Blogs on DDI for Network Automation & Network Security DDI (DNS-DHCP-IPAM) is foundational for managing apps and networks on-prem and in clouds. It simplifies network management, strengthens security, and enables automation. Read how Smart DDI enhances business continuity & UX, speeds up time to revenue, and improves compliance. DDIIPAMNetwork AutomationWhy DDI APIs Matter to Network AutomationOpen APIs are essential to enable IT modernization required by digital business transformation. By unleashing actionable data and metadata on DNS, DHCP, IPAM, and built-in Network Source of Truth (NSoT), DDI APIs play a central role to deliver critical use cases in network automation and security. This allows NetOps, DevOps, and NetSecOps teams to reap tangible benefits very quickly. APIs are a catalyst of IT modernization Collaboration is key. Many would agree that working together has great power. As we...DNS SecurityHow DNS Security Helps Combat RansomwareEveryone knows that Ransomware has become costly as attacks target organizations in every industry vertical. Governments, the private sector, and critical infrastructure owners face intolerable data, financial, and reputational losses with seemingly no way to stop it. But perhaps we’re not trying the right way. In most cases, ransomware needs the Domain Name System (DNS) so it can achieve its malicious goals. However, security solutions such as Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) have limited DNS coverage in the security ecosystem. Purpose-built DNS...DNS SecurityData Theft via DNS – Are You Safe?With cybercriminals using increasingly sophisticated mechanisms, and insider threats still prevalent, organizations have come to accept that the threat of a data breach is here to stay. Rather than wondering “if” my business will become a victim of data theft or ransomware, the question now is “when”. The market stats are pretty scary: according to AV-Test Institute, more than 1 billion malware programs exist, and Sonic Wall’s 2022 report states that 40 million ransomware attacks occur every month. Despite all...Privacy LawsData Regulations: Time to Step up Your Data Theft ProtectionToday’s data-driven economy is being led by personal data, so naturally focus is turning more strongly to privacy and protection. New regulations have appeared over the last few years, with a rapid acceleration in regions such as North America and APAC. While it’s only fair that regulators introduce these new laws with their associated fines for data breaches, companies are still finding it extremely challenging to ensure confidentiality of their data. Cybercriminals are smart guys – data theft and ransomware...DDIIPAMNetwork AutomationUse DDI to Jumpstart Network Automation in a Cisco EnvironmentWhy Network Automation is Needed Besides economically driven reasons, digital-transformation strategies are still a prime reason to perform Network Automation in general. The main goals here are to improve efficiency and flexibility to increase productivity. The challenges aimed to be solved are in the areas of cost, visibility and change, in order to maximize return on investments. As Gartner puts it: “… by 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining automation technologies with redesigned operational processes …”...DDIDNS SecurityInternet of ThingsIPAMNetwork AutomationVirtualization & CloudTop 5 Network and Security Predictions for 2023Welcome to 2023, a year that promises to be another one full of turbulence, coming back from the pandemic, and facing the current hectic economic climate and downturn which in effect brings new challenges to enterprises. They have to develop (new) resilient strategies, resist threats, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. This is where network automation comes into play and shines. And as if this is not enough already, further continuation of adopting hybrid working, network modeling, risk mitigation, and...DDIIPAMNetwork Automation2022 Top 5 Highlights for Network Automation and Security2022 has been challenging for IT and network teams. While the pandemic brought a shift to cloud and work-from-anywhere, market factors this year such as supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine, and inflation have brought “optimization” to the forefront. That includes optimizing operational efficiency (time savings) as well as costs (TCO & Opex), to ensure business continuity, risk management, and compliance. To meet requirements, enhanced security postures, improved multi-cloud management, and above all network automation projects have been mainly...DDIIPAMNetwork AutomationNetSecOps: Why Source of Truth & Automation is Key to IT SuccessFrom management perspectives, IT automation is a useful solution for issues related to productivity, agility, scalability and lack of resources of the IT teams. But implementing automation in IT is not an easy transformation. It requires having technical leadership, defining the most suitable actions to target, using appropriate tooling, storing data, writing automation code and globally transforming the entire organization and processes in place. Organizations today have realized that trusted data is key for enabling automation. Therefore, many of their...DNS SecurityDNS Security for Retail: Protecting Revenue & BrandThe work-from-anywhere environment has accelerated the transition to the cloud, e-commerce and in-store retailers are experiencing heightened security risks. Risks that lead to more network downtime and data theft potential. Cybersecurity incidents can hit a retailer’s reputation hard, causing customers to switch allegiance to a competitor. Smart DNS security offers the network visibility and analytics that retailers require for having the confidence to withstand potential cyber-attacks. Confidence in their capability to recover quickly and safeguard consumer data. While maintaining a...DDINetwork AutomationSOLIDserver 8.2: Enhancing Network Automation and Cloud Asset ManagementWith the Release 8.2 of SOLIDserver, IT teams including CloudOps, DevOps, and NetSecOps are provided with two new products that strengthen their capability to better view cloud instances and network objects to accelerate their automation journey, increasing their agility and help decision-making to sustain business needs. Complementary benefits can be envisaged around enhanced cost control, risk management, and meeting compliance. These significant benefits are brought by the following two major products introduced with Release 8.2: Cloud Observer: Centralized Visibility Over...DNSHow Telcos Overcome Rising DNS AttacksTelecommunication operators control and run the critical infrastructure vital for communicating and storing large amounts of sensitive data. This makes them an obvious major target for cyber attacks, frequently using DNS as an attack vector to cause devastating impacts on internet connectivity and data confidentiality. According to a recent IDC security report, Telcos are the 2nd most targeted vertical, with 94 percent of them suffering DNS attacks. Other reports estimate each DDoS attack carried out through DNS costs over $220,000...DDIDNSDNS RFCs: The Elephant in the Room – Part 2As stated in Part 1 of this series, DNS RFCs have a great impact on how DNS operates. It comes with a risk factor and can impact security. In this second part, we will continue to discuss the impact and provide some food for thought on how to deal with it. DNS is a clear Favorite – Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE loves it! DNS has had more than 25 years to mature, and with that, also the bad actors that want...
DDIIPAMNetwork AutomationWhy DDI APIs Matter to Network AutomationOpen APIs are essential to enable IT modernization required by digital business transformation. By unleashing actionable data and metadata on DNS, DHCP, IPAM, and built-in Network Source of Truth (NSoT), DDI APIs play a central role to deliver critical use cases in network automation and security. This allows NetOps, DevOps, and NetSecOps teams to reap tangible benefits very quickly. APIs are a catalyst of IT modernization Collaboration is key. Many would agree that working together has great power. As we...
DNS SecurityHow DNS Security Helps Combat RansomwareEveryone knows that Ransomware has become costly as attacks target organizations in every industry vertical. Governments, the private sector, and critical infrastructure owners face intolerable data, financial, and reputational losses with seemingly no way to stop it. But perhaps we’re not trying the right way. In most cases, ransomware needs the Domain Name System (DNS) so it can achieve its malicious goals. However, security solutions such as Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) have limited DNS coverage in the security ecosystem. Purpose-built DNS...
DNS SecurityData Theft via DNS – Are You Safe?With cybercriminals using increasingly sophisticated mechanisms, and insider threats still prevalent, organizations have come to accept that the threat of a data breach is here to stay. Rather than wondering “if” my business will become a victim of data theft or ransomware, the question now is “when”. The market stats are pretty scary: according to AV-Test Institute, more than 1 billion malware programs exist, and Sonic Wall’s 2022 report states that 40 million ransomware attacks occur every month. Despite all...
Privacy LawsData Regulations: Time to Step up Your Data Theft ProtectionToday’s data-driven economy is being led by personal data, so naturally focus is turning more strongly to privacy and protection. New regulations have appeared over the last few years, with a rapid acceleration in regions such as North America and APAC. While it’s only fair that regulators introduce these new laws with their associated fines for data breaches, companies are still finding it extremely challenging to ensure confidentiality of their data. Cybercriminals are smart guys – data theft and ransomware...
DDIIPAMNetwork AutomationUse DDI to Jumpstart Network Automation in a Cisco EnvironmentWhy Network Automation is Needed Besides economically driven reasons, digital-transformation strategies are still a prime reason to perform Network Automation in general. The main goals here are to improve efficiency and flexibility to increase productivity. The challenges aimed to be solved are in the areas of cost, visibility and change, in order to maximize return on investments. As Gartner puts it: “… by 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining automation technologies with redesigned operational processes …”...
DDIDNS SecurityInternet of ThingsIPAMNetwork AutomationVirtualization & CloudTop 5 Network and Security Predictions for 2023Welcome to 2023, a year that promises to be another one full of turbulence, coming back from the pandemic, and facing the current hectic economic climate and downturn which in effect brings new challenges to enterprises. They have to develop (new) resilient strategies, resist threats, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. This is where network automation comes into play and shines. And as if this is not enough already, further continuation of adopting hybrid working, network modeling, risk mitigation, and...
DDIIPAMNetwork Automation2022 Top 5 Highlights for Network Automation and Security2022 has been challenging for IT and network teams. While the pandemic brought a shift to cloud and work-from-anywhere, market factors this year such as supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine, and inflation have brought “optimization” to the forefront. That includes optimizing operational efficiency (time savings) as well as costs (TCO & Opex), to ensure business continuity, risk management, and compliance. To meet requirements, enhanced security postures, improved multi-cloud management, and above all network automation projects have been mainly...
DDIIPAMNetwork AutomationNetSecOps: Why Source of Truth & Automation is Key to IT SuccessFrom management perspectives, IT automation is a useful solution for issues related to productivity, agility, scalability and lack of resources of the IT teams. But implementing automation in IT is not an easy transformation. It requires having technical leadership, defining the most suitable actions to target, using appropriate tooling, storing data, writing automation code and globally transforming the entire organization and processes in place. Organizations today have realized that trusted data is key for enabling automation. Therefore, many of their...
DNS SecurityDNS Security for Retail: Protecting Revenue & BrandThe work-from-anywhere environment has accelerated the transition to the cloud, e-commerce and in-store retailers are experiencing heightened security risks. Risks that lead to more network downtime and data theft potential. Cybersecurity incidents can hit a retailer’s reputation hard, causing customers to switch allegiance to a competitor. Smart DNS security offers the network visibility and analytics that retailers require for having the confidence to withstand potential cyber-attacks. Confidence in their capability to recover quickly and safeguard consumer data. While maintaining a...
DDINetwork AutomationSOLIDserver 8.2: Enhancing Network Automation and Cloud Asset ManagementWith the Release 8.2 of SOLIDserver, IT teams including CloudOps, DevOps, and NetSecOps are provided with two new products that strengthen their capability to better view cloud instances and network objects to accelerate their automation journey, increasing their agility and help decision-making to sustain business needs. Complementary benefits can be envisaged around enhanced cost control, risk management, and meeting compliance. These significant benefits are brought by the following two major products introduced with Release 8.2: Cloud Observer: Centralized Visibility Over...
DNSHow Telcos Overcome Rising DNS AttacksTelecommunication operators control and run the critical infrastructure vital for communicating and storing large amounts of sensitive data. This makes them an obvious major target for cyber attacks, frequently using DNS as an attack vector to cause devastating impacts on internet connectivity and data confidentiality. According to a recent IDC security report, Telcos are the 2nd most targeted vertical, with 94 percent of them suffering DNS attacks. Other reports estimate each DDoS attack carried out through DNS costs over $220,000...
DDIDNSDNS RFCs: The Elephant in the Room – Part 2As stated in Part 1 of this series, DNS RFCs have a great impact on how DNS operates. It comes with a risk factor and can impact security. In this second part, we will continue to discuss the impact and provide some food for thought on how to deal with it. DNS is a clear Favorite – Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE loves it! DNS has had more than 25 years to mature, and with that, also the bad actors that want...
