Infoblox

HARTMANN, a global leader in medical device manufacturing, operates in over 35 markets worldwide. The company faced the challenge of maintaining a uniform and organized IT infrastructure across its vast facilities and workforce. The user experience for HARTMANN executives and staff, whether in Heidenheim, Germany or Shanghai, China, needed to be of identical quality. To prevent local differences, HARTMANN decided to harmonize its IT infrastructure, which had been managed locally. However, the implementation with Microsoft DNS and DHCP solutions left the company unsatisfied over time. The problem was that the implementation was dependent on individual sites, limiting visibility into network operations. The data was outdated, and performing system analyses was a slow, time-consuming process. Furthermore, it wasn’t possible to integrate a backup concept with modern DHCP.

The U.S. manufacturer of engineered materials, optoelectronic components, and semiconductors was focused on growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&As). In 2019–2020, it acquired a global electronics firm and needed immediate connectivity and visibility into the acquired firm’s geo-distributed operations. The company had a highly compressed timeline, with only days to integrate the firm’s DDI operations, while deferring a full network migration to a future date. The company was actively engaged in acquiring and merging strategically aligned companies as a key global growth strategy. The company needed to rapidly integrate its new operations, which included significant remote locations in Asia. The company turned to Infoblox to quickly design a highly secure, available, and reliable solution that could deliver full visibility into new sites. It needed dynamic scalability to accommodate its growing operations and the ability to unify a disparate, geo-diverse infrastructure.

Everi Holdings Inc. faces a significant challenge in securing its network against a high volume of hacking attempts, particularly DNS-based attacks. Handling $20 billion annually in transactions, the company is a prime target for cybercriminals. The attacks range from physical assaults on ATM machines to sophisticated distributed denial of service (DDoS) and advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks. The primary concern is to maintain the uptime of devices and protect both revenue and reputation. Over the past eight months, Everi has experienced more hacking attempts than in the previous ten years, with 4,000 to 8,000 DNS attacks occurring daily. Traditional firewalls and antivirus software have proven inadequate in preventing these attacks, prompting Everi to seek a more robust solution.

Netskope's business model requires agility, availability, and performance to manage both sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud applications. With 50% of data residing in cloud applications outside traditional networks, Netskope needed a solution to discover and govern these applications effectively. The challenge was to ensure reliability, security, and performance of the platform to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance while allowing end users to utilize beneficial applications.

Most Infoblox customer stories start with a discussion of the legacy solution we replaced. This customer went directly to a commercial-grade solution. “We had a lot of knowledge of generic and open-source platforms,” says the company’s senior director of information security and network engineering. “We had also seen a demo of Infoblox solutions. We were pretty sold with everything we saw.” Rather than hire another senior-level network engineer and systems administrator to come in and try and use an open-source product to build out an anycast network that could be deployed globally, the IT team chose to take advantage of the capabilities Infoblox had demonstrated to them. “It was the quick way to get visibility into the network, deploy on a sound technology with an anycast back end, and get redundancy in the bargain—rather than go down the path of trying to custom build everything ourselves,” the director says.

This customer is responsible for deploying network-operation centers (NOCs) that are manned by military field personnel. These centers provide mission and command-and-control functions critical to military operations, and their performance, uptime, and visibility are of the utmost importance to national security.

Five years ago, Lewisville Independent School District (LISD) transitioned from a Novell system to Microsoft Windows servers for managing DNS and DHCP. However, within six months, it became apparent that the system couldn't deliver the stability needed to support the district's commitment to incorporating technology into teaching and learning. The district is a leader in using technology to revitalize education, with initiatives like online instruction and providing iPads to staff and students. The network team, consisting of only four IT technicians, manages over 100,000 network devices, including laptops, iPads, and other machines. The district's BYOD initiative further increases the number of devices on the network. The challenge was to have a DNS/DHCP system resilient enough to handle the traffic over the upgraded network.

To deliver essential DNS services, the university had multiple UNIX platforms throughout the campus that had different OS and open source software versions for delivering DNS and DHCP. Universite de Montreal had developed an in-house IPAM solution which was very complex and hard to manage. Because it was based on open source, it proved difficult to maintain, as the IT team had to edit multiple files on different systems without any sophisticated automation system. The monitoring of DNS and DHCP was difficult as the IT team often faced a lack of addresses in the DHCP pool. And, managing the authentication to the system by using the university’s centralized LDAP was a factor, so being able to delegate zone and subzones to local managers was also very important. Finally, the university was in the process of migrating from a public based IP address domain to a secure and private Class A. Michel L’Heureux, Director of Telecommunications at Universite de Montreal came to the decision that their homegrown solution was compromising network availability and becoming increasingly difficult to administer; it was time to look for another solution.

The majority of AIB’s banking transactions take place away from the branch counter today, and the bank is working to add technology to its branch locations with self-service kiosks and intelligent deposit devices, and to enhance its mobile and online banking services. AIB’s network supports internal financial systems and external customer-facing systems, which makes the management of Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), and IP address management (IPAM) extremely critical. When asked what the consequences of a network failure would be, Daniel Turner, network planner for the Telecoms group within AIB IT, says, “We wouldn’t be able to operate effectively—back to paper transactions!” The bank already had a commercial-grade solution in place that utilized Alcatel-Lucent Vital QIP for internal IPAM and a solution from another vendor for external. But in 2010, it was time to upgrade the system, and Vital QIP upgrades are time-consuming because it has so many components. The Sybase database, for instance, requires an enterprise server on the front end, separate from the appliances that host DNS services. In addition, the per-IP-address licensing is very expensive, especially in an environment like AIB’s where devices are frequently added to the network. So upgrading and continuing to operate the solution was an expensive proposition, and Turner wanted to see if there was a better alternative.

The company faced challenges with its legacy DNS system, which was cumbersome and unreliable. The system was managed by different groups based on function and location, leading to synchronization issues and inadvertent downtime. The IT team needed to modernize and centralize DNS management to reduce management hours and improve efficiency. Based on positive past experiences with Infoblox, the team chose it as the replacement solution.

The organization was experiencing millions of events per day, some known to be malicious and others unexplained but originating from malicious IP spaces or destined for countries known for nefarious activity. The agency struggled to maintain blacklists due to the volume of bad traffic. An audit in 2011 revealed only basic abilities to identify sources of communications to malicious destinations, which could be identified at the base level but not at the device level. The agency needed to pinpoint the IP addresses of infected devices and comply with regulatory mandates to inject blacklisting feeds from other agencies.

Matthew Frederickson, the Director of IT at Council Rock School District (CRSD), faced several challenges in managing the district's network infrastructure. The existing Microsoft DNS and DHCP services were distributed and hard to manage, leading to inefficiencies and potential security vulnerabilities. The district's network, which serves 18 buildings including 16 schools, required a centralized solution to streamline operations and enhance security. Additionally, managing 257 switches across the district was cumbersome, and there was a need for a system that provided a single pane of glass for monitoring and updating these switches. Security was a significant concern, as the district's systems contained sensitive information that could be targeted by hackers. There was also an internal threat from students who might attempt to exploit network vulnerabilities. Frederickson needed a robust solution to protect the network from malware and unauthorized access, while also simplifying network management.

The customer needed to update its Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure to reduce overall operational support costs—including licensing and maintenance expense. The incumbent vendor of proprietary DNS software was attempting to force the customer to accept a forklift upgrade to a new platform, triggering expensive new license and platform costs. The customer evaluated vendors to determine whether a more cost-effective approach with sufficient future-proofing could be found. In order to eliminate dependencies on server hardware and software integration issues, evaluators were willing to consider an appliance-based solution. They were also concerned about the level of effort required to support an in-house DNS system that required frequent server operating system (OS) patching, updates, and troubleshooting. Operational concerns included the need to maintain a low DNS response time in order to deliver high customer-satisfaction levels, since DNS latency is a key parameter that affects customer experience and therefore impacts customer churn. A second concern was the placement of remote DNS servers close to customers at the network edge. This was desirable to reduce DNS latency, but a distributed DNS system has the potential to stress the internal operations team, who need a centralized view of network conditions with remote visibility of all DNS servers. Also a factor was the ability to provide automated failover in disaster-recovery scenarios.

UC Berkeley faced challenges with its aging, custom-built DDI infrastructure, which was inefficient and costly to maintain. The legacy BIND system required multiple employees for upkeep, leading to high operational costs. The network's complexity increased with the growing number of connected devices, and the anticipated rise in student enrollment further strained the system. The BIND system's inability to handle automated IPv6 addressing and the manual servicing of requests posed significant challenges. Additionally, the DNSSEC deployment required complex scripting, increasing the risk of errors that could disrupt the entire network.

Interval Leisure Group faced significant challenges with their existing Microsoft DNS system, which lacked a centralized or automated IPAM database. This deficiency hindered the security team's ability to gain visibility and generate reports necessary for analyzing security incidents. Additionally, the network team, operating in a dynamic environment characterized by aggressive business expansion, required automation to replace the time-consuming and error-prone spreadsheets they were using. The hospitality industry, in which Interval operates, has been a frequent target of data breaches due to its rich databases of credit-card data and personally identifiable information. In 2014, Interval's security operation center correlated over 19 million alerts, with 8,500 classified as medium-to-high-threat alerts. The legacy environment's reliance on spreadsheets resulted in significant delays in conducting forensic investigations, with each incident taking between two and four hours to diagnose. This inefficiency was compounded by the frequent reassignment of IP addresses, leading to inaccurate investigation results. Recognizing the need for a more robust solution, Interval sought to re-architect their environment with Infoblox Secure DNS.

During the process of applying security patches to the DNS servers, incompatibilities between the UNIX code and the DNS and DHCP vendor’s code brought down the DNS system. This resulted in a significant disruption where every single system at the bank became unavailable or severely crippled, affecting the bank's operations and customer access to services. The IT manager realized the need for a more integrated, centrally managed solution to ensure the availability of core network services and protect DNS servers against advanced persistent threats, malware, and denial-of-service attacks.

The parent group was consolidating operating companies and needed to merge various disparate IT systems—including its DNS and DHCP systems. Two separate Alcatel-Lucent VitalQIP systems were in use to manage DNS for multiple wireline networks and for multiple Microsoft and BIND DNS systems on the mobile network. The overall combination of disparate DNS systems left the provider with no synergies across the company and no common solution for IP address management. Change management was a major challenge, since methods and procedures were different on each of the legacy networks. Day-to-day operating processes like server OS patches, security updates, and software upgrades were different in each organization—and all were manual and error-prone, involving multiple operations teams, organizations, and server platforms for internal and web-facing DNS as well as for DHCP. The service provider decided to use the reorganization as an opportunity to rationalize its DNS systems and bring in a more consistent and coordinated approach, with the goal of achieving operational efficiencies, cost savings, and performance improvements that would benefit users.

In 2009, the company faced significant challenges with its internal DNS management, which was handled using Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft DNS and DHCP. The DNS issues were causing frequent problems, taking up hours of staff time each week. A newly hired Linux and UNIX administrator identified DNS as the root cause of many business problems, noting that DNS issues had a cascading effect on the network. The company had seven separate Microsoft domains and no IP address management, leading to difficulties in identifying IP address assignments. The existing system lacked the tools to reconcile discrepancies, requiring more human effort than the company could afford. When a new CIO joined, the opportunity arose to make a change, and the administrator suggested repurposing Infoblox appliances for internal DNS management.

Adobe Systems faced significant challenges in managing its DNS, DHCP, and IP address infrastructure, which was crucial for maintaining the availability of its business-critical Internet domains. The legacy system in place was inconsistent and prone to outages, causing disruptions that could last up to 24 hours. These outages not only affected Adobe's reputation but also posed a risk to its operational success. The technical lead for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management, Brent Hetherwick, was frequently called to address these issues, highlighting the need for a more reliable and secure solution.

Hershey was facing challenges with its outdated DNS and DHCP management solution, which was cumbersome and inefficient. The existing system required significant operational care and feeding, leading to high costs and inefficiencies. The company needed a modern solution that was easier to use and more efficient to operate, to support its global network and improve business operations.

The IT organization within the U.S. Department of Defense faced several challenges in managing its mission-critical processing servers. The primary issues included the difficulty of deploying new hardware quickly, the need for unified DNS management, and the requirement for single sign-on and role-based access. The organization also aimed to lay the groundwork for an elastic private cloud. The existing environment was heterogeneous, running both Windows and Linux, and relied on disparate management tools like Microsoft MMC and multiple text files across servers running BIND, ISC, and DHCP. These tools were inadequate for tasks such as frequent global DNS name refreshes, leading to inefficiencies and errors from manual processes. The overarching concern was to improve efficiency, eliminate errors, and streamline operations, thereby increasing productivity.

As one of the fastest growing telecommunications companies in the world, and the premier provider in Qatar, Ooredoo was rapidly expanding its customer base. While this was great from a business perspective, the company’s IT division began to take note of the strain being placed on its fixed core network, which was essential to its fiber to the x (FTTx) offerings. In particular, the limitations of the telecommunications provider’s Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) solution were becoming more prominent with each addition to the customer base. Besides this, the vendor was simply unable to provide the level of support expected of a world-class telecom provider, and this only increased the challenges. Faced with the risk of customers being unable to connect due to system instability, Salem and his team began to evaluate new DHCP solutions that could meet their needs. Stability, security, scalability, and proactive local support were identified as the key criteria for the new solution. The company also recognized this as an opportunity to address consolidation. At the time, it was providing each of its enterprise customers with dedicated on-premises DHCP, which added to both the cost and complexity of the network. The new solution would therefore have to be able to centralize this in a reliable and efficient manner.

The company manages a vast, globally distributed network that serves all its operating companies, and advanced persistent threats (APTs) in particular keep network managers awake at night. FireEye Threat Prevention Platforms are deployed to guard against APTs at eight hub locations that carry 99 percent of the company’s Internet traffic for EMEA, Asia-Pacific, and North America. And during a proof-of-concept test to demonstrate FireEye’s effectiveness, the security team uncovered an alarming fact. The FireEye software, which was configured on the side as a monitoring system rather than inline as a blocking system, was detecting from 35 to 40 thousand DNS requests every day going to or from domains associated with known malware products. But network managers had no way to identify the infected devices. FireEye was identifying the company’s Infoblox DNS servers, some of which were handling thousands of queries, as the source of the malicious communications—but what was actually going on was that Trojans, APTs, and other types of malware on infected clients were asking the DNS servers to phone home for them. And the FireEye alerts were identifying the Infoblox servers rather than the infected devices themselves as the source. So while network managers could count the communications with malicious domains, they couldn’t pinpoint the specific clients on their network that were sending them. And they asked Infoblox, “How can you help us see what we cannot see today?”

The Sussex Health Informatics Service (HIS) embarked on a major overhaul of its IT infrastructure to centralize IT services for all its customer organizations. This required a unified approach to networking, security, and application delivery to enhance patient care across Sussex. A key component of this initiative was the Community of Interest Network (COIN), which provides a Gigabit-speed WAN linking core node sites to over 270 NHS sites in Sussex. The COIN was intended to provide common network services, including a single global Microsoft Active Directory repository, and serve as the backbone for future IP Telephony services. However, the consolidation and centralization of network services posed significant challenges. Microsoft Active Directory, which relies on DNS and DHCP services, was previously deployed on Microsoft Domain Controllers. The loss of these services could result in downtime for Microsoft application services and impact non-Microsoft applications utilizing DNS services. To achieve the required reliability and manageability, Sussex HIS aimed to migrate all sites to a resilient appliance-based platform.

IP addressing is a critical component of the airport's operations. Inefficient IP management can lead to missed flights, delays, or cancellations, which can have severe consequences for airlines, including financial penalties and reputational damage. The airport's existing system, consisting of approximately 300 switches, lacked the capability to identify root causes of network issues, leading to frequent minor outages and the looming threat of major outages. The airport required a robust IP address management (IPAM) solution to ensure uninterrupted service.

The company faced challenges in maintaining stability, business continuity, and efficiency across a complex, widely distributed, and dynamic mission-critical network. Key requirements included availability and disaster recovery, especially concerning the management of millions of IP addresses during acquisitions and divestitures. The existing commodity solutions were inadequate for industrial-strength network management, leading to difficulties in information gathering and security issue remediation. The need for a centrally managed system to handle DNS and DHCP was critical to offset the risk of outages and ensure global stability.

As more business units/sites opted for IT staff to manage their networks, the number of devices to monitor increased weekly. This required either hiring additional staff or finding an automated tool to efficiently manage the network. Manually gathering information was time-consuming, taking weeks to complete.