Packet-based networks have always been the standard for data, but as voice and multimedia traffic on these networks has increased, so have the demands upon this infrastructure. The “population explosion” in network-attached devices is presenting a mounting challenge to network administrators everywhere, as the overwhelming growth in core applications like VoIP, video conferencing, presence-based applications, mobile and wireless technology and RFID tracking is making it harder than ever to administer and manage IP addresses – the essential element in connecting any device to modern packet-based networks.
There are issues related to assigning more IP addresses to all of these devices in increasingly dynamic ways, and to maintaining the domain name service (DNS) information that ensures these devices can be found and communicated with once they are on the network. Traditionally, these services have been regarded as a necessary but mundane part of network management. Earlier generations of network-attached devices such as personal computers, servers and workstations were not mobile, and so the services provided to them were not required to be very dynamic. Indeed, most servers still have their IP addresses permanently set in their operating systems and are not reliant at all on the network to issue them an address.
Newer technologies such as wireless Internet and VoIP as well as multimode cell phones require the networks that support them to hand off their connections between access points. Current wireless technologies and the functionality of IPv4 – currently the most widely used version of the IP protocol – require that this hand-off be done through a request for a new IP address each time the point of connection to the network changes. Therefore, the level of IP provisioning and management these services require is entirely different than what has come before.
Beyond the challenges posed by dynamic connectivity, the IPv4 protocol now also is beginning to run out of available addresses. Network address translation (NAT) – an Internet standard that enables a LAN to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic – has been the preferred solution to this crisis since it enables enterprises to use a single public Internet address to represent a large private network to the world.
Services such as VoIP, however, have difficulty operating behind NAT. Therefore, more public addresses are required. While IPv6, the successor to IPv4, offers almost unlimited address space and enhanced support for mobile devices, adoption has been slow because it entails more complicated management requirements.
As it stands today, global capacity for unique IP addresses stands at 4 billion, with 70 percent of available IP addresses being used in the United States. Yet given the rapid rate of adoption of IP-based technology outside of North America, ongoing merger and acquisition activity and the impending demands that will be placed by VoIP adoption as it evolves, it is estimated that the demand for IP addresses worldwide quickly will reach into the hundreds of billions. Asia, in fact, represents the fastest-growing market for IP services – a factor that will have an enormous impact on the balance of power in the fight for IP address capacity.
The ability to track who or what is accessing a network, when and how, is a challenge that must be met head-on as enterprises face the potential risk of running out of IP addresses and dealing with potential network failures. The key is to provision and track IP addresses and users more efficiently than most existing network management tools allow. One proven effective solution is to integrate IP address management (IPAM) technology with DNS appliances – the traffic managers that ensure the smooth flow of Internet-based communications.
By integrating IPAM with DNS, organizations can add users and services, disseminate core changes across multiple domains, and perform capacity planning to ensure they have enough resources to grow and meet escalating user demand. These devices are able to simplify the management of these services by reducing or eliminating the operating system and hardware management components of the process. Also, managing services through the graphical user tools native to this approach ensures accuracy and transparency. The result can be reduced operating costs, faster deployment of business-driven changes and higher network availability.
Since IPAM and DNS generally have been managed using text-based interfaces on custom-built servers, the operation of these services often has fallen outside of meaningful management planning and oversight. As a result, the new waves of network requirements have met with a lack of facilities and inadequate controls. The consolidation of these critical services into purpose-built units is a natural progression that has been seen previously in markets such as routing technology. A purpose-built appliance server is more secure and more predictable and reliable than a solution designed from more flexible components. This approach also permits more junior staff to play an administrative role, reducing operating expenditures.
As newer technologies make increased demands on older infrastructure such as IPAM and DNS, newer and more efficient approaches enable these technologies to evolve and meet the new demands. The time for an IPAM appliance has definitely arrived.
Richard Hyatt is CTO and co-founder of BlueCat Networks. He can be reached at rhyatt@bluecatnetworks.com.
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
