NetBox Labs and BlueAlly partner on network automation

NetBox Labs has formed a strategic partnership with BlueAlly, which will use NetBox Labs' infrastructure intelligence platform in its automation reference architecture.

The agreement centres on BlueAlly's Network and Infrastructure Automation team, which will use the platform as a core part of customer projects across federal agencies, educational institutions, energy providers, retailers and large enterprises.

Automation foundation

The partnership addresses a common problem in enterprise IT: organisations want to automate more of their infrastructure operations, but many still lack a reliable, up-to-date record of what is running across their networks and systems. Without that foundation, automation efforts are harder to manage and trust, the companies said.

NetBox Labs' platform is designed to serve as a system of record for infrastructure data. The company says it can model the intended state of infrastructure, compare that with the actual state, support procurement workflows and provide data for automation processes.

BlueAlly plans to make the platform a standard part of the framework it uses to design automation projects for clients. This puts NetBox Labs at the centre of BlueAlly's approach to network modernisation, datacentre work and broader infrastructure management assignments.

Enterprise demand

The partnership also reflects rising demand from enterprises trying to reduce operational drift across distributed environments. As networks, cloud estates and on-premises systems become more fragmented, keeping infrastructure data accurate over time has become a larger operational challenge for IT teams.

Against that backdrop, both companies argue that organisations need a trusted source of infrastructure data before handing more routine tasks to software-driven automation or AI-based tools. The tie-up does not introduce a new standalone AI product; instead, it focuses on the data layer that underpins automation efforts.

Bill Lapcevic, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder of NetBox Labs, said the partnership would combine BlueAlly's engineering services with the vendor's platform.

"Deepening our partnership with BlueAlly means customers can take advantage of BlueAlly's extensive expertise and highly skilled forward deployed engineering team to deploy network and infrastructure solutions that best fit their needs," said Bill Lapcevic, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder, NetBox Labs.

He also highlighted the breadth of the platform.

"I'm especially excited that our joint customers will now have access to NetBox Labs' new infrastructure intelligence platform, which goes beyond a network source of truth, extending infrastructure intelligence to organizations at any stage in their modernization journey. Now large-scale enterprises and smaller footprint operations can leverage the combination of NetBox Labs' game changing infrastructure intelligence and BlueAlly's expert team to drive real impact within their organizations," added Lapcevic.

Platform integration

For BlueAlly, the relationship adds a new vendor platform to the toolset it uses in customer environments. The company cited the product's integration links with other software used in enterprise IT operations as part of the appeal.

"NetBox Labs is a powerful solution for us to center our automation reference architecture around and marks a strategic addition to our business. Not only is the NetBox Labs platform a powerful infrastructure system of record that companies quickly trust, but the fast-growing integration ecosystem around NetBox Labs also means clients can make the most of their investments in solutions like ServiceNow and Ansible to import their data into NetBox Labs for better compliance and efficiency outcomes," said David Coulter, Chief Technology Officer, BlueAlly.

That interoperability could be significant for customers already running a mix of service management, configuration and automation software and that do not want to replace those systems outright. Instead, the partnership points to an approach in which infrastructure data from existing tools is pulled into a single operating record before automation is expanded further.

NetBox Labs is the commercial steward of NetBox, the open-source infrastructure system of record used by more than 10,000 organisations, according to the company. It says customers include Arm, CoreWeave, J.P. Morgan, Kaiser Permanente and Riot Games.

BlueAlly, which provides technology solutions and managed services, says it works with clients trying to simplify complex IT estates through services spanning several technology domains. Under the new partnership, that work is expected to include network modernisation, datacentre buildouts and infrastructure automation projects built around a central data model.

Delivery focus

Lapcevic said BlueAlly's implementation experience was a factor in the agreement.

"BlueAlly's deep specialization in network automation combined with expert implementation from a team that deeply understands enterprise deployments and complexity makes them a natural partner for NetBox Labs," added Lapcevic. "Enterprise clients who need hands-on delivery support will benefit from faster time to value in their network automation journey."