As enterprises embrace multi-cloud environments for their flexibility, scalability, and agility, they face new challenges in managing these complex systems. Gartner predicts that by 2028, cloud environments will become a “business necessity” and more than 70% of companies have already adopted some type of hybrid or multi-cloud solution. The ability to distribute workloads across multiple platforms, reduced exposure to vendor lock-in, and potential cost and performance gains are simply too good to pass up.
Chief Technology Officer for Western Europe, Infoblox.
The challenge of operational silos
Despite the benefits, multi-cloud environments can create operational silos between network (NetOps), security (SecOps), and cloud operations (CloudOps) teams. This fragmentation in the management of critical services such as DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (collectively known as DDI) exposes businesses to downtime, increased costs, and security risks caused by a lack of control and visibility across the entire network. the network. The more enterprises distribute their workloads, the greater the risk of silos emerging, making a strong argument for unified, automated, 360-degree management of DDI services (DNS, DHCP, and access management). IP addresses).
Without a unified approach to managing these network services, there is an increased risk of misconfigurations, undetected issues, and downtime. For example, if one team does not have visibility into changes made by another team, the impact of those changes may not be noticed until they cause an outage. Cost is also a factor: Fragmented management often leads to inefficiencies, such as duplicated efforts or the use of multiple tools that do not integrate well. These inefficiencies increase operating costs as companies spend more time and resources manually managing their network or purchasing additional solutions to close gaps. Silos can also weaken security: SecOps teams may not have complete visibility into what cloud or IoT network teams are doing, creating potential security blind spots. This fragmented view makes it more difficult to detect and respond to security threats across the network, leaving vulnerabilities unaddressed.
The fragmentation trap
Deploying different DDI solutions across multiple cloud platforms leads to a disconnected ecosystem, with teams juggling disparate tools and workflows. Disjointed management creates bottlenecks, slows response times, and increases the risk of errors as teams often resort to manual workarounds. When using DNS solutions from different vendors in a hybrid or multi-cloud setup, achieving full visibility and control over the network becomes nearly impossible, because each platform typically has its own tools, interfaces, and configurations. As mentioned above, teams are forced to adopt workarounds that stifle productivity and increase the risk of human error.
Manual or duplicate work especially can delay application deployment for weeks, impacting a company’s ability to innovate and compete. Competitors with more agile processes seize opportunities more quickly, while companies trapped in manual workflows are left behind, facing higher operating costs and possibly a damaged reputation. Consider a technology company that manually provides critical network services for new applications. This process can take anywhere from a month to six weeks, significantly delaying product launches. We saw one customer, for example, manage to reduce their provisioning time from six weeks to just 15 minutes by adopting the automation capabilities of our DDI solution, dramatically accelerating their time to market. However, the true cost of manual provisioning is not just due to delays; It’s about lost sales and missed opportunities.
Unified DDI Management
To overcome the challenge of fragmentation and gain control and visibility over their network, organizations need a unified approach to managing DNS, DHCP, and IP addressing across their cloud environments. Consolidating the management of these services into a single platform eliminates silos, improves collaboration, and improves operational efficiency. A universal DDI solution provides full visibility across multi-cloud environments, ensuring that all network assets, regardless of location, are visible and manageable from a single interface, reducing oversight risk and improving operational efficiency. Additionally, scalability and flexibility allow such solutions to scale seamlessly with business growth and adapt to changing needs, ensuring it can handle increasing workloads and evolving technology landscapes. But it goes further: automation and orchestration capabilities minimize manual intervention, reduce errors, and further accelerate response times.
Security and compliance are also critical considerations, particularly when dealing with multi-cloud environments. A unified DDI solution can deliver full visibility across the entire network, allowing organizations to detect and respond to security threats more quickly, while ensuring all processes and data handling meet regulatory standards. Fragmented management of DNS, DHCP and IPAM, as noted above, only increases the risk of non-compliance, particularly with regulations like GDPR or CCPA, where even minor oversights can lead to costly fines and reputational damage. A centralized approach not only reduces these risks but also integrates essential security measures (such as DNS protection) directly into the management of critical network services, improving an organization’s overall security posture.
It’s time to rethink how security and critical network services are managed in the multi-cloud environment. By adopting universal DNS, DHCP, and IP address management, enterprises can eliminate silos, improve efficiency, and avoid the trap of fragmentation, allowing them to fully capitalize on the benefits of multi-cloud environments.
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