DNS and DHCP has become crucial services
Regularly, I hear that the network has ample redundancy according to the latest technology, but that there are still network, application or access problems because of a DNS issue.
It works, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, ICT management often pays too little attention to DNS/DHCP and IP management. Their view seems to be, it works, doesn’t it? Perhaps this is the case because many managers do not fully understand that these are crucial services with regard to availability, accessibility, performance and safety of the network and applications. ICT departments still consider such investments less strategic or as secondary functionality. This will change, however, with the rise of changing environments, security-driven strategies and architecture.
DNS and DHCP have become pivotal functions
This is because more web-based applications and services demand a higher degree of availability and performance of the DNS function. Consider, for example, an active directory (without DNS, there is no active directory access). I still frequently hear that a DNS issue is the actual cause of a ‘slow network’. DNS has become a critical business service, which serves as the ‘glue’ between the network infrastructure and applications.
DHCP has expanded because new services such as VolP demand a high degree of availability from DHCP. In addition, an ever-increasing group of mobile workers ensures that the distribution of addresses is increasingly more dynamic. In this regard, we should not forget the special applications of mobile networks that users join and leave, creating demands for tighter network control.
Changing management of IP objects
Each organisation with an IP network requires IP addresses for both the network nodes and for the address-consulting systems, to ensure that network traffic moves along the correct path to its destination. IP Management (IPAM) products ensure that the structured allocation of IP addresses is managed according to a numbering plan. IT Managers could use IP address management to identify unauthorised addresses seeking access to the network, for example, as part of a network access strategy. Good IP administrative management can of course contribute to an improvement in compliancy rules, such as SOX and BASELII. The arrival of IPv6 even seems to strengthen a sound IP address administration. Where network managers now get away with using an Excel spreadsheet, it will nevertheless be more difficult to administer IPv6 addresses error free and efficiently (3ffe:6a88:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7344).
In sum, I think that all these factors will ensure that DNS and DHCP play an even larger role in telecommunications and business infrastructures.
en.