Why is automation of DNS, DHCP and IP address management (DDI) becoming so important for modern network environments? What are vendors like Red Hat and Infoblox doing to answer the call? And how are emerging concepts like \u201cconfiguration as code\u201d (CaC) reshaping the way teams think about critical network services? Let\u2019s take a closer look.<\/p>\n
Even in highly automated environments, DDI is often still managed through tickets and manual, point-and-click changes. Increasingly though, IT leaders and network teams recognize that, in a more distributed, cloud-connected IT landscape, traditional DDI approaches simply won\u2019t scale.<\/p>\n
Application teams expect new environments, namespaces and services to be available in minutes, not days. Hybrid and multi-cloud architectures multiply the number of places where DNS, DHCP and IP data must stay in sync. Compliance and security teams need stronger audit trails and fewer opportunities for human error. More and more, organizations relying on manual processes and ticket-driven handoffs will find that they just can\u2019t keep up with the pace of modern IT and business change.<\/p>\n
By automating DDI workflows, teams can:<\/p>\n
At Infoblox, we\u2019ve been steadily expanding our automation portfolio to help customers tap into all of these benefits. Recent innovations span both Infoblox Universal DDI\u2122<\/a> and NIOS DDI<\/a> product lines, all geared toward a common goal: making it simple to automate critical network services across hybrid and multi\u2011cloud environments. To that end, we continue to collaborate with automation experts across the industry, including open-source projects like the OpenAPI Initiative (OAI), as well as vendors of the leading automation toolsets, including HashiCorp Terraform and Red Hat Ansible.<\/p>\n DDI is a natural fit for automation. Indeed, in a world where applications are deployed continuously and infrastructure can spin up and down in seconds, traditional manual processes for managing DNS, DHCP and IP address services quickly become bottlenecks\u2014or just break.<\/p>\n Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform brings a declarative, human\u2011readable language (YAML) for describing the desired end state of changes. Teams can use repeatable playbooks, roles and templates that encapsulate best practices. They can maintain centralized automation, so it\u2019s easier to orchestrate workflows across different teams and environments.<\/p>\n When you combine those capabilities with Infoblox DDI, you get:<\/p>\n Automation itself continues to evolve, as organizations progress from ad\u2011hoc scripts that automate isolated tasks to today\u2019s more holistic automation platforms. DDI is no exception. Today, leading organizations are increasingly applying modern configuration as code (CaC) models to foundational network services.<\/p>\n Using CaC practices, teams can express infrastructure and application configuration in declarative files (often YAML). They can store those files in version control systems like Git. And they can use automated tools like Ansible to apply and reconcile those configurations across environments. For example, instead of having to click around multiple UIs to configure DDI infrastructure and services, teams can:<\/p>\n This CaC approach brings the same advantages to DDI that developers already enjoy for application code. DDI configurations become:<\/p>\n Want to see how these capabilities work in a real-world environment? Watch the new joint webinar, Automating Infoblox with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Through a live, expert\u2011led demo, you\u2019ll see how to:<\/p>\n To learn more or register (or to watch the recording if you\u2019re reading this after the event), visit the Red Hat event page: Automating Infoblox with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\nA Powerful Combination: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform + Infoblox DDI<\/h3>\n
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From Scripts to Configuration as Code<\/h3>\n
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See Infoblox + Ansible CaC in Action<\/h3>\n
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