This is one of several blogs about the vendor presentations during Network Field Day 19, which took place November 7-9, 2018. This blog contains a summary of the vendor presentations and any related comments or opinions I might have (I’ll share at least some of them).
If this blog motivates you to greater interest in what the vendor had to say, you can find the cleaned up streaming video of their presentations at the Tech Field Day YouTube channel, specifically the NFD19 playlist, or by clicking on the vendor’s logo on the main #NFD19 web page (linked above).
BlueCat’s presentations were about moving beyond DNS and DDI, for visibility and leveraging core services.
About BlueCat Networks
BlueCat Networks offers a centrally managed DNS and IPAM address management product featuring load balanced DNS, scalable DHCP, enterprise address management, and DNS-centric security. They also provide DNS expertise and services.
Since DNS and DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) are becoming a bit commoditized (my thought and phrasing). BlueCat is emphasizing that DNS also provides visibility (source of DNS query, what name / IP it was resolving). Integrated DDI can be a single source of truth, and DNS / DDI can also be part of business workflow automation.
Presentation by Jason Davis, Enterprise DNS Engagement Architect, BlueCat Networks
BlueCat Networks’ Differentiating Factors
BlueCat told the #NFD19 delegates that what is resonating with their customer base is integration of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM with other enterprise tools, i.e. “workflows” and “business logic” for self-service automation.
BlueCat has a “strictly” RESTful API, which clearly facilitates integration with other tools. The example given was a workflow to create a VM and give it an address with automation reducing the need to interact with multiple tools, gather information, etc.
This all might be onsite or used for cloud deployments, or it might use local and cloud instances with multiple “horizons” or views, i.e. BlueCat automates DNS / DDI across multiple datacenters, clouds, internal / external — another part of the story, especially where different teams and products are used.
I can get behind that last thought. Where I’ve seen the biggest DNS problems are when various teams are each Doing Their Own Thing. I also claim being authoritative for all relevant reverse lookups, e.g. all of 10.0.0.0/8 rather than just bits of it is a good thing. Authentication and logging may be very slow, if you have gaps in IP lookups!
For more details, please follow the link above and view the BlueCat presentations.
Comments
Comments are welcome, both in agreement or constructive disagreement about the above. I enjoy hearing from readers and carrying on deeper discussion via comments. Thanks in advance!
—————-
Hashtags: #CiscoChampion #TheNetCraftsmenWay #BlueCat #NFD19 #DNS
Twitter: @pjwelcher
NetCraftsmen Services
Did you know that NetCraftsmen does network /datacenter / security / collaboration design / design review? Or that we have deep UC&C experts on staff, including @ucguerilla? For more information, contact us at info@ncm2020.ainsleystaging.com.