A DDI management solution will make administration of your network’s names and numbers – planning IP address usage, running DNS and DHCP services – much easier:
- Radically simplify the work involved, saving time, saving money
- Increase control over the data, how people process the data and the resulting quality of your DDI services
- Protect these core services from high-impact security threats and service failures
Administering DNS, DHCP and IP Address Management (DDI) was already time-consuming, complex and difficult, when ApplianSys entered the DDI market with DNSBOX in 2002.
Since then, networks have grown many times over and the complexity has increased. The headache for network managers has got much worse…
Standard tools have poorly designed workflows making it unnecessarily difficult
- There is a lot to learn and know. Administrators must remember the correct format/data for entry, as well as be familiar with complex protocols.
- Standard editing of DDI data seems designed to make your life difficult and create extra work! There are lots of inefficient repetitive steps, many dos and don’ts to remember and the chances of a mistake are high.
- There are multiple connected servers to manage. Maintaining each server and controlling the linkages between them is difficult.
Risks are high and so is the business impact if something does go wrong
- Even a little mistake could mean a DNS or DHCP service fails, so the network fails and you have a big business problem.
- DDI services are top security targets. Protecting against attack is complex and difficult.
- Server failure can lead to disaster, so reliability and redundancy are key issues.
The difficulty of the work leads to people issues
- You have to rely on more experienced staff. Losing experts is a problem.
- In larger networks, with the workload shared across different places, with several tools, not one system, coordination is a headache and you can end up with conflicts to manage.
An integrated DDI solution like DNSBOX deals with these headaches and makes your life easier.
Let software do the work
A smart integrated DDI application makes DDI admin easier than tools like BIND or Windows DNS, because it does more of the work – so you do less.
The features of DDI management software which make it smarter are:
- Graphical user interface – complex network easier to picture, more efficient workflows
- Intelligence built in: data entry in a fraction of the time, data checked for you
- The software provides efficient, joined up processes for all aspects:
- Editing data and configurations for each of DNS, DHCP and IPAM
- Matching the “plan” data in IPAM with the “actual” data in DNS and DHCP
- Maintaining the server
- Managing links with other servers in your DDI architecture
- Allowing multiple administrators to share the work
As a result, DDI becomes radically simpler:
- Much less to know and remember – the system helps you
- Big time-savings – the total workload becomes a fraction of what it was
- Easier means less mistakes
- Less expertise is needed – free up your most experienced people, transfer responsibility easily when they leave
- Less friction between teams caused by coordination difficulties
Share workload, get better visibility
You get more control at all levels – in terms of:
- Data – data entry and configuration is more disciplined
- Who does what – the workload can be shared efficiently
- End-results – better control of your network and IP address space
- With all information held in a single centralised system and neat ways to view that information, it is much easier to see and understand what is happening with your DDI
- With your IPAM plan automatically synchronised with the live data, it now works to guide IP address usage as intended
Ensure your DDI services are safe
An integrated DDI solution, particularly one built on a robust appliance platform like DNSBOX, deals with the threats to your DDI services and greatly reduces the risks:
- Smart software cuts out damaging user errors
- Many security features – on each appliance and in links between servers – guard against threats like unauthorised access to your data, cache poisoning or DoS attacks
- Equipment failure should not bring your services down
- Reliable appliance software and hardware means less chance of unit failure
- Simple redundancy and recovery features make building robust DDI architectures easy
