Articles

Through the IPAM looking-glass with Men&Mice

Network systems rarely consist of one type of hardware or software product or service.

Oct 26th, 2015

Migrating your IP address management to the same pane of glass as your DNS/DHCP management

The path to consolidated DDI

Since the advent of commercial DDI services, many enterprises have taken the leap of investing in their IT infrastructure by way of acquiring centralized DNS, DHCP and IP address management (IPAM) software, services and appliances. Though DDI vendors generally provide a consolidated product with DNS, DHCP and IPAM in one package, most also offer individualized software, services and appliances, differentiating between DNS, DHCP and IPAM. This means that one large enterprise could house DNS management from one vendor, DHCP from another and IPAM from yet another.

Often times this development is a combination of most modern medium to large enterprises’ constantly changing needs and environment: some grow larger, some grow smaller, others merge and need to accommodate previously separate networks in one united approach.  Additionally, as DDI forms the cornerstone of most networks and many vendors’ products have become an integral part (for better or worse) of an enterprise’s infrastructure, replacing one form of DNS/DHCP or IP address management with another runs the risk of severely interrupting business, with the accompanying loss of revenue – something which most organizations can ill afford.

Recognizing that network systems rarely consist of one type of hardware or software product or service, the Men&Mice Suite is an integrated overlay solution installed on top of existing infrastructure, thereby maximizing efficacy without any expensive hardware replacements or DNS/DHCP service downtime. One of the greatest benefits of the Men&Mice Suite solution is its ease of use (especially in heterogeneous environments) and simplicity of deployment, which makes it a particularly attractive option when a company is looking for ways of consolidating IT infrastructure after a merger or other forms of transition.

Migrating IPAM from another vendor to Men&Mice

Recently, a large Fortune 500 retailer decided to migrate its IP address management to the same pane of glass as its DNS management, which has been managed by Men&Mice for some years. Given the size of their operations, such a migration can be a risky and time-consuming affair, more so when it requires extensive hardware replacements, which, fortunately, is not the case with the Men&Mice Suite overlay solution. In fact, Men&Mice services staff needed to spend no more than five days on location preparing for the deployment, training staff and eventually executing the deployment itself.

After the initial preparation and very well-attended training sessions, the deployment was put into action by using the robust and agile Men&Mice SOAP-API to migrate data to the new system. During the migration, business continued as usual without general employees experiencing any DNS/DHCP downtime or inconvenience. Users managing the company’s DNS/DHCP and IP address infrastructure could start updating IPAM data again through the new system after a mere ten-hour interval.

Apart from the time spent on preparation, training and deployment, Men&Mice services staff also cleaned up data, integrated with external databases, connected domain controllers for DNS and DHCP to Men&Mice and synchronized with AD sites and subnets.

The Fortune 500 retailer now has a system which provides unified information across their network, from their AD, DHCP servers, BIND servers, routers, as well as their IPAM database, and all through one pane of glass. Additionally, they have a feature rich and easy-to-use UI for advanced management, web interface and a particularly powerful API, plus the opportunity to further maximize efficiency through potential customized automation and workflow implementation capabilities contained in the Men&Mice Suite.

Conclusion

It’s perfectly understandable that customers fear a journey through the “looking-glass” of consolidating their DDI solutions: will they enter an unusual world of chaos and confusion? Or wake up in their own office chair with everything in its right place? More importantly, how much will this DDI journey cost them in terms of lost operations, time and money?

With a DDI solution and services that promise simplicity, reliability and flexibility when a situation calls for chaos and confusion, the only “looking-glass” that Men&Mice aims to leave behind with their customers, is the single pane of glass from which to painlessly manage their newly consolidated DNS/DHCP and IPAM infrastructure.