As some of you may be aware, Central is now capable of uploading/downloading variables using CSVs. This would allow you to manage your switches in a very scalable way, while at the same time it allows us admins to use a more "conventional" mechanism than JSON (which is great once you understand it, but has a certain learning curve).
Check Kartik's video on this subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyB9XZfxJxk
Hope this helps!!