State and local government IT departments face a daunting challenge balancing budget constraints and keeping the network and applications highly available for various legislative, judicial and executive branches, municipal agencies (i.e. public safety, libraries, 911 hotlines, etc.) and ultimately their respective public constituents.

These challenges are further complicated by security and compliance requirements as well as demand for new applications, like VoIP, Unified Communications and wireless. To address these challenges, robust core network services – IP address assignment and management (DHCP and IPAM), and domain name resolution (DNS), among others – are required. If core network services don’t work, the network and applications that the state departments, municipal agencies and the public rely on don’t work .


Shortcomings in conventional CNS solutions (i.e., general-purpose servers, operating systems, and freeware) can unexpectedly disrupt the critical applications that depend on them. Specific concerns with conventional solutions in a state and local government environment include:

• Requires many cycles & experts to perform daily tasks, maintain, upgrade & patch
• Unreliable with limited DR required for emergency preparedness
• Limited reporting and delegation capabilities
• HIPAA and DNSSEC compliance challenges
• Vulnerable to attacks
• No option for real-time, centralized management

With conventional solutions, servers have to be managed independently and frequent updates/ patching can consume IT cycles and require experts. On the security front, general-purpose operating systems and older BIND versions are open to attack, which can compromise system integrity and the ability to meet regulatory compliance requirements (i.e., HIPAA).

It also is difficult to implement high-availability solutions and achieve failover. In a disaster scenario, there is little to no ability to easily recover because there is no central point of management for administrators to map around failed servers and re-partition the network.

Similarly, with “siloed” systems, reporting and clear delegation of specific responsibilities are nearly impossible. Further, limited scalability and capacity can jeopardize performance of new applications like VoIP, wireless and unified communications.

These inadequacies are not easily overcome using band-aids applied to existing systems, such as overlay management and data back-up systems.

Business Impacts of the “status quo” for Core Network Services

State and local government organizations that use conventional approaches to deliver CNS are subject to:

• Cumbersome administrative cycles and high operating costs
• Downtime of network and key applications
• Business continuity/DR risks
• Failure to meet compliance requirements for student records, inmate privacy, etc.
• New application (VoIP/wireless, etc.) performance compromises
• Attacks and breeches

Ramifications like these merit deployment of a CNS infrastructure that is reliable, manageable and offers unique advantages for state and local government environments.


To provide nonstop services, free experts to focus on other critical projects and reduce operating costs, state and local government organizations need to consider Infoblox’s nextgeneration approach to delivering and managing CNS infrastructure.

• Appliances deliver high availability services and secure infrastructure
• Built-in, easy management reduces manual tasks & increases visibility
• Grid technology ensures continuous uptime, centralized management and DR
• Performance & capacity accommodate new applications like VoIP, wireless and UC
• Secure systems and technology ensure HIPAA and DNSSEC compliance
• Delegated administration provides granular access control to specific zones, records, networks, scopes and appliances
• Reporting capabilities allow network usage monitoring and demonstrate network availability

Infoblox appliances enable “one-button” upgrades to accommodate new features and easy installation of the latest BIND releases. Additionally, the custom Infoblox operating software is hardened and, therefore, secure from vulnerabilities, meeting security and compliance requirements.

In addition to high availability (HA) between appliances, Infoblox’s Grid technology, which links appliances into a unified, distributed system that is resilient to network and equipment failures and provides central management, enables “one-click” recovery from catastrophic failures of major data centers or WAN links.

Further, with built-in IP address management (IPAM) for simplifying, automating and delegating repetitive daily tasks that can add costs and configuration error risks to your network, Infoblox delivers the real-time visibility and control you need for your network while reducing expenses and increasing availability.

Finally, with the growing number of IP-enabled devices continuously added to the network, Infoblox provides many tools for quickly and easily performing and tracking IP allocation and usage.

Infoblox Benefits

• Continuous uptime and “touch of a button” DR for emergency preparedness
• Allow experts to delegate and focus on other critical projects
• Reduce administrative overhead and costs
• Scalable for future growth, consolidation and new application support
• Increase security and accommodate compliance regulations
• Increase visibility into and control of who is on the network, when and where

To learn more about Infoblox solutions or to evaluate Infoblox products in your environment, please contact us at info@infoblox.com or call +1.408.625.4200.