You may have noticed in recent weeks that we’ve updated the Infoblox home page to show how we’re taking networking to the next level with our Secure Cloud-Managed Network Services. You may have also seen how we’ve started to highlight a number of new customer initiatives and focus areas. You may be asking why we are introducing these new concepts, and what they mean for you and our more than 8,000 customers across the planet.
The Pressure is on for Everyone to Go Next Level
Organizations across the globe are under growing pressure to ramp things up to the next level, no matter what business they’re in. None more so than our customers. They’re confronting multiple challenges, from connecting the millions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices to accommodating 5G and escalating customer demands for always-on, in-the-blink-of-an-eye application availability. Our customers have to do all that and more—and in many cases with fewer people and resources. In response, we’re laser focused on helping our customers meet those challenges by enabling them to take network security, reliability, and automation to the next level.
Next Level Networking is the natural evolution of what we’ve done since our very beginnings. Our company was founded on the idea that there was tremendous untapped potential locked inside seemingly ordinary core network services that just about everyone took for granted. (They still do, if truth be told.) And so, we built the most advanced platform for managing these services, which include DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI). Today we’re the industry leader in providing centrally managed, highly automated DDI.
Along the way, working with our customers, we discovered that DDI services could do far more than ensure that DNS traffic moves without delay or disruption. It also turns out that DNS and DHCP are intrinsically linked to network security. And so we extended DDI to cybersecurity. Today, our solutions help enterprises around the world automatically block dangerous malware, stay up and running even during massive DDoS attacks, and prevent data exfiltration. In addition, the central information from our DDI services help make other security systems, like firewalls and vulnerability scanners, better at what they do.
Everything’s Moving to the Cloud
We were founded in an age when DDI services were deployed and managed on-premises using physical appliances. In the nearly two decades since then, workloads of all kinds have gradually moved first to virtual environments, then to private clouds, and now, increasingly, to public clouds like AWS and Azure.
With the rise of the digital transformation and IoT, the shift to the cloud is in full force. The reasons why are obvious. Elastic and infinite scalability, always-on availability, the tremendous cost savings that come with being able to deploy truly innovative services in the cloud without having to manage on-premises hardware, the faster pace of development and innovation that’s possible in a cloud-managed setting, getting more bang for your buck through consumption-based pricing. These are transformational game changers.
Embracing the Cloud, Keeping Our Feet on the Ground
We pioneered the centralized management of DDI. And now we are on the path to moving that management to the cloud. But we are doing so in a way that keeps our feet on the ground in the here and now of on-premises deployments. The world may be racing to an all-cloud future. But today’s reality is that many organizations have DDI infrastructure that they may wish to—or have to—keep in house, whether in physical, virtual or private cloud environments.
And so, our cloud strategy is one that enables any customer to gain the advantages of the cloud while maintaining and enhancing their on-premises deployments. We call it Next Level Networking. It takes you from where you are today toward a cloud-driven future at a pace that works for you. Think of it as future proofing your DDI architecture so that everything works well today, and so that you can gradually adopt the cloud when you are ready to do so.
What Next Level Networking Enables
Many of our customers are already securing networks from the cloud with our ActiveTrust® Cloud service. And they’re able to do so while retaining their existing in-house deployments. That’s what Next Level Networking is all about, giving you the best of all worlds. Keep full control over your DDI infrastructure in house. Increase your agility, efficiency and cost savings by adopting the cloud incrementally or all at once. And centrally manage all things DDI however they’re deployed—on-premises, or in private, public, and hybrid cloud environments.
Next Level Networking is comprised of three subspecialties of critical importance to networks everywhere:
• Next Level Security—Tightly integrated networking and security which enables your entire cybersecurity ecosystem to detect and remediate threats faster.
• Next Level Reliability—Rock-solid foundation for mission-critical networks, including Tier 1, enhanced by the cloud, and enabling fast and infinite scalability.
• Next Level Automation—Reduction of manual networking and security tasks by up to 70%—from weeks or months to just hours—while realizing more than $1M in annual cost savings.
Secure Cloud-Managed Network Services
We are leading the way in delivering Secure Cloud-Managed Network Services. But what does that phrase really mean? Let’s break it down.
• Secure. This means ensuring that all network services, DNS in particular, are hardened against pervasive threats including malware, ransomware, DDoS, and data theft.
• Cloud-managed. Our services provide the option of a cloud-based management model, even for on-prem deployments. Yet at the same time, because our implementations bridge both worlds, our customers are able to harness valuable DDI data that resides in their on-prem infrastructure. Think of it as moving the control and management planes to the cloud, while allowing network services to run anywhere, in the cloud, on-prem, on our hardware or your hardware.
• Network Services. Today our products and solutions are focused primarily on network services related to DNS, DHCP, and IP address management, and as our heritage dictates, that remains our clear focus. However, we are in no way limiting our imagination to DDI network services alone.
What’s Next?
We are aggressively expanding and exploring ways we can take network services of all kinds to the next level. It’s all part of our ongoing commitment to helping your organization get to the next level, however you define it.
