{"id":738,"date":"2018-04-26T20:23:46","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T20:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-infoblox-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=738"},"modified":"2020-05-06T10:27:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T17:27:06","slug":"the-tolly-group-quantifies-the-value-of-free-vs-automated-ddi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infoblox.com\/blog\/community\/the-tolly-group-quantifies-the-value-of-free-vs-automated-ddi\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tolly Group Quantifies the Value of \u201cFree\u201d vs. Automated DDI"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all heard it.\u00a0 It comes throughout the year, often in reference to capital expenditures, IT projects and especially during budget cycles\u2014the directive to \u201ccut costs.\u201d\u00a0 And often what\u2019s most visible\u2014and most important\u2014is \u201chitting the number.\u201d\u00a0 So, why not start by cutting the \u201clow-hanging fruit,\u201d the seemingly obvious places of redundancy, the non-essentials and \u201cnice-to-haves?\u201d<\/p>\n

This \u201chit the number\u201d approach is often the one taken for managing core network services.\u00a0 But the real question should be, \u201cHow are key network services valued over time?\u00a0 How quickly can you recover your investment, what\u2019s the ROI and the total cost of ownership (TCO)?\u201d\u00a0 The choice usually comes down to: A) invest in enterprise-grade, core network tools, or B) \u201ccut costs\u201d by using the \u201cfree\u201d DNS, DHCP and IP address management (IPAM) (DDI) features of Microsoft Server and adding spreadsheets, tools and processes where needed.\u00a0 Looking back over your career, what choices were made most often?\u00a0 What worked well?\u00a0 What didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

The Cost of \u201cFree\u201d DDI<\/h1>\n

Initially, you know that choosing \u201cfree\u201d will visibly cost less and may bring recognition to team play and compliance.\u00a0 But you also know that eventually, the hidden downstream costs of \u201cfree\u201d DDI will emerge\u2014manual tedious processes, un-synced, non-shared data, no single source of truth, disparate systems, non-unified UI and management, single failure points, unauthorized access, labor-intensive reporting and the list goes on.<\/p>\n

For the business, this means that instead of deploying IT resources to add value through strategic projects, innovation, expansion, revenue generation, process improvement, automation and more, initial savings are eventually consumed by inefficiency, data inaccuracies, error resolution, security issues and rework.<\/p>\n

For the technologist, instead of Friday date night, the weekend hike or your kid\u2019s soccer game, time is spent fixing IP conflicts, network outages, manual provisioning errors, adding subnets, configuring switch ports, tracking down historical IP\/domain audit records, building reports and more.\u00a0 So, the downstream value of the \u201cA\/B\u201d decision again becomes most visible\u2014and most important.<\/p>\n

Manual vs. Automation: The Tolly Group Quantifies TCO<\/h1>\n

To help IT organizations consider the ROI and TCO of their core network decisions, Infoblox commissioned the Tolly Group to test \u201cfree\u201d DDI against the Infoblox DDI automated platform.\u00a0 Infoblox DDI extends Microsoft value through tight IPAM and DNS\/DHCP integration to avoid conflicts and network outages.\u00a0 It replaces spreadsheets, tools and manual processes with automated central management visibility and component-syncing without agents, performance impacts or Microsoft infrastructure modifications.\u00a0 It integrates Active Directory (AD) Sites and Service management and delivers IP\/domain identity-mapping and Reporting for audits, usage metrics and IP planning analytics.<\/p>\n

TCO Test Scenarios<\/h1>\n

With the two options in view, Tolly measured and verified the time and cost savings by comparing the manual Microsoft network processes against the automated Infoblox DDI solution.\u00a0 Tolly engineers lab-tested and benchmarked 5 common IPAM, discovery and configuration tasks noted below:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Add a New Host<\/strong>: Add a static IP address, add a dynamic IP address and add a group of 7 printers.<\/li>\n
  2. Add a New Subnet<\/strong>: Add a new network subnet and reserve designated IP addresses that would not be used by the DHCP service.<\/li>\n
  3. Switch Port Configuration:\u00a0<\/strong>Access a LAN switch and modify designated port parameters. (Infoblox uses a GUI-based workflow.\u00a0 The manual process requires training for the native switch command line interface (CLI)).<\/li>\n
  4. Troubleshooting (Resolve Address Conflicts):\u00a0<\/strong>Query to discover single IP addresses being used by a second network device.<\/li>\n
  5. Network Resource Management (Switch Port Availability):<\/strong>\u00a0Monitor which switch ports across the entire network are available for new users.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For these use cases, Tolly engineers calculated the time it takes to complete each task using both the manual CLI steps needed for discovery and control for the \u201cfree\u201d Microsoft DNS\/DHCP tools and the Infoblox automated platform.\u00a0 Time measurements were used to determine the time and cost savings for each task.\u00a0 Assumptions were then made to develop an estimated TCO over a 3-year timeframe.\u00a0 In the graphic below, a process of changing a subnet is illustrated.\u00a0 This commonly occurs when the existing network runs out of IP space and can\u2019t be expanded because the next space is already committed.<\/p>\n

    \"Tolly<\/p>\n

    In real-world applications, manual processes associated with \u201cfree\u201d DDI usually require collaboration among one or more departments.\u00a0 This means that the actual time it takes to accomplish seemingly basic tasks can take much longer, if not stretching into days with the added potential for errors and rework.\u00a0 In contrast, automation delivers visibility, accuracy, efficiency, time savings, reliability and the ability to deploy IT resources to more strategic, higher-business value tasks. \u00a0In the\u00a0Tolly Report<\/a>, wait and collaboration times were\u00a0not included<\/em>\u00a0when calculating the manual method.\u00a0 A summary of the findings is noted below:<\/p>\n

    \"Common<\/p>\n

    Tolly then calculated the TCO for select DNS\/DHCP and networking tasks for 10k, 20k, 50k and 100k IP addresses under management comparing manual to Infoblox automated configuration (see the Tolly Report for more details).\u00a0 For example, for management of 50k IP addresses, Tolly determined the following:<\/p>\n

    \"Tolly<\/p>\n

    While a number of questions involving this study can be answered in the full version of the Tolly Report, these findings suggest that core network management tools like the automated Infoblox platform can deliver:<\/p>\n