Services Providers Need to be Agile to Meet Enterprise Demands
The Network Service Provider business model is changing rapidly as enterprises and consumers are becoming more demanding and agile. A major challenge faced by the Network Service Provider industry is to ensure optimum use of the existing infrastructure. As more customers utilize different devices for voice communication and Internet access, service providers need to address growing data needs with existing capabilities. A key challenge most service providers face today is, how to increase the agility of their existing infrastructure to keep up with the agility of their business.
Infoblox has been a favorite of Service Providers when it comes to DNS solutions, RPZs a.k.a DNS firewalls and other DNS related solutions for a decade. Many Service Providers rely on Infoblox for their Authoritative and caching DNS servers.
Based on this decade-long experience in serving service providers, Infoblox has identified capacity planning as one of the major challenges.
Introducing Infoblox IB-FLEX
In order to help our Service Provider customers overcome the Infrastructure challenges, Infoblox has come up with a new set of software appliances known as IB-FLEX. IB-FLEX appliances are covered under Service Provider License Agreement Programme (SPLA). This program is designed considering Network Service Provider requirements such as meeting the demand that may not be accurately predicted. It allows them to increase capacity and eliminates procurement of new hardware. SPLA covers the relationship between Infoblox and Network Service Providers for 3 -5 years and is renewable.
Why IB-FLEX?
Infoblox’s appliances, both physical and virtual have fixed resources based on the model type and cannot be changed as it voids the license agreement. This limitation forces Service Providers to procure more appliances every time, should they anticipate an increase in the network traffic.
Infoblox has launched virtual IB-FLEX appliances to solve the issue of capacity limitations. IB-FLEX appliances give the flexibility to scale out based on capacity without buying new appliances. It helps the Service Providers to have much-needed elasticity in their infrastructure.
IB-FLE: A Scalable Virtual Platform
IB-FLEX is a virtual platform that is scalable based on the resources you allocate to the virtual machine. NIOS automatically detects the capacity of the virtual machine and scales it to the appropriate platform after you provision the IB-FLEX member. IB-FLEX is a grid-wide license and is applied to the grid master.
An IB-FLEX appliance designated as a member does not require any license, either Grid or vNIOS while joining the Grid. When an IB-FLEX member is registered, the appliance checks for the Flex Grid Activation license and changes it to an IB-FLEX member.
IB-FLEX appliance can be configured to function as a Grid Master or a member.
A non IB-FLEX appliance designated as a member requires either a Grid and/or vNIOS/NIOS licenses installed to join the Grid. Currently, pool licenses cannot be assigned to an IB-FLEX appliance. IB-FLEX supports HA for appliances that are running Software ADP.
Conclusion
Service providers are looking for ways to increase revenue and provide a solid customer experience. As the world of Service Providers continues to evolve, they must support the dynamic needs of their customers, contribute to a healthy ROI, and avoid investing in additional capacity unless there is a demand.
Infoblox IB-Flex appliances assist the Network Service providers by allowing them to scale up based on the capacity and make the maximum out of the existing Infrastructure.
