Our DDI environment is managed by BlueCat Integrity, a unified platform for our DNS, DHCP, and IP address management.
BlueCat DNS and DHCP Server for AWS
BlueCat NetworksExternal reviews
18 reviews
from
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
With its centralized console, we save time and money
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
The user interface is intuitive and easy to learn. New users can navigate it confidently without confusion. Our international teams in France, India, and the US have all successfully managed the IPAM system with the UI, demonstrating its clear design. This reinforces the idea that a well-designed interface can make even complex technology accessible.
They offer a consolidated view, like a single pane of glass, of our entire IP address space. This comprehensive view is incredibly valuable. The vast amount of information is presented in a user-friendly way, similar to a database. BlueCat intelligently organizes this data, including the ERTs, for efficient exploration. A convenient dashboard provides a central location to access all this information.
It delivered immediate benefits. It offered a high degree of control, comprehensive information for log monitoring, and more. Compared to a Windows system, it streamlined log analysis with its exceptional logging capabilities. Overall, it's an excellent solution.
BlueCat Integrity helps reduce human error by automating tasks and improving data integrity. For example, its DNS features can check for typos and other configuration errors, ensuring accurate data is used. Additionally, Integrity's infrastructure creation and data organization tools promote consistency and reduce the potential for mistakes caused by manual processes.
It minimizes downtime by offering various high-availability features. One such feature is called XHA, which ensures service continuity even if individual machines or appliances experience issues. This allows services to remain online during maintenance updates, for example. Additionally, BlueCat Edge leverages Anycast technology to provide further redundancy for Integrity's DNS services.
Previously, BlueCat's reach was limited to North America. We've expanded our footprint globally. This involved decommissioning many legacy servers worldwide, particularly Windows-based ones like DNS and DHCP servers, as well as some digital services on firewalls and routers. This shift to BlueCat grants us greater control and allows for a more standardized configuration across our global network. It also facilitates easier deployment and enforcement of network-wide standards.
Our organization heavily utilizes BlueCat Integrity's API for automation and data integrity monitoring. It effectively provides all the information necessary for our current automation needs, making it a valuable tool.
BlueCat Integrity has significantly improved our IT staff's efficiency. A centralized console streamline updates, while global configuration deployment further reduces time spent on management tasks. Overall, BlueCat Integrity offers a wide range of time-saving functionalities that benefit our environment.
While we haven't encountered any server issues, a key strength lies in our well-architected DDI infrastructure. For instance, our DHCP redundancy server resides in a separate location, ensuring failover if the primary site experiences problems. Similarly, with geographically dispersed DNS servers in India and Australia, redundancy is built-in. BlueCat Integrity's robustness further enhances network stability. Since implementing it, we haven't experienced service outages or reboots. The product's maturity is evident, but our monitoring practices also play a crucial role.
The time saved by using BlueCat Integrity translates directly to cost savings.
BlueCat Integrity helps us reduce our TCO.
BlueCat Integrity has been a game-changer. It frees up my time to focus on other projects that improve our network environment, research new technologies, and more. This robust and mature product has given me peace of mind. Since joining this team and using BlueCat, I haven't lost a single night's sleep worrying about DNS, DHCP, or IP Address Management. It simply works reliably in the background, just as it should.
What is most valuable?
BlueCat Integrity has proven to be a robust solution. We haven't encountered any problems with it, and it is reliable.
BlueCat's ability to deliver secure updates quickly is crucial for us. When it comes to DNS security, timely updates and patches are essential. Fortunately, BlueCat excels in this area, providing the peace of mind we need.
I've been impressed by BlueCat's performance and user-friendly GUI. The API allows for easy data collection, particularly for automation purposes. While external monitoring tools are available, BlueCat's built-in monitoring provides an additional layer of convenience and trust.
What needs improvement?
BlueCat Integrity could benefit from several improvements. First, faster log processing would be beneficial. Ideally, the system would adopt a similar approach to BlueCat Edge for improved efficiency. Second, the IPAM dashboard could be enhanced to display more information and provide data analysis features. This could include visualizations, log analysis, and improved reporting with insights and metrics. Similar to BlueCat Edge, reports should be presented in a modern way that leverages more data for analysis. Ultimately, the goal is to visualize logs and gain insights directly within reports.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using BlueCat Integrity for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
A mature solution, BlueCat Integrity has consistently demonstrated stability within our infrastructure, never exhibiting any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
While we rely heavily on the network, there may be times when perfect network balance isn't achievable. The impact of this depends on our specific actions. Thankfully, BlueCat Integrity is a lightweight service, making it easy to scale our work. Additionally, our infrastructure has ample resources, allowing us to easily add more if needed, solidifying this solution's scalability.
How are customer service and support?
We truly value the professional support offered by BlueCat. While it is a paid service, their expertise is excellent, and we rely heavily on their assistance. They are the vendor with whom I have the best working relationship.
The technical support is quick to respond and knowledgeable.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is straightforward. The most important part is to figure out all the clients and the networks that are going to rely on the infrastructure.
One person can handle the deployment as long as they are familiar with the solution.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
BlueCat Integrity's pricing is reasonable within the market.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate BlueCat Integrity ten out of ten. We heavily rely on BlueCat Integrity, and it's been very dependable. When we demonstrate our network management to other teams, they're impressed by the level of control we have. There's very little to complain about – it's a well-architected and implemented solution. The built-in redundancy and global distribution are particularly helpful, contributing significantly to its overall effectiveness.
Apart from system updates, no maintenance is required for BlueCat Integrity.
For those who say they don't need a full-stack integrated DDI management solution, I simply offer good luck. Dedicated DDI solutions provide far greater visibility compared to less mature options. This is crucial – without it, we'd be flying blind. Security is paramount for our company as well. A reliable vendor should quickly release patches for any Common Criteria Evaluation issues affecting our DNS, DHCP, and IT infrastructure. This allows us to swiftly update our security team and maintain a proactive stance. Remember, while DNS, DHCP, and IPAM aren't complex products, they are critically important. A single vulnerability can cripple the entire company. A proper response and vendor support during high-impact situations are essential. While the need for a solution like BlueCat Integrity scales with company size, even smaller organizations benefit from the peace of mind and efficiency it offers. Frankly, having experienced the advantages of DDI solutions, I wouldn't dream of working without one today.
For a smooth experience with BlueCat Integrity, prioritize initializing your IPAM component. Updating BlueCat with all your IP addresses upfront helps prevent future management challenges. Since IPAM can be complex, leverage automation as much as possible to automatically collect IP address information. Additionally, security is paramount when dealing with DNS, so always prioritize security best practices.
It improves our security by providing a single source of IP address usage and contact information
What is our primary use case?
We use Integrity for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management. It provides a means to track our public and internal IP space and to find information about network utilization. Integrity is the sole DNS for the entire company. We have two on-prem data centers and servers on two cloud providers that all use the BlueCat DNS. The company has about 150 remote offices throughout the US, and they all use the centralized BlueCat DNS and DHCP services. There are 25,000 employees, but only about 50 are direct users, including a few engineers with admin rights.
How has it helped my organization?
We have experienced some challenges with the high availability of the physical boxes. As we've gone to the virtualization and cloud options, that has become much more resilient. Patching was sometimes problematic because we had to do it from the command line, and the GUI was limited. Sometimes, things would get stuck, so you had to go to the command line. Integrity offers some GUI enhancements, high availability, logging improvements, and tools you can use to pull data from it. It's much easier for lower-level engineers to do quick checks without command-line access. That has been a significant improvement.
A few years ago, we migrated to a virtual server infrastructure and changed the Active Directory in that model to point to BlueCat Integrity DNS rather than Microsoft ActiveNet. By doing that, we alleviated many of the security and performance issues we had with Microsoft appliances.
We also changed the server infrastructure from static IP addresses to dynamic DHCP reservations. Regardless of where the VMs come up, the DHCP reservation gives them the correct address and DNS. We do dynamic DNS with that. All those things reduced the labor required to fix and tune problems manually. It's a more automated, seamless solution. Integrity improved our resiliency and accuracy while reducing the potential for manual error.
Aside from the DHCP, there are other automated things we can do. We can integrate things like Splunk and other search or logging tools via API and extract data about IP addresses, DNS changes, etc., into other investigative tools or dashboards. The options are endless, and that has helped us with monitoring and integrating other tools. When we do projects that involve migrating servers or networks from one technology to another, having that API call to see the live status of the project is helpful.
Integrity improves our security by providing a single source of IP address usage and contact information. We also have carrier circuit and location information. The cybersecurity team can pull all those pieces together in one searchable query and find out about certain IP addresses and who to contact. You can add customizable columns and extra variables.
What is most valuable?
As a defense contractor, we must meet many compliance standards regarding logging, configuration, and administrative access. BlueCat is one of the few products that combines all the compliance components in a secure, reliable solution.
Integrity requires some technological expertise and a full-time employee to run the system. It is one of several technologies that my group manages, but maintenance requires minimal effort. Upgrading and deploying the solution is a bigger task, but it is easy to maintain once it is running.
BlueCat Integrity offers a single pane of glass view for our IP address space. From the GUI interface, you can see all the IP addresses and roll them up to the colored views of usage and availability. That capability is critical because we have multiple groups that are off on their own in a cloud environment. We can avoid IP address overlap by checking that as we add different projects. While I've worked at this company, we've had more than 50 acquisitions. As we acquire these companies, some IP addresses may overlap. We can integrate those, see the spaces, and adjust.
What needs improvement?
When you replace an appliance, there are many configuration steps, so adding zero-touch provisioning would be helpful. It can be quite tedious and time-consuming to replace a device if it fails or deploy a new one.
For how long have I used the solution?
We started using BlueCat Integrity in 2007.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate BlueCat 10 out of 10 for stability. It has been extremely stable. We have multiple layers of firewalls around it, so it breaks the traffic, but we've only seen it break one data center, and we continued to provide service to users. We're working behind the scenes to fix these firewall issues and stuff blocking other traffic. It's been so resilient that it's hidden other infrastructure issues, and it's been really great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate BlueCat Integrity 10 out of 10 for scalability. It has so much capacity to run queries. We've set up a distributed system where any calls go to the closest device to the answer, and we've never had any performance issues.
How are customer service and support?
I rate BlueCat support six out of 10. They used to have a free technical account manager for enterprise deployments. They changed that model a few years ago. Recently, they've adopted tiered support, and we pay an additional cost for enhanced service.
We have a dedicated mid-level engineer who is our environment's primary point of contact. We have a much more advanced deployment because we're defense contractors and there are many compliance issues where we need to tune the system. Also, we have it integrated with other things, so we need to do some advanced configuration. Having a dedicated engineer has been helpful. They also have additional staff in case that engineer is on leave or off shift, and we can call on their more experienced engineers to help us if needed.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously had Linux-based systems involving multiple pieces that we had to pull together and operate using a command line. The GUI was a separate database, so it was disjointed, and we had to perform repetitive procedures and manually enter data in multiple places.
Our switch to BlueCat was primarily motivated by compliance considerations. We needed to adopt a modern set of systems that other people could support. The level of technological expertise needed for the old systems was too high, and it was hard to hire engineers with those specialized skills. With BlueCat, you don't need to be a Linux guru. The learning curve was much lower, allowing less-experienced systems engineers to work on it. That freed up our high-skilled employees to work on more advanced things.
How was the initial setup?
The integration was somewhat complex. Integrity is integrated with multiple systems, so it has been incredibly flexible in that regard. It isn't too complex, but you need to do many steps to get it running how you want. It took a couple of weeks to get everything integrated and running.
We had to set up system logging and import all the IP addresses from our old systems before it went live. After deployment, BlueCat requires some maintenance. As defense contractors, we need to adjust when identifying vulnerabilities. We also have a support contract for yearly maintenance.
What was our ROI?
We've realized an ROI from Integrity by saving time and eliminating issues. With a different system that adopts the old ways of doing things, the cost will probably be high, and you won't see much ROI. Integrity's automation and other features have enabled us to eliminate at least four or five full-time employees easily.
The cost of ownership has probably been maintained, but we've reduced the complexity and downtime. That's where the benefits are.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
BlueCat Integrity is a little expensive, but it's worth the price because it offers the flexibility and features we need in our space. We have more than 25,000 employees, and it makes sense for a network of our size. It's required for us to be compliant in the defense industry. Given the restrictions we face, we must be able to easily show that we've complied with all the regulations.
What other advice do I have?
I rate BlueCat Integrity nine out of 10. If you have a decent-sized network, you will have errors and gaps. Those spreadsheets and other systems are inadequate in today's changing world. Things move around so much, and having more automated and integrated solutions frees your engineers to do more worthwhile and advanced things.
I would recommend Integrity to companies managing large networks. We've tried other leading vendors and systems in this space. While some of them have small cost advantages, they lack flexibility and features. We've had plenty of mergers and acquisitions, so we've seen the systems other companies used, and Integrity has always exceeded those.
Helped reduce human error by 70 percent and has helped reduce downtime by 80 percent
What is our primary use case?
We use BlueCat Integrity for IP networking.
How has it helped my organization?
BlueCat Integrity is easy to learn and use. It provides a single pane of glass view for our IP address space. The Single pane of glass is important because it allows us to manage our large environment in one place.
It has helped reduce human error by 70 percent and has helped reduce downtime by 80 percent.
We have been able to free up staff time to focus on other projects and tasks.
BlueCat Integrity's automation capabilities saved us around 80 percent of our time.
It has improved our network stability and has saved us around 40 percent of our costs.
What is most valuable?
BlueCat Integrity's scalability and user-friendliness are the most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
BlueCat Integrity can improve by increasing the amount of updates it releases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using BlueCat Integrity for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of BlueCat Integrity ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of BlueCat Integrity ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
BlueCat's technical support is knowledgeable and quick to respond.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
BlueCat Integrity is affordable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate BlueCat Integrity nine out of ten.
We have five users within our organization.
Our client is an enterprise organization.
I recommend BlueCat Integrity to others.
Has a comprehensive dashboard, automation capabilities, and seamless integration with IT operation manager platforms
What is our primary use case?
It primarily serves as our DNS solution.
How has it helped my organization?
The insight into the overall health of our network, particularly in terms of DNS functionality, is positive. This visibility proves invaluable when troubleshooting and resolving issues. It provides a holistic view, including information on DNS and DHCP services, making it a thorough and effective tool for monitoring and managing DNS functionality.
DNS security is safeguarded comprehensively from end to end.
It offers a unified view of our IP address space through a single pane of glass. Whether using IPM or Integrity with DNS, you can easily correlate and match all assigned IPs with the DNS configuration. This integration ensures that each IP address in IPM corresponds to a DNS name, providing comprehensive visibility.
It has been seamlessly integrated with various IT operation manager platforms, including SolarWinds. While it might not be accurate to label the integration with Integrity as direct, it's apt to say that our BlueCat solution is monitored by SolarWinds. Additionally, for internet access, such as reaching domains like Google.com, we rely on Cisco Umbrella.
It helped us in minimizing human errors by facilitating automation through the use of scripts.
The design with BlueCat ensures minimal downtime as it is highly redundant. In the event of a server failure, multiple servers seamlessly handle the traffic, making the occurrence of downtime highly improbable.
It did not contribute to the consolidation of any previously used tools or applications.
It assisted in saving time for other projects.
What is most valuable?
One of the standout features of BlueCat is its foundation on Linux, making it one of the earliest DNS solutions. This inherent stability, derived from its Linux-based architecture, provides a well-established and reliable platform. Once you become familiar with the technology, managing it becomes straightforward.
What needs improvement?
It primarily supports DNS high availability failover when the servers share the same subnet. However, it does not offer robust support for high availability failover with different subnets, especially if the servers are located in different data centers and belong to distinct IP networks. In such cases, setting up high availability becomes challenging, often requiring manual failovers.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using it for approximately five months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It provides good scalability capabilities.
How are customer service and support?
I am satisfied with its customer service and support. I would rate it eight out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using NS-1 previously but decided to switch, primarily because IBM acquired the company, and subsequently, they discontinued the solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was somewhat challenging, but it wasn't overly difficult.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process spanned approximately two months. The overall project required four resources, including roles such as design and project management, to complete it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not sure about the exact pricing, but I believe their cost is lower compared to Infoblox.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The previous solution reached its end, leading the vendor to discontinue the service. During the customer review, we evaluated options between BlueCat and Infoblox.
What other advice do I have?
For a medium-sized company, having a DNS solution is essential. Whether it's BlueCat, Infoblox, or another option, it's crucial for smooth operations. While it's technically possible to work with Linux Spine or other solutions like F5 DNS, they are often challenging to manage due to the absence of a graphical user interface. Having a dedicated DNS solution tailored for medium-sized companies, like BlueCat, is indispensable for scalability and efficiency. Before implementing BlueCat, it's advisable to ensure that employees undergo training. You may consider requesting an evaluation license from BlueCat to set up a lab for training resources dedicated to working on the BlueCat DNS solution. Additionally, exploring a POC could be beneficial. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
Provides a single pane of glass, a user-friendly GUI, and is extremely reliable
What is our primary use case?
As a large-scale enterprise, we've relied on BlueCat Integrity as our internal DDI solution for years, managing DHCP, DNS, and IP address administration for our entire corporate network.
We have BlueCat Integrity deployed in a hybrid environment within our data centers and services like AWS, GCP, and OCI, and we are currently migrating to a cloud-only model. Our organization is getting rid of its data centers. So we are actually in the migration phase into being an only OCI and GCP.
How has it helped my organization?
My experience with BlueCat Integrity has been straightforward. The platform boasts comprehensive documentation for all its services, readily accessible within the console itself. Whenever questions arise about specific features or functionalities, detailed information is conveniently embedded within the individual web and UI pages. Additionally, BlueCat provides a robust guide for API access, making it a breeze to integrate with the platform. Overall, the GUI deserves a solid five out of five for user-friendliness, while the API learning curve bumps it down to a four out of five.
BlueCat Integrity offers a unified view of our entire IP address space, encompassing both on-premises infrastructure, data centers, and cloud environments. It allows us to automate virtually every aspect of IP address management.
The single pane of glass is extremely important to our organization. We have utilized all of our IPv4 space. So we need to understand what we are utilizing across the entire address space, and having everything in a single pane of glass allows us to quickly find out where we can utilize different insider blocks and stuff like that within our infrastructure. Having it all in one place makes things a lot easier.
It is flexible. The solution does exactly what I needed to do. I've had a long-standing relationship with BlueCat themselves and a lot of the feature requests to address past issues have been implemented. They've consistently updated the API, improved the UI through ongoing integrations, and pushed out platform changes nearly every quarter. While BlueCat Integrity had some initial drawbacks in 2018, its iterative approach and adaptability to our environment ensured it ultimately fit our needs perfectly.
We have implemented an integration between ServiceNow and BlueCat. The asset management database, or CMDB, is housed within ServiceNow. We synchronize information from this database with BlueCat, and vice versa. This ensures accurate representation of all deployed devices within our network, including precise details regarding IP addresses, MAC addresses, and other pertinent data. This integration between the two tools has been successfully established.
Originally, when we deployed our DDI infrastructure using Windows, DHCP, and DNS with Active Directory, managing the platform at scale was a major challenge. We had to log in to each server individually to manage the DHCP IP address space and manually sync all those records between Active Directory for DNS. This involved a lot of manual work just to manage the three services together. Migrating to BlueCat transformed everything. It provided a single pane of glass for all three services. Now, we not only see our entire IP address space in one view, but we can also manage both DNS and DHCP through the same interface. We can even choose which IP address space gets deployed to what server and have records automatically created and populated within BlueCat. This simplified management has dramatically reduced the time we need to spend on maintaining the platform, freeing us to focus on improving our infrastructure overall.
Through APIs or programmatic calls, we can accomplish a much wider range of tasks within BlueCat. We can leverage change control to modify a significant amount of information, implementing new checks and balances along the way. This centralized approach, accessible via a single pane of glass, eliminates the need for constant server logins and manual changes, typically performed by humans. Consequently, human intervention has been drastically reduced, minimizing the risk of human error. Additionally, we've implemented change control, adding an extra layer of transparency and requiring human approval for modifications.
BlueCat Integrity has helped us significantly reduce organizational downtime. This was possible because we rebuilt our entire infrastructure to be highly available. With Windows, we're limited to only two servers, and if one fails, both DHCP and DNS capabilities suffer depending on which server went down. In contrast, BlueCat's single pane of glass management allows us to quickly shift workloads to a different server within the platform, virtually eliminating downtime. This high availability is a major advantage of BlueCat Integrity.
Before implementing BlueCat Integrity, our infrastructure relied on a patchwork of disconnected tools. We juggled Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, and even a timeworn spreadsheet for mapping our IP space. Additionally, managing remote offices involved juggling services like Meraki and others. BlueCat unified these disparate elements into a single platform, granting us access to all necessary features through one interface. This consolidation proved particularly valuable as we transitioned to the cloud. BlueCat seamlessly redeployed onto GCP and OCI, preserving its inherent flexibility without requiring additional tools for these new environments.
BlueCat Integrity has freed up our IT staff for other projects by reducing the need for constant server configuration and manipulation, particularly for new offices. Thanks to its robust automation features, managing the service requires minimal time investment overall. This allows our resources to either focus on approving new service features or tackling other important infrastructure tasks.
BlueCat helped us reduce hidden costs associated with deploying services like Active Directory and DHCP through Windows. These services, while nearly free to install, required significant labor for server maintenance. With BlueCat, we pay more upfront for licensing and server deployment, but the reduced need for engineering and minimal downtime offset this cost.
Transitioning from a free model to a paid one can be slightly more challenging. To make an informed decision, we need a clear understanding of the labor involved in maintaining our current free services. Companies adept at valuing fixes, changes, and server maintenance can readily compare platform costs. We can simply compare our current engineering expenses against the potential investment in a platform like BlueCat deployment. However, quantifying the value of a solution can be trickier, as much of its benefit lies in its hidden aspects, like improved back-end efficiency and platform uptime.
When I first took over ownership of the DHCP and DNS Management services within my company, it was all-consuming. My mind was constantly on what was happening, and what issues needed attention. I was primarily in reactive mode, constantly firefighting and keeping things operational. But after transitioning to Bluecat, a shift occurred. The platform's stability allowed me to move beyond the immediate and think strategically. No longer burdened by constant troubleshooting and remediation, I could finally focus on iterating and driving progress. In essence, I transitioned from a reactive, backward-looking mindset to a proactive, forward-thinking one, empowered by the platform's capabilities.
What is most valuable?
One of the key features enabling us to operate at our current scale is robust automation. While BlueCat's UI is excellent, we primarily interact with the platform through automation scripts. Therefore, our most critical use case involves making API calls and updating data without needing to log into the console, ensuring thoroughness in the automation component.
What needs improvement?
Currently, a significant portion of automation within our infrastructure relies on custom-written scripts. For instance, every time we require automated IP address space updates, we must develop the script ourselves. Looking forward, I would welcome pre-existing scripts readily deployable within our infrastructure to alleviate this burden.
BlueCat currently meets our core needs, and we appreciate their service. However, we believe the platform could benefit from significant improvements, particularly in terms of ongoing maintenance and the implementation of new features. One crucial area for development is IPv6 support. As we transition to this newer networking protocol, we lack robust tools and functionalities tailored to IPv6 within BlueCat. Consequently, we'd like to see greater investment from BlueCat in building out their IPv6 feature set.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using BlueCat Integrity for over five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
BlueCat Integrity has proven to be highly stable. The infrequent incidents we've encountered were primarily due to user error or external factors beyond our control. Nonetheless, BlueCat Integrity has exceeded expectations, consistently achieving our 99.99 percent uptime target. Overall, it's been a pleasure working with this platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The only drawback to BlueCat's scalability is the cost, which naturally increases with the number of servers required. Their per-server licensing model reflects this directly. However, the benefits of having a single IP address manager with built-in resiliency for DNS, DHCP, and the IPAN module have been significant. It has seamlessly scaled alongside our infrastructure, which is one of the fastest-growing for a long time, and consistently met our needs. We haven't encountered any scaling issues with BlueCat on-premises.
However, this might change when we fully transition to the cloud. Some services might not be readily compatible with a cloud environment, but we're actively collaborating with BlueCat to overcome these challenges. We're confident that we'll find solutions to ensure a smooth transition to a cloud-based infrastructure.
How are customer service and support?
My recent experience with BlueCat's technical support has been excellent. Their deep understanding of the platform is impressive, and they're always transparent when they need to consult with engineers for further expertise. During the initial deployment, everything went smoothly. We've maintained ongoing communication with their team, and they consistently demonstrate proactiveness, understanding of our environment and challenges, and prompt communication in response. Overall, they have exceeded expectations and set a new standard for customer service within our organization.
In comparison, the DDI environment is a starkly different experience between Microsoft and BlueCat. Microsoft is a large company, and their support for DDI issues can be slow and cumbersome, requiring navigating their ticketing system. Additionally, they don't directly support professional deployments for DHCP and DNS. As a result, we often had to rely on our expertise to troubleshoot issues with the free services offered with their Windows licensing. This lack of dedicated support made managing the environment challenging.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using Active Directory DNS with DHCP, and we were managing a variety of servers, each with different configurations. Our goal was to optimize our environment by having a single, unified view of all three services. BlueCat enabled us to achieve this, making it our primary choice for deployment.
Automating server management was our primary focus. Previously, we manually handled servers across roughly 150 offices, a demanding task with numerous servers to individually address in case of downtime. Implementing a single pane of glass allowed us to not only consolidate server oversight but also run automation scripts against it. This automation enabled us to seamlessly switch to backup servers upon failures, deploy new servers in newly opened offices, and ultimately streamline server management after switching to the single pane of glass.
How was the initial setup?
I led the engineering effort for the BlueCat Integrity deployment. The most challenging aspect is the initial server configuration after deployment. It requires several manual steps, such as logging in through the CLI and entering information for each server, including IP addresses, subnets, and so on. However, once everything is set up and we begin managing the platform itself, the service becomes significantly easier to use thanks to the intuitive GUI. We can then leverage automation and other advanced features. In essence, the initial deployment is the more challenging hurdle, but once the service is up and running, it's a much more pleasant and streamlined experience.
We began by fully deploying the new infrastructure before migrating any services. During the proof of concept, we established the address manager, responsible for managing the IP space. Next, we deployed DHCP and DNS onto the new infrastructure but held off on activating them. Our first migration target was DHCP. We deployed and configured the dedicated DHCP servers, leaving them ready to receive IP address requests. We then embarked on a phased approach, moving office by office to redirect the IP helpers from the Windows DHCP servers to the BlueCat servers. Once all DHCP services were fully transferred to BlueCat, we decommissioned the Windows DHCP servers. The DNS migration followed a similar path. We placed the BlueCat DNS servers behind the Windows ones, synchronized the DNS records for fast transition, and then gradually made the Windows servers non-authoritative for each zone until BlueCat ultimately assumed full control. Finally, we retired the domain controllers from the process.
To expedite the deployment, we initially relied on a team of two engineers and three operations personnel. Once the engineers mastered specific tasks, such as office migration via DHCP, we would transition the task to our ops team, allowing our dedicated ops team to handle the remaining offices. Essentially, the engineers handled all initial testing and process refinement, ensuring their functionality before handover to the ops team.
What about the implementation team?
BlueCat Integrity's professional DNS and support services were outstanding. During our initial implementation, we opted for their higher support package, which proved to be an excellent investment. Their professionalism was a key selling point for us. They provided invaluable assistance with architecture, design, and implementation, remaining actively engaged throughout the process. Whether we were making minor adjustments or significant changes, they were always readily available to jump on a call and offer prompt support. They even walked us through the entire process, ensuring we understood every step. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with their service. They were unwavering in their dedication to helping us achieve our goals.
What was our ROI?
Deploying BlueCat Integrity has yielded a significant return on investment for our company, primarily due to the substantial labor savings it has achieved. The increased availability it affords has kept our engineers and offices up and running, while also reducing the need for ongoing product maintenance. While the impact may vary depending on a company's size and specific circumstances, BlueCat Integrity has demonstrably improved our operational efficiency and delivered a clear ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The BlueCat pricing model has shifted from perpetual licenses to subscriptions, prompting us to re-evaluate our infrastructure. While BlueCat falls on the expensive side, its exceptional customer service and consistent quality justify the cost. We find continuing our partnership with them valuable due to the ongoing support and reliable solutions they provide.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We initially evaluated Infoblox, a major competitor to BlueCat in the market at the time. However, their solution proved incompatible with our existing infrastructure and their focus was solely on product sales, showing no interest in collaboration. In contrast, BlueCat's customer-centric approach impressed us. We've enjoyed a close partnership with them, characterized by continuous feedback exchange, making us feel like valued partners in their product development. This commitment to customer satisfaction ultimately tipped the scales in BlueCat's favor.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate BlueCat Integrity a nine out of ten. BlueCat Integrity is a fantastic product that's never let me down in my infrastructure. Since deploying and signing it up, it's been rock-solid and exceeded expectations.
BlueCat Integrity is deployed throughout our entire company, including both the corporate headquarters and individual departments. We have it operational in four data centers strategically located around the world: the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, Amsterdam, and the APAC region. This infrastructure supports all 150 of our enterprise offices worldwide, as well as 400 Green Light Hubs or customer success centers. It automatically assigns IP addresses to all these locations, serving our 40,000 employees.
In addition to the occasional unscheduled security patch, they release regular quarterly updates to address any bugs or issues. This is the primary focus of our maintenance efforts, ensuring the platform stays up-to-date and secure.
Using a full-stack integrated DDI management solution has significantly improved my understanding of our environment's address space allocation. It clarifies which addresses are assigned via protocols like DHCP and reveals the existing DNS records. Under a single pane of glass, managing these services takes much less time. As a DDI professional, I strongly believe we should always consider these services as one, not three separate components. Viewing them individually creates significant gaps while recognizing them as a unified whole removes these disparities.
Whether BlueCat Integrity is right for you depends on your specific needs. For some organizations, like ours, it was a game-changer when we were scaling rapidly. We needed a service that could grow with us, and BlueCat fit the bill perfectly. However, smaller companies might not require the sheer power and features that BlueCat offers. It's a sophisticated tool, and simply clicking buttons in the UI won't unlock its full potential. But if you're committed to building automation and robust processes around your DDI stack, then BlueCat is worth exploring.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Helps reduce downtime, is easy to use, and frees up staff time
What is our primary use case?
We use BlueCat Integrity to manage all of our IP addresses. Whenever we deploy a new device or anything that needs an IP address, we consult our IP address manager. This includes anything that is not on our DHCP scope, mainly server-based systems. We manually enter the DNS names for these IP addresses. We use DHCP for quite a few systems, but we set reservations for certain endpoints that require static IP addresses, such as admin desktops that we only want to allow those IPs through.
We have BlueCat Integrity deployed on-premises. We have three servers: a master and two IP address managers, which are devices that serve up IP addresses and handle DHCP.
How has it helped my organization?
BlueCat Integrity is easy to use for those who are accustomed to Windows. There was a slight learning curve, but it wasn't difficult at all. Everything is laid out very well. Creating records, CNAMEs, subzones, and so on is all quite straightforward. I didn't have any problems with it and didn't need to call support or ask other people for help most of the time. It's very well laid out. BlueCat gave us a quick overview when they helped us set it up, and from there, I was able to figure everything out on my own. I would say it's quite intuitive.
BlueCat provides us with a single pane of glass view. This is a convenient feature to have but not necessary.
Since implementing BlueCat, we have experienced fewer problems, anomalies, and strange issues. Our desktop support staff no longer complains about not receiving DHCP addresses. BlueCat seems to be more reliable.
BlueCat has helped reduce downtime.
BlueCat has freed up around 20 percent of our staff's time, making it easier and quicker for us to manage IP addresses, since we didn't have an IPAM system or even use Windows before. We now only use Windows for DNS integration, so having a reliable source for IP address management has been helpful.
What is most valuable?
I'm a security engineer, so I do a lot of deployments, especially for POCs. When we need a new server built, we request an IP address from the infrastructure team. We verify that the IP address is not being used through IPAM, DACP, and the DNS server. These tools are essential for anyone who works in IT, but they are not unique to us.
What needs improvement?
One complaint about the interface is BlueCat's handling of subzones. We have many subzones in our domains, so getting to each one requires a lot of clicking, instead of having them all listed out for us. I'm not sure why BlueCat chose to do it this way but this is an area for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using BlueCat Integrity for almost eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not had any downtime. BlueCat Integrity is stable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used SolarWinds IPAM, but it was terrible, so we switched to BlueCat, which we have found to be more reliable.
How was the initial setup?
We had some concerns about the deployment so we hired a team for the implementation. We had around five people from our organization who helped with the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
We hired consultants to help us implement BlueCat to minimize downtime during the transition. They were very knowledgeable and did a great job.
The professional DNS and support services were quite good. I had no serious problems, and everything went smoothly. We didn't encounter any major hiccups.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment from reducing downtime, and even just managing IP addresses helps.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
BlueCat's pricing is good, though not as cheap as SolarWinds'. However, we are happier with the BlueCat product. We paid around $5,000 per year for SolarWinds, and now we pay around $20,000 per year for BlueCat, but we have less downtime and fewer issues with DNS and DHCP.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before selecting BlueCat Integrity we evaluated the offerings from SolarWinds and ManageEngine.
We chose BlueCat because it offered an all-in-one IPAM, DNS, and DHCP solution. We received some good recommendations from consultants, and we made our decision based on reviews. Everyone who had used it seemed to like it.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten.
BlueCat has helped us reduce our total cost of ownership by around $2,500 per year since we implemented it eight years ago.
With BlueCat, I can rest knowing I have peace of mind and don't have to think about it.
We do patches on the systems every few months.
For medium-sized and large businesses, It is very important to have an IP Address Management solution. No one wants to have IP conflicts, especially if we are manually assigning IP addresses or using only a ping tool. An IPAM solution can help reduce downtime more reliably than Windows or some cheaper products.
For those who can afford it, I recommend using professional services. They can help to smooth out the deployment process and show how to use the tool more effectively. A lot of training is not required, but having professional services walk us through everything can be helpful to get our IT team comfortable with the product and to ensure that our update process is properly documented.
Helps consolidate tools, uses DNS aliases, and frees up staff time
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use BlueCat Integrity for DNS purposes internally.
We deployed BlueCat Integrity using a hybrid model because many of our applications are finance-related. This product helps us to secure those applications and always helped our internal applications to work in secure environment.
How has it helped my organization?
BlueCat Integrity is very user-friendly. Its interface is easy to navigate and has all the features we were looking for, compared to other vendors. This made it easier for us to manage and deploy in our complex environment, which includes multiple domains and acquired companies.
We have integrated ServiceNow with our DNS server. If any alerts are created or any issues are detected, we receive an alert directly in ServiceNow, which is then routed to a specific team.
BlueCat Integrity provides a single pane of glass view of our IP addresses, which is useful for our organization. We sometimes lose track of which IP address range is assigned to which server or team, but BlueCat Integrity keeps track of everything for us, making it easy to see at a glance which IP addresses are assigned to Team A or Team B for example.
BlueCat Integrity helps to prevent human error. If we enter incorrect information, such as an incorrect subnet, BlueCat Integrity displays a pop-up message stating that the information is incorrect and that we should recheck the configuration. This is an add-on feature that is not available in other solutions.
It has helped us reduce downtime. When we used Windows DNS, we had many issues, such as the server hanging occasionally. We had to reboot the entire server during production hours, which caused major incidents. BlueCat Integrity has minimized these incidents, and we now have zero downtime. Nothing has happened on our site since we implemented it. All major incident calls have been eliminated.
BlueCat Integrity helped us consolidate by eliminating our old DNS server, which we used to track command-line or third-party utilities. This saved us costs, as we no longer need to purchase licenses for those tools. Everything is now visible through BlueCat Integrity.
It helps us free up staff time. With our old DNS system, we had to engage all of our staff many times, such as at midnight, during the day, or operations. This took a lot of time for us to process the product queue. For example, if I wanted to send someone on training, I had to cancel it because of these issues. But now,
We have peace of mind because we no longer receive major incident calls late at night or early in the morning.
What is most valuable?
DNS aliases, which we use extensively in our applications are a valuable feature. We simply provide the alias to users, and they cannot see the real IP address or DNS name. This feature is specific to each application and is very powerful for us.
- DNS load balancing features for A records for most of clusters we use for GoAnywhere MFT applications.
What needs improvement?
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using BlueCat Integrity for over 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
BlueCat Integrity was down only once in the last year for a security patch.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not had any issues with the scalability of BlueCat Integrity. We have already implemented a load-balancing solution with seven appliances, so if we need to replace one, the others will take over. We have the same setup in staging, development, and lab environments. We test all new changes in the lab environment before moving them to staging and then to production. This is a very well-balanced product.
How are customer service and support?
Awesome customer service from BlueCAT whenever we needed.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Originally, we used Microsoft DNS, but it had many problems. We had to purchase and constantly monitor many tools with Microsoft. If we skipped an option during configuration, we would continue to receive error messages, and we would have to check the event logs to keep track of those errors. BlueCat Integrity is very easy to manage, so we chose it.
How was the initial setup?
Multiple teams were involved in the step-by-step implementation. The infrastructure architecture team analyzed the requirements and then passed them to us for the proof of concept. Once the POC was completed, we implemented the changes in the development environment, then in the staging environment, and finally in the production environment.
What about the implementation team?
With the help of BlueCat support , internal team implemented as a team work.
What was our ROI?
Our management very happy with BlueCAT supports and services.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We worked closed with our BlueCat TAM and work on cost and pricing based on our business partners requirement.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated BlueCat Integrity and other vendors and found that BlueCat Integrity was one of the most reliable options in terms of both security and administration. Their support team was also helpful and quick.
What other advice do I have?
I give BlueCat Integrity a ten out of ten.
BlueCat Integrity does not require maintenance. There are no specific patches and the solution updates automatically so we don't have any additional downtime.
The value and security that BlueCat Integrity adds to an organization demonstrates the value of a full-stack integrated DDI management solution.
BlueCat Integrity is the most reliable DDI solution with awesome customer support. Whenever we have any issues or urgent customer or business needs, they are always there to help. We call them and they immediately start working on the issue, and they come up with a solution quickly. We can usually implement the solution within one or two days. Their customer support is that good.
Easy to manage our infrastructure, good interface, and user-friendly
What is our primary use case?
We replaced our legacy solution used to manage our network with BlueCat Integrity, a vendor-backed solution.
How has it helped my organization?
BlueCat Integrity is easy to use for end users and not difficult for administrators. I have used much more difficult solutions that are not directly related to DDI. For end users, the solution is intuitive on a daily basis.
It provides a single pane of glass view for our IP address space, which is important for our organization.
BlueCat Integrity is flexible and user-friendly for our end users.
BlueCat Integrity has helped improve our organization by simplifying the end user's experience and improving our integration with third parties.
What is most valuable?
Managing our DDI infrastructure globally is simple, and BlueCat's personalized relationship with us is valuable to our organization.
The interface is good, better than what we were used to.
What needs improvement?
The integration has room for improvement.
Everything related to automation can be improved.
The deployment process needs to be simplified.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using BlueCat Integrity for ten years.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Yes. In-house built solution, lacking lots of features, complex to support and almost impossible to evolve or enhance with new functionalities (e.g.: IPv6 support)
How was the initial setup?
The deployment took around three years because we were migrating from our pre-existing in-house tool.
What about the implementation team?
The solution was deployed through an in-house team with support from BlueCat's professional services, who played a critical role in the success of our migration.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten.
Provides us with flexibility and visibility that we did not have before
What is our primary use case?
We use BlueCat Integrity to have visibility into our address management.
How has it helped my organization?
BlueCat Integrity is fairly straightforward. I have been using it myself for quite a long time. The actual user interface is a little dated, but that is being addressed in the upcoming release.
BlueCat Integrity provides a single-pane-of-glass view of our IP address space, which is important for our organization to see what is being utilized.
For the six years we have been using BlueCat Integrity, we have begun to transition from Microsoft to BlueCat DHCP and DNS. The ability to easily view our options and zones is a significant improvement over our previous approach. The user interface has improved over time, but it is still somewhat dated. A major UI overhaul is planned for release 10, which is scheduled for release next spring.
BlueCat Integrity can help reduce human error by pushing changes to multiple places with only one human input, reducing the likelihood of errors. Compared to our previous solution, BlueCat has reduced human errors by 25 percent.
BlueCat Integrity has not really helped us consolidate any tools. We were already using one Microsoft tool, and now we are using one BlueCat tool, with the advantage of only having to use one interface with BlueCat Integrity versus multiple with Microsoft.
What is most valuable?
BlueCat Integrity is a solid product. It does not have flashy features, but it is reliable and we have few problems with it. BlueCat does a good job of keeping the product up-to-date with security patches and updates. BlueCat Integrity provides us with flexibility and visibility that we did not have before.
What needs improvement?
The most important improvement is that it would be nice to have more built-in tools for bulk updates and bulk changes. I understand that there are APIs for this, but that requires coding skills. I am no longer a coder, so it would be helpful to have built-in tools for imports and other tasks.
The UI is outdated and needs a modern refresh.
The RFC is over 25 years old, and some record types have become obsolete. I would like newer DNS record types, even if they are not part of the RFC.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using BlueCat Integrity for six years.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We originally used Microsoft for DHCP, DNS, and IP address management. We have since migrated to BlueCat Integrity for better visibility into our address management. Multiple people are able to manage using BlueCat Integrity.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was straightforward. The basic deployment took one month, but the full deployment with the server took around six months and was completed by two people.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Originally, we compared BlueCat Integrity to other products. It was not the cheapest nor the most expensive solution, but it was among the more expensive ones. Overall, I would say that it is priced fairly, though perhaps a bit on the high side.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten.
BlueCat Integrity is deployed in our corporate environment across multiple locations around the world.
Flexible and a single source of truth that's reduced downtime
What is our primary use case?
The purpose of the solution is to provide DNS, DHCP, and icon services for the corporation and all subsidiaries.
What is most valuable?
I like that it's a single source of truth for us. We automate against it. We use APIs against it due to the fact that it is where the data is. The solution provides a single pane of glass view. And we use it as a single source of truth. It’s crucial for us.
It’s flexible. The tool can certainly be customized to no end. You can make a lot of stuff work if you're willing to divert from the standard options, which of course then brings the risk that you're not running the planned configuration. We have a few border cases, so we actually do that.
The solution helped our organization reduce downtime. Compared to where it was before, even if it's a very theoretical question, I’d say the downtime has decreased.
BlueCat Integrity helped us consolidate tools or applications. Through an API and having the data there we were able to build some tools that have allowed us to get rid of a lot of other tools.
What needs improvement?
It is not that easy to use. It's not rocket science, however, even compared to other products in the BlueCat portfolio, it's one of the most complicated.
The big downside of the customization is when there are new releases and you have to customize all of it again since you’ve diverted from the standard.
One of my biggest criticisms is that you need additional pieces of software. Competitors have a lot of these things built into one solution. BlueCat doesn't. I need additional resources to actually do things. You actually need a lot of add-ons from the solution's portfolio. While some of them are provided, most you have to pay for separately. In reality, they should just be part of the product.
The reporting capabilities need improvement. It holds a lot of information, and that information is easily accessible in the tool and through API. However, for instance, the moment anybody who is not a user of the product asks me for some information and I just want to run a report to hand back to them or something like that, it gets utterly complicated.
Quite a few times we have not been able to pull reports out of the tool and provide them.
Usability needs to be better. The main structure basically hasn't changed in years. It's got a bit polished, however, it doesn't really have a modern UI-based tool. That said, the product is being used by IT professionals. Still, sometimes the old design makes things unnecessary and difficult.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for four years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
BlueCat is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable in multiple ways. There are lots of ways to scale.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
While we did not exactly use anything else from the DDI side, we were using Windows DNS.
The main reason for the adoption of this product was to have one centralized management system. That was one of the key drivers. Also, we wanted visibility and stability for having that single source of truth.
How was the initial setup?
We're running one special environment that is fully deployed in the cloud, and our main environment is deployed on-prem remotely.
It's easy to deploy on-prem and even easier to deploy the cloud version. Our migration team deployed the solution. They were comprised of three people. It took us a year to deploy, however, we had to make the whole transition to remote work first.
We use the solution globally. We have it across a few production campus facilities and 25 subsidiaries globally.
We have to run the updates. We're on our own for that. We basically do the data. When we get the notifications, we go into scheduling the when, what, and how internal testing will take place. We plan to do all of this in-house.
Of course, we have to monitor the devices themselves. They sometimes act up, and sometimes the product does not report certain issues efficiently and then we have to dig into the log file. There is a lot of proactive maintenance in that regard. The good thing is that the product is so standardized and open. At the end of the day, of course, I would prefer not to have to do it.
What about the implementation team?
BlueCat helped with implementation. During the design phase, we had some workshops with them and they provided good insights and best practices.
What was our ROI?
We have witnessed an ROI while using the product. The ROI mainly comes from the initiative itself, including centralizing data and having automated server deployment. We've saved money across a variety of products, so it's hard to pinpoint an exact number.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are paying for an enterprise license. I'm not aware of the exact cost. The pricing, as far as I understand it, is fair. It's not cheap and also not expensive.
What other advice do I have?
We use the API to do certain calls, however, not with ServiceNow or any other ITSM. It's more for other really technical tools that need specific kinds of information. We don’t really do integrations.
To anyone at an organization who doesn't think they need a full stack integrated management solution, I'd say, actually, this is an absolute must-have. Automation really is the biggest driver. I could not see how someone could ever do any meaningful automation without having this kind of platform. Also in terms of security, it's important for security initiatives. You simply need to have the visibility of your network. That's another big one.
If a person is interested in the solution, it's important to evaluate the product. Look for a reference customer and dig into the possibilities of the product.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
showing 11 - 20