BlueCat Manages Network 'Lifeblood'

Company:

Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario

Technology Sector: Networking

Key Product: Proteus 5000 and Adonis 1000

Year Founded: 2001

Number of Channel Partners: 45 in the U.S.

Ideal Channel Partner: Enterprise-focused solution provider

Why You Should Care: BlueCat Networks provides product and services around the lifeblood of a customer's network, which will allow solution providers to provide protection and peace of mind.

The Lowdown: BlueCat Networks brings in business by keeping its customers' businesses up and running. Using its Proteus 5000 IP address management (IPAM) appliance and Adonis 1000 DNS/DHCP server, BlueCat is helping solution providers address a gap in network coverage that customers are realizing they have.

"We feel that DNS/DHCP is the lifeblood of any network," said Branko Miskov, director of product management for Toronto, Ontario-based BlueCat Networks. "If there is a DNS outage at a company, Web connections stop; e-mail stops flowing. It shouldn't be an add-on to existing servers; DNS/DHCP requires more attention than that."

To that end, the Adonis 1000 is a dedicated appliance that solution providers can take to customers which provides the option to move DNS/DHCP off of a shared server and onto a dedicated one.

Of course, the Adonis 1000 will also need a management tool, which is why in 2005 BlueCat Networks rolled out the Proteus 5000 IPAM tool. The Proteus is a management tool that customers can use to track IP addresses, perform network management and assign new IP addresses.

"The DNS/DHCP and IPAM tools work together," said Miskov. "DHCP performs dynamic address assignment while DNS translates names into addresses. The IPAM tool control allows for easy visibility in naming and address infrastructure."

Traditionally, the most commonly used tool for managing IP addresses was a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, said Miskov. BlueCat's Adonis and Proteus appliances make the process much less labor intensive and increasing productivity -- something solution provider's customers might find interesting.

"Most solution providers are involved in core network services," said Miskov. "As partners talk to customers about VoIP or rethinking IP infrastructure or remodeling their network, updating the services around that network should come hand in hand."

Solution providers, then, can work with BlueCat to deliver critical services to customers that can't just be turned off and back on. And because the network in any company is so important, solution providers can build in professional services to compliment the product.