It's no secret enterprises are consolidating IT infrastructure as they look to reduce costs and streamline systems administration. Yet as companies shrink the number of data centers they operate, their branch offices keep multiplying.

"While we tend to see the number of data centers consolidating, the number of remote branches continues to expand,” said Laura DuBois, research director at IDC, in a statement. “A growth in the number of remote and branch locations brings about a corresponding balancing act required of IT to both reduce and contain costs at the branch while driving growth in the business.”

But keeping distributed IT deployments in check is tough considering the gear that remains in most branch offices -- things like routers, switches, wireless access points, security devices, WAN optimization appliances, VoIP gear and more. To help enterprises remedy the appliance sprawl created by all this branch office gear, vendors are looking for ways to deliver appliances that combine functions.

The latest vendors with a plan to consolidate remote infrastructure are Cisco and Infoblox, which have teamed to offer Infoblox’s DNS, DHCP and other core network services via blades designed to fit into Cisco's Integrated Services Routers (ISR).

In a story written by my colleague Denise Dubie, one analyst likened the trend to the Trapper Keeper - the snazzy loose-leaf binder that became popular a few decades ago for its combination of folders, pockets and other storage options.

"Remember the 'Trapper Keeper?' That's what Cisco's routers are becoming for enterprise branch office: a single place to keep all critical network applications and services," says Phil Hochmuth, senior analyst at Yankee Group. "This is being enabled largely by [Cisco's Application eXtension Platform], which allows organizations to cram as many services - even ones beyond Cisco's own scope, such as Infoblox IP address management - onto a single platform."

According to Infoblox, enterprise companies can spend between $600 and $1,500 managing a server per branch office per month. Removing the need for a server at the branch to support core network services not only reduces that cost, but also ensures the branch will continue to have DNS, DHCP, NTP, FTTP, HTTP, TFTP and syslog proxy capabilities at the remote location - even if a connection to the data center is lost, explains Dubie.

The Cisco-Infoblox deal is similar to a partnership Infoblox struck with Riverbed last year, whereby enterprises can run on their Riverbed Steelhead appliances a virtual instance of Infoblox’s network services software, including DNS, DHCP, IPAM, RADIUS, FTP and HTTP services.

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.