Success in the Digital Era Requires ACTIONABLE NETWORK ... · ZK RESEARCH | Success in the Digital Era Requires Actionable Network Intelligence ZK Research 2016 Global Cloud Forecast

October 2016

ZK Research A Division of Kerravala Consulting

© 2016 ZK Research

I n f l u e n ce a n d i ns i g htt h ro u g h so c i a l m e d i a

Prepared by Zeus Kerravala

W H I T E P A P E R

Success in the Digital Era Requires

ACTIONABLENETWORK INTELLIGENCE

http://zkresearch.com

http://zkresearch.com

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INTRODUCTION: THE DIGITAL ERA HAS ARRIVED

Digital transformation is now a top priority for technology and business leaders. A digital com-

pany leverages the organization’s electronic assets to change the way the business runs. It involves

realigning the IT organization and reinventing processes to better interact with customers and

workers. Digital transformation significantly improves the quality of customer service and busi-

ness performance, which is why it has become a key initiative for organizations across the globe in

almost every vertical industry.

Success in the digital era is based on improving the quality of the customer experience. In today’s

digital world, customer experience improvements are dependent on a company’s ability to respond

to customers quickly and to then change the response as the customer’s behavior shifts. This needs to

be done without degrading performance or increasing costs. As customer requirements change, the

business needs to rapidly adapt its own strategy. Businesses that can achieve this level of agility will

become market leaders, and those that can’t will struggle to survive. Accomplishing this requires IT to

be both tightly aligned with the changing business priorities and an enabler.

Digitization is reshaping the business landscape at an unprecedented rate. Historically, the

disruption of established markets took decades, but digital native companies such as Tesla,

Amazon and Uber have disrupted their markets in as few as five years. One proof point is the fact

that Airbnb’s valuation is approximately the same as Hilton’s and Hyatt’s combined, according to

publicly available financial information. Exhibit 1 shows that in the 1960s, businesses remained

on the S&P Index for an average of about 50 to 60 years. By 1980, the rate of change was only

about 30 years. And by 2025, businesses are expected to stay on the S&P 500 for only 12 years.

ZK Research: A Division of Kerravala Consulting © 2016 ZK Research

ZK RESEARCH | Report Title Goes HereZK RESEARCH | Success in the Digital Era Requires Actionable Network Intelligence

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In today’s digital

world, customer

experience

improvements

are dependent

on a company’s

ability to respond

to customers

quickly and to

then change

the response as

the customer’s

behavior shifts.

Aver

age

Com

pany

Life

span

on

S&P

500

Inde

x (in

Year

s)

Year

Note: Each data point represents a rolling seven-year average of the average lifespan.

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

01960

Projections basedon current data

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

Exhibit 1: Digitization Accelerates Business Churn

Innosight, Richard N. Foster, Standard & Poor’s

ZK RESEARCH | The Top 10 Reasons Healthcare Organizations Should Deploy New IP Network

Based on this economic data, ZK Research predicts that 75% of the companies on the S&P 500

today will churn in the next decade. New market leaders will be crowned, and established organiza-

tions will struggle to survive—many of which will go out of business. Digital transformation is the key

to sustained market leadership.

In 2015, ZK Research conducted more than 100 interviews with business and IT leaders in com-

panies that were pursuing a digital strategy. Based on this research, ZK Research has drawn three

important conclusions:

In the most successful organizations, a strong partnership exists between the IT organization and

corporate leadership.

Fully digital organizations are more profitable and will pull away from their peers.

The time for digital transformation is now.

Becoming a digital company requires a significant rethink of IT strategy. Historically, technology

strategies were focused on compute platforms such as mainframes and, later, servers. In today’s

digital world, billions of devices are connecting to applications; digital transactions and new modes

of communication have been created that forever change how people conduct business. All of the

building blocks of the digital world—the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, mobility, unified

communications and other technologies—are network centric in nature. The network will evolve

from being a tactical, low-value resource into a strategic asset that has a direct impact on the

success of digital initiatives. The intelligence gained from the network will be a core component of

business decision making.

However, if the network is to become the foundation for the digital enterprise, it too must evolve to

do the following:

Ensure the availability, flexibility and scalability of digital services.

Provide security that cuts across silos and eases operations.

Automate compliance tasks.

Unlock meaningful insights to transform the organization.

Provide full visibility and operational efficiency to make the network a competitive differentiator.

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ZK Research | Title of Report

The network will

evolve from being

a tactical, low-

value resource into

a strategic asset

that has a direct

impact on the

success of digital

initiatives.

3

ZK RESEARCH | Success in the Digital Era Requires Actionable Network Intelligence


8 4

SECTION II: THE CHALLENGE WITH LEGACY NETWORKS

The strategies used to build and manage today’s networks have been in place for the better part

of three decades. Thirty years ago, the applications that traversed networks were best effort in na-

ture and were not critical to the company’s operations. Back then, applications were only accessed

from within a firewall. They were centralized and limited in number, and new applications were not

launched on a regular basis. The new hyper-connected world gives rise to several new challenges,

including the following:

Networks have become increasingly complex. Decades ago, networks were fairly straight-

forward—a mix of wired routers and switches that were used to connect a handful of compa-

ny-owned computers to on-premises infrastructure. Since then, networks have added IPv6,

VoIP, wireless access points, IoT devices, direct connections to cloud services, and extensions

to telecommuters. All of these incremental add-ons have increased the level of complexity in

deploying, running and efficiently managing the network.

�The�cloud�is�changing�traffic�patterns. The current architecture used to design enterprise

networks was based on the majority of traffic being client/server related, in which data flows

from the data center to branch offices. Today, cloud computing has become the norm, which

significantly changes traffic patterns. The ZK Research 2016 Global Cloud Forecast (Exhibit

2) shows that public cloud services will grow from $38.8 billion in 2013 to $134.3 billion

in 2020, for a CAGR of 16.8%. This is more than five times the 3% growth that traditional

software will have during the same time period.


Publ

ic Cl

oud

Serv

ices M

arke

t (in

Bill

ions

of D

olla

rs)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

IaaS

PaaS

SaaS

6.5 6.2

26.1

8.0 8.3

30.4

10.110.5

36.9

12.0

13.6

46.0

14.9

15.9

55.3

17.6

18.6

67.7

19.9

22.1

75.8

22.5

25.3

86.5

Exhibit 2: The Era of Cloud Is Here


ZK Research 2016 Global Cloud Forecast

Networks have

added IPv6, VoIP,

wireless access

points, IoT devices,

direct connections

to cloud services,

and extensions to

telecommuters.


�Securing�the�network,�reducing�risk�and�maintaining�compliance�are�significantly�more�challenging. Network complexity is the enemy of security. Historically, securing a network only

required a big firewall to protect the company’s internet connection, which was the only ingress/

egress point for corporate information. Today, there are many more points of entry, including

cloud services, consumer devices and partner connections, which means organizations need

better visibility into what is on the network and what could potentially be malicious. According to

the ZK Research 2016 Network Purchase Intention Study, improving network security and sim-

plifying network architecture rank number one and number two, respectively, as current network

challenges (Exhibit 3). The large number of highly publicized breaches that have occurred over

the past few years have made security an urgent issue for business and technology leaders.

Scaling the network is a slow and expensive process. Today’s digital organizations need to

make decisions quickly and execute new initiatives faster than the competition. This means having

the capability to add new servers, branches, cloud services or IoT endpoints almost instantly. Such

massive scaling can be a significant challenge, as security and manageability must be maintained.

Digital organizations are highly dynamic and can respond to business changes quickly. This speedy response requires rapid analysis that can be delivered “out of the box” to meet the

needs of the organization.

8 5


Improving

network security

and simplifying

network

architecture rank

number one and

number two,

respectively, as

current network

challenges.

5


ZK Research: A Division of Kerravala Consulting © 2016 ZK Research 8 ZK Research: A Division of Kerravala Consulting © 2016 ZK Research 5

Improving network security

Simplifying network architecture

Increasing bandwidth

Aligning IT and business goals

Migrating applications to the cloud

Optimizing applications

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Percentage of Respondents

What are the main challenges with respectto the network? (Select all that apply)

Exhibit 3: Improving Security Is the Top Initiative for Network Managers

ZK Research 2016 Network Purchase Intention Study


IT decisions are made in silos. The lack of visibility into IT means network, cloud and security

operations are making critical decisions while relying on incomplete and fragmented informa-

tion, which could lead to uninformed choices.

Using the network to improve the user experience is key. Many digital initiatives are network

centric. Examples include video kiosks in bank branches for remote expert services, mobile bar code

scanners to help shoppers make decisions faster and mobile applications for healthcare workers.

The success of these digital initiatives is highly dependent on the network and its availability. Any

downtime or latency can lead to a poor user experience. Also, network information can be used to

provide unique insights regarding improving the worker or customer experience. The ZK Research

2016 Network Purchase Intention Study found that 49% of organizations were looking to leverage

the network to improve business productivity.

Networks lack automation. Digital companies need to be dynamic—which is one reason why

companies spent more than $12 billion globally in 2015 to improve the level of data center agility.

However, a business can only be as agile as its least agile component, which today is often the

network. Almost all of that $12 billion was spent on improving compute, storage and application

agility. In order for organizations to maximize their investments in virtualization, flash storage,

containers and other compute technology, the network must evolve now. Automation is a key to

bringing the network in line with the rest of IT. Another benefit of automation is that it takes the

human element out of running the network. The ZK Research 2016 Network Purchase Intention

Study found that human error was the largest cause of downtime.

In the digital era, the customer experience will be the key to acquiring and sustaining market

leadership. Improving the customer experience isn’t something that can be put off for a year or more.

Customers are switching loyalties on the basis of customer experience today. Accenture surveyed

approximately 13,000 consumers in 33 different countries and found that 66% have switched

providers due to poor customer experiences.

To capitalize on digital trends, companies need a way to control and automate IT processes—

many of which are error prone. They need to ensure network and service availability, manage risk,

improve operational efficiencies and use actionable intelligence to transform the network into a

competitive advantage.

SECTION III: DDI AS THE FOUNDATION FOR ACTIONABLE NETWORK INTELLIGENCE

Over time, the IT department has lost control over the endpoint (because of consumer devices),

applications (as they move to the cloud) and even security (as the perimeter continues to erode). The

8 6


The ZK Research

2016 Network

Purchase Intention

Study found

that 49% of

organizations were

looking to leverage

the network to

improve business

productivity.

6


ZK Research: A Division of Kerravala Consulting © 2016 ZK ResearchZK Research: A Division of Kerravala Consulting © 2016 ZK Research

http://www.accenture.com/t20160524T055150__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Dualpub_6/Accenture-Customer-2020-Future-Ready-Reliving-Past.pdf


one IT resource that IT still controls from end to end is the network. Also, because the network con-

nects everything, it is uniquely positioned to be the most strategic platform in a digital organization.

A network consists of many infrastructure elements, but one of the most essential is the DNS,

DHCP and IP address management (DDI) platform. The following are DDI’s components:

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computer systems and

other resources connected to the internet and private networks. It uses a variety of information

associated with domain names and translates those names into numerical IP addresses, making

DNS an essential component of the internet.

�Dynamic�Host�Configuration�Protocol�(DHCP) is a standardized protocol used on IP

networks to dynamically assign IP addresses to network-connected endpoints. The automation

capabilities of a DHCP server obviate the need for a network administrator to configure these

settings manually.

IP address management (IPAM) tools are used to plan, track and manage IP addresses within

an organization. Without an IPAM tool, network managers often use spreadsheets, general-pur-

pose databases or homegrown tools to manage IP addresses. These manual methods are highly

error prone and inexact, and they can lead to significant network issues.

Although the three functions may seem independent, they are not. IPAM integrates DNS and

DHCP information so that each is aware of changes in the other and can update accordingly. DDI

tools are increasing in importance as more devices are being connected to business networks.

In addition to providing core network services, DDI can be used to glean actionable network intel-

ligence because of where those platforms sit in the network—at the core. A DDI platform captures

both east–west traffic and north–south traffic on the network, which means it sees which applications

are being accessed by which users, which devices are joining the network, and which interactions may

be malicious. This actionable network intelligence provides several benefits including the following:

Increased operational efficiency of the network by automating network provisioning and provid-

ing centralized management

High availability of core network services, superior customer experience and flexibility to support

multiple network topologies and architectures

Reduced risk by identifying malicious activity at network control points, providing network con-

text to prioritize and remediate threats, and facilitating compliance

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DDI can be used to

glean actionable

network intelligence

because of where

those platforms sit

in the network—

at the core.

7


ZK Research: A Division of Kerravala Consulting © 2016 ZK Research 8 7


Insights to make better decisions and produce better outcomes through end-to-end visibility

Actionable network intelligence built on a foundation of DDI is based on three pillars:

Control the network. A truly enterprise-grade DDI platform can provide control for core net-

work services by automating IP address management for on-premises and in-cloud infrastruc-

ture, and by integrating with other network technologies via APIs to automate and orchestrate

critical tasks—delivering agility and cost savings. Also, DDI solutions can help manage networks

and tenants more efficiently and can optimize network traffic with integrated load balancing,

providing a better user experience.

Secure the network. Insights and intelligence derived from DDI data can be shared across the

ecosystem and used to ease security operations by helping security teams to prioritize threat

responses based on enterprise context and risk. For example, if a DNS-based security solution

identifies malicious communications, that indicator of compromise—along with contextual infor-

mation on where the infection is located in the network and how severe it is—can be sent to next-

gen endpoint security systems, vulnerability scanners, and security incident/information and

event management (SIEM) or network access control (NAC) systems to prioritize action, auto-

mate remediation and accelerate incidence response. DNS control points are ideal for instantly

blocking malicious activity like ransomware communications and for blocking DNS-based data

exfiltration, which is a significantly growing threat, thereby offering protection for both on-

premises and off-premises devices. Further, by gathering the data and setting baselines, security

teams can move to a predictive model. Organizations can bolster their security posture without

the need for additional boxes and by using what they already have—their DNS infrastructure.

Analyze the network. DDI data can be captured and then trending information can be used to

monitor the health and security of the network. Also, the status of key capacity parameters can

be tracked and measured over time to ensure the expansion of core network services matches

the growth of the network. Also, organizations can protect against lost productivity by ensuring IP

addresses are available and network services are performing optimally. Lastly, network information

can be used to understand which devices are out of compliance and which devices require remedial

action. DHCP fingerprinting can be used to prevent unauthorized devices from joining the network.

Again, by using the infrastructure already available in a network, organizations can obtain valuable

insights for better decision making. Similarly, DDI provides a significant amount of information that

can be used to analyze and predict suspicious activities; and when combined with threat intelli-

gence feeds, it can provide context-aware security and analytics for the organization.

8 8


Insights and

intelligence derived

from DDI data can

be shared across

the ecosystem

and used to ease

security operations.

8




SECTION IV: ACTIONABLE NETWORK INTELLIGENCE USE CASES

To better demonstrate how actionable network intelligence can improve the business, this section

highlights a few use cases.

Network ProfessionalThe role of the network professional will change significantly in the digital era. The network is the

glue that ties together all of the building blocks of digital transformation, and it needs to be highly

resilient and available and to provide an exceptional user experience. Network professionals must use

actionable network intelligence as a digital enabler for the following:

Rapid problem solving: DDI data can be used to check for CPU spikes and provide real-time

alerts and graphs across all servers to help isolate problems.

Connecting non-IT devices to a common network: A digital enterprise is one where every-

thing is connected to a common network. This allows for data to be gathered from multiple

systems and analyzed quickly for new insights. For example, a manufacturing organization uses

connected heavy equipment that calls home for service. Devices such as drill presses and forklifts

can be connected over IP, giving them the ability to send data back.

Network visibility: Network professionals need to provision networks to be highly available, which

drives greater scrutiny of how the network is performing. The intelligence from DDI provides vis-

ibility into which elements are slow and where bottlenecks occur. Without that intelligence, network

professionals would spend dozens or even hundreds of hours gathering and analyzing data.

Foundation for IoT: Connectivity, scalability and availability are main requirements for a suc-

cessful IoT outcome, and the network becomes a crucial component. Moreover, IoT increases

the attack surface area by orders of magnitude. As more information is exchanged and more IoT

devices are joining the network, there is a higher risk of rogue devices forming botnets or causing

security breaches. Actionable network intelligence can provide the high availability, scalability

and security needed to help businesses derive maximum value from their IoT deployments.

Scaling the network: IoT will also add orders of magnitude more devices to the network over the

next five years. ZK Research forecasts the number of connected endpoints to grow from 10 billion

today to 50 billion in five years. To support this, network professionals need to migrate to IPv6,

the next version of the protocol that runs the Internet. Most organizations struggle to manage IP

addresses today as the process is often manual with homegrown tools. IP address management

simplifies the process of shifting to IPv6. Also, capacity planning needs to be considered, and DDI

provides a wealth of data that can be used to both understand the current state of the network and

8 9


ZK Research

forecasts the

number of

connected

endpoints to grow

from 10 billion

today to 50 billion

in five years.

9




plan for the future. The actionable intelligence from DDI can be used to measure service availabil-

ity and find anomalies that could indicate a security breach or DDoS attack.

Security Operations ProfessionalToday’s security teams are inundated with too many alerts from the various security tools and

systems they manage. They lack context on threats and have no way to assess actual risk. They try

to assemble data from disparate sources to take effective action, which puts a heavy burden on

the security operations teams and leads to poor incidence response. This is one reason why the ZK

Research 2016 Security Survey found that the average time to locate a breach is 100 days. In this

amount of time, malware can spread across the entire organization. Finding the breach and eliminat-

ing it as fast as possible should be the goal of every security team.

Achieving these goals requires a reallocation of security funds. The ZK Research 2016 Security

Survey found that 90% of today’s security budgets are focused at the perimeter, but only 20% of the

breaches occur there. This leaves the internal network exposed to phishing, insider threats and other

attacks that do not enter through the perimeter.

Leveraging the DDI data gold mine and associated network and security intelligence, security teams

can actually use network context to help prioritize threats and answer questions such as the following:

Where is the compromised device located?

How often it is communicating with malicious destinations?

What internal resources has the device been accessing?

Which user owns the offending IP address/device?

In addition to prioritization, automatically quarantining the infected device, troubleshooting and

remediation become easy when network and security tools “talk” to each other.

Another challenge for security professionals is protecting against data exfiltration. Although

good data loss prevention (DLP) tools exist today to guard against certain exfiltration methods, the

threat landscape is changing. DNS-based exfiltration is on the rise, and a variety of techniques are

used such as standard DNS tunneling tool kits and zero-day methods. Today, there is a need for a

DNS-focused solution that will complement other DLP solutions and can detect the presence of mali-

cious data in DNS queries using analytics and block the data theft. Having visibility into the points of

exfiltration and the sharing of intelligence can enable IT to remediate threats faster.

8 1 0


The ZK Research

2016 Security

Survey found that

90% of today’s

security budgets

are focused at

the perimeter, but

only 20% of the

breaches occur

there.

1 0




Operations ProfessionalOrganizations expect network operations teams to adapt quickly to changing infrastructure and

business needs, respond to emerging trends as fast as possible, and ensure network integrity at all times.

When it comes to compliance, network operations teams work with manual processes and ad hoc

scanning and testing. The haphazard nature of compliance testing allows for no real-time enforcement

and incomplete compliance checking.

Network and security teams often struggle to understand the full scope of compliance regarding

the network. As security mandates and regulatory policies constantly change, the responsible staff can

struggle to keep up with necessary network configuration changes.

What’s required is an easy way to apply access control policy and quarantine non-compliant

devices. Also, network and security teams need a solution that can maintain compliance across diverse

infrastructures and deployment scenarios including physical, virtual, public, private and hybrid clouds.

Actionable network intelligence fueled by DDI data provides enhanced visibility into both corpo-

rate-owned and rogue devices that are connected to the network, so that compliance checks can be

completed quickly and easily. The intelligence information can also be used to understand which ele-

ments of the underlying infrastructure are out of compliance or don’t adhere to internal best practices.

Automated capabilities of an enterprise-grade solution can be used for mass changes, policy audits,

enforcement and report generation. This makes it dramatically simpler to ensure that network elements

are running the latest patches and software releases.

Actionable intelligence enables the process of breaking down the operational silos that plague busi-

nesses today. Actionable network intelligence provides a common set of data and insights to bring the

cloud, network and security teams together from a process and operational point of view.

Cloud ProfessionalData center modernization has been a top initiative for business as they look to leverage the power

of the cloud. A modernized data center includes initiatives such as consolidation, virtualization, disaster

recovery and workload migration to hybrid clouds. Organizations need to automate key tasks, integrate

with workflows, work across the multiple virtual and cloud infrastructures they may be deploying in the

data center, and be able to manage everything in a centralized and consistent fashion.

Without automation, cloud professionals are stuck with ad hoc solutions such as free tools and

spreadsheets to manage DDI. This leads to long lead times when rolling out new applications, as

new DNS names need to be entered manually when new virtual machines are spun up. Also, IP ad-

dresses are often assigned manually and data is frequently pulled together from multiple tools with

no correlation for ongoing management. The challenge with this model is that it’s very slow and lacks

agility for fast application deployments because of the lack of automation. Also, interactions with the

network teams involve significant amounts of human latency, causing more wasted time and resourc-

es. The legacy approach proliferates the silo-like nature of IT and leads to a challenging environment

moving forward.

8 1 1


Actionable network

intelligence

can provide the

foundation for a

next-generation

data center

by increasing

agility, visibility,

consistency and

security.

1 1




Actionable network intelligence with enterprise-grade DNS, DHCP and IP address manage-

ment can provide the foundation for a next-generation data center by increasing agility, visibility,

consistency and security. It can automate DNS record and IP address allocation for virtual machines

(VMs) so provisioning happens instantly instead of taking a few days or even weeks. Also, industry-

leading DDI solutions work seamlessly and in an integrated fashion to create a “single pane of glass”

through which to manage multiple cloud and virtualization platforms instead of requiring a separate

tool for each platform. This increases agility, improves accuracy and optimizes performance. These

solutions have the ability to look across legacy infrastructure and virtualized environments, provide

security and gather insights.

Executive Decision MakerCompany leaders are tasked with managing costs and ensuring the organization is agile and

able to respond to market changes as quickly as possible. Security and the ability to take fast cor-

rective action must also be part of the equation. Actionable network intelligence can directly lead to

accomplishing these goals.

The automation capabilities of DDI can significantly reduce costs. For example, in a data center,

40% of the total cost of ownership is related to people. ZK Research estimates that with automation

technology, this number can be cut in half and the staff reallocated to more strategic initiatives. Also,

intelligence from the platform can be used to gain new insights to lead the company into new markets

instead of having to follow competitors. The ability to constantly adapt is one of the keys to sustaining

market leadership.

Business decision makers do not often consider the technology that is used to power the orga-

nization, but this approach must change. More organizations are becoming mobile and cloud-first

companies, and actionable network intelligence can help them ensure that the necessary visibility ex-

ists to manage workloads and cloud services and ensure that workers have an optimized experience.

Lastly, actionable network intelligence can deliver the necessary consistency and auditability across

all control points. Also, the automation capabilities enable decision makers to redeploy resources to

focus on strategic initiatives related to digital trends rather than focusing on day-to-day manual tasks.

Another consideration for company leaders is protecting the company brand and reputation.

A tremendous amount of media attention is given to businesses that are breached. The increased

negative press can lead to unhappy customers, damage to the company brand, lawsuits and leader-

ship churn, which can have a tremendous negative impact on the company’s top and bottom line.

CISO�or�Risk�Officer�Security leaders will benefit from actionable intelligence because the information can be used to

locate compliance blind spots, which can put the company’s customer or other information at risk.

Actionable network and security intelligence can also be used to detect data exfiltration via the back

door (i.e., DNS) and block such data leakage. This is critical for regulated verticals that need to stay

8 1 2


Actionable network

and security

intelligence can

be used to detect

data exfiltration via

the back door and

block such data

leakage.

1 2




compliant with mandates such as HIPAA, GDPR and PCI. Reporting capabilities can provide the

necessary information to manage risk and ensure continuous compliance to avoid legal and financial

liabilities. In addition, DNS and DDI data can form a common baseline of intelligence for the entire

security infrastructure.

The granular information also provides visibility into the execution of compliance programs to

ensure they are being run on time and as the company policies dictate.

SECTION V: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The digital era is here. It is changing the way companies do business and is quickly redefining

the competitive landscape. Sustaining market leadership is no longer solely about who has the best

products, the lowest prices or even the best people. Market leadership will go to those organizations

that can quickly adapt to market trends.

However, understanding what actions to take requires the correct data, analysis and insights.

Many types of data are available, but information from the network is among the richest sources. The

network connects all devices and endpoints and is in a unique position to provide unparalleled levels

of data. Actionable network intelligence should be an integral part of the IT infrastructure required in

the ever-expanding digital economy because it can help enable better business outcomes.

Gaining actionable insights from the network must be a top priority for IT and business leaders.

Therefore, ZK Research makes the following recommendations:

Leverage the actionable intelligence in industry-leading DDI solutions. No matter how

differently networks are designed or how many endpoints are connected, they all have one thing

in common: They use IP addresses. DNS, DHCP and IP address-management capabilities are

critical elements of every network. The data generated can be used to understand traffic flows to

better control, secure and analyze networks.

Choose your DDI solution provider carefully. There are a wide range of solutions ranging

from free to premium products. It’s important to understand that with most technology products,

free or low-cost ones are missing core functionality. For example, the DDI solution from the indus-

try leader, Infoblox, has a wide range of features for high availability, security, analytics, agility in

cloud deployments and grid scaling.

Consider DDI and related technologies to be a foundation for the future. Over the next

several years, a variety of technology trends will dramatically impact the network. IPv6, IoT and

mobile devices will increase the complexity of managing IP addresses and put significant strain

on traditional DHCP and DNS solutions. A robust DDI solution must be in place to take advan-

tage of upcoming network innovation.

8 1 3


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© 2016 ZK Research: A Division of Kerravala ConsultingAll rights reserved. Reproduction or redistribution in any form without the express prior permission of ZK Research is expressly prohibited. For questions, comments or further information, email [email protected].

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Zeus Kerravala is

the founder and

principal analyst with

ZK Research. Kerravala

provides tactical advice

and strategic guidance

to help his clients in both

the current business

climate and the long

term. He delivers

research and insight

to the following

constituents: end-user

IT and network

managers; vendors

of IT hardware,

software and services;

and members of the

financial community

looking to invest in

the companies that

he covers.

http://www.infoblox.com