IPAM Intelligence and the Enterprise
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and related services like DNS and DHCP have become the foundation of today’s modern, complex IP voice and data networks. Without IP addresses and DHCP/DNS, there is no network and business would be crippled or worse. In the past 10 years organizations of all sizes have employed simplistic approaches and primitive tools to manage, monitor and administer IP addresses and services. They required constant manual intervention, while still failing to provide audit and reporting capabilities needed to truly ‘manage’ the network. With growing volume, the complexity of hybrid server networks, the addition of diverse IP devices and applications to the network, administrators needed a pro-active, automated approach to IP address management (IPAM). What administrators needed was an ‘intelligent’ approach to address the strategic needs of organizations to control costs, maintain reliability and create competitive advantage while ensuring overall network security and regulatory compliance. Defining “IPAM Intelligence™”Administrators controlling and updating IP networks need an intelligent, end-to-end IPAM solution that can deliver five key capabilities: integration, management, control, visibility and continuity of core network services in a utility-grade, centralized platform.
Integration — The ability for an enterprise to leverage current network investments and seamlessly integrate the IPAM solution into their existing infrastructure. The solution must include migration tools that allow administrators to easily import data from other systems should be built in to your IPAM solution to reduce the time and complexity of getting it up and running quickly.
A robust IPAM solution should be capable of centralizing all DNS/DHCP, across multiple platforms within the organization, including Windows-based servers and BlueCat’s own award-winning Adonis appliances. Sophisticated APIs should facilitate integration with external systems and centralize all IP data to allow administrators to obtain an integrated overview of the network.
Management — A sophisticated and easy-to-use management platform must reduce the time and effort spent configuring and managing your growing IP space. The IPAM platform should allow administrators to organize the IP data by allowing for user-defined data tags and other information to be added around network elements/objects. An intelligent IPAM platform further allows administrators to quickly customize the data to their specific requirements, as well as search and navigate through the system based on their customized object tags.
IP Discovery tools enable build out configuration data to be based on real-time network information. Combine this with a centralized management console, object tags, and advanced monitoring and reporting capabilities, and organizations instantly have the ability to easily find and allocate free addresses on the network. An Intelligent IPAM platform gives organizations the power to centrally control who, what, where, when and how IP addresses are allocated, tracked and reclaimed. Control — Growing, evolving IP networks require an IPAM solution that simplifies and centralizes the control of network services and resources. The IPAM solution should actively orchestrate user access control, and delegation settings regardless of their location. This gives administrators the control to delegate access and change rights with multi-level granularity out to remote locations, while keeping an eye on everything from central office.
The ability to centralize the management and control of Windows DNS / DHCP servers and Adonis appliances across entire organizations gives administrators a powerful tool that drives operational efficiencies and frees up critical IT resources to work on other business initiatives.
Visibility — Intelligent IPAM solutions continue to deliver value long after the network is integrated, configured and managed. Transparent, permission-based access with real-time event notification enables granular visibility into core network services and makes change management across a large, distributed network much more efficient. Extensive audit trails give complete visibility into all administrative changes in turn facilitates governance and compliance requirements for industry-specific regulations.
Continuity — Capabilities are without value if network reliability is at risk. Continuity of service ensures your company is always conducting business. Intelligent IPAM solutions must have high availability features that result in no network downtime or business-critical service disruption. It should have DHCP failover for load balancing and failover support — as well as separation of services to ensure that the network can run without the IPAM layer, or vice versa. Additionally, sophisticated error checking tools that eliminate mistakes before they can disrupt the network are essential part of an Intelligent IPAM platform. It must also safeguard your system by conducting automated backups regularly, should you need to recover from an unexpected ‘disaster’.
Delivering IPAM Intelligence™Fortunately — the arrival of Proteus — The IPAM Intelligence Platform from BlueCat Networks is up to the task. Proteus sets the standard for IPAM Intelligence. With new, innovative features and functionality that allows it to control Microsoft Windows DNS/DHCP servers, or BlueCat’s own award-winning Adonis appliances; Proteus is the ideal IPAM platform for managing the increasing complexity of IP networks. IPAM Intelligence is here. Now enterprises of all sizes, government, military, financial, retail and manufacturing organizations can all have the integration, management, control, visibility and continuity they need to drive their business forward.
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