Global IT/HR Consulting Company Optimizes Networks, Expanding Cloud Services and Lowering Costs With Infoblox

Network Optimization and Cost Savings.
During the pandemic, with its strategic acquisitions in place, the IT/HR company asked Infoblox to analyze, redesign and “right size” its network to improve consistency, cut costs and initiate an infrastructure refresh. The IT/HR firm required a highly reliable, resilient and secure core network services platform for on-premises and global hybrid and public cloud networks. It specified a centralized and fully managed DDI solution with high-availability (HA) DHCP failover for geographic redundancy. It also stipulated multiple DNS appliances for HA, DNS caching and secure recursive DNS services for outbound queries. Separate external DNS servers were further designated for increased DNS separation and security. With the highly regulated nature of the company’s health, financial and HR services, visibility was also a top priority for network optimization. Reporting and Analytics provided integrated dashboards and reports for audit and compliance, real-time network telemetry and performance, forensic investigation and resource planning, all from a single control plane. Infoblox’s technical assessment also revealed significant cost savings by offloading the IT/HR company’s F5 Local Traffic Management platform and using the CapEx and OpEx savings to deploy DNS Traffic Control (DTC) for global server load balancing. DTC’s intelligent DNS routing based on health status, geolocation and customizable metatags not only replaced F5’s functionality but also saved time, effort and cost through automated DR with less IT overhead and intervention.

Network Protection.
Given the continuous availability and security required by its health, wealth and HR services, Infoblox’s network redesign included Advanced DNS Protection (ADP) to guard against malicious inbound and outbound DNS attacks. It also incorporated BloxOne Threat Defense for on-prem security and BloxOne Threat Defense-Cloud for continuously updated protection and DNS content category filtering against malware, ransomware, domain generation algorithm (DGA), botnets, Fast-Flux, zero day and data exfiltration. DNS Threat Insight (part of BloxOne Threat Defense) provided sophisticated machine learning for continuous monitoring and termination of DNS data exfiltration. Lastly, Infoblox included Security Ecosystem to share DDI and security data with existing security tools for detection, investigation and remediation. Integrating Infoblox’s core network and value-added services with BloxOne Threat Defense security delivers secure, enterprise-grade network solutions to optimize and protect the IT/ HR company’s operations worldwide.

Cloud Expansion.
With its global footprint, the company’s cloud expansion strategy was critical for optimizing service access, consistency and reducing costs. The IT/HR firm combined several components to improve its visibility, control and availability across its hybrid and public cloud environments. For public cloud services, it chose to standardize on AWS. Infoblox’s vNIOS integration on AWS provides DNS and response policy zone capabilities, IPAM and vDiscovery, DHCP services for on-premises clients, fault tolerance and DR solutions. For cloud-managed services, Infoblox provides the BloxOne Cloud including BloxOne Threat Defense security solutions and BloxOne DDI. For the company’s remote locations, BloxOne DDI lowers the cost of network management while providing local survivability and local access across regional and global sites. In addition, acquisition of the payroll, talent and HR analytics firm brought greater focus and advancements to cloud services, including an SD-WAN initiative seeking to reduce costs, increase availability, enhance performance, improve agility and simplify management. Infoblox’s Viptela SD-WAN integration aligns perfectly with the IT/HR company’s SD-WAN initiative and allows it to use BloxOne DDI for testing its Viptela SD-WAN integration before rolling it into production. With vNIOS for AWS, BloxOne Threat Defense, BloxOne DDI and Viptela SD-WAN integrations, Infoblox enables the organization to realize its cloud expansion strategy while providing an integrated single source of solutions for its global network cloud services.

Pain Points

• Complex global M&A network operations
• Global network protection against malware and security threats
• High F5 load balancing CapEx and Opex
• Cloud services consistency and expansion

Benefits

• Simplified and centralized DDI
• DHCP HA and redundancy
• Consistent, secure DNS user experience
• Operational efficiency
• Global traffic management & DR
• Lower cost
• Expanded cloud services

WHY INFOBLOX:

Optimized, Reliable and Cost-Effective Hybrid Cloud Networks
The IT/HR company leveraged its Infoblox technology relationship and built a world-class global technology and HR services company in less than seven years. Infoblox helped the firm consolidate and simplify the network complexities associated with acquiring, merging and running seven global, highly regulated and mission-critical health, wealth and HR services companies. Infoblox optimized an on-premises, hybrid and cloud network infrastructure, reduced costs and deployed a reliable, consistent and secure network experience across the company’s distributed locations. Infoblox also helped the organization achieve its cloud expansion strategy through secure integrated solutions designed to reduce cost, expand availability, enhance performance, improve agility and simplify network management. Most importantly, Infoblox unified network visibility, boosted efficiency through automation, elevated control and secured network operations so the company could continue its growth and mission of delivering technology-based HR services to business customers around the globe for years to come.