5 Reasons to Choose EfficientIP DDI

Requirements of today’s IT infrastructure

IT infrastructure has become extremely complex and in perpetual evolution to match ever evolving business needs. In addition to planning the needs for building and running new IT and Network services, decommissioning of resources when they are no longer needed, must now be anticipated right from the get go. Obviously, all this must also be performed while ensuring maximum security, high velocity and reliability in the execution. Not conforming to these requirements would lead to misconfigurations, overshot deadlines, lack of control, poor security, higher vulnerability to failures with siloed and inaccurate data.

This is where DDI (DNS-DHCP-IPAM) is becoming an essential component of Digital Transformation to enable Strategic IT Initiatives such as Multicloud, SD-WAN, Zero Trust, to name a few. But not all DDI solutions were born equal…

Challenges using DDI from other vendors

Organizations taking other DDI solutions have faced a variety of challenges.
Depending on the vendor, they were confronted with complex architectures, with specialized appliances and software rendering the management of these solutions as a whole inconsistent and siloed. This is often due to incomplete integration of solutions issues from acquisitions over the years or initial design orientation that lead to difficult DDI automation. By the same token, GUIs may not be homogeneous for components that are supposed to be for the same integrated solution. Sometimes, API capabilities are limited and not always able to deliver the full potential of what can be done via the related GUI. This is a real problem to implement automation of the IT services supply chain with these DDI solutions. On the hardware appliance side, not only they can be function-specific but they also require constant upgrades to keep up with new capabilities and capacities of their software which break the budgets planned based on hardware maintenance only. Similar frameworks apply on the software side, with on the one hand the related DDI licensing becoming out of control and exceeding budget, and on the other the complexity of upgrading various software components of these solutions to keep them functional. The acid-test on this matter is whether you need a compatibility matrix between the software components…

5 compelling reasons to choose or switch to EfficientIP DDI

For nearly two decades, we’ve been serving more than 1000 organizations worldwide, helping them improve efficiency, lower their costs and mitigate their security risks. Our solution has better possibilities with our Integrated DDI single product called SOLIDserver. EfficientIP DDI architecture is simpler and more scalable. It is more flexible to enable automation within the DDI and with the ecosystem. SOLIDServer offers stronger DNS Security with a broader range of policy enforcement. Lastly, the solution has a proven more cost-effective TCO.

1. Lower TCO by simplifying your architecture, with an all-in-one server

The EfficientIP DDI is architectured around SOLIDserver. This single software with the same functionalities across the various supported form factors – physical appliance, software appliance and virtual appliance – delivers services based on the configuration and the licenses of the management appliance. You can deploy the solution based on your actual needs and evolutions are available at your fingertips. No compatibility matrix needed with a single software and upgrades are easy and straightforward. Appliances can be repurposed as needed except for the Blast appliance, which is dedicated for very high DNS performance requirements. This simpler software architecture leads to a lower TCO.

2. Simplified management of DDI resources with intuitive and consistent GUI across all products

A single software for a unified solution means a single GUI for all services. The solution can also drive core network services running on Microsoft and Linux systems. All DDI services, the system, all appliances and the users are managed from a central appliance configured to act as the DDI orchestrator. SOLIDserver can scale to millions of entries with intuitive and easy navigation between all modules and objects. All DNS Zones and records, DHCP scopes and ranges, VLANs, VRFs, Applications, Identities, etc. are linked to IPAM resources with global search capabilities showing these connections.

At the higher level, the SmartArchitecture makes it easy to create, configure and manage complex and vast DNS and DHCP services using templates to which appliances are added. Upgrades, evolutions and server replacement can be done in no time.

3. Comprehensive functionality such as DNS Firewall, IPAM Cloud Sync and reporting built into core product

EfficientIP IPAM goes beyond IP resources and manages VLAN, VRF, devices, applications, and identities. It can also synchronize IPAM data from AWS and Azure for global and centralized visibility. It offers a rich set of ready-to-use services including DDI automation (e.g. a new DHCP lease will automatically create the related entry in the IPAM that in turn will automatically create the related DNS Resource Records). EfficientIP DNS can run a DNS firewall using either internal RPZ feed or external DNS feeds from the market. The integrated DDI single software architecture embeds its reporting engine providing total visibility on all network resources wherever they are deployed. Anything that can be done via the GUI can be done via API which is key for automation.

4. Flexible IPAM with actionable metadata for advanced automation (policy enforcement)

IP resources managed by the IPAM are usually not connected to other repositories or business information. EfficientIP IPAM allows you to enrich these IP resources with metadata that can be used and queried within the GUI and from API. This expands tremendously the scope of automation with the ecosystem.

5. Extensible APIs for smooth IT ecosystem integration

SOLIDserver is entirely orchestrated around its API engine. Its web GUI is actually built on top of it. So whatever you can do with the GUI, you can do with the SOLIDserver API.
This gives complete flexibility to manage it via the GUI up to a full headless usage and a mix of both. You can not only embark into the automation journey but you can do it at your own pace and still intervene manually when required. The best of both worlds being manual configuration via the GUI triggering the API for integration with the IT, Network and Security ecosystems.

Don’t hesitate and switch now!

To address the complexity and the requirements of today’s and tomorrow’s IT infrastructures you need a simple, flexible, scalable, efficient DDI solution allowing you to expand the capabilities and reach of your current system while reducing its TCO. You won’t need forced hardware refreshes. The software will be easy to upgrade. The licensing is straightforward and easy to understand. Last but not least, our team has already helped numerous customers to migrate their DDI from other vendors and expand the projects to new capabilities.