confidence in mitigating incidents and outages, and keep devices secure.

Discover the advantages of BackBox today. Schedule a 30-minute demo for an interactive tour of the BackBox platform.