BlueCat Integrity Reviews

We use BlueCat appliances and the Integrity platform for our DHCP environment. That's on the internal side. All of our DHCP for hospitals throughout the country are managed by BlueCat. The external DNS, also. We're authoritative for all of our own DNS zones. So we use BlueCat on the outside for public, DNS.

Better uptime than Windows due to patching.  Single Pane of glass for managing enterprise wide DHCP.

The most valuable aspect of the solution would be separation from the Windows operating system. Prior to our BlueCat usage, we were doing Windows DHCP and Windows DNS on the outside. Not being dependent on the Windows operating system, which routinely needs patching, reboots, et cetera, is great. Our BlueCat environment is now free of any of those vulnerabilities of Microsoft.

Integrity is largely easy to use. It depends on whether you're coming from a Windows, Linux, or Unix background. If you have a background with Unix-based DHCP or name services, it's a little easier to adopt. Coming from a Windows background, where you traditionally use Windows for either of these functions, it's not hard. However, it's easier if you already have Linux or Unix experience.

We witnessed the benefits of Integrity almost immediately. Since we had to reboot our Windows servers every month for patching, and with the new updates coming out for the Windows environment on a monthly basis - it was challenging. After switching to BlueCat, we don't have to reboot just for the patch. We can deploy. And since we run a high availability platform we can take one node down and still keep services alive without production impacts.

Integrity provides very close to a single pane of glass view of our IP address space. It would be more so if we were more prudent. It has the potential. A single pane of glass is a buzzword. It's very common. Everybody's looking for that. It would be nice if we were diligent and disciplined enough to record everything in our BlueCat environment. However, we don’t.

Integrity helps reduce human error, more or less.

Integrity helped us to reduce downtime. Given that, in a Windows environment, if we are following our best practice of patching on a monthly basis, that's about an hour or a month. We used to have a few hours a month per device or a couple of hours a month per device. Now we just don't have any downtime. We've reduced our downtime by 100%.

Integrity helped consolidate tools in that we now have a much better configuration standard. It is BlueCat. It's all BlueCat. No more Windows, Linux, DHCP servers, aside from Bluecat BDDS.  So, the configuration standard is being met and achieved every time, whereas there was always an opportunity to not maintain a standard when we were doing individual configurations.

BlueCat helped us free up IT staff for other projects to some extent. Not a substantial amount - and not really a measurable amount. We do have two primary engineers who operate this environment, and their workloads have certainly gotten better to where they can spend time doing other things.

Integrity helped us to improve the network stability due to a lack of downtime. If we're not having downtime when we're rebooting a Windows DHCP server, that means the clients continue to operate as they're expected without downtime failures.

BlueCat saved us money in terms of a life-and-death scenarios and the stress factors that surround a healthcare environment. We generally don't have downtime in our DHCP environments anymore. The clinics and the hospitals can continue to operate and not be in that position to be down. DHCP is a core NECESSARY service that you don't miss till it's not working.    And sometimes, that does mean that there are lives on the line. So from a medical hospital health care stance, absolutely saves us. I don't know if you can put a price on life, however, for our use case, it's pretty significant for us.

We're still reviewing our architecture and design. We are having some challenges when it's integrated into our VMware environment. We've fixed a lot of those issues. That said, we're still going through an architectural review to make sure that our high-availability design is going to be okay. High availability is an area of weakness. In terms of questions such as what does it take to produce high availability, and what is the configuration standard that must be met to maintain the high availability, we've had some challenges there.

There are multiple ways you can achieve high availability. We're using one that they call xHA, a crossover high-availability heart beat network.  xHA was not designed for a virtual environment, yet we are using it in a virtual environment. So we're trying to figure out ways to make that better.

Challenges with xHA in a Virtual Environment, when you have multiple BDDS on the same physical host, you can run into oddities and service stoppage.

UPDATE:  After extensive exploration and meeting with both Bluecat Architectural groups and within our own architectural groups, we've identified that our usage of xHA for Virtual environments is not a recommended method.  We'll be correcting that over the next 6-12 months and moving to an Active/Active solution via Bluecat.  If you're using Physical Appliances, consider xHA.  But in Virtual environments, use Active/Active.

I've been using the solution for about four years. 

Aside from some challenges, mostly due to virtualization, it is a very stable environment.

We're running over 300 devices, and our scale is rather large. We're shrinking our platform in terms of how many of these devices we have out there. Scalability, I would presume, is just fine. We scaled out right away in a fairly large enterprise, and it did very nicely.

I contact support maybe once a month.

They are amazing. Just recently, I was able to upgrade our support contract as we found that the basic offering of support included with licensing was not adequate for our needs. Since we have gone to their premier level of support, we're having monthly cadence meetings. They're continually doing health assessments and checks, and we're getting ready to do a whole new architectural review. Support has been very nice, not that we've gotten to their premier tier. Prior to that, it was hit or miss.

Our support here through BlueCat, due to the nature of our support contract, is very personalized. We have a dedicated team who understands our environment and our needs, and it's not a reinvention. We don't have to train guys each time we contact them. In contrast, with Microsoft, you get the luck of the draw. You might get a very knowledgeable engineer in the beginning. None of them are ever familiar with your environment, so they won't know the ins and outs. So with the custom team or dedicated team that is just responsible for our environment, these guys are very good. Microsoft doesn't really offer that.

Prior to running BlueCat, we ran Windows, Microsoft DHCP, and Microsoft DNS.

With BueCat, you get much more of a single pane of glass. You get a true high availability, and you get to divorce the primary services of DNS and DHCP from Windows so that you don't have to worry about patch management of Windows devices. You're not dependent on Microsoft anymore. And the high uptime seems to be much better for us.

The deployment, for a large enterprise can be challenging. We definitely took our time over the course of two years to cycle through and deploy BlueCat. It was just more schedule coordination.

For 150+ hospitals, it took us almost two years to deploy. We had two engineers working on the deployment process, both of whom are no longer with the organization.

The bad part is that, at the time, the purchasing decision was made to implement BlueCat on our own without the assistance of BlueCat Professional Services. I can't really speak to their professional implementation services. We did it on our own.

By way of uptime, we have reduced our total cost of ownership.

The peace of mind that BlueCat Integrity provides is much better. Especially on the uptime and being challenged with how to balance downtime for patching requirements versus just continual operations. From that perspective, BlueCat is is not quite set and forget, however, it is very close to set and forget.

Everybody wishes everything was cheaper, of course. However, for our enterprise our contract is under half a million dollars a year, so that's pretty good for the size of the organization. Their pricing is reasonable. 

We did not really look at other options previous to this solution. 

To those individuals at an organization who don't think that they need a full-stack integrated DDI management solution, I'd say the biggest selling point is availability and uptime. If you have to patch a Windows operating system, which is probably the largest competing product to BlueCat in the typical enterprise, if you have to worry about Windows patching, all those problems disappear.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

I'd advise new users to get professional services engaged as quickly as they can. Don't try to manage it individually very complex organizations, and don't try to just learn it overnight. Spend a little bit of money and engage with professional services to get them to help you through your migration path.

As a large-scale enterprise, we've relied on BlueCat Integrity as our internal DDI solution for years, managing DHCP, DNS, and IP address administration for our entire corporate network.

We have BlueCat Integrity deployed in a hybrid environment within our data centers and services like AWS, GCP, and OCI, and we are currently migrating to a cloud-only model. Our organization is getting rid of its data centers. So we are actually in the migration phase into being an only OCI and GCP.

My experience with BlueCat Integrity has been straightforward. The platform boasts comprehensive documentation for all its services, readily accessible within the console itself. Whenever questions arise about specific features or functionalities, detailed information is conveniently embedded within the individual web and UI pages. Additionally, BlueCat provides a robust guide for API access, making it a breeze to integrate with the platform. Overall, the GUI deserves a solid five out of five for user-friendliness, while the API learning curve bumps it down to a four out of five.

BlueCat Integrity offers a unified view of our entire IP address space, encompassing both on-premises infrastructure, data centers, and cloud environments. It allows us to automate virtually every aspect of IP address management.

The single pane of glass is extremely important to our organization. We have utilized all of our IPv4 space. So we need to understand what we are utilizing across the entire address space, and having everything in a single pane of glass allows us to quickly find out where we can utilize different insider blocks and stuff like that within our infrastructure. Having it all in one place makes things a lot easier.

It is flexible. The solution does exactly what I needed to do. I've had a long-standing relationship with BlueCat themselves and a lot of the feature requests to address past issues have been implemented. They've consistently updated the API, improved the UI through ongoing integrations, and pushed out platform changes nearly every quarter. While BlueCat Integrity had some initial drawbacks in 2018, its iterative approach and adaptability to our environment ensured it ultimately fit our needs perfectly.

We have implemented an integration between ServiceNow and BlueCat. The asset management database, or CMDB, is housed within ServiceNow. We synchronize information from this database with BlueCat, and vice versa. This ensures accurate representation of all deployed devices within our network, including precise details regarding IP addresses, MAC addresses, and other pertinent data. This integration between the two tools has been successfully established.

Originally, when we deployed our DDI infrastructure using Windows, DHCP, and DNS with Active Directory, managing the platform at scale was a major challenge. We had to log in to each server individually to manage the DHCP IP address space and manually sync all those records between Active Directory for DNS. This involved a lot of manual work just to manage the three services together. Migrating to BlueCat transformed everything. It provided a single pane of glass for all three services. Now, we not only see our entire IP address space in one view, but we can also manage both DNS and DHCP through the same interface. We can even choose which IP address space gets deployed to what server and have records automatically created and populated within BlueCat. This simplified management has dramatically reduced the time we need to spend on maintaining the platform, freeing us to focus on improving our infrastructure overall.

Through APIs or programmatic calls, we can accomplish a much wider range of tasks within BlueCat. We can leverage change control to modify a significant amount of information, implementing new checks and balances along the way. This centralized approach, accessible via a single pane of glass, eliminates the need for constant server logins and manual changes, typically performed by humans. Consequently, human intervention has been drastically reduced, minimizing the risk of human error. Additionally, we've implemented change control, adding an extra layer of transparency and requiring human approval for modifications.

BlueCat Integrity has helped us significantly reduce organizational downtime. This was possible because we rebuilt our entire infrastructure to be highly available. With Windows, we're limited to only two servers, and if one fails, both DHCP and DNS capabilities suffer depending on which server went down. In contrast, BlueCat's single pane of glass management allows us to quickly shift workloads to a different server within the platform, virtually eliminating downtime. This high availability is a major advantage of BlueCat Integrity.

Before implementing BlueCat Integrity, our infrastructure relied on a patchwork of disconnected tools. We juggled Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, and even a timeworn spreadsheet for mapping our IP space. Additionally, managing remote offices involved juggling services like Meraki and others. BlueCat unified these disparate elements into a single platform, granting us access to all necessary features through one interface. This consolidation proved particularly valuable as we transitioned to the cloud. BlueCat seamlessly redeployed onto GCP and OCI, preserving its inherent flexibility without requiring additional tools for these new environments.

BlueCat Integrity has freed up our IT staff for other projects by reducing the need for constant server configuration and manipulation, particularly for new offices. Thanks to its robust automation features, managing the service requires minimal time investment overall. This allows our resources to either focus on approving new service features or tackling other important infrastructure tasks.

BlueCat helped us reduce hidden costs associated with deploying services like Active Directory and DHCP through Windows. These services, while nearly free to install, required significant labor for server maintenance. With BlueCat, we pay more upfront for licensing and server deployment, but the reduced need for engineering and minimal downtime offset this cost.

Transitioning from a free model to a paid one can be slightly more challenging. To make an informed decision, we need a clear understanding of the labor involved in maintaining our current free services. Companies adept at valuing fixes, changes, and server maintenance can readily compare platform costs. We can simply compare our current engineering expenses against the potential investment in a platform like BlueCat deployment. However, quantifying the value of a solution can be trickier, as much of its benefit lies in its hidden aspects, like improved back-end efficiency and platform uptime.

When I first took over ownership of the DHCP and DNS Management services within my company, it was all-consuming. My mind was constantly on what was happening, and what issues needed attention. I was primarily in reactive mode, constantly firefighting and keeping things operational. But after transitioning to Bluecat, a shift occurred. The platform's stability allowed me to move beyond the immediate and think strategically. No longer burdened by constant troubleshooting and remediation, I could finally focus on iterating and driving progress. In essence, I transitioned from a reactive, backward-looking mindset to a proactive, forward-thinking one, empowered by the platform's capabilities.

One of the key features enabling us to operate at our current scale is robust automation. While BlueCat's UI is excellent, we primarily interact with the platform through automation scripts. Therefore, our most critical use case involves making API calls and updating data without needing to log into the console, ensuring thoroughness in the automation component.

Currently, a significant portion of automation within our infrastructure relies on custom-written scripts. For instance, every time we require automated IP address space updates, we must develop the script ourselves. Looking forward, I would welcome pre-existing scripts readily deployable within our infrastructure to alleviate this burden.

BlueCat currently meets our core needs, and we appreciate their service. However, we believe the platform could benefit from significant improvements, particularly in terms of ongoing maintenance and the implementation of new features. One crucial area for development is IPv6 support. As we transition to this newer networking protocol, we lack robust tools and functionalities tailored to IPv6 within BlueCat. Consequently, we'd like to see greater investment from BlueCat in building out their IPv6 feature set.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for over five years.

BlueCat Integrity has proven to be highly stable. The infrequent incidents we've encountered were primarily due to user error or external factors beyond our control. Nonetheless, BlueCat Integrity has exceeded expectations, consistently achieving our 99.99 percent uptime target. Overall, it's been a pleasure working with this platform.

The only drawback to BlueCat's scalability is the cost, which naturally increases with the number of servers required. Their per-server licensing model reflects this directly. However, the benefits of having a single IP address manager with built-in resiliency for DNS, DHCP, and the IPAN module have been significant. It has seamlessly scaled alongside our infrastructure, which is one of the fastest-growing for a long time, and consistently met our needs. We haven't encountered any scaling issues with BlueCat on-premises.

However, this might change when we fully transition to the cloud. Some services might not be readily compatible with a cloud environment, but we're actively collaborating with BlueCat to overcome these challenges. We're confident that we'll find solutions to ensure a smooth transition to a cloud-based infrastructure.

My recent experience with BlueCat's technical support has been excellent. Their deep understanding of the platform is impressive, and they're always transparent when they need to consult with engineers for further expertise. During the initial deployment, everything went smoothly. We've maintained ongoing communication with their team, and they consistently demonstrate proactiveness, understanding of our environment and challenges, and prompt communication in response. Overall, they have exceeded expectations and set a new standard for customer service within our organization.

In comparison, the DDI environment is a starkly different experience between Microsoft and BlueCat. Microsoft is a large company, and their support for DDI issues can be slow and cumbersome, requiring navigating their ticketing system. Additionally, they don't directly support professional deployments for DHCP and DNS. As a result, we often had to rely on our expertise to troubleshoot issues with the free services offered with their Windows licensing. This lack of dedicated support made managing the environment challenging.

Positive

We were using Active Directory DNS with DHCP, and we were managing a variety of servers, each with different configurations. Our goal was to optimize our environment by having a single, unified view of all three services. BlueCat enabled us to achieve this, making it our primary choice for deployment.

Automating server management was our primary focus. Previously, we manually handled servers across roughly 150 offices, a demanding task with numerous servers to individually address in case of downtime. Implementing a single pane of glass allowed us to not only consolidate server oversight but also run automation scripts against it. This automation enabled us to seamlessly switch to backup servers upon failures, deploy new servers in newly opened offices, and ultimately streamline server management after switching to the single pane of glass.

I led the engineering effort for the BlueCat Integrity deployment. The most challenging aspect is the initial server configuration after deployment. It requires several manual steps, such as logging in through the CLI and entering information for each server, including IP addresses, subnets, and so on. However, once everything is set up and we begin managing the platform itself, the service becomes significantly easier to use thanks to the intuitive GUI. We can then leverage automation and other advanced features. In essence, the initial deployment is the more challenging hurdle, but once the service is up and running, it's a much more pleasant and streamlined experience.

We began by fully deploying the new infrastructure before migrating any services. During the proof of concept, we established the address manager, responsible for managing the IP space. Next, we deployed DHCP and DNS onto the new infrastructure but held off on activating them. Our first migration target was DHCP. We deployed and configured the dedicated DHCP servers, leaving them ready to receive IP address requests. We then embarked on a phased approach, moving office by office to redirect the IP helpers from the Windows DHCP servers to the BlueCat servers. Once all DHCP services were fully transferred to BlueCat, we decommissioned the Windows DHCP servers. The DNS migration followed a similar path. We placed the BlueCat DNS servers behind the Windows ones, synchronized the DNS records for fast transition, and then gradually made the Windows servers non-authoritative for each zone until BlueCat ultimately assumed full control. Finally, we retired the domain controllers from the process.

To expedite the deployment, we initially relied on a team of two engineers and three operations personnel. Once the engineers mastered specific tasks, such as office migration via DHCP, we would transition the task to our ops team, allowing our dedicated ops team to handle the remaining offices. Essentially, the engineers handled all initial testing and process refinement, ensuring their functionality before handover to the ops team.

BlueCat Integrity's professional DNS and support services were outstanding. During our initial implementation, we opted for their higher support package, which proved to be an excellent investment. Their professionalism was a key selling point for us. They provided invaluable assistance with architecture, design, and implementation, remaining actively engaged throughout the process. Whether we were making minor adjustments or significant changes, they were always readily available to jump on a call and offer prompt support. They even walked us through the entire process, ensuring we understood every step. I can't say enough about how impressed I was with their service. They were unwavering in their dedication to helping us achieve our goals.

Deploying BlueCat Integrity has yielded a significant return on investment for our company, primarily due to the substantial labor savings it has achieved. The increased availability it affords has kept our engineers and offices up and running, while also reducing the need for ongoing product maintenance. While the impact may vary depending on a company's size and specific circumstances, BlueCat Integrity has demonstrably improved our operational efficiency and delivered a clear ROI.

The BlueCat pricing model has shifted from perpetual licenses to subscriptions, prompting us to re-evaluate our infrastructure. While BlueCat falls on the expensive side, its exceptional customer service and consistent quality justify the cost. We find continuing our partnership with them valuable due to the ongoing support and reliable solutions they provide.

We initially evaluated Infoblox, a major competitor to BlueCat in the market at the time. However, their solution proved incompatible with our existing infrastructure and their focus was solely on product sales, showing no interest in collaboration. In contrast, BlueCat's customer-centric approach impressed us. We've enjoyed a close partnership with them, characterized by continuous feedback exchange, making us feel like valued partners in their product development. This commitment to customer satisfaction ultimately tipped the scales in BlueCat's favor.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity a nine out of ten. BlueCat Integrity is a fantastic product that's never let me down in my infrastructure. Since deploying and signing it up, it's been rock-solid and exceeded expectations.

BlueCat Integrity is deployed throughout our entire company, including both the corporate headquarters and individual departments. We have it operational in four data centers strategically located around the world: the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, Amsterdam, and the APAC region. This infrastructure supports all 150 of our enterprise offices worldwide, as well as 400 Green Light Hubs or customer success centers. It automatically assigns IP addresses to all these locations, serving our 40,000 employees.

In addition to the occasional unscheduled security patch, they release regular quarterly updates to address any bugs or issues. This is the primary focus of our maintenance efforts, ensuring the platform stays up-to-date and secure.

Using a full-stack integrated DDI management solution has significantly improved my understanding of our environment's address space allocation. It clarifies which addresses are assigned via protocols like DHCP and reveals the existing DNS records. Under a single pane of glass, managing these services takes much less time. As a DDI professional, I strongly believe we should always consider these services as one, not three separate components. Viewing them individually creates significant gaps while recognizing them as a unified whole removes these disparities.

Whether BlueCat Integrity is right for you depends on your specific needs. For some organizations, like ours, it was a game-changer when we were scaling rapidly. We needed a service that could grow with us, and BlueCat fit the bill perfectly. However, smaller companies might not require the sheer power and features that BlueCat offers. It's a sophisticated tool, and simply clicking buttons in the UI won't unlock its full potential. But if you're committed to building automation and robust processes around your DDI stack, then BlueCat is worth exploring.

Our DDI environment is managed by BlueCat Integrity, a unified platform for our DNS, DHCP, and IP address management.

The user interface is intuitive and easy to learn. New users can navigate it confidently without confusion. Our international teams in France, India, and the US have all successfully managed the IPAM system with the UI, demonstrating its clear design. This reinforces the idea that a well-designed interface can make even complex technology accessible.

They offer a consolidated view, like a single pane of glass, of our entire IP address space. This comprehensive view is incredibly valuable. The vast amount of information is presented in a user-friendly way, similar to a database. BlueCat intelligently organizes this data, including the ERTs, for efficient exploration. A convenient dashboard provides a central location to access all this information.

It delivered immediate benefits. It offered a high degree of control, comprehensive information for log monitoring, and more. Compared to a Windows system, it streamlined log analysis with its exceptional logging capabilities. Overall, it's an excellent solution.

BlueCat Integrity helps reduce human error by automating tasks and improving data integrity. For example, its DNS features can check for typos and other configuration errors, ensuring accurate data is used. Additionally, Integrity's infrastructure creation and data organization tools promote consistency and reduce the potential for mistakes caused by manual processes.

It minimizes downtime by offering various high-availability features. One such feature is called XHA, which ensures service continuity even if individual machines or appliances experience issues. This allows services to remain online during maintenance updates, for example. Additionally, BlueCat Edge leverages Anycast technology to provide further redundancy for Integrity's DNS services.

Previously, BlueCat's reach was limited to North America. We've expanded our footprint globally. This involved decommissioning many legacy servers worldwide, particularly Windows-based ones like DNS and DHCP servers, as well as some digital services on firewalls and routers. This shift to BlueCat grants us greater control and allows for a more standardized configuration across our global network. It also facilitates easier deployment and enforcement of network-wide standards.

Our organization heavily utilizes BlueCat Integrity's API for automation and data integrity monitoring. It effectively provides all the information necessary for our current automation needs, making it a valuable tool.

BlueCat Integrity has significantly improved our IT staff's efficiency. A centralized console streamline updates, while global configuration deployment further reduces time spent on management tasks. Overall, BlueCat Integrity offers a wide range of time-saving functionalities that benefit our environment.

While we haven't encountered any server issues, a key strength lies in our well-architected DDI infrastructure. For instance, our DHCP redundancy server resides in a separate location, ensuring failover if the primary site experiences problems. Similarly, with geographically dispersed DNS servers in India and Australia, redundancy is built-in. BlueCat Integrity's robustness further enhances network stability. Since implementing it, we haven't experienced service outages or reboots. The product's maturity is evident, but our monitoring practices also play a crucial role.

The time saved by using BlueCat Integrity translates directly to cost savings.

BlueCat Integrity helps us reduce our TCO.

BlueCat Integrity has been a game-changer. It frees up my time to focus on other projects that improve our network environment, research new technologies, and more. This robust and mature product has given me peace of mind. Since joining this team and using BlueCat, I haven't lost a single night's sleep worrying about DNS, DHCP, or IP Address Management. It simply works reliably in the background, just as it should.

BlueCat Integrity has proven to be a robust solution. We haven't encountered any problems with it, and it is reliable.

BlueCat's ability to deliver secure updates quickly is crucial for us. When it comes to DNS security, timely updates and patches are essential. Fortunately, BlueCat excels in this area, providing the peace of mind we need.

I've been impressed by BlueCat's performance and user-friendly GUI. The API allows for easy data collection, particularly for automation purposes. While external monitoring tools are available, BlueCat's built-in monitoring provides an additional layer of convenience and trust.

BlueCat Integrity could benefit from several improvements. First, faster log processing would be beneficial. Ideally, the system would adopt a similar approach to BlueCat Edge for improved efficiency. Second, the IPAM dashboard could be enhanced to display more information and provide data analysis features. This could include visualizations, log analysis, and improved reporting with insights and metrics. Similar to BlueCat Edge, reports should be presented in a modern way that leverages more data for analysis. Ultimately, the goal is to visualize logs and gain insights directly within reports.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for ten years.

A mature solution, BlueCat Integrity has consistently demonstrated stability within our infrastructure, never exhibiting any issues.

While we rely heavily on the network, there may be times when perfect network balance isn't achievable. The impact of this depends on our specific actions. Thankfully, BlueCat Integrity is a lightweight service, making it easy to scale our work. Additionally, our infrastructure has ample resources, allowing us to easily add more if needed, solidifying this solution's scalability.

We truly value the professional support offered by BlueCat. While it is a paid service, their expertise is excellent, and we rely heavily on their assistance. They are the vendor with whom I have the best working relationship.

The technical support is quick to respond and knowledgeable.

Positive

The deployment is straightforward. The most important part is to figure out all the clients and the networks that are going to rely on the infrastructure.

One person can handle the deployment as long as they are familiar with the solution.

The implementation was completed in-house.

BlueCat Integrity's pricing is reasonable within the market.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity ten out of ten. We heavily rely on BlueCat Integrity, and it's been very dependable. When we demonstrate our network management to other teams, they're impressed by the level of control we have. There's very little to complain about – it's a well-architected and implemented solution. The built-in redundancy and global distribution are particularly helpful, contributing significantly to its overall effectiveness.

Apart from system updates, no maintenance is required for BlueCat Integrity.

For those who say they don't need a full-stack integrated DDI management solution, I simply offer good luck. Dedicated DDI solutions provide far greater visibility compared to less mature options. This is crucial – without it, we'd be flying blind. Security is paramount for our company as well. A reliable vendor should quickly release patches for any Common Criteria Evaluation issues affecting our DNS, DHCP, and IT infrastructure. This allows us to swiftly update our security team and maintain a proactive stance. Remember, while DNS, DHCP, and IPAM aren't complex products, they are critically important. A single vulnerability can cripple the entire company. A proper response and vendor support during high-impact situations are essential. While the need for a solution like BlueCat Integrity scales with company size, even smaller organizations benefit from the peace of mind and efficiency it offers. Frankly, having experienced the advantages of DDI solutions, I wouldn't dream of working without one today.

For a smooth experience with BlueCat Integrity, prioritize initializing your IPAM component. Updating BlueCat with all your IP addresses upfront helps prevent future management challenges. Since IPAM can be complex, leverage automation as much as possible to automatically collect IP address information. Additionally, security is paramount when dealing with DNS, so always prioritize security best practices.

Our company provides network infrastructure management services for ten clients. We handle DNS, DHCP, and IPAM for these clients, all utilizing the BlueCat Integrity platform.

The most effective features for IP management are log reviews and configuration management.

BlueCat Integrity is easy to use but it can be time-consuming. It has improved our troubleshooting. We can go to the server and see the logs.

BlueCat Integrity has helped reduce downtime andhas saved 50 percent of our time.

It has streamlined our IT team's workflow, freeing up valuable time for other projects. The intuitive user interface simplifies the process of provisioning IP addresses to customers.

We recommend the BlueCat automation to our customers because it saves almost 50 percent of our time. Through the self-service portal, our customers can complete their requests themselves.

BlueCat Integrity helped improve network stability.

The professional DNS and support service helps integrate BlueCat Integrity.

The most valuable features of BlueCat Integrity are the user-friendly UI and the permission management.

A common complaint about BlueCat is that adding new features or making even small changes requires a full deployment process, which can be time-consuming. This is especially problematic for deployments using SSP (hidden primary), the business-critical DNS server, which can take up to seven minutes to deploy depending on network size.

Unfortunately, BlueCat Integrity doesn't support bulk Content Security Policy configuration. We'll need to set these policies manually for each element or develop a script to automate the process.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for two and a half years.

I would rate the stability of BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten. At times we get high utilization on some servers. 

I would rate the scalability of BlueCat Integrity ten out of ten.

The technical support is responsive and they have resolved any issues we have had.

Positive

We previously implemented Infoblox and it remains in use, but we've also added BlueCat Integrity to our network management toolset. We prefer the integration and automation in BlueCat.

While BlueCat Integrity is easy to deploy, the overall deployment time varies based on network complexity. New customers can be up and running in two weeks, but migrating existing configurations from Infoblox to BlueCat Integrity can take up to three months. This is because the migration involves a staged approach, transitioning DNS settings first, then DHCP, and finally finalizing DNS changes.

BlueCat Integrity is more cost-effective than Infoblox.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten.

The majority of our clients who use BlueCat Integrity are enterprise customers.

Once BlueCat Integrity is deployed there is no maintenance required.

We did not face any challenges when integrating BlueCat Integrity into our client's systems.

Even for organizations hesitant about needing a full-suite DDI management solution, BlueCat Integrity's time-saving features and cost-effectiveness make it a compelling choice. I recommend BlueCat Integrity to others.

We have been a partner of BlueCat for two years now, and we are responsible for deploying the solution over the Middle East region. I have the most experience with BlueCat Integrity.

BlueCat Integrity is generally easy to use and administer, though the ease of use can vary depending on the user's experience level. Migration can be complex for beginners or those new to IT, but daily operation is straightforward.

BlueCat Integrity provides a single interface for managing IP address space, DNS, and DHCP within one console. Many organizations have separate consoles or teams for these functions, leading to unused IP space and a lack of awareness regarding its allocation. If team members leave, knowledge of this IP space is lost, resulting in wasted resources and inefficient management, especially when viewed from a cross-team perspective.

It provides immediate benefits by allowing us to easily migrate our existing files to its software. The software then automatically identifies any missing or misconfigured elements in our network environment, providing a comprehensive overview and improving overall efficiency.

The primary migration tool helps reduce human error by automating the transfer of existing network configurations into the BlueCat system. This tool simplifies the migration process and verifies configurations against industry best practices, highlighting potential issues. While BlueCat offers recommendations, it ultimately allows users to make informed decisions and retain specific configurations necessary for their unique environment, such as those required for certain products to function correctly.

BlueCat consolidates disparate network management tools. Organizations often rely on default Microsoft DNS and DHCP servers, which are separate tools within Active Directory, and manage IP addresses through the DHCP server. This results in three separate components with different consoles and configurations. BlueCat streamlines this by integrating all these functions into a single, unified platform.

It has helped organizations by providing automation features that can handle specific IT tasks, freeing up IT staff for other projects.

BlueCat reduces the total cost of ownership by automating tasks, which allows IT staff to focus on other projects instead of managing DNS and DHCP tools. Additionally, BlueCat consolidates functionalities into a single server, decreasing infrastructure costs associated with separate solutions and consoles. This automation and consolidation significantly reduce IT costs.

Once correctly configured and deployed, it offers significant relief through its automation capabilities. This automation enables features like automatic failover to redundant DNS or DHCP servers, eliminating concerns about server failures and ensuring service continuity. IP address management can also be automated based on device and location, further streamlining network administration. With proper configuration, BlueCat Integrity minimizes the need for ongoing manual intervention and reduces the administrative burden on network administrators.

The most valuable feature of BlueCat Integrity is decentralized management, which enables real-time visibility and control over the entire IP address space, DNS, and DHCP from a single console. This feature is crucial for organizations.

The user interface could be improved, as the implementation of BlueCat can be complicated and requires personnel with expertise in DNS, DHCP, and IP management.

We have been a partner of BlueCat for two years.

BlueCat is a well-known, stable solution in the community, with an architecture designed for reliability. The appliance itself provides a clustered environment, so even if one service fails, there's no need for manual configuration or worry. This built-in redundancy minimizes service disruptions, ensuring your network runs smoothly at all times.

BlueCat Integrity's scalability depends on the type of appliance used, so we typically communicate with the customer to determine their IP address and DNS server needs. Virtual appliances offer inherent scalability by simply adding resources for smooth software operation, with performance contingent on the provided hardware specifications.

BlueCat's customer support, particularly its solutions team, has been excellent. While I've collaborated extensively with its partner team, including solution architects, I haven't needed to contact its general technical support.

Positive

We have seen customers using Infoblox and Microsoft IPAM, and we have migrated these customers to BlueCat. BlueCat is better because it provides a unique blend of features and flexibility.

Implementing BlueCat Integrity itself is straightforward, but migrating data from older configurations and consolidating solutions can be complex for those who aren't seasoned professionals.

The deployment of the solution itself takes about two or three hours. Migration depends on the size of the IP address management and can take nearly 24 hours.

The number of people required for deployment depends on their experience with the BlueCat solution. As an implementation service provider, we could deploy with two people at most. While the interface may seem complex to those unfamiliar with it, customers should also be able to deploy with two to three people: one with IP knowledge, one with DNS expertise, and one with DHCP experience. Ultimately, the most crucial requirement is someone who thoroughly understands the environment where the solution will be deployed.

I handle professional services as a partner, providing integration and migration support to customers in the Middle East. It typically requires two people to implement the solution.

BlueCat helps reduce IT cost because it automates many tasks. This automation frees up staff for other projects and consolidates several solutions onto a single server, reducing infrastructure costs.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity nine out of ten. The only negative is the complexity that can occur around migrations.

BlueCat is not typically used to directly prevent downtime. While its DNS functionality helps resolve domain names, this depends entirely on how it's configured within your organization or solution. BlueCat doesn't actively support downtime prevention. Although it aids in the handover process between multiple DNS or DHCP servers, it offers no active functionality to prevent downtime for a single DNS server.

Upgrading BlueCat Integrity requires some downtime, regardless of whether it's a physical or virtual appliance. The process involves setting up the new appliance and migrating the configuration from the old appliance. While virtual appliance migration typically takes under an hour, physical appliance upgrades require additional time for installation and initial setup. The configuration transfer is relatively quick, simply importing and exporting existing settings.

If someone believes they don't need a full DDI solution, I recommend they first verify their IP address management is accurate and all allocated addresses are being utilized effectively. They should also confirm their DNS is functioning correctly and that critical services are operating as expected. There's a high chance of misconfigurations or outdated settings that could lead to downtime or security vulnerabilities. This is where a dedicated DDI solution can provide comprehensive management and prevent potential issues.

New users should understand their organization's IP structure and DNS configurations before implementing BlueCat for a smooth experience. It is important to be familiar with DDI technologies.

We use BlueCat Integrity to manage all of our IP addresses. Whenever we deploy a new device or anything that needs an IP address, we consult our IP address manager. This includes anything that is not on our DHCP scope, mainly server-based systems. We manually enter the DNS names for these IP addresses. We use DHCP for quite a few systems, but we set reservations for certain endpoints that require static IP addresses, such as admin desktops that we only want to allow those IPs through.

We have BlueCat Integrity deployed on-premises. We have three servers: a master and two IP address managers, which are devices that serve up IP addresses and handle DHCP.

BlueCat Integrity is easy to use for those who are accustomed to Windows. There was a slight learning curve, but it wasn't difficult at all. Everything is laid out very well. Creating records, CNAMEs, subzones, and so on is all quite straightforward. I didn't have any problems with it and didn't need to call support or ask other people for help most of the time. It's very well laid out. BlueCat gave us a quick overview when they helped us set it up, and from there, I was able to figure everything out on my own. I would say it's quite intuitive.

BlueCat provides us with a single pane of glass view. This is a convenient feature to have but not necessary.

Since implementing BlueCat, we have experienced fewer problems, anomalies, and strange issues. Our desktop support staff no longer complains about not receiving DHCP addresses. BlueCat seems to be more reliable.

BlueCat has helped reduce downtime.

BlueCat has freed up around 20 percent of our staff's time, making it easier and quicker for us to manage IP addresses, since we didn't have an IPAM system or even use Windows before. We now only use Windows for DNS integration, so having a reliable source for IP address management has been helpful.

I'm a security engineer, so I do a lot of deployments, especially for POCs. When we need a new server built, we request an IP address from the infrastructure team. We verify that the IP address is not being used through IPAM, DACP, and the DNS server. These tools are essential for anyone who works in IT, but they are not unique to us. 

One complaint about the interface is BlueCat's handling of subzones. We have many subzones in our domains, so getting to each one requires a lot of clicking, instead of having them all listed out for us. I'm not sure why BlueCat chose to do it this way but this is an area for improvement.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for almost eight years.

We have not had any downtime. BlueCat Integrity is stable.

We previously used SolarWinds IPAM, but it was terrible, so we switched to BlueCat, which we have found to be more reliable.

We had some concerns about the deployment so we hired a team for the implementation. We had around five people from our organization who helped with the deployment.

We hired consultants to help us implement BlueCat to minimize downtime during the transition. They were very knowledgeable and did a great job.

The professional DNS and support services were quite good. I had no serious problems, and everything went smoothly. We didn't encounter any major hiccups.

We have seen a return on investment from reducing downtime, and even just managing IP addresses helps.

BlueCat's pricing is good, though not as cheap as SolarWinds'. However, we are happier with the BlueCat product. We paid around $5,000 per year for SolarWinds, and now we pay around $20,000 per year for BlueCat, but we have less downtime and fewer issues with DNS and DHCP.

Before selecting BlueCat Integrity we evaluated the offerings from SolarWinds and ManageEngine.

We chose BlueCat because it offered an all-in-one IPAM, DNS, and DHCP solution. We received some good recommendations from consultants, and we made our decision based on reviews. Everyone who had used it seemed to like it.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten.

BlueCat has helped us reduce our total cost of ownership by around $2,500 per year since we implemented it eight years ago.

With BlueCat, I can rest knowing I have peace of mind and don't have to think about it.

We do patches on the systems every few months.

For medium-sized and large businesses, It is very important to have an IP Address Management solution. No one wants to have IP conflicts, especially if we are manually assigning IP addresses or using only a ping tool. An IPAM solution can help reduce downtime more reliably than Windows or some cheaper products.

For those who can afford it, I recommend using professional services. They can help to smooth out the deployment process and show how to use the tool more effectively. A lot of training is not required, but having professional services walk us through everything can be helpful to get our IT team comfortable with the product and to ensure that our update process is properly documented.

We use Integrity for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management. It provides a means to track our public and internal IP space and to find information about network utilization. Integrity is the sole DNS for the entire company. We have two on-prem data centers and servers on two cloud providers that all use the BlueCat DNS. The company has about 150 remote offices throughout the US, and they all use the centralized BlueCat DNS and DHCP services. There are 25,000 employees, but only about 50 are direct users, including a few engineers with admin rights. 

We have experienced some challenges with the high availability of the physical boxes. As we've gone to the virtualization and cloud options, that has become much more resilient. Patching was sometimes problematic because we had to do it from the command line, and the GUI was limited. Sometimes, things would get stuck, so you had to go to the command line. Integrity offers some GUI enhancements, high availability, logging improvements, and tools you can use to pull data from it. It's much easier for lower-level engineers to do quick checks without command-line access. That has been a significant improvement.

A few years ago, we migrated to a virtual server infrastructure and changed the Active Directory in that model to point to BlueCat Integrity DNS rather than Microsoft ActiveNet. By doing that, we alleviated many of the security and performance issues we had with Microsoft appliances. 

We also changed the server infrastructure from static IP addresses to dynamic DHCP reservations. Regardless of where the VMs come up, the DHCP reservation gives them the correct address and DNS. We do dynamic DNS with that. All those things reduced the labor required to fix and tune problems manually. It's a more automated, seamless solution. Integrity improved our resiliency and accuracy while reducing the potential for manual error. 

Aside from the DHCP, there are other automated things we can do. We can integrate things like Splunk and other search or logging tools via API and extract data about IP addresses, DNS changes, etc., into other investigative tools or dashboards. The options are endless, and that has helped us with monitoring and integrating other tools. When we do projects that involve migrating servers or networks from one technology to another, having that API call to see the live status of the project is helpful.  

Integrity improves our security by providing a single source of IP address usage and contact information. We also have carrier circuit and location information. The cybersecurity team can pull all those pieces together in one searchable query and find out about certain IP addresses and who to contact. You can add customizable columns and extra variables.

As a defense contractor, we must meet many compliance standards regarding logging, configuration, and administrative access. BlueCat is one of the few products that combines all the compliance components in a secure, reliable solution.

Integrity requires some technological expertise and a full-time employee to run the system. It is one of several technologies that my group manages, but maintenance requires minimal effort. Upgrading and deploying the solution is a bigger task, but it is easy to maintain once it is running. 

BlueCat Integrity offers a single pane of glass view for our IP address space. From the GUI interface, you can see all the IP addresses and roll them up to the colored views of usage and availability. That capability is critical because we have multiple groups that are off on their own in a cloud environment. We can avoid IP address overlap by checking that as we add different projects. While I've worked at this company, we've had more than 50 acquisitions. As we acquire these companies, some IP addresses may overlap. We can integrate those, see the spaces, and adjust. 

When you replace an appliance, there are many configuration steps, so adding zero-touch provisioning would be helpful. It can be quite tedious and time-consuming to replace a device if it fails or deploy a new one. 

We started using BlueCat Integrity in 2007.

I rate BlueCat 10 out of 10 for stability. It has been extremely stable. We have multiple layers of firewalls around it, so it breaks the traffic, but we've only seen it break one data center, and we continued to provide service to users. We're working behind the scenes to fix these firewall issues and stuff blocking other traffic. It's been so resilient that it's hidden other infrastructure issues, and it's been really great.

I rate BlueCat Integrity 10 out of 10 for scalability. It has so much capacity to run queries. We've set up a distributed system where any calls go to the closest device to the answer, and we've never had any performance issues.

I rate BlueCat support six out of 10. They used to have a free technical account manager for enterprise deployments. They changed that model a few years ago. Recently, they've adopted tiered support, and we pay an additional cost for enhanced service. 

We have a dedicated mid-level engineer who is our environment's primary point of contact. We have a much more advanced deployment because we're defense contractors and there are many compliance issues where we need to tune the system. Also, we have it integrated with other things, so we need to do some advanced configuration. Having a dedicated engineer has been helpful. They also have additional staff in case that engineer is on leave or off shift, and we can call on their more experienced engineers to help us if needed. 

Neutral

We previously had Linux-based systems involving multiple pieces that we had to pull together and operate using a command line. The GUI was a separate database, so it was disjointed, and we had to perform repetitive procedures and manually enter data in multiple places. 

Our switch to BlueCat was primarily motivated by compliance considerations. We needed to adopt a modern set of systems that other people could support. The level of technological expertise needed for the old systems was too high, and it was hard to hire engineers with those specialized skills. With BlueCat, you don't need to be a Linux guru. The learning curve was much lower, allowing less-experienced systems engineers to work on it. That freed up our high-skilled employees to work on more advanced things.

The integration was somewhat complex. Integrity is integrated with multiple systems, so it has been incredibly flexible in that regard. It isn't too complex, but you need to do many steps to get it running how you want. It took a couple of weeks to get everything integrated and running. 

We had to set up system logging and import all the IP addresses from our old systems before it went live. After deployment, BlueCat requires some maintenance. As defense contractors, we need to adjust when identifying vulnerabilities. We also have a support contract for yearly maintenance. 

We've realized an ROI from Integrity by saving time and eliminating issues. With a different system that adopts the old ways of doing things, the cost will probably be high, and you won't see much ROI. Integrity's automation and other features have enabled us to eliminate at least four or five full-time employees easily.

The cost of ownership has probably been maintained, but we've reduced the complexity and downtime. That's where the benefits are.

BlueCat Integrity is a little expensive, but it's worth the price because it offers the flexibility and features we need in our space. We have more than 25,000 employees, and it makes sense for a network of our size. It's required for us to be compliant in the defense industry. Given the restrictions we face, we must be able to easily show that we've complied with all the regulations.

I rate BlueCat Integrity nine out of 10. If you have a decent-sized network, you will have errors and gaps. Those spreadsheets and other systems are inadequate in today's changing world. Things move around so much, and having more automated and integrated solutions frees your engineers to do more worthwhile and advanced things.

I would recommend Integrity to companies managing large networks. We've tried other leading vendors and systems in this space. While some of them have small cost advantages, they lack flexibility and features. We've had plenty of mergers and acquisitions, so we've seen the systems other companies used, and Integrity has always exceeded those. 

We use it for getting an IPAM solution in AWS, which is our first use case. The second use case is we also use it for our on-premise networks to manage the IP ranges. We have distributed all the IP networks, and for DHCP and DNS, we use this software internally for our enterprise network.

We started seeing the benefits of Micetro immediately because as we started using it, we didn't have to go back to the Excel sheets that we were earlier following and then updating as we moved along. If somebody's using it, we could see for DHCP if the IP allocation is getting full or not, and it would give us an alert. If the users are completely using it, then we know that we need to allocate some more IP range to any site, and that really helped us.

The integration that we did is easy to build up for the on-premise network, and everything regarding DHCP was a good experience for the on-premise team that I'm working with in building up the DHCP and the DNS for the on-premise network.

The initial deployment was fairly easy because we started with the DHCP product for the enterprise network, and the experience with that was very good.

They can improve their support for the CDNV application, which is Cloud Discovery and Visibility. I had to chase BlueCat support a lot for this application, and the support was not good. The CDNV application administration documents were not updated, and they are doing it via a containerized architecture, but that didn't work. We faced a lot of issues during the implementation of CDNV for duplicate files and everything during the initial process.

The CDNV application documentation was not good, and also the support should have been better. We faced a lot of issues in getting support and finding the right person who can help us with issues, so that was always a challenge in the past year from the BlueCat team.

With scalability, if I'm planning to scale it to other instances, there are multiple versions of BlueCat running, and if I want to scale it in other regions as well, I need a license, and then all the stuff that comes with it. There were issues when I was working with the team on it concerning the license, the gateway, and how it is going to look.

We've been using the BlueCat DNS, DHCP, and also their Cloud Discovery and Visibility (CDNV) software for two years now.

We have not experienced any instability with Micetro.

With scalability, there is an issue.

They can improve their support for the CDNV application, which is Cloud Discovery and Visibility. I had to chase BlueCat support a lot for this application, and the support was not good.

Neutral

We faced issues, but we did not use any alternatives to Micetro, and we are planning for alternatives right now, looking for possible solutions.

The initial deployment was fairly easy because we started with the DHCP product for the enterprise network, and the experience with that was very good.

It took close to three weeks. It was less than a month, approximately two sprints, but it was fairly easy.

There were three people working on this for the deployment process.

We started seeing the benefits of Micetro immediately because as we started using it, we didn't have to go back to the Excel sheets that we were earlier following and then updating as we moved along.

I don't have much idea on the pricing because that's completely with the vendor and the VPs, and the stakeholders who are buying this product.

We faced issues, but we did not use any alternatives to Micetro, and we are planning for alternatives right now, looking for possible solutions.

If I were to put the support on a scale from one to ten, I would give a score of four.

We are users without any partnerships with BlueCat.

Somebody needs to see how the application is running on it, and it also needs to be updated. The versions of BlueCat need to be updated, and while we faced some challenges there, it went with support.

Overall, I rate Micetro a seven out of ten.