What is DDI?

• DDI Definition

  DDI Definition

  DDI depicts the successful linkage of three core network services: DNS, DHCP, and IPAM. These network services are helpful individually, but their combined usage via a DDI solution produces better results in terms of improved network management and visibility.

  • DNS (Domain Name Service): The DNS service helps associate a device or website domain name to its IPv4 or IPv6 address.
  • DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol): DHCP enables devices to successfully connect and exchange data over a network by assigning them unique IP addresses.
  • IPAM (IP Address Management): IPAM is a network-wide technique to keep a tab on the assigned and unassigned IP addresses within a network.
• What are the features of the DDI solution?

  What are the features of the DDI solution?

  Outlined below are some of the popular features of DDI tools:

  Unified dashboard for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management: Modern DDI solutions help smartly manage DNS, DHCP, and IPAM services via a centralized console for smooth and reliable network operations. The easy-to-use dashboard provides a holistic view of your multi-vendor DNS and DHCP environments. These customizable dashboards also enable you to detect the inconsistencies between DNS records and IPAM data and resolve them quickly to eliminate the risk of conflicting configurations and duplicate IP addresses.

  IPv4 and IPv6 address management: DDI helps you streamline and automate the IP address management tasks. Using this tool, you can quickly identify assigned and unassigned IP addresses and categorize them into different subnets based on your network requirements. It can help you schedule automated IP address scans to avoid manual errors and inconsistencies. It also enables you to perform IP address searches globally, track subnet utilization, and resolve IP conflicts.

  Multi-vendor DNS and DHCP server management: DNS and DHCP server outages can be costly for your business in terms of lost revenue and decreased staff productivity. DDI tool can help you seamlessly manage multi-vendor DHCP and DNS servers from a centralized location. It can automatically route any changes you make in the IP address structure to DNS and DHCP servers, helping you save time and avoid errors during network administration. You can also detect inconsistencies in DNS forward and reverse records via the centralized console to improve your network reliability.

  DHCP split scope and failover support: DDI solution can help maximize the availability and reliability of your DHCP services through split scope functionality. DHCP split scope enables you to configure and implement two independent DCP servers for IP address allocation across subnets with a 50/50 or 80/20 scope configuration. You can easily view DHCP failover configurations and scope distribution across different subnets in your network via the centralized dashboard of this software. Additionally, you can configure and implement standard DHCP options for your multi-vendor DHCP servers via the centralized console, which reduces your administrative efforts since you don’t need to log in to each server individually.

  Intelligent alerting and reporting: DDI can provide smart alerting and reporting tools to help you proactively track and resolve IP-related network problems and ensure business continuity. With such tools, you can easily configure email alerts and desktop notifications for IP address conflicts, MAC address changes, mismatched DNS records, depleted subnets, and other critical issues hampering the smooth functioning of your network. These tools also enable you to generate customized reports to track real-time subnet utilization for better capacity planning.

  API support: Modern DDI tools typically provide API support for seamless integration with third-party software. You can create and delete IP records and DNS entries via the APIs to enable software-defined automation. In addition, you can set up and alter subnets in your network through the rich set of APIs.

  Event and log management: DDI tools typically maintain a detailed record of a network's IP-related events. These detailed event logs can help you quickly identify the root cause of IP address conflicts, DNS record mismatches, and other network issues and ensure accelerated troubleshooting for uninterrupted operations.
• What are the benefits of DDI?

  What are the benefits of DDI?

  The increasing adoption of multi-cloud, SD-WAN, and IoT solutions has made enterprise networks increasingly complex and dynamic. The increased network complexity makes it difficult for IT administrators to manage core network services, especially manual assignment and monitoring of IP addresses. DDI help overcome this challenge with centralized and automated management of the core network services, including DNS, DHCP, and IPAM management. The quick and error-free interactions between the core network services simplify IP address provisioning and de-provisioning in a dynamic network environment.

  Outlined below are some of the key benefits of a holistic DDI tool:

  Simplified network management: Since the DDI tool integrates core network services under a single platform, you can perform various network operations, such as IP address search, DNS record update, and DHCP split scope setup, in a much quicker and simplified way with minimal errors.

  Improved network visibility: DDI software provides a unified dashboard to help you track various IP-related problems, such as IP conflicts and DNS record mismatches, across your multi-vendor DHCP and DNS environments. It enables you to avoid unexpected security and performance issues by offering in-depth visibility into your network. DDI tools also allow you to identify and monitor all the devices and users connected to your network for simplified operations.

  Reduced downtime: DDI networking solution helps maximize the availability and efficiency of your network by centralizing and automating most of the network management activities. You can view all the critical network configuration settings on a unified interface and track any inconsistencies that can lead to service disruption. Further, the automated management of core network services also ensures a smooth experience for end users connected to your network.

  Higher cost savings: Availing individual services for DNS, DHCP, and ID address management is typically costlier and time-consuming. DDI solution vendors provide these core network services under a single package to reduce your network administration expenses. The centralized management of critical network services also helps you save valuable time during network administration and focus on other strategic tasks.

  Robust security: An integrated DDI tool allows you to safeguard critical network services, such as private and public DNS, from malicious internal and external attacks. As a centralized solution, it helps you continuously monitor your network’s IP address space and set up error-free configurations to prevent any security issues.