BlueCat’s DNS Solution Simplifies Network Management for Boise State

Administrator-friendly GUI simplifies management of network access for 18,936 students and 2400 faculty and staff

Boise, Idaho and Toronto, Ontario – October 8, 2009 – BlueCat Networks, the IPAM Intelligence CompanyT, today announced that Boise State, the largest university in Idaho with 2400 faculty and staff and an all-time state enrollment record of 18,936 students, is utilizing BlueCat’s Domain Name System (DNS)/ Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) solution to centrally manage its large and highly-distributed campus network.

Boise State has a Class B IP address space with 56 separate DHCP Pools, 208 DNS Zones and 22,000 host records. It also includes 2300 IP phones, making it quite possibly the largest VOIP implementation in Idaho. By automating the labor-intensive IP address monitoring and management process, BlueCat’s technology has significantly simplified network and services administration and greatly increased IT infrastructure stability to make it easy for its faculty, staff and students to instantly and securely access the university’s applications, devices and portals via email, voice mail, or the web.

“Our existing Cisco Network Register had a very limited GUI that didn’t provide the network management, monitoring and trouble-shooting functionality we required, so we looked at running on Novell or Microsoft’s DNS systems, but neither provided the simple management GUI we were looking for,” said Diane Dragone, Network Engineer, Boise State. “BlueCat’s technology provides an excellent management GUI that makes it simple to manage, maintain and monitor the network – it lets us see exactly what is happening on the network and database at any given time, and provides lists for each subnet so we can easily control IT access to ensure users can always enter appropriate areas of the system,” Dragone continued. “BlueCat also enabled us to seamlessly transition from the old system – as users were migrated to the new system, the clients were pointed to the new DNS servers via DHCP, so nobody even realized we had switched to BlueCat.”

BlueCat’s technology also scales well, which not only makes it simple for Boise State to monitor existing applications and overall network performance, but also ensures it will be easier for administrators to configure, deploy and manage new applications – ensuring that the university can continue to provide faculty, staff and students with the cutting-edge IT tools required to maximize productivity.

Other educational institutions utilizing BlueCat’s solutions to simplify network management include UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Windsor, Lakehead University, University of Calgary and Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

“As universities often incorporate the latest technologies spread over a highly-dispersed campus, they can pose a real IT challenge,” said Branko Miskov, Director of Product Management, BlueCat Networks. “This challenge can be even greater when installing new technologies, such as VOIP, as it often results in a dramatic increase in the number of IP addresses that need managing,” Miskov continued. “BlueCat’s technology provides a simple GUI that greatly simplifies the management of both existing IP addresses and those that will be added as a network grows.”

BlueCat’s physical and virtual appliances integrate with BlueCat’s own Adonis DNS/DHCP appliances and Microsoft Windows DNS and DHCP to make it simple for administrators to fully integrate IP inventory tracking and allocation, along with DNS and DHCP management. Administrators can design networks with a simple conceptual view, then deploy and manage them across the organization. When managing DNS and DHCP, BlueCat’s Proteus IPAM solution becomes “mission control”, offering full command, control and customization of configurations from a centralized and secure Web-based interface to make it simple to eliminate all IPAM problems.

About Boise State

Boise State is Idaho’s metropolitan research university, located in the state’s population center and capital city, a hub of government, business, the arts, health care, industry and technology. The campus is home of 11 Idaho Professor of the Year honorees since 1990 and the 2005 national champion student debate and speech team. Boise State is the largest university in Idaho with an all-time state enrollment record of 19,667 students.

About BlueCat Networks

BlueCat Networks, the IPAM Intelligence CompanyT, is a profitable, rapidly-growing leading provider of enterprise-class IP Address Management (IPAM) platforms and secure DNS/DHCP network administration appliances. Today, thousands of BlueCat’s award-winning ProteusT IPAM platforms and AdonisT family of DNS/DHCP appliances have been successfully deployed to meet the rising IP management demands of government, military, financial services, retail and manufacturing organizations worldwide. Find out why more Fortune companies choose BlueCat solutions to gain complete, centralized Command and Control of their IP networks at www.bluecatnetworks.com.

Michael O’Keeffe
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