Last updated on May 12, 2022.
Cisco Application Centered Infrastructure (ACI) and Digital Network Architecture (DNA) are powerful solutions which automate and simplify network infrastructure deployments. Using the power of software-defined networking, ACI and DNA optimize the performance of network hardware across the enterprise.
Both ACI and DNA have operational impacts on back-end DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI) infrastructure. Whether it’s provisioning IP addresses for network devices, assigning DHCP scopes, or mapping architectures, ACI and DNA require an accurate, centralized database of DNS data which can deliver information in real time.
To meet the operational requirements of their Cisco deployments, network administrators have to constantly manage the flow of data between their DDI infrastructure, ACI, and DNA. This means manually “pulling” information from ACI to match devices with assigned IP spaces and DHCP scopes. It also means “pushing” information on available IP space into DNA so it can assign available resources.
BlueCat’s integrations auto-populate network configuration and DNS data in Cisco ACI and DNA. This creates a seamless workflow which takes full advantage of BlueCat’s centralized source of truth for DNS and IPAM. By eliminating the need for constant management of the interaction between ACI, DNA, and the underlying IPAM and DNS infrastructure, BlueCat and Cisco are making life even easier for network administrators.
The BlueCat ACI integration feeds information from ACI into BlueCat Address Manager with the ability to map and annotate this dynamic view.
The BlueCat DNA integration centralizes provisioning by allowing DNA to select the next available Pool (Block), Network (Subnet) and IP address from BlueCat’s core platform solution.
The Cisco ACI and DNA integrations are available as part of BlueCat’s Intelligent Automation package, which builds on the powerful Gateway platform to offer integrations for customers who are deploying automation at scale.
Learn more about BlueCat’s DNS automation tools here.
