I agree with the other responses, your way looks fine. Sometimes it is worth considering "self documenting data" which can help document your code.

For example

next unless $item->{is_a_switch};
[download]

gives you a good indication of what the question is and what sort of answer you can expect.

As has been pointed out, with this approach you are more than halfway to having an object.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my %network = get_network();

for my $blade (keys %network){
  
  for my $item (@{$network{$blade}}){
    next unless $item->{is_a_switch};
    print qq{$item->{item_name}\n};
    
    for my $kit (@{$item->{more_kit}}){
      print qq{  kit: $kit->{kit_name}\n};
    }
    
  }
  
}

sub get_network {
  my %network = (
    01/01 => [
      {
        is_a_switch => 0,
        item_name   => q{router},
        more_kit    => 0,
      },
      {
        is_a_switch => 1,
        item_name   => q{hpswitch1},
        more_kit    => [
          {
            port      => q{port1},
            kit_name  => q{workstation1},
          },
          {
            port      => q{port2},
            kit_name  => q{workstation2},
          },
        ],
      }
    ],
    01/02 => [
      {
        is_a_switch => 1,
        item_name => q{hpswitch2},
        more_kit  => [
          {
            port      => q{port1},
            kit_name  => q{server4},
          },
          {
            port      => q{port2},
            kit_name  => q{server5},
          },
        ],
      }
    ],
    01/03 => [
      {
        is_a_switch => 0,
        item_name   => q{server2},
        more_kit  => 0,
      },
    ],
  );
  return %network;
}
[download]

output

hpswitch1
  kit: workstation1
  kit: workstation2
hpswitch2
  kit: server4
  kit: server5
[download]

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