Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe University Simplifies and Automates Network Management with BlueCat6
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- Germany
Product
- BlueCat Address Manager
- BlueCat DNS/DHCP Server
Tech Stack
- DNS
- DHCP
- IPAM
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Cost Savings
Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries
- Education
Services
- System Integration
- Training
About The Customer
Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences (HS-OWL) is located in North-Rhine Westphalia, western Germany. The university has three campuses in the cities of Lemgo, Detmold, and Höxter. HS-OWL's strong technological and scientific departments are complemented by other courses of study including ecology, sociology, economics, design, and language instruction. The university's network environment, including routing, switching, telephony, and wireless, runs on Cisco. The university's network encompasses about 10,000 active IP addresses on campus and serves the needs of some 6,000 students and 600 staff.
The Challenge
Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe University (HS-OWL) in Germany was facing challenges with its network environment. The university had a limited IPv4 address space and was using an open source tool to document its IP addresses and networks. However, there was no integration between this tool and the university's DNS and DHCP core network services. The management and maintenance of these separate tools were time-consuming for the IT staff. The lack of integration also increased the risk of a network configuration error causing an outage that would directly impact the university's students, faculty, and staff. The university's network encompasses about 10,000 active IP addresses on campus and serves the needs of some 6,000 students and 600 staff. The DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (IPAM) solution selected would have to be scalable to support network growth and include a flexible API to enable integration with the university's existing in-house and custom-built network management tools.
The Solution
HS-OWL began to look for a solution that would introduce automation, IP Address Management (IPAM), and effective permission management to its network. After carefully evaluating several solutions including Infoblox and Alcatel-Lucent VitalQIP, HS-OWL selected BlueCat because of the flexibility and extensibility of the BlueCat Address Manager IPAM solution. The BlueCat solution architecture separates management from core services delivery. With a dedicated management server and separate DNS/DHCP servers, HS-OWL could integrate all of its workflows into the BlueCat IPAM server without affecting its core network services. The BlueCat Web GUI was straightforward and intuitive, which made it effortless to train the university's support staff on using it. In addition, the Web services API enabled HS-OWL to integrate the BlueCat Address Manager server with other network tools and introduce further network automation.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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