The partnership embeds the NetBox Labs platform into AHEAD's foundational technology stack, powering automation, infrastructure governance, and large-scale digital transformation for thousands of enterprise customers
NEW YORK, April 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NetBox Labs, the commercial steward of open source NetBox, today announced a strategic partnership with AHEAD, a leading provider of networking, cloud, security, advanced data center and AI infrastructure solutions for enterprise organizations.
The partnership brings NetBox Labs' authoritative infrastructure and network management platform into AHEAD's enterprise offerings as a core foundational component of AHEAD’s network automation services — supporting cloud migration, security, and AI infrastructure programs.
Across every industry, enterprises are racing to migrate to the cloud, lay the groundwork to automate networks and infrastructure, and build the foundations for AI. The success of these initiatives hinges on having a reliable, well-structured infrastructure foundation — but navigating the complexity of today's technology landscape to get there is no small task.
"Enterprises today need a reliable, authoritative foundation for infrastructure data — one that fits naturally into how they design, automate, and operate at scale," said Ryan Alt, Service Director, Service Delivery at AHEAD. "The NetBox Labs platform gives us exactly that. By integrating the platform into AHEAD Hatch®, AHEAD Foundry™, and automation offerings, we're able to bring more consistent, lifecycle-aware workflows to every engagement, whether it's network modernization, data center buildouts, OT environments, or AI infrastructure. This partnership sharpens our ability to deliver disciplined, repeatable programs while giving our customers a platform they can grow with."
AHEAD meets this challenge through pairing strategic advisory with a proven, phased approach to network automation — one built around three foundational principles:
- Establish the Intent Repository First. Every successful automation program begins with a reliable, single source of intent: a centralized platform that holds all configuration for, and attributes about, the network infrastructure. Automation tooling consumes this data to perform networking tasks accurately and at scale. The NetBox Labs platform is now that foundation across AHEAD's automation engagements — embedded with Foundry, an end-to-end integration center designed to speed on-site deployment and decrease operational costs; Hatch, a platform for IT lifecycle management; and AHEAD's network automation offerings.
- Develop High-Value Use Cases to Drive ROI. Automation must solve real business problems and demonstrate measurable return on investment. AHEAD's approach starts with low-complexity, high-visibility use cases — establishing trust in systems, processes, and data before expanding automation scope. This sequenced, outcome-focused methodology ensures customers see tangible results early while building the organizational confidence needed to pursue more advanced automation capabilities over time.
- Treat Automation as a Journey, Not Just a Product. Sustainable automation requires more than tooling — it demands business process alignment, pre-approved change workflows, enforced configuration standards, and a validated test environment. Without these foundations, automation amplifies existing inefficiencies rather than eliminating them. AHEAD's engagements are structured to build and mature these organizational capabilities alongside the technical implementation, ensuring customers are equipped for long-term automation success.
The NetBox Labs platform is the world's most widely adopted system of record for infrastructure data, providing a unified data model that represents the entire network — devices, racks, IP addresses, interfaces, and connections — in a consistent, API-accessible format. As a comprehensive ontology of infrastructure metadata and the industry standard for infrastructure documentation, NetBox serves not just as a system of record, but as the foundation for operating, automating, securing, and scaling modern networks.
NetBox, with its open source core and industry standard infrastructure data models, is at the heart of the NetBox Platform, which is available as NetBox Cloud, or NetBox Enterprise (self-managed). The platform includes five additional capabilities: NetBox Discovery, NetBox Assurance, NetBox Copilot, NetBox Analytics, and NetBox Observability. Together, these give teams complete context to keep their infrastructure accurate, secure, automation-ready, and resilient as environments evolve.
By combining AHEAD's advisory, delivery, and managed services expertise with the NetBox Labs platform, the partnership delivers improved data consistency, reduced reliance on manual processes, and more repeatable execution across network, OT, AI, cloud, and distributed infrastructure environments for customers across the United States.
"AHEAD brings a rare combination of strategic depth and hands-on engineering excellence that makes them an ideal partner for NetBox Labs and our mutual customers," said Bill Lapcevic, Chief Revenue Officer at NetBox Labs. "Their platform-driven approach to automation, engineered infrastructure, and lifecycle operations aligns perfectly with what we're building at NetBox Labs. Together, we're giving enterprises a faster, more confident path to modernizing their networks and infrastructure — backed by the consulting, managed services, and innovation capabilities that AHEAD is known for – which is a clear strategic advantage."
Want to learn more about how NetBox Labs and AHEAD can support your infrastructure management? Get in touch with our team: https://netboxlabs.com/contact-us/
About NetBox Labs
Founded in 2023, NetBox Labs makes sense of complex networks and infrastructure. As the commercial steward of open source NetBox — the world's most popular system of record for complex networks and infrastructure — NetBox Labs delivers a world-class platform bringing together open, composable products atop NetBox, spanning discovery, assurance, observability, and AI operations. NetBox Labs fosters and invests in a vibrant community of tens of thousands of network and infrastructure professionals. Top companies like ARM, Cisco, Constant Contact, CoreWeave, J.P. Morgan, Kaiser Permanente, and Riot Games trust NetBox Labs to understand, operate, and transform their critical infrastructure. Visit https://netboxlabs.com to learn more.
About AHEAD
AHEAD builds and manages digital platforms that power transformation for leading enterprises, bringing together advisory, delivery, and managed services to accelerate business outcomes across cloud, data, security, and infrastructure. Visit https://www.ahead.com for more information.
Media Contact: Rhiannon Pacheco — press@netboxlabs.com
