The Cisco CNS Configuration Engine is a secure network product that supports the activation of customer-premises-equipment (CPE) based network services through centralized template-based configuration management. The Cisco CNS Configuration Engine runs on the Cisco CNS 2100 Series Intelligence hardware platform. The Cisco CNS Configuration Engine provides a scalable infrastructure for managing the large-scale deployment of Cisco Systems devices. It takes full advantage of the Cisco CNS Intelligent Agent technology of Cisco IOS Software and can manage as many as 5000 Cisco CPE products and Cisco switches. Using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to interface with Cisco IOS Software devices or Cisco PIX firewalls or using Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) to access devices that are not enabled with Cisco CNS agents, the Cisco CNS Configuration Engine provides an end-to-end "zero-touch" deployment solution for the entire portfolio of Cisco IOS CPE products. The Cisco CNS Configuration Engine offers a programmatic interface to customers' operations support systems (OSSs) using Cisco CNS Software Development Kit.