GUI is great for doing simple things. A good GUI is really important.
Python and API allow the following:
- automation - you can automate the anything that you can do through the GUI. For example, It gets tedious clicking on 100 devices to add location data. You could use the API to assign location data to devices. Any action you need to perform multiple times can be automated with the API. You could automate the discovery of new devices, automate creation of PnP rules, EasyQoS policies etc... limitless possibilities.
- integration - you can access any of the data in APIC-EM and make it available to other applications. For example, you can get access to all of the devices + serial numbers and integrate that into an asset tracking system.
- innovation - you can extend APIC-EM in ways that the GUI does not (currently) allow. For example, you could implement Time of Day based QoS policy using the API.
Adam