In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations are constantly seeking innovative solutions to streamline their network management and maximize operational efficiency. Cisco and Red Hat, a renowned provider of open-source solutions, have long established a strong relationship. This alliance has now been further fortified by the introduction of the official Meraki Ansible Collection, empowering network administrators to leverage the power of automation and orchestration for Meraki devices.

The Cisco Meraki and Red Hat collaboration powers automation

Cisco and Red Hat have a long-standing partnership, rooted in the shared commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions and simplifying the lives of IT organizations. Red Hat's open-source expertise and Cisco's extensive portfolio have harmoniously combined to provide customers with innovative and reliable technologies. This relationship has laid a strong foundation for collaboration, driving advancements in network management and automation.

Ansible is an open-source automation tool that has gained immense popularity among IT professionals for its simplicity, flexibility, and scalability. It enables administrators to automate tasks, orchestrate complex workflows, and manage network infrastructure efficiently. By combining the power of Ansible with the cloud-managed networking capabilities of Cisco Meraki, organizations can take their network automation to new heights.

Recognizing the potential of automation in network management, Cisco Meraki partnered with Red Hat to develop an official Ansible collection tailored specifically for the Meraki Dashboard API. This collaboration capitalizes on Red Hat's expertise in open-source solutions and Cisco Meraki's industry-leading networking technology, culminating in a comprehensive automation framework that simplifies and streamlines network operations.

Key features of the Official Ansible Collection for Meraki

• Simplified Network Automation: The Ansible collection for Meraki eliminates the need for manual configuration by providing pre-defined automation modules for common tasks. This simplifies the deployment and management of Meraki devices across the network.
  
• Seamless Integration: The collection seamlessly integrates with existing Ansible playbooks and automation workflows, allowing network administrators to leverage their existing automation investments. It provides a standardized interface for interacting with Meraki devices, making automation more accessible and user-friendly.
  
• Enhanced Efficiency: With the ability to automate repetitive tasks, network administrators can focus on strategic initiatives rather than spending time on manual configuration changes. The Ansible collection for Meraki enhances operational efficiency, reduces human error, and accelerates network deployment and management.
• Extensibility and Customization: The collection's open-source nature enables users to extend and customize its functionalities to meet their unique requirements. It fosters collaboration and innovation within the Ansible community, encouraging the sharing of best practices and automation scripts.

Benefits for network management

The partnership between Cisco-Meraki and Red Hat, resulting in the official Ansible collection for Meraki, brings several significant benefits to network management:

• Increased Agility: Automation enables rapid provisioning, configuration, and scaling of network devices, allowing organizations to respond quickly to changing business needs and market demands.
• Consistency and Standardization: The Ansible collection ensures consistent network configurations across all Meraki devices, reducing configuration drift and minimizing the risk of network vulnerabilities.
• Enhanced Visibility and Control: Automation provides real-time visibility into the network infrastructure, enabling administrators to monitor device status, troubleshoot issues, and enforce policy compliance effectively.
• Scalability and Future-Proofing: As organizations grow and expand their network infrastructure, the Ansible collection facilitates seamless scalability, ensuring that automation workflows can adapt to evolving requirements.

Getting started:

The new Ansible collection is going through Ansible's community certification process and Red Hat certification process, targeting to be built-in Ansible version 2.16.0. To experience and leverage the collection today, you can start your journey with our DevNet Learning Lab.

If you already have Ansible installed, you may install the new collection using the following command:

ansible-galaxy collection install cisco.meraki -f

Open-source solutions and industry partnerships

The partnership between Cisco Meraki and Red Hat, culminating in the creation of an official Ansible collection for Meraki, presents an exciting opportunity for organizations seeking to enhance their network automation capabilities. By leveraging Ansible's powerful automation framework, network administrators can streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and take full advantage of Cisco Meraki's cloud-managed networking technology. This collaboration demonstrates the potential of open-source solutions and industry partnerships.

Related resources

• Ansible Collection for Meraki
• Meraki Ansible Collection documentation
• Find additional developer resources on the Meraki Developer Hub
• Get questions answered by the Meraki Community
• Get hands-on learning with the Meraki Dashboard Ansible Leaning Lab

Acknowledgment

I would like to express our gratitude to Kevin Breit, whose effort three years ago gave birth to the community Ansible Collection for Meraki. Kevin's dedication has empowered thousands of customers to integrate Meraki with Ansible. Kevin's pioneering work has not only simplified network management for numerous organizations but has also laid the foundation for the remarkable collaboration we are celebrating today.