Petur Petursson is VP of Micetro Enablement and Co-Founding father of Males&Mice, now a part of BlueCat Networks. With over 20 years of expertise in community administration and automation, he helps enterprises simplify DDI operations and unlock better agility by BlueCat’s unified Micetro platform.
Throughout a current webinar, I joined Cisco’s Octavian Preda to introduce the Cisco Unified Department structure and display how BlueCat Micetro seamlessly integrates. This integration supplies end-to-end management—from routing and switching to DNS and IP addressing—delivering unified administration, automation, and centralized visibility throughout networking, safety, and DDI companies.
Why Unified Department?
At the moment’s IT groups face fragmented department environments, escalating safety calls for, lean assets, and AI-driven workloads impacting site visitors and safety. The clear resolution is a contemporary department structure that simplifies administration, scales routinely, and embeds safety from the bottom up.
Cisco Unified Department: One Framework for Networking & Safety
Cisco’s Unified Department structure stands out as a result of it merges networking and safety below a single, AI-powered operational mannequin. This framework is constructed on three core pillars:
- Simplicity by automation: Cisco supplies cloud-based dashboards that supply unified visibility and AI-powered assurance.
- AI-ready {hardware}: Their units are designed to assist data-intensive workloads and edge analytics.
- Safety built-in: Cisco’s strategy contains post-quantum-ready routers (incorporating cryptographic algorithms resilient to future quantum computing threats) and built-in Subsequent-Era Firewall (NGFW)/Safe Entry Service Edge (SASE) features to guard each connection.
I’ve seen how the Meraki Dashboard now unifies administration of IOS XE and Meraki MX units, which is a big step ahead. Moreover, Cisco’s Department-as-Code initiative allows programmable infrastructure utilizing Terraform suppliers and Cisco Validated Designs for repeatable, dependable deployments by way of Steady Integration/Steady Supply (CI/CD) pipelines.
Safe Routers for the AI Period
Cisco’s Safe Routers 8000 Collection are notably spectacular. Designed for all workplace sizes, they combine:
- Embedded Subsequent-Era Firewall (NGFW)
- Submit-quantum safety readiness
- Automation hooks for fast provisioning
These routers, together with Cisco Sensible Switches and Wi-Fi 7 entry factors, kind a sturdy {hardware} basis for the Unified Department.
Automation & Lifecycle Administration
Automation is a journey, and Cisco provides paths for each stage:
- Handbook: The Meraki cloud dashboard is good for lean groups.
- Partial: Pre-built templates streamline frequent operations.
- Full: Infrastructure-as-Code, leveraging Terraform and validated Cisco designs, supplies complete automation.
This tiered mannequin ensures pre-change validation, evaluate gates, and post-change verification, which is important for lowering threat and making certain compliance at scale.
BlueCat Micetro: Unifying DDI
That is the place BlueCat Micetro is available in. Our DDI (DNS, DHCP, and IP Handle Administration) orchestration platform is designed to completely complement Cisco’s Unified Department. Micetro acts as an clever overlay, connecting to your current DNS/DHCP programs—whether or not they’re Home windows Server, Azure DNS, AWS Route 53, or Meraki DHCP—and consolidating them right into a single, intuitive graphical and API-driven interface.
With Micetro, you achieve:
- Centralized administration of all of your DNS and DHCP scopes.
- Complete subnet documentation with highly effective tagging and search capabilities.
- Strong role-based entry management to safe your DDI.
- A robust REST API and Terraform supplier for seamless automation.
- Actual-time bi-directional synchronization with Meraki DHCP, which I consider is essential for eliminating configuration drift.
Extending Visibility with BlueCat Edge
We additionally prolong visibility with BlueCat Edge. This resolution enhances Cisco’s Safe Entry and Zero Belief Community Entry (ZTNA) platforms by including important inside DNS visibility. BlueCat Edge identifies exactly which person or machine makes each DNS question, enriching information for instruments like Cisco XDR or Splunk, and considerably enhancing menace response.
Deployment & Licensing
Micetro is extremely versatile software program, deployable precisely the place you want it—on-premises or within the cloud. We’ve simplified licensing by basing it on energetic IP addresses, making scaling easy. And to make issues even simpler, Micetro is obtainable by the Cisco International Value Checklist (GPL) Value E book, unifying procurement and assist by Cisco.
Key Takeaways
From my perspective, the important thing takeaways from our collaboration and the Unified Department strategy are clear:
- Unified Operations: We obtain centralized coverage and visibility throughout each entry and safety.
- Automation at Scale: This accelerates deployment and ensures consistency throughout your branches.
- Centralized DDI: It eliminates fragmented instruments and the necessity for guide monitoring, which is a large win for effectivity.
- Built-in Safety: BlueCat Edge enhances Cisco ZTNA, offering deep DNS visibility that’s important for contemporary safety.
- Future-Prepared: With post-quantum routers and AI-capable infrastructure, you’re ready for what’s subsequent.
In the end, unified operations translate straight into resilience, agility, and management on your group. When your community and DDI layers work as one, you may innovate extra and troubleshoot much less.
Able to See It in Motion?
Go to BlueCat Micetro on Cisco Market to be taught extra, or request a demo to see firsthand how Cisco Unified Department and BlueCat Micetro can work collectively to simplify your networking.
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