New Infoblox Network Infrastructure Automation Tools Accelerate Virtualization and Cloud Adoption
Infoblox Inc. today announced availability of new, network infrastructure automation capabilities essential to helping enterprise organizations accelerate deployment of virtualization and cloud computing initiatives.
While most organizations have initiated virtualization deployments, many are stalled at simple installations that enable multiple instances of applications to be tied to a single physical server, thereby reducing space, power and cooling costs. However, the dynamic benefits of virtualizing the server platform aren’t being met with equal dynamism in the network.
One of the primary roadblocks preventing organizations from extending their virtualization applications beyond a single rack or data center, across geographies and into a cloud environment—is the ability to adjust and manage the network infrastructure with the same speed that virtual machines are put into service.
Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President and Distinguished Research Fellow at Yankee Group, commented: “With virtualization and cloud computing initiatives taking root, IT administrators can provision virtual machines in minutes, but conforming the network to support the VMs can take days because the tools and processes required to perform the changes are still mostly manual and siloed. To realize the full potential of virtualization and cloud initiatives, enterprises simply must adopt more automated tools, ranging from IP address automation to configuration management tools for both physical and virtual devices.”
New Infoblox Functionality Delivers Significant Time and Cost Savings
New Infoblox automation features now available through Infoblox NetMRI offer powerful infrastructure automation and management visibility into the health, policy and compliance of the network. Significant new features now available include:
- Dynamic Templates: Dynamic selection options help configure in real time specific devices matching unique profiles; matching profiles to specific devices simplifies complex branch office provisioning to reduce truck rolls and expert resource dependencies.
- Automation Sandbox and Customizable Tools: Combines several functions with historical Perl expertise to build sustainable and dynamic workflow automation for more scalable network operations.
- Run Book Automation: Includes integration of embedded expertise to help realize the potential of dynamic IT environments and automate workflow.
- Blacklist Option: Automatically identifies and quarantines undesired devices, such as known stolen laptops, or triggers specific actions such as VLAN isolation to improve security and reduce risk.
With these new feature enhancements, among others, Infoblox NetMRI can collect and analyze configurations, identify policy violations, see the impact of change on network health, and remediate issues. This enables enterprises to automate essential network infrastructure practices required for dynamic networks, helps eliminate dependencies on IT experts, and reduces operational network delays preventing broad adoption of virtualization and cloud computing initiatives.
For example, in a cloud network service request scenario, network automation efficiencies in Infoblox NetMRI can help an enterprise IT team dramatically improve response time and reduce costs to 1/20th of the estimated conventional approach. Five hundred new service requests, each requiring an estimated 8 manual configuration steps can add up to nearly 200 hours of an IT expert’s time, costing thousands of dollars. In this scenario, with new Infoblox automation tools, many manual steps are eliminated and can reduce this to a total of 8 hours.
Similarly, a scenario with branch office updates of 200 new devices can require multiple manual provisioning steps with IT professionals traveling to remote locations to configure and deploy equipment, which can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this scenario, with new Infoblox automation tools, many of the manual steps and requirement of onsite expertise can be eliminated, speeding deployment and reducing costs to 1/10th of the estimate using a conventional approach.
Unique Infoblox Technologies Power Network Infrastructure Automation
These automation capabilities are realized through a combination of unique Infoblox technologies, including Infoblox NetMRI, Infoblox Orchestration System capabilities and Infoblox’s leading IP Address Management (IPAM) powered by Infoblox Grid™ technology.
Steve Nye, Infoblox Executive Vice President of Product Strategy and Corporate Development, commented: “Virtualization and cloud computing require a new approach to network infrastructure management; if enterprises don’t embrace real-time automation, they will inevitably hit roadblocks to accelerating these initiatives. Leveraging our patented technologies and close collaboration with our customers, which includes more than one third of the Fortune 500, Infoblox is helping bridge this divide with critical network infrastructure functionality.”
Learn more about Infoblox network infrastructure automation and control solutions here: www.infoblox.com.
Pricing & Availability
This new network infrastructure automation functionality is now available with Infoblox NetMRI version 6.1. The Infoblox NetMRI version 6.1 is offered on a range of Infoblox physical and virtual appliance platforms. Pricing for the Infoblox NetMRI starts at $16,990 in the United States and $20,390 in Europe and Asia Pacific.