Infoblox IPAM a powerful asset manager
August 03, 2019

Infoblox IPAM a powerful asset manager

David Thornton, CISSP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Infoblox DDI

We are using Infoblox to manage the IP space for our department. However, the corporation uses Infoblox across the organization for all IP management. Infoblox provides a sophisticated method to manage your IP assets, manage DNS, and keep track of the DHCP environment. We also take advantage of using Infoblox as a distribution system for network boot systems.
  • DNS management.
  • Integration with Active Directory, and a viable replacement for MS IP address management.
  • Good for visually representing the DHCP lease space.
  • Reporting is an add-on feature, which requires another system. The basics are free.
  • Network systems management and reporting is another add-on. However, this is significantly expensive.
  • The pricing structure is somewhat ridiculous. It's the least expensive system for a duel site. It has 10s of thousands (for a full feature IP tool), but in our case is crazy expensive.
  • It has lowered the administrative burden on the network team.
  • It has allowed us to provide IP address reports and given us another source for asset management validation.
  • It reduces risk by centrally managing IP networks.
We have mostly used Microsoft and QIP (several years ago), and of course BIND. QIP is the most comparable tool, and, while good, Infoblox is a much better product. Microsoft DNS/DHCP server is basic, and it is free. It works, but forget truly using it as a management tool. Also, Microsoft does not have any redundancy in DHCP allocation, meaning if there are multiple servers or multiple IP address zones, Infoblox creates one and, during upgrades and failovers, the downtime is mere seconds.
VMware ESXi, HPE ProLiant DL, Nimble, Pure Storage FlashArray, Cisco 5500 Series Network Convergence System (NCS 5500), Juniper Ethernet Switches
For an Infrastructure tool, it is a high quality and well thought out solution to managing IP addresses. This tool significantly lowers administrators' time to a minimum in supporting core tools.
This is a tool that is well suited for complex large infrastructures, and is not intended for small enterprises based on their pricing structure.

Infoblox DDI Support

Generally, the support is very good. For comparison, for networking people the company that begins with a "C" and has 5 letters has some of the best support, and Infoblox support is comparable. I had a very complex tier 3 issue, where I was working with their SME on the issue for several weeks before we were able to resolve it. In this particular issue, we had to make a change and let it work for several days before we could determine if we were getting the desired outcome. Infoblox worked with me throughout the whole process.

Using Infoblox DDI

It's generally easy to navigate through all of the menus. It's also very powerful in that there are many options available for configuration, allowing one to take advantage of IP address management tools. This tool is definitely a leader in the space, and provided you have the budget, is a very good investment. The team that uses it will appreciate the tool.