As businesses embrace multi-cloud environments for their flexibility, scalability, and agility, they encounter new challenges in managing these complex systems. Gartner predicts that by 2028, cloud environments will become a “business necessity” and over 70% of enterprises have already embraced some form of hybrid or multi-cloud solution. The ability to distribute workloads across multiple platforms, the reduced exposure to vendor lock-in, and the potential gains in cost and performance are simply too good to pass up.
Director of Technology for Western Europe, Infoblox.
The challenge of operational silos
Despite the benefits, multi-cloud environments can create operational silos among network (NetOps), security (SecOps), and cloud operations (CloudOps) teams. This fragmentation in managing critical services like 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 network. The more businesses distribute their workloads, the greater the risk of silos emerging, making a strong case for unified, automated, 360-degree management of DDI (DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management) services.
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 doesn’t have visibility into changes made by another team, the impact of those changes might not be noticed until it causes a disruption. Cost is also a factor: fragmented management often leads to inefficiencies, such as duplicated efforts or the use of multiple tools that don’t integrate well. These inefficiencies drive up operational costs as businesses spend more time and resources managing their network manually or purchasing additional solutions to bridge gaps. Silos can also weaken security: SecOps teams might not have full visibility into what the cloud or IoT networks teams are doing, leading to potential security blind spots. This fragmented view makes it harder 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. The disjointed management creates bottlenecks, slows response times, and increases the risk of errors as teams often fall back on manual workarounds. When DNS solutions from different vendors are used across 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 then forced into workaround solutions that stifle productivity and heighten the risk of human error.
Especially manual or duplicated work can delay application deployment by weeks, affecting a company's ability to innovate and compete. Competitors with more agile processes capitalize on opportunities faster, while businesses stuck in manual workflows are left behind, facing higher operational costs and possibly damaged reputations. Consider a tech company that manually provisions 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 instance, 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 isn’t just about 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 Address Management across all of their cloud environments. Consolidating the management of these services into a single platform eliminates silos, enhances collaboration, and improves operational efficiency. A Universal DDI solution provides full visibility across multi-cloud environments, ensuring that all network assets, regardless of their location, are visible and manageable from a single interface, reducing the risk of oversight and enhancing operational efficiency. In addition, scalability and flexibility allows such solutions to scale seamlessly with the business’s growth and adapt to changing needs, ensuring it can handle increasing workloads and evolving technological landscapes. But it goes further than this: Automation and orchestration capabilities minimize manual intervention, reduces errors, and accelerates response times further.
Security and compliance are also critical considerations, particularly when it comes to multi-cloud environments. A unified DDI solution can offer full visibility across the entire network, allowing organizations to detect and respond to security threats more quickly, while also ensuring that all data handling and processes 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 bakes essential security measures – such as DNS protection – directly into critical network services management, enhancing an organization’s overall security posture.
It's time to rethink how critical network services and security are managed in the multi-cloud environment. By adopting universal management of DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management, businesses can eliminate silos, improve efficiency, and avoid the fragmentation trap, allowing them to fully capitalize on the benefits of multi-cloud environments.
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