DDI Day: Honoring the heroes of network infrastructure

We are DDI: Guardians of the network

When a network works like it’s supposed to, does anyone notice?

Too often, those of you who keep critical network services humming are overlooked, your efforts viewed as just ‘part of the job.’ BlueCat is changing that by taking a day to recognize the unsung efforts of the few and the mighty who work tirelessly in the trenches of DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (together known as DDI) to keep us all connected.

On DDI Day, what some view as ‘part of the job’ will be celebrated as acts of heroism. The day includes celebrity guests, awards, and swag for all.

The past year has brought profound change for which you have had to pivot quickly. Whether working from your kitchen table or a data center, BlueCat recognizes how much more this moment has asked of you to keep our networks running.

For that, we say thank you.

What would DDI Day be without awards?

Watch the video to find out who our 2021 recipients were.

Automation Award

For someone who saw a better way to do something and pursued it, whether that meant automating a process or implementing a new solution.

Silo-Breaker Award

For someone who has reached across the aisle to work with counterparts in security, DevOps, and other teams in a way that works out better for everyone.

DDI Guru Award

For someone who is an overall master, a thought leader always looking ahead to the next big trend, and has both broad and deep DDI knowledge.

If we missed you at our live DDI Day event on April 13, get caught up and watch the recording of the event.

DDI celebrity guest speakers and host

Speaker: Paul Mockapetris

Paul is best known as the creator of the Domain Name System (DNS) in 1983. He also wrote the first implementation of SMTP. He is a fellow of the ACM, IEEE, and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He is an internet advocate and investor, with interests ranging from high-speed switching systems to applications. He is currently the chief scientist at ThreatSTOP.

Speaker: Ralph Droms

Ralph organized the IETF working group in 1989 that designed DHCP. He is co-author of the original DHCP RFCs, along with many other DHCP specifications and The DHCP Handbook. He was previously on the research staff at Cisco, IBM, and Burroughs, and held faculty positions at Bucknell and Penn State. He is currently a staff software engineer at Google.

Host: Russ White

Russ designs, deploys, breaks, and troubleshoots large-scale networks. He has co-authored more than 40 software patents, is a co-host of the History of Networking and Hedge podcasts, and serves on the Routing Area Directorate and the Internet Architecture Board at the IETF. He is currently an infrastructure architect for Juniper Networks.

Social media and hashtags

Link to this page and use these hashtags on your social media to spread the DDI Day word. In case you’re at a loss for what to say, we’ve provided some examples.

#DDIDay

Use this hashtag to refer to the event, as in: “I can’t wait to hear what Paul Mockapetris has to say at #DDIDay! Register at https://bluecatnetworks.com/ddi-day/.”

#DDIHero

Use this hashtag to call out a networking superstar, as in “Bob deserves a #DDIHero award for managing our network. Register at https://bluecatnetworks.com/ddi-day/.”

#WeAreDDI

Use this hashtag to share about our profession, as in “Admins keep your networking running! Celebrate at https://bluecatnetworks.com/ddi-day/. #WeAreDDI”