BlueCat CTO on Packet Pushers: Moving beyond mere DDI
How DNS can play a role in creating the fully integrated, orchestrated, flexible networks we all want.
BlueCat CTO Andrew Wertkin appeared on the June 4 episode of Packet Pushers, a “deeply technical and unabashedly nerdy” podcast about networking and infrastructure engineering. There’s some great material in here about how DNS can play a role in creating the fully integrated, orchestrated, flexible networks we all want.
DDI = table stakes
It’s tempting to think of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM as mere network infrastructure – something to configure and forget about. According to Wertkin, “if it’s just DDI, it’s table stakes. We believe that BlueCat has to take way more ownership of ensuring that customers are meeting their business needs because we know so much about how to deploy the [DNS] protocol. That’s the shift.” BlueCat’s Adaptive DNS platform goes beyond mere DDI, taking the grunt work out of infrastructure management so networking teams can focus on the strategic initiatives that really matter.
BlueCat integrations with Cisco ACI and DNA Center
This is one of the reasons we’re so excited about the release of integrations with Cisco ACI and Cisco DNA Center. Here’s Wertkin again: “BlueCat is the source of truth for the allocation of networks. Integration with BlueCat to ensure that the appropriate networks are being provisioned for ACI and DNA is a significant use case. This allows customers to express intent at a higher level, and we worry about compiling that into the appropriate configuration.”
BlueCat will be demonstrating these new integrations at Cisco Live San Diego. Drop by booth 2015 to see us, and pop in on Andrew Wertkin’s presentation on Tuesday at 1:45PM to hear him talk about the role of DNS in today’s complex network landscape.
DNS as a security tool
Security isn’t always something people associate with DNS, but it really should be. DNS data is an amazing source of intelligence for both security and networking teams. As Wertkin says, “when you look at DNS data en masse, when you look at all the data streaming off a device, it becomes pretty clear right away that you can profile what that thing is, what it does, is it user driven is it operating system driven. I can look at any DNS stream and guess what the user’s function is. It’s a very rich set of data. Context is crazy important.” BlueCat provides all of this contextual information as part of its Intelligent Security platform, capturing data right at the device level.
Listen to the full Packet Pushers podcast.
Key takeawaysThis key takeaway was generated through LLMs crawling the page and coming up with an overview of the content.BlueCat CTO Andrew Wertkin discussed on the Packet Pushers podcast how DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (DDI) must evolve from basic infrastructure into an active platform that helps organizations meet business needs. He described BlueCat’s Adaptive DNS and Intelligent Security capabilities, including integrations with Cisco ACI and Cisco DNA Center, which let BlueCat act as a source of truth for network allocation and compile high-level intent into correct configurations. Wertkin also emphasized DNS data as a rich source of contextual intelligence for security and networking teams, enabling device and user profiling to improve operational visibility and protection.
How does BlueCat view DDI compared with its Adaptive DNS platform?
According to Andrew Wertkin in the article, traditional DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (DDI) are considered ‘table stakes’—basic infrastructure that you might configure and forget. BlueCat’s Adaptive DNS platform is positioned beyond that baseline: it reduces the operational grunt work of infrastructure management and takes greater ownership in ensuring customers meet business needs. The platform provides higher-level capabilities so networking teams can focus on strategic initiatives while BlueCat compiles intent into correct DNS-related configurations.
What is the significance of the integrations between BlueCat and Cisco ACI and DNA Center?
Wertkin explains that BlueCat serves as the source of truth for network allocation, and integrations with Cisco ACI and Cisco DNA Center are a significant use case because they ensure appropriate networks are provisioned for those environments. These integrations allow customers to express intent at a higher level while BlueCat handles compiling that intent into the appropriate configuration for ACI and DNA. The integrations aim to streamline network provisioning and reduce manual configuration errors by tying high-level intent to concrete network allocations.
In what ways does BlueCat use DNS data for security according to the article?
The article reports Wertkin saying DNS data, when viewed en masse, provides extensive intelligence for security and networking teams: it can reveal whether traffic is user-driven or system-driven, help profile devices, and infer user functions from DNS streams. BlueCat’s Intelligent Security platform captures contextual DNS information at the device level, supplying that rich set of data to improve visibility and threat detection. Emphasizing context, BlueCat leverages DNS telemetry as a meaningful source of security and operational insight rather than treating DNS solely as basic infrastructure.
BlueCat provides core services and solutions that help our customers and their teams deliver change-ready networks. With BlueCat, organizations can build reliable, secure, and agile mission-critical networks that can support transformation initiatives such as cloud adoption and automation. BlueCat’s growing portfolio includes services and solutions for automated and unified DDI management, network security, multicloud management, and network observability and health.
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