Facing BYOD and “The Internet of Things”, what do IT Pros think about IP address management?

1. IT Pro Survey: IP Address Management
Facing BYOD and “The Internet of Things”, what
do IT Pros think about IP address management?
© 2014, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
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2. Study Overview: areas of discussion
»
What does “The Internet of Things”
mean to a network administrator?
»
How will IP address management tools
and practices change with the
introduction of BYOD and “The Internet
of Things”?
»
Is IP address management the “Tip of the
Spear”?
»
Each “thing” needs its own IP address
»
Each “thing” requires basic network
configuration
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3. Demographics: breakdown of survey respondants
Between December 2013 and January
2014, 195 members of the SolarWinds’ IT
Pro community, thwack, too the survey
Nearly 90% of those surveyed
are experienced “front-line” IT
Pros
© 2014, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
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4. The Results
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5. The Number of IP Addresses Continues to Grow
Number of Managed IP Addresses
Over 50% of surveyed IT
Pros manage more than
2000 IP addresses
More than 5000 IP Addresses
Up to 2000 IP Addresses
Up to 5000 IP Addresses
Up to 500 IP addresses
Service Provider
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
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6. IP Address Management Monopolizes Time
Using weighted averages, IT
Pros spend 38 person-hours
each month managing IP
addresses
Time Spent Managing IP Addresses
Making IP configuration changes throughout
the network whenever a new device is added
Troubleshooting problems involving IP
addresses
Maintaining and publishing accurate
documentation on IP address resources
Managing DHCP and/or DNS configurations
Adding or changing subnets
Auditing IP address usage
Monitoring utilization of IP address resources
0
< 1 Hr
2 - 10 Hrs
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
11 - 20 Hrs
> 20 Hrs
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7. Key Capabilities for an IP Address Management Solution
IT Pros say detecting IP
conflicts and monitoring
critical IP resources is
important in an IP address
management solution
Identify IP address conflicts
Determine subnet and DHCP/DNS utilization
Identify unused IP addresses
Validate and verify configuration changes
0
Very Important
50
Somewhat Important
100
150
200
Not Important
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8. Key Benefits of IP Address Management
IT Pros agree that the most
significant benefit of IP
address management is
improvement of network
availability
Helps to lower risk and to improve mean
time between failure (MTBF)
Improves mean time to recovery (MTTR)
Allows our IT services to be responsive
Lowers our IT operating costs and improves
our efficiency
0
Strongly Agree
50
Agree
100
150
200
Disagree
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9. IP Address Management is a Priority for IT Pros
IT Pros agree that IP
addresses management is
important to their
organization and essential to
their network management
strategy
We consider IP address management essential
We find value in using specialized tools
We can provide business justification for
purchasing and using IP address management
tools
0
Strongly Agree
Agree
20
40
Disagree
60
80 100 120 140 160 180
Strongly Disagree
© 2014, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
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10. Conclusions
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11. Key Findings
»
IP addresses management is not limited to large networks; networks of all sizes are
impacted
»
DHCP and DNS servers represent a larger challenge for IT Pros managing the entire IP
infrastructure
»
Manual IP address management is time-intensive and error-prone
»
Automated IP address management improves:

Network Availability

Responsiveness

Efficiency
38
hours/
month
One full
day each
week
© 2014, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
11
23K/year

12. Top Feature Needs for IP Address Management
» Monitor IP address usage and IP resource utilization
» Accurately provision IP addresses and automate routine
configuration tasks
» Manage and maintain IP address documentation
© 2014, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
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13. IP Address Management Resources
» Webcasts
 IP Proliferation: How do you seize control for greater security and scalability?
 IP Address Management Best Practices
» Whitepapers
 ROI for IPAM Solutions in Small-Mid Sized Enterprise Environments
 Managing the BYOD Chaos
© 2014, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
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