If you have attended any webinars lately, you may have noticed the new “combined network” view of dashboard being showcased. You can now group independent wireless, switch, and security appliance networks into a single view to make management of various sites easier.

For those of you creating a new network, this will be the default setting. For example, you can add a switch to an existing wireless network, and it will combine them for you. But if you have existing independent networks and are ready to start combining, you can do so right from the dashboard. Under the Organization tab, expand the networks panel on the right, then simply select the wireless, security appliance, or switch network you would like to manage together, and click “combine.”  Don’t worry — we will keep all of the configuration and monitoring data when the networks are combined.

There are some great benefits to combining your networks. When you are looking at a specific client, the dashboard creates a combined summary of access policies applied from wireless SSIDs and security appliance settings. Administrators can easily check if there are conflicting policies when troubleshooting client connectivity.

Combined view can also help in troubleshooting by grouping traffic analytics data for traffic seen on switches, wireless APs, and security alliances. Optionally select a device type, SSID, or policy to drill down further.

Many tasks that previously needed to be configured on several different networks, can now be set together. Below, summary report data from for an entire location can be accessed in a unified menu.

Also, check out the Network wide > Alerts and administration page where security appliance, switch, and wireless alerts can be configured all in the same place.

Try out combined view in your own environment to take advantage of these enhancements. As usual, we are always excited to hear your thoughts so keep us posted on what you’d like to see via the “make a wish” box at the bottom of every dashboard page.