An Infrastructure Can Only Be As Efficient As DNS, DHCP, And IP Address Management

When was the last time you heard of a company building its own personal computers for its employees? Cobbling together hard drives, CPUs, memory, and operating systems is not cost-effective or a core competency for any I&O teams. And yet there are lots of enterprises that continue to build out their homegrown DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (DDI) solutions. Most are woefully outdated, stagnating on non-enterprise-grade infrastructure, and lacking security mechanisms. To prevent your network from becoming a hurdle to supplying a flexible and efficient set of infrastructure services, you must bolster the "dial tone" of your network, where devices and services plug in and connect to other apps and infrastructure. How? First, recognize that DDI is a fundamental component to automating your infrastructure. Next, transition your services off commodity hardware to newer appliances. And finally, invest in the commercial solutions that pre-integrate DDI. This document will elaborate on how to do that and highlight solutions from Alcatel-Lucent, BlueCat Networks, BT Diamond, and Infoblox.