BlueCat DNS and DHCP Server for AWS

BlueCat Integrity serves as our centralized DNS, DHCP, and IP address management platform, giving us a single platform to manage network services and maintain visibility across devices and sites, while also reducing manual configuration and human errors. We use its REST APIs to automate tasks such as DNS record creation, IP allocation, and DHCP provisioning.

Regarding how we use the REST APIs, an example I would give is automating the DNS record and IP provisioning. When a new server or application needs to be onboarded, our automation calls the REST API with the required hostname, IP, and network details, allowing BlueCat Integrity to create or update the relevant resources, thus making repetitive provisioning faster and more consistent.

BlueCat Integrity has given us centralized visibility and control, reducing the amount of manual configuration. The REST APIs help us automate repetitive tasks, improving consistency and saving our team's time when managing a large network environment.

Regarding outcomes or metrics, the biggest is the reduction in manual effort through centralized DDI management and API-based automation. While I don't have formally measured data, I have seen at least 20 to 30 percent savings in time and resources, leading to significant reduction in manual effort through API automation.

BlueCat Integrity has certainly helped us reduce human error by centralizing DNS, DHCP, and IPAM management while providing validation during configuration changes. The REST APIs minimize repetitive manual provisioning, making the process more consistent. Though I don't have a specific percentage of reduction formally measured, the impact on day-to-day administration is noticeably positive, helping avoid configuration mistakes.

BlueCat Integrity has helped us reduce downtime by enabling our team to identify configuration issues more quickly and minimizing errors from manual changes. While I don't have a formal number, I would estimate one hour of downtime is reduced per day.

BlueCat Integrity has helped us consolidate several network management functions into a single platform, thus allowing us to handle DNS, DHCP, and IP management centrally and eliminating the need to switch between separate tools, resulting in improved visibility and a consistent configuration across our environment.

BlueCat Integrity has freed up IT staff time by reducing manual administration through REST API automation, which has also cut down on routine manual work. I would estimate this has saved about one hour per day.

BlueCat Integrity provides a good level of peace of mind because centralized management of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM gives the team better visibility and control over critical network services. Its reliability and automation further reduce risks of manual configuration errors, making daily operations easier to monitor and troubleshoot.

The best features that BlueCat Integrity offers for me and my team are the centralized DNS, DHCP, and IPAM management along with the single pane of glass visibility it provides across the network. I find the REST API automation very useful for automating DNS record, IP allocation, and DHCP-related tasks. The platform's reporting and monitoring capabilities help with troubleshooting and maintaining visibility, while the role-based access and the backup failover capabilities are useful for maintaining control and reliability in a large environment.

Integration is definitely one of the standout areas, particularly due to the REST APIs and the combination of centralized management and API-driven automation, making it particularly useful in larger environments.

Based on my experience, BlueCat Integrity is relatively easy to use once you become familiar with the platform, as the centralized management simplifies day-to-day administration and reduces the need to work across multiple tools. It requires only one tool, BlueCat Integrity. However, the web interface can sometimes be complex, and some features are scattered across different areas, which may make new users hesitant to navigate. I find it easy to use.

BlueCat Integrity provides us a single pane of glass view for our IP address space and related DNS and DHCP services, which is incredibly important for our team as it centralizes visibility rather than managing different network services through separate tools, making it easier to identify configuration issues and maintain consistency across sites while reducing manual errors in our daily administration.

For improvements to BlueCat Integrity, I believe the look and feel of the web interface could be enhanced to make it more intuitive and consolidate commonly used features, allowing for easier access. Clearer guidance in the documentation on basic setup, troubleshooting, and automation would be really great as these are regularly needed.

One of the improvements I would like to see is stronger built-in security and DNS hardening guidance, particularly for externally exposed domains.

I am taking one point off because the user interface and documentation can be really improved.

Governance and security are important areas to consider, especially as AI capabilities become more integrated into network management. I would like to see clear controls around access and data handling accountability, with transparency of the AI-driven recommendations. Notably, stronger built-in security and DNS hardening guidance would help teams configure and operate the platform securely, particularly for externally exposed domains.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for about eight or nine months.

BlueCat Integrity is stable and reliable in my experience.

BlueCat Integrity scales well as the network environment grows, making it easy to manage additional sites, networks, DNS zones, and IP addresses without needing a separate management process.

Customer support is quite good. I have found them to be very responsive and knowledgeable, especially regarding configuration issues or troubleshooting. I would rate customer support a nine out of ten.

Previously we used Infoblox for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management, but we switched to BlueCat Integrity for its centralized DDI management and stronger automation capability.

BlueCat Integrity is relatively easy to deploy, implement, and integrate into our environment, as it is manageable and allows for easy testing. Although deployment complexity may vary based on the environment size, straightforward setups can be managed easily, while larger environments or migrations require more planning. The REST APIs are particularly beneficial during integration and automation tasks related to DNS record creation, IP allocation, and DHCP provisioning.

I assess BlueCat's professional services and support positively, as their support team has effectively addressed installation issues and migration challenges, making regular support interactions and access to knowledgeable engineers valuable when integrating this DDI into a larger environment. Professional services can be particularly helpful for complex deployments involving migration and bulk configuration, which smooths the implementation process.

We have seen a return on investment in the form of saved time and money, as there is a positive outcome from reduced manual administration and improved automation, allowing resources to focus on higher value work, saving a considerable amount of time on repetitive tasks through API automation.

Regarding cost and licensing, my experiences are positive. The cost is reasonable given the centralized control over multiple applications, although initial setups require planning especially in larger environments.

We evaluated several DDI solutions before choosing BlueCat Integrity, including Infoblox and EfficientIP, with a focus on centralized DNS, DHCP, and IPAM, automation capability, integration, and scalability.

BlueCat Integrity deserves a rating of 9 out of 10 because it provides strong decentralized DHCP and DNS and IPAM management, along with good management of automation capability, and we have reliable performance.

While I understand AI is here to help, I believe we need to treat BlueCat Integrity's AI as guidance that should be validated against actual network configurations and operational data, especially expecting clear explanations of how recommendations are generated, along with auditability and confidence indicators to help trust and utilize the AI output in production environments. Although I don't have enough hands-on experience to provide a specific accuracy percentage, I feel it would be somewhat trustworthy.

In our organization, BlueCat Integrity is primarily deployed in a hybrid cloud environment, with infrastructure mixed across different environments.

We utilize a hybrid cloud environment with BlueCat Integrity, but I don't have specific information to confirm which cloud provider, so I would not specify AWS, Azure, or any other without verification.

If an organization has a small and relatively simple network, separate tools may be sufficient. However, as the number of sites, devices, IP addresses, DNS zones, and DHCP services grows, managing them independently can become challenging and prone to manual errors. Thus, using BlueCat Integrity provides centralized visibility and automation, so I would recommend evaluating it based on the complexity and scale of their environment.

My advice to others considering BlueCat Integrity is to plan beforehand and get hands-on experience with how BlueCat Integrity operates, ideally running a proof of concept to manage a complex DNS, DHCP, and IPAM environment for real-time familiarity, evaluating the user interface, integration, licensing, and security requirements tailored to your specific context.

My main use case for BlueCat Integrity is monitoring firewall status. We use BlueCat Integrity for watching CPU utilization, memory, and disk. Generally, we are using it for health checks and live checks.

BlueCat Integrity positively impacts our organization because it helps us take quick action. For example, when a core dump is created, the Indeni alerting sends an email and can suggest a solution for us, helping us quickly decide about the firewall.

The best feature is the BlueCat support team globally, as they work very well. The integrity with LDAP connection and the alert connections with email are working well. Those alert connections help our team day-to-day. For example, we have an alert from Check Point firewall, and we have integrated it with Check Point products, all products with MDS and CMA, which are Check Point's firewall management systems.

A specific example where BlueCat Integrity helped our team save time is when we checked the core dump file. Although the firewall deleted the file, Indeni sent us a log, and we understood which process crashed. Indeni helps us with that. Indeni automatically fetches servers for us through IP scanning.

I chose a rating of nine out of ten because I think the surface can be much more improved. Of course, maybe I could give a ten, but sometimes my customers have a problem with Indeni. I have already discussed that, for example, Indeni gets some data from different commands, but the real command on the firewall side is different, so sometimes we have to double-check whether Indeni's result is true or false.

For example, when we check the logs sent by email from Indeni, some output like the memory output was different from the real memory usage on the firewall. BlueCat sent us an email, and when we checked that, BlueCat sent us the general memory usage, but we need to know system memory usage.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for three years.

BlueCat Integrity is stable.

Generally, BlueCat Integrity's scalability is good.

Customer support is very good.

I did not use a different solution before. We are working with Indeni and trust them.

We have seen a return on investment as it provides us with fewer employees needed.

I think the pricing is not cheap.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing BlueCat Integrity.

BlueCat Integrity is easy to use.

BlueCat Integrity has helped reduce human error for our team.

BlueCat Integrity has helped our organization reduce downtime, and we saved a significant amount of time because of it. It has helped with critical items like core dumps, crash files, and CPU spikes. Indeni can check these files and share their locations with us, allowing us to quickly check files as Indeni suggests. If that file really happened, we share it with the product owner, and they help us quickly.

BlueCat Integrity performs very well in supporting hybrid infrastructures, and I can highly recommend it to other product owners, as it shows very good performance on both on-premises systems and in the cloud.

Some advice for those looking into using BlueCat Integrity is that it works very stably and can provide us with quick returns from the systems. BlueCat checks system status live, and if it catches a problem, it helps us know what is wrong and responds quickly. I would rate BlueCat Integrity a nine out of ten overall.

A specific example of how I use BlueCat Integrity to manage the DDI environment for my customers is when a customer calls and wants additional IPs to figure in their network along with DNS records. We use BlueCat Integrity for assigning IP addresses and also providing records for DNS, A records, PTR records, C names, and other DNS-related services.

In addition to managing IPs and records, we also do monitoring reports, whether they are weekly or monthly reports, but monitoring is conducted 24/7.

Regarding the detailed search engine, I find it saves time, reduces chances of making errors, and is very convenient, making it easier for everyone to work and be more productive.

BlueCat Integrity has positively impacted our organization by allowing us to do our job in a timely manner, making customers happy, reflecting the overall performance of our company, and receiving great feedback, which results in more business and trustworthiness with customers, whether they are existing or new.

As I mentioned, since it is fairly new, we will definitely work with BlueCat based on what we discover going forward by using it day by day. For now, it is performing well and gives us what we need, but I will definitely provide feedback in the future.

I would rate customer support a 10 because they are always ready to help, whether it will be through phone calls, support tickets, or portal, which makes it a great company to work with.

For our private cloud, we have our own product that we are developing right now, but we have used Microsoft before and Amazon in the past.

BlueCat Integrity is easy to use based on my experience because it is very intuitive, thanks to the features and the great development that they have done with it, making it fairly easy to use since you have a lot of features and capabilities that I find really useful.

BlueCat Integrity has indeed reduced human error, probably by 90%, because they have done a great job of simplifying everything, meaning there are a lot of features that you can check for errors, and it will not let you make any errors.

We are working towards consolidating some tools or applications for our customers with BlueCat Integrity, but we are still in the phase of developing or working with it.

BlueCat Integrity has helped free up our IT staff for other projects. It saves a lot of time because it has great features, allowing our team to work on a project bringing new customers on board, with less personnel working on DDI day-to-day operations.

The key drivers for moving to BlueCat were automation initiatives, security incidents, and application modernization. Automation initiative, security incidents, and application modernization played a huge role in our decision to move to BlueCat because our company deals with a lot of requests and special orders from customers. Automation is crucial in providing services; security incidents help us navigate difficult challenges, and application modernization definitely allows us to provide better service without errors or downtime.

I advise others looking into using BlueCat Integrity to consider it because it is the best product in the market right now based on my experience. If you need something that looks into details, minimizes costs, and provides customers with fewer errors or no errors, I would recommend BlueCat Integrity for their companies. I would rate this review a 9 overall.

My main use case for BlueCat Integrity is primarily for IP addresses. I look them up on the network they're supposed to be on, find a usable static IP address, and either assign it or give the information for the whole static IP block ranges if they're purchasing multiple. If none are available, then I reach out to our network engineers to add more static IP addresses in that range.

BlueCat Integrity has a very straightforward and simple UI. I enjoyed using it; it is very easy to navigate and I really had no complaints about using the software.

I would say the simplicity of it is the most valuable feature. It has a very simple hierarchical structure and the UI is very clean with not a lot of noise. It is very easy to know exactly where to go to find a specific network within a parent network.

The clean UI and hierarchical structure mainly speed up the process. Whenever I have a customer that needs a static IP address, I have to look up what part of the network they are on and then find that within BlueCat Integrity, which is very easy to do. I can navigate down very fast. If I find a neighbor or someone else in the same subnet, I can look that up in BlueCat Integrity very quickly, so it really makes my job a lot faster and I can help out the customer very quickly.

The way BlueCat Integrity has positively impacted us is significant since we are an ISP and absolutely have to have IP address ranges, and we have to use some platform. Because BlueCat Integrity is so easy to use, even the newest people to it, the tier twos in tech support, are able to pick it up very quickly. It has a very small learning curve and if you need to find something within it, it is very easy to tell someone how to navigate.

I would say the simplicity of the UI sometimes is also its downfall. I think that it would probably sometimes make it more obvious where to go in some places. For instance, finding specific network details could be improved, and honestly, updating the UI to look a little bit more modern would be helpful, as it currently looks like it is from the 2004 era of computing.

I have been working in my current field for a little over three and a half years.

BlueCat Integrity is very stable. In the three years I have used it, I have not experienced any downtime with it.

I have not experienced any scalability issues.

I never had to contact support at my level.

When setting up the way your IP addresses are organized, make sure that you have a good naming convention. Our company made sense at the parent root IP address levels, but whenever we drilled down through the IP address ranges, our naming conventions were not very organized, and so sometimes it could be difficult to find exactly what subnet you are looking for. I would rate this review a 9.