DDI for Telco: Improving Business Continuity, Operational Efficiency and Scalability

For Telecom operators and Internet Service Providers, IP networks are becoming increasingly complex to manage and evolve. Multi cloud, IoT, 5G and other digital transformation projects have introduced “anything-as-a-software”, SD-WAN, NFV and SDN architectures and opened up new usages requiring ultra-low latency.

DNS, DHCP and IPAM (known collectively as DDI) are critical technologies for IP networks, and together with automation are mandatory for simplifying management via zero-touch operations, while ensuring service availability and enhancing user experience. EfficientIP’s all-in-one solution integrates DDI, DNS Security and intelligent app traffic management to help ease deployment of telecom networks.

Telcos are facing architectural complexity, regulatory obligations and security gaps

With networks constantly evolving due to IT initiatives and the rollout of 5G, telcos are faced with new challenges every day. On the management side, IT staff seldom have accurate visibility of IP resources across multi-tenant and cloud, have difficulty in managing IP plans across multiple geographies, and are unable to easily support coexistence of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. This often results in time-consuming tasks and error-ridden configurations. On the architecture side, the increasing number of hardware components is pushing TCO out of control, scalability limitations are being felt, and service providers are struggling to offer the desired user experience, particularly for new revenue-generating 5G usages. Lastly, security remains an issue, with gaps in conventional solutions leaving the door open for data theft, illicit communications and DNS attacks.

Smart solutions, particularly in the areas of network management, resilience and security, have therefore become imperative. Any service interruption is unacceptable for subscribers. To ensure that, SOLIDserver DDI has repeatedly proven its ability to bring very important capabilities in the IT of telcos, ISPs and MSPs.

Network Management, Security and Automation benefits brought by Smart DDI

By enabling core services like DNS and DHCP, DDI enables foundational IP services. Service and application addresses are resolved based on their names, and IP addresses are provided to any device on the network. The IPAM component of DDI manages network and IP data in a structured, dynamic manner, allowing automation, orchestration on reliable data, real-time service monitoring and billing capabilities. Functionality brought by SOLIDserver DDI offers zero touch provisioning via smart automation and open APIs, bringing time savings up to 80%.
IP address planning and monitoring becomes mandatory for delivering and enabling services using Virtual Network Functions (VNF), enabling fast-growing networks to be managed with reduced manpower. DDI automation brings horizontal scaling capability for resource optimization, helping reduce costs. And SOLIDserver’s high-performance DNS and DHCP services reduce latency while allowing architecture to be simplified, from the core to the network edge.

Lastly, intelligent application traffic management built into the DNS guarantees availability of applications, while at the same time improving user experience by enhancing app delivery performance. Within SOLIDserver, that is made possible by Edge DNS GSLB functionality identifying the most responsive application server.

DDI brings value to a variety of usages, from IPv6 migration to Parental Control

DDI brings value to a variety of usages, from IPv6 migration to Parental Control
Whether it’s for meeting regulatory compliance, supporting network evolutions, or implementing new revenue-generating usages, SOLIDserver DDI is a key enabler.

Examples include the following:

• Lawful Interception: to meet regulatory requirements for filtering DNS domains based on regularly updated lists, DNS Firewall helps manage the lists and apply filtering for selected or all subscribers.
• Migration to IPv6: SOLIDserver provides a risk-free integrated solution to help manage co-existence of multi-tenant IPv6/v4 addressing plans and DNS/DHCP services, ensuring scalability, performance and high availability of your network.
• Parental Control: DNS is really good for creating a simple to use/configure solution without needing to deploy massive infrastructure. Adding DNS Guardian and client query filtering to existing DNS infrastructure offers cost-effective parental control, increasing subscriber take-up.
• Infrastructure cost optimization through frugal design: for handling large subscriber volumes, lack of performance in the core service often leads to adding infrastructure. SOLIDserver DNS and DHCP have been optimized to support more traffic and subscribers, thus reducing the amount of appliances required.

For enhancing network availability and performance, a smart DDI can significantly help Telcos optimize their infrastructures. With EfficientIP’s leading DDI you get:

• Enhanced business continuity with all-in-one DNS delivering built-in security, transparent resilience and carrier-grade performance.
  
• Improved operational efficiency due to automated provisioning/deprovisioning and IP data sharing, helping telcos on their path to autonomous networks
• Reduced costs thanks to to smarter architecture and smaller number of boxes