How will my security team benefit from Edge?

DNS query and response data offers a trove of intelligence for security teams, resulting in: Improved visibility of devices and traffic Identification of attack sources, their source IPs, and user identities Discovery of unsecured entry points on the network used during an attack Faster threat hunting during a security incident

How will my network team benefit from Edge?

As cloud networks become more complex—with multiple clouds, regions, and private virtual networks—the compounding effect on manual forwarding rules becomes unmanageable. BlueCat Edge Resolver tames cloud DNS by simplifying zone discovery and conditional forward rule management.

How will my cloud team benefit from Edge?

Teams typically automate Microsoft DNS management by nintroducing APIs, infrastructure-as-code workflows, and ncentralized management platforms. Micetro supports nautomation through REST APIs, Ansible, Terraform, and nscripting integrations, allowing teams to standardize DNS noperations without replacing Microsoft DNS.

Can I still benefit from Edge even if my organization does not use the cloud?

Most organizations already use a variety of cloud-based applications (e.g., Microsoft 365, Salesforce). Edge conforms to the same security and compliance requirements as these applications. However, for some cases of strict cloud constraints, there are options available for on-premises configurations. Contact your BlueCat sales representative for more information.

Data sheet

Resources
EDGE Packaging

Out-of-the-box visibility and control over DNS traffic

With room for adding networking, cloud, DNS GSLB, and security capabilities

Download as PDF

BlueCat Edge marketing page describing DNS visibility, control, and benefits for networking, reliability, and DNS GSLB

Key takeaways

BlueCat Edge is an intelligent DNS resolver and caching layer designed for hybrid cloud environments that gives network, cloud, and security teams out-of-the-box visibility and control over DNS traffic as the first hop for all queries. It addresses real-world problems like uncontrolled conditional forwarding across multi-cloud and complex networks, DNS-based attacks, and slow resolution by providing Smart Cache plus optional add-ons for networking, cloud discovery/resolution, DNS GSLB, and security. The result is improved resolution performance and reliability, centralized DNS discovery and management across providers, and enhanced security telemetry and blocking capabilities with configurable data retention and pricing based on active IPs.

Smart Cache serves as the baseline first-hop caching layer that replies from cache or resolves recursively and includes two namespaces to separate internal and external queries, reducing recursion and authoritative query load.
The networking add-on enables unlimited DNS namespaces with seven days of cloud-stored DNS logs and is a prerequisite for both the cloud discovery/resolution and DNS GSLB add-ons.
The security add-on integrates BlueCat’s Threat Intelligence feed, supports redirecting and blocking policies, provides 14 days of cloud DNS logs, and enables DNS identity capture, advanced analytics, and SIEM integration.

About BlueCat Edge

BlueCat Edge is our intelligent DNS resolver and caching layer that provides unprecedented visibility and control over DNS traffic. You can quickly and easily deploy Edge in any hybrid cloud environment. As the first hop of any DNS query, Edge intelligently directs DNS traffic, tames conditional forwarding rules, blocks malicious DNS queries, and helps monitor and collect all DNS query and response data for diagnostics and investigations.

BlueCat Edge smart cache with networking, security add-ons, cloud DNS GSLB, and data retention upgrade options

Figure: Edge offerings start with Smart Cache, with add-ons for networking, cloud, DNS GSLB, and security.

Benefits

Networking:

Intelligently optimize DNS to increase resolution performance and reliability, all with complete visibility and control at the first hop of any DNS query.

Cloud:

Extend provider-agnostic DNS discovery and resolution for resources across multicloud environments, accelerating the development of critical applications and services.

DNS GSLB:

Improve the reliability of DNS by utilizing customizable rules and health checks to optimize DNS traffic distribution and support disaster recovery for critical apps and services.

Security:

Provide another layer of intelligence and protection that security teams can use to enhance the overall security stack and protect enterprises from DNS-based attacks.

Overview of Edge offerings

BlueCat’s standard Edge offering starts with an intelligent caching layer called Smart Cache. You can also unlock advanced capabilities by activating add-ons on top of Smart Cache for security, networking, and cloud. Data retention options for lengths of up to one year are also available. Pricing varies based on the number of active IP addresses in use.

Features of Edge’s standard and add-on offerings

Smart Cache, BlueCat’s standard Edge offering, is a first hop caching layer that allows you to resolve DNS requests for clients recursively or by replying from cache for faster responses. It includes basic production environments, standard weekly reports, and two namespaces to support most data migrations. One namespace is used for internal queries and the other for external queries, dramatically reducing the amount of recursion and authoritative DNS query activity. Data retention is not included.

Networking add-on: The networking add-on features unlimited DNS namespaces, supported by seven days of DNS log data stored in the cloud.

Cloud add-on: BlueCat Edge Resolver, Edge’s cloud add-on, allows Edge to perform discovery and resolution of cloud DNS data across major cloud service providers. The networking add-on is a pre-requisite for the cloud add-on.

DNS GSLB add-on: Dynamically prioritize answers based on real-time health status against network topology. The networking add-on is a prerequisite for the DNS GSLB add-on.

Security add-on: The security add-on features BlueCat’s Threat Intelligence feed for DNS request monitoring, redirecting and blocking policies, and 14 days of DNS log data stored in cloud. Additionally, you get:

• DNS identity integration to capture user identity information in DNS log data
• Advanced analytics
• SIEM integration

Frequently asked questions about the benefits of Edge

Next steps

Learn how you can get unprecedented visibility and control over your DNS traffic.

Learn More

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