This article was contributed by Boundless Digital, a Cisco Meraki technology partner.

Some people say that architecture is meant to be permanent, but is it really? When it comes to networking, the truth is that it’s not. Modern network architectures are meant to be reliable, agile, and resilient. Rather than being permanent, they should be adaptable to change.

The last few years have taught us that change can happen quickly. And for businesses lacking the ability to rapidly adapt their infrastructure to new conditions, change can come at a high cost. 

Break, build, migrate … what drives organizational change in IT?

Organizations will typically reach a moment when they realize their current network architecture no longer meets their business needs.

This realization can be triggered by technical constraints, but may also be caused by business events such as a new acquisition, merger, or market expansion.

To address one of these events, a business may be tempted to migrate devices into a different network or a new organization. But doing so without first considering the associated risks—and without planning accordingly—could lead to costly and time-consuming restructuring and reconfiguring.

The implications of restructuring a network infrastructure

Altering the organizational structure of a large network infrastructure is a complex operation. When done manually, it requires extensive planning and implementation, and can have critical implications:

Network downtime: When unclaimed from a network, devices lose their configuration, generating a downtime that could last from one to three hours per device.

Time loss: The common steps to restructure an organization include creating a new organization and provisioning new networks, migrating devices, and reconfiguring parameters.

New errors: Manual configuration entails a risk of human error. If not identified on time, these errors can end up generating bigger problems down the line.

High costs: Migrating devices often requires having a support team on-site to reconfigure the devices. If the devices are distributed across different locations, this operation can quickly become costly.

Simplify organizational change with automation powered by APIs

Migration by Boundless Digital enables users to alter the organizational structure of their Meraki network infrastructure seamlessly, quickly, and reliably. 

This solution leverages the dashboard API to integrate with Meraki and seamlessly split an organization into multiple ones, or merge them under a single organization. Features include:

Configuration cloning: This feature allows you to copy the configuration parameters of an existing site and use them to create new networks under the same organization or a different one.

Device migration: Use this tool to move devices from one network or organization to another and reconfigure them using API-based automation.

Using Migration by Boundless Digital to support the restructuring of your network architecture can help your business accelerate operations, reduce the need for on-site support, and minimize the risk of human error.

Find Migration by Boundless Digital on the Meraki Marketplace and/or request a demo. Learn more about the Boundless Digital apps.