Case Study: U.S. Government Laboratory
A U.S. Department of Energy laboratory complex approached BlueCat to centralize and automate their network to support collaboration among scientists worldwide.
Key takeawaysKey takeaways are generated with AI assistance. Because automated summaries can occasionally contain errors or miss important context, always refer to the full blog post for complete information.A U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory faced operational risk and slow help-desk response times because segmented enclaves for U.S. citizens and foreign nationals required separate Microsoft DNS administration and spreadsheet-based IP/host tracking. BlueCat’s DNS Integrity solution centralized and automated DNS management, allowing address blocks to be reserved per enclave while enabling single-portal administration. The migration eliminated conflicting host-record errors, reduced downtime, sped routine DNS tasks like adding and removing records, and freed network staff to focus on higher-level strategic work.
Why did the laboratory need to segment its network and what operational difficulties did that cause?
The laboratory segmented its network to prevent information from moving between a protected enclave for U.S. citizen workers and an enclave used by foreign nationals, due to the sensitive nature of its scientific research. Operationally this split required separate DNS administration under Microsoft DNS and relied on spreadsheets for IP address and host record tracking. That manual, split-administration approach led to frequent human errors, network outages, increased operational risk, and longer help-desk response times for routine DNS tasks such as adding and deleting host records.
How did BlueCat’s DNS Integrity solution address the lab’s DNS management problems?
BlueCat’s migration team worked with laboratory administrators to capture, organize, and rationalize DNS data from each enclave, and set aside IP address blocks for each side of the network to preserve segmentation. By centralizing DNS administration into a single portal and database, BlueCat automated management of core DNS infrastructure and eliminated the need for separate Microsoft DNS instances and spreadsheet tracking. This provided a single point of truth for DNS resources while maintaining the required logical separation between U.S. citizen and foreign-national enclaves.
What measurable impacts did the implementation have on the laboratory’s operations?
After implementing BlueCat’s DNS Integrity solution, the laboratory saw a dramatic improvement in DNS efficiency and reliability: conflicting host-record errors and related downtime were eliminated because the BlueCat database stays current and functions across both enclaves. Response times for standard DNS management tasks, including adding and deleting host records, were significantly reduced, increasing productivity for IT administrators and end users. As a result, network personnel were able to spend more time on higher-level strategic tasks instead of routine DNS maintenance.
The Customer
BlueCat was approached by one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s complex of national laboratories. The laboratory performs work in each of the strategic goal areas of DOE: energy, national security, science and environment.
The laboratory is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development, with 3,900 employees, and a total business volume of $917.1 million.
The Challenge
The Laboratory conducts scientific research on highly sensitive technical areas, and as such its network requires a unique architecture. The vast majority of the Laboratory’s workforce is comprised of U.S. citizens, but foreign scientists also work at the lab through cooperative projects and scientific exchange programs.
The Laboratory’s network administrators segmented their network to ensure that information was unable to move from the protected enclave of U.S. citizen workers to the enclave used by foreign nationals.
This created an administrative headache, however, as the DNS for both areas had to be managed separately under the Microsoft DNS the lab was using. Spreadsheets were used to keep track of IP addresses and host records, but this was hardly a failsafe method – manual errors frequently caused network outages and increased overall operational risk.
Split administration also lengthened the time it took network administrators to respond to help desk tickets. With a constant flow of foreign researchers and guests, adding and deleting host records took a great deal of time and energy away from more pressing tasks.
The Solution
The Laboratory decided to implement BlueCat’s DNS Integrity solution to centralize and automate the management of its core DNS infrastructure.
The BlueCat migration team worked closely with Laboratory administrators to capture, organize, and rationalize the DNS data from each operational enclave. Setting aside blocks of IP addresses for each side of the Laboratory’s network, the BlueCat migration team effectively segmented the enterprise while providing the ability to manage DNS resources from a single portal.
The Impact
Using a single point of truth for DNS administration dramatically improved the efficiency and reliability of the Laboratory’s DNS infrastructure. Errors and downtime associated with conflicting host records are now a thing of the past – BlueCat’s database of DNS data is always up to date, and functions across the U.S. citizen and foreign national enclaves seamlessly.
BlueCat’s DNS Integrity solution also improved response times associated with standard DNS management tasks. Adding and deleting host records can now be accomplished quickly and easily, leading to greater productivity for both IT administrators and end users alike. Network personnel are now able to devote more of their time to higher-level strategic tasks.
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