Infoblox upgrades appliances

As more companies support mobile access to network resources, they're finding they need a dynamic infrastructure for assigning IP addresses, authenticating users and controlling network access. Infoblox, a leader in network identity appliances, is targeting this niche with a spate of new product announcements.

Infoblox this week is expected to announce two hardware platforms, an enhanced operating system and improved support for distributed systems. The company provides network appliances for several key Internet protocols involved with identity management.

Infoblox sells appliances that process queries for the following protocols: DNS, DHCP, RADIUS and the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). It competes primarily against software such as Microsoft's Active Directory or the open source BIND application running on generalpurpose servers.

Infoblox officials say more companies are interested in their network appliances as they migrate to wireless LANs (WLAN) and need to support office roaming by employees and customers. These companies need to dynamically allocate IP addresses and identify and authenticate users as they move from one location to another and log on to WLANs. The protocols that Infoblox supports let companies create this type of dynamic environment.

"DNS has been like a sleepy backwater, but I don't think it's going to stay that way," says Richard Kagan, vice president of marketing at Infoblox. "With more devices on the network and an increasing number of attacks on the network infrastructure, network managers are going to have to coordinate all of these different protocols in a way that's never been done before."

DNS is a network's phone book, mapping alphanumeric domain names to IP addresses. Its companion DHCP provides IP addresses to network devices that want to connect to the network. These two protocols are supported in the flagship Infoblox appliance, the DNSone.

RADIUS checks user names and passwords, while LDAP supports a database with information about what individual users can do on the network. These two protocols are supported in Infoblox's RADIUSOne appliance.

Infoblox plans to offer the DNSone and RADIUSOne software on two different hardware platforms: the 1000, which is shipping now, and the 1200, which is scheduled to ship in June. The 1200 is a higher-capacity, higher-performing appliance geared toward large companies.

The Infoblox Network Identity Operating System is available on both hardware platforms. The latest version offers improved failover capabilities, including support for the virtual router redundancy protocol. A new option provides a semantic database that works across all four protocols. Buyers also can add a module called Keystone Distributed Virtual Services for distributed environments.

Infoblox also has upgraded its flagship DNS and DHCP software, which is available as DNSone Version 3. Pricing for the new systems starts at about $10,000.

First Tech Credit Union of Beaverton, Ore., in April installed two Infoblox 1000 appliances running the new DNSone Version 3. "The installation went pretty flawlessly," says Rob McGee, senior network security engineer. "One thing I like is the new interface."