It always starts the same way.

A team decides it’s time to get serious about network automation. They want to move fast, be resilient, eliminate toil, and reduce outages. Everyone’s on board. There’s talk of Python scripts, intent-based networking, even AI-powered predictions. But then someone finally asks the most basic question:
 

“Do we actually know what IPs are in use?”

Cue the awkward silence. Someone eventually mutters, “We’ve got a spreadsheet.”

Honestly, I get it. I’ve been there. Most of us have. If you’ve got a few dozen devices and a small team, tracking IP allocations in Excel or Google Sheets might be enough. But once your environment scales—even modestly—that house of cards starts to wobble. Multiple admins start making updates. File shares go down. Local versions get out of sync. And suddenly, nobody knows what’s actually live in the network.

Before you even think about automation, you need a reliable source of truth for your IPs. That’s where proper IP Address Management (IPAM) comes in. In fact, I’d argue it’s step zero in any automation journey. Because without trusted data, any automation you try to build is basically guessing.

What Happens Without IPAM

Let me give you a real-world example.

I was working with a team that had to deploy an expeditionary network kit overseas. They packed the gear, configured the routers, checked all the boxes. But as soon as they started powering things up and assigning addresses, they hit a wall: IP conflict errors everywhere.

Now they’re scrambling. They can’t egress. Can’t connect to core services. They’re dead in the water, stuck on the phone with someone back home, trying to troubleshoot over an open line—not ideal when you're dealing with sensitive missions.

And all of it boiled down to the fact that no one had a current, validated record of which IPs were assigned where. Maybe someone had reused a subnet. Maybe a device got reassigned without anyone knowing. Either way, their network plan didn’t match the reality on the ground.

This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s risky. Conflicts can bring down critical apps. Misconfigured subnets can lead to serious security gaps. And even when everyone’s trying to do the right thing, mistakes happen—especially when folks are moving fast or working in isolation.

Here are just a few risks of not managing IPs effectively:

• IP Conflicts: Two devices fighting for the same address can knock services offline and cause cascading failures.
   
• Security Blind Spots: Unknown or rogue devices can appear on the network without detection.
   
• VLAN and Subnet Misalignment: Devices end up in the wrong part of the network, leading to policy violations or broken paths.
   
• Poor Troubleshooting Context: Without clear records, incident response becomes guesswork and delay.
   
• Manual Error Propagation: Fat-fingered entries or forgotten updates in spreadsheets can break automation scripts or misroute traffic.
   

I’ve seen teams accidentally assign switch IPs to servers, drop devices into the wrong VLANs, or reallocate addresses without updating any documentation. You can’t fault them entirely—it’s often a process problem, not a people problem. But that’s exactly why IPAM matters.

The Myth of “We’ve Got an IPAM”

One of the most common things I hear when I bring up IPAM is:

“Oh, we already have one.”

Cool. Let’s dig deeper.

Does it reflect your current network state? Is it synced automatically? Who owns it? Who updates it? How often? Does it include interface-level context or just subnets? Can it detect when something new appears on the wire?

Nine times out of ten, the answers tell a different story. Many orgs are relying on tools that claim to be IPAMs but really just act as glorified lists. Some, like SolarWinds, will ping an IP to see if it’s active. That’s fine as far as it goes. But being “alive” doesn’t tell you where that IP is, who it belongs to, or if it’s been misassigned. It just says, “something answered.”

I’ve seen admins swear their IPAM is up to date—until we ask how many people have admin rights. When they start rattling off ten names, half of whom aren’t even in the room anymore, you realize the problem. IPAM isn’t about having a record. It’s about having the right record. One that you trust. One that matches the state of the network today—not six weeks ago.

How IPAM and Validation Work Together

The truth is, IPAM by itself isn’t enough.

You need a way to validate it—against what’s actually happening in your network. And that’s where tools like Forward Networks play an important role. We’re not an IPAM provider. But we help you see your network exactly as it exists, right now, across all devices, sites, and interfaces.

You can then use that information to populate your IPAM with real-world data. We’ve helped teams integrate this into platforms like NetBox, Nautobot, and Infoblox. The result? An IPAM that isn’t just a reference—it’s an accurate, continuously updated map of your network.

But more importantly, you can reverse that flow. Once your IPAM is populated, you can use it as a source of intent: “This is what we expect to see.” Then tools like Forward validate that expectation. If a new IP shows up at Site C that should only exist at Site A, you’ll know. If someone stands up a device with an unapproved address, you’ll see it—and have the context to act.

This isn’t about vendor lock-in. Use whatever validator or IPAM platform you want. The point is: get them talking. Get your inventory right. Then check it. Constantly.

A Real-World IPAM Workflow

Here’s how I typically see it done, and how I recommend teams approach it:

1. Inventory First
   Start by discovering what’s actually deployed. That means devices, interfaces, assigned IPs, and metadata. Ideally, use a platform that can parse configurations and gather this context at scale.
2. Push to IPAM
   Feed that data into your IPAM platform of choice. Every vendor has different field expectations, so you may need to normalize (e.g., host name vs. device name). The goal is to populate not just prefixes, but precise mappings: IP X lives on interface Y of device Z.
3. Define the Baseline
   Once populated, your IPAM becomes the expected state. This is your source of intent—the way your network should look. It’s critical to document it and get buy-in across your team.
4. Validate Daily
   Use your network validator to compare the expected IP state (IPAM) against the real-time network. Flag mismatches, rogue addresses, duplicate allocations, and unexpected devices.
5. Respond with Context
   When something’s wrong, it’s not enough to just say “there’s a conflict.” You need actionable data. What device? What site? What interface? When did it change? That’s how you turn alerts into answers.
6. Audit the Past
   If your validator keeps a daily snapshot, you can do historical diffs. This is huge. You can say, “Last Tuesday, someone made this change,” even if your IPAM wasn’t updated yet. You’re not flying blind anymore.

Don’t Buy a Rolls Royce If a Miata Will Do

A lot of vendors will sell you the world. And hey—if you’ve got a massive, global enterprise network with a million IPs and dedicated automation engineers, maybe you do want all the bells and whistles.

But in many cases, teams don’t need that. They just need visibility. They need a working process. They need something that gives them confidence, even if it’s not flashy.

Start simple. Start small. You might build your first IPAM flow with some exports and a Python script. That’s fine. What matters is that it works. That it’s sustainable. That your team can support it long-term.

Because automation doesn’t die from complexity—it dies from neglect. If only one person understands how your tooling works, and they leave, the whole thing can collapse. I’ve seen it happen.

Final Thoughts: Automation Starts with Trust

Automation isn’t magic. It’s a multiplier. It makes good processes faster and bad ones worse.

If you don’t know what IPs exist in your network—where they live, who owns them, when they changed—you can’t automate with confidence. You’re just building scripts on sand.

A clean IPAM gives you clarity. Validation gives you confidence. Together, they form the bedrock of any serious network automation strategy.

So before you dive into playbooks, before you start wiring up workflows and AI-driven triggers, take a step back.
 

Get your IPs right.
 

Then the rest becomes a lot easier.