“As a research university, DNS plays a critical role in our day-to-day functions. There are literally hundreds of domain name requests by our various academic groups and departments. This used to take hundreds of IT hours, but now, with Infoblox, the process is streamlined, delegated and easily managed within each university department.”
—Greg Wilson, Systems Architect and Project Manager IT
Arizona State University (or ASU, or Arizona State) is the largest public research university in the United States under a single administration, with a 2010 student enrollment of approximately 70,000. ASU’s colleges, schools, and departments are spread across four campuses: the Tempe campus, the West campus in northwest Phoenix, the Polytechnic campus located in eastern Mesa, and the Downtown Phoenix campus. Each campus hosts a unique set of colleges and schools, offering both undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition to the physical campuses, ASU includes a fifth “virtual campus” for online and extended education.
For ten years the University was using Nortel NetID to manage their DNS, DHCP and some related network functions. As the University grew, the Nortel solution could no longer meet to the university’s needs. The IT team quickly determined that they needed a fully integrated DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (IPAM) solution that would ensure network availability, provide better control of the network infrastructure and most importantly, improve staff efficiency with built-in automation.
Networks at today’s Universities are complex, with more technologies and demands than at most enterprises; they must support a larger and more diverse set of users. The two populations of users, students enrolling and graduating, and faculty supporting campus-wide research studies, expect the same quality of service when connected to the university network regardless of their location throughout the day.
“In the 10 years we used NetID, we always had problems,” said Greg Wilson, Systems Architect and Project Manager of IT at ASU. “Our DHCP was not working properly and we had problems with making changes in DNS. We were nursing our product along but at that time our campus network grew significantly, resulting in greater demands and requirements on a less than stable or scalable solution. We knew we needed to find a solution fast.”
Their requirements included:
ASU looked at several vendors including Cisco, BlueCat and Infoblox. While some of the vendors met at least one of their requirements, no vendor except Infoblox could meet all their needs. In early 2010, ASU purchased Infoblox appliances: 2 Infoblox-550’s, 3 Infoblox-1050’s and3 Infoblox-1550’s with Infoblox’s network services suite (NS1) and unique Infoblox Grid™ technology, which links together all the appliances into a unified system for simplified management and resiliency. The Infoblox solutions scale to meet the most complex, distributed environments within the education sector.
Wilson commented: “As a research university, DNS plays a critical role in our day-to-day functions. There are literally hundreds of domain name requests by our various academic groups and departments. Typically there are our regular ones under the ASU.edu but we also get new ones like lifeonachip.com. The department buys the domain name and we simply add zones and customized services. This used to take hundreds of IT hours, but now, with Infoblox, the process is streamlined, delegated and easily managed within each university department.”
With all of their Infoblox appliances up and running, the transition from NetID to Infoblox has been seamless. The appliances addressed all ASU’s requirements including eliminating manual tasks and automating the management of the devices and associated data. With satellite campus plans in the near future, the IT department is equipped and prepared.
“The greatest benefit of using Infoblox is the man-hour savings,” said Wilson. “Now, using Infoblox, our students and faculty do not have to wait to make changes or add a new domain. Our staff can make changes as fast as they want them. And, when our students came back in August we were extremely pleased how the appliances handled the sudden rush of network traffic.”
The United States' largest public research university
Internal and external DNS; DHCP
As their campus network grew larger and more complex, the University needed a DDI solution that would scale and allow delegated administration
8 Infoblox appliances (2-550s; 3 -1050s; 3 -1550s) used for:
