BlueCat Integrity Reviews

We use it for IPAM, DNS, DHCP, and cloud solutions.

We've enhanced security with the toolset. It has given us a better, real-time jump on issues that might crop up versus an issue that has already arrived and now we have to deal with it. We can catch it a little bit before it goes off, which is great. Other tools, like antivirus or malware, catch it once the machines are trying to download the packages. With DNS, you catch that as it's trying to attempt to go and ask for the download, so it's a couple of steps before, which makes it to be a lot faster in saving a lot of extra work that would be needed.

It provides a single-pane-of-glass view of our IP address space, which is very important for us. It's an item that can be used across the board for multiple teams—from network to platform teams. It's an easy-to-use portion of the toolset that's out there.

We're using its integration with ServiceNow. It's a great integration. We're expanding on those out-of-the-box tools with which integrations are provided. So, we're able to expand our capabilities. We're looking at other automations as well to expand.

It has helped reduce human error. Prior to BlueCat, which was a long time ago, we used to have spreadsheets and notepads of our records of where DNS is, what's being kept, what's not being kept, which networks are available, and which ones aren't available. I've run into some colleagues in other organizations that still do this today, and I'm surprised because we've had a lot of overlaps. We've had machines being built that are stepping on top of other machines. We've had production outages, whereas now with the IPAM capability and the real-time view into it, all those mistakes are pretty much gone. We don't have any overlap. We don't see any other machines taking over IP space from other machines. That's pretty much gone. It provides a great single source of truth for what's in our infrastructure.

It has helped to reduce downtime. When there are issues, a lot of fingers point back to its DNS. With the toolsets and with what's provided in diagnostics, we're able to prove and provide reliable information to lessen an outage in some areas so that they can start concentrating on items other than DNS. We're able to jump in and reroute and move items around to make things move faster.

It has helped to consolidate tools or applications. We rely on multiple Microsoft solutions, Linux, Unix, and Red Hat. We're able to take all that and have that under one umbrella for DNS. We're now able to streamline that type of configuration.

It has freed up our IT staff for other projects. The resiliency that it provides had me focus on being able to do other work for DNS or other tasks that are assigned to me outside of DNS. If we were looking at it in terms of manpower, it has saved about one manpower's worth of work for a year.

The most valuable piece, which has been a lifesaver, would be the BlueCat DNS resolver. BlueCat Cloud DNS resolver is a tool that takes a look into your cloud's DNS and then reports back everything it finds into BlueCat's DNS Edge solution. The Edge solution has a bunch of nice rules that you can configure to route the DNS traffic. That automation alone is a lifesaver for me for the day-to-day churn of the DNS components that change on an hourly, daily basis.

From the time that I've been using it and the input that I've been having into their engineering, they're very flexible in seeing what the issues are. They're very flexible in working on new changes within the product. I've had great input on issues that we've run into in our world when using their products.

The ease of use is where I got to give a little knock on them. Once you start using the tool, it becomes very easy. It's actually quite easy to use. The problem that I run into is documentation. The documentation could be a little bit richer. Documentation has always been a little pet peeve for me with them.

Sometimes the documentation does not really show real-world applications. Need to get tickets into support to get more details on how an item is supposed to operate or some CLI sequence may be missing in the docs.  

I am hoping to see an improved robust process to mass import/export IPAM data in their next major release.

We've been a customer of BlueCat since about 2013.

It's very stable. We've only run into one issue this past week and a half ago. We had roughly two outages all this time, and it was the second outage. That was due to a bug not in BlueCat software but in the underlying Linux bind. We actually hit it, and we were able to work around it and fix the issue and get moving again. In ten years, there were only two outages, so the system is very stable.

It scales very well. We're able to move and change things on the fly. We're able to bring up, bring down, not lose a beat, and still be in production without issues.

They're hands down fabulous. They're there in a pinch. We use their enterprise solution for support, and they are top-notch. I can't say anything wrong with them. They're there when you need them.

You have to work out a schedule with them. They just don't sit there and wait for Dave Muscat's call. Just put it that way. I have to schedule it with them, but they're there. In some cases, when we have issues where some people contact me with problems, or our customers need to have something resolved, and I'm not hitting it, I put in a ticket. It's a quick and easy process.

They're usually pretty good at responding. They sometimes respond within 15 to 20 minutes. They're sometimes a lot better than what they put out there in their SLA. We're on the phone talking quickly. In our outage situation that we had last week, within minutes, there was already an email with a link in there to jump on a call so we can start working on the issue. I'd rate them an eight out of ten.

In terms of comparing their support with the support for our previous solution, the previous solution that we had was a free Microsoft solution, so there was no support tied to that. That was just us and googling.

Positive

We had a mixture of many products. It was Windows, Sun Solaris, and spreadsheets. 

We used to be part of a division of another company, and we were being sold off into our own company. I happened to raise my hand at a meeting with only a couple of weeks left to go before the actual cutoff date. I asked what we are doing for DNS. I was told that we just put a bunch of machines together to which I said no. You don't just put a bunch of machines together. You have to have a hierarchy of a solution. There was a third-party management company that was managing our separation, and they formed a little group that looked at three different products, and BlueCat won that process.

In terms of the deployment model, we have both environments. We're on-prem with all virtual servers, and we're also in the cloud. It's an Azure cloud, but it's private to us.

Ease of deployment is there once you work out the nuances of the documentation. Once you read between the lines, It goes quite well. Deploying virtual machines is a very easy process. They've really matured in deployments of their DNS Edge solution and patching.

In terms of the deployment duration, technically, we're still deploying after all these years. When we first launched the project, the initial deployment and cutover were in the vicinity of 12 to 18 months because of the sheer amount of data that we needed to migrate. We were working with all the teams. We're in the healthcare field, so there were a lot of HIPAA regulations and time frames based on the contracts we had.

Only I was involved in its deployment. Its original deployment and any subsequent deployment were done by me. I finally got my first person to help me this week.

When it comes to maintenance, I do have a group of three guys in India. They take care of patching, and they take care of the upgrades. They take care of the low-level tickets that come in and get generated in our ServiceNow platform. They handle requests to add or remove a record.

Our outage levels have gone down to almost nothing. We're roughly 99.8% outage free at this point in time since using the product. We've only had two medium-sized outages, and neither one of those outages caused an outage. It has been reliable enough.

I can sleep at night. I haven't said that about any other product I've dealt with, whether it's Microsoft, Linux, Cisco, or anything of that nature. I can sleep at night knowing the type of redundancies and configurations that have been put in place and the collaborative engineering work that we and BlueCat have put together to make things solid for us.

They're competitive. The way they run their model is good. Could it stand some tweaking? Sure. There are some items there. One of the things I looked at in the recent past was their container solutions. You have to pay for licensing to use their containerized platform, but the licensing doesn't include the container licensing itself. I'd love to be able to have one big package per se.

They were flexible with us. We were in a model at the time where we owned the licenses, and as time progressed forward with the product, we're now in a subscription-based model, which makes it easier for us to move the product around the way we need to use it. It has made that easier for us.

I've never been the person who brings numbers into the equation when I'm dealing with the product. So, I don't know about the total cost of ownership, but according to me, it's well worth every dime we pay for it. It has streamlined our business across the board.

We evaluated Men&Mice and Infoblox. BlueCat won that process just for ease of use and ease of installation. We were also not looking at solutions that would sit on top of a Microsoft product at the time.

Make sure you have your data available. You should have your IPAM data and your DNS data. You need to be able to bring it in, so you need to have a mechanism to pull that. You can test the solution, probably in a small VMware environment. It doesn't have to be cloud. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate. If you have a small lab, you can probably throw this together.

To someone at an organization who doesn’t think that they need a full-stack, integrated DDI management solution, I'd say that I don't care how big or how small an organization you are. You need some type of solution to manage your network. You need to have at least some type of IPAM. You need something that's going to keep track of your network space and your DNS space. You need to be able to look at it at a glance and be able to manage those systems and make changes on the fly. Whether you're a small school or a small business, you need to have something.

Overall, I'd rate it a nine out of ten. The reason why I rate it a nine is the documentation. I've always had problems with their documentation.

We primarily use BlueCat Integrity for DNS purposes internally. 

We deployed BlueCat Integrity using a hybrid model because many of our applications are finance-related. This product helps us to secure those applications.

BlueCat Integrity is very user-friendly. Its interface is easy to navigate and has all the features we were looking for, compared to other vendors. This made it easier for us to manage and deploy in our complex environment, which includes multiple domains and acquired companies.

We have integrated ServiceNow with our DNS server. If any alerts are created or any issues are detected, we receive an alert directly in ServiceNow, which is then routed to a specific team.

BlueCat Integrity provides a single pane of glass view of our IP addresses, which is useful for our organization. We sometimes lose track of which IP address range is assigned to which server or team, but BlueCat Integrity keeps track of everything for us, making it easy to see at a glance which IP addresses are assigned to Team A or Team B for example.

BlueCat Integrity helps to prevent human error. If we enter incorrect information, such as an incorrect subnet, BlueCat Integrity displays a pop-up message stating that the information is incorrect and that we should recheck the configuration. This is an add-on feature that is not available in other solutions.

It has helped us reduce downtime. When we used Windows DNS, we had many issues, such as the server hanging occasionally. We had to reboot the entire server during production hours, which caused major incidents. BlueCat Integrity has minimized these incidents, and we now have zero downtime. Nothing has happened on our site since we implemented it. All major incident calls have been eliminated.

BlueCat Integrity helped us consolidate by eliminating our old DNS server, which we used to track command-line or third-party utilities. This saved us costs, as we no longer need to purchase licenses for those tools. Everything is now visible through BlueCat Integrity.

It helps us free up staff time. With our old DNS system, we had to engage all of our staff many times, such as at midnight, during the day, or operations. This took a lot of time for us to process the product queue. For example, if I wanted to send someone on training, I had to cancel it because of these issues. But now, 

We have peace of mind because we no longer receive major incident calls late at night or early in the morning.

DNS aliases, which we use extensively in our applications are a valuable feature. We simply provide the alias to users, and they cannot see the real IP address or DNS name. This feature is specific to each application and is very powerful for us.

I would like the GUI to be similar to AWS and Azure, where we can simply click on an item to expand it and see all the information on one page, without having to click to the next page.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for over ten years.

BlueCat Integrity was down only once in the last year for a security patch.

We have not had any issues with the scalability of BlueCat Integrity. We have already implemented a load-balancing solution with seven appliances, so if we need to replace one, the others will take over. We have the same setup in staging, development, and lab environments. We test all new changes in the lab environment before moving them to staging and then to production. This is a very well-balanced product.

Originally, we used Microsoft DNS, but it had many problems. We had to purchase and constantly monitor many tools with Microsoft. If we skipped an option during configuration, we would continue to receive error messages, and we would have to check the event logs to keep track of those errors. BlueCat Integrity is very easy to manage, so we chose it.

Multiple teams were involved in the step-by-step implementation. The infrastructure architecture team analyzed the requirements and then passed them to us for the proof of concept. Once the POC was completed, we implemented the changes in the development environment, then in the staging environment, and finally in the production environment.

We evaluated BlueCat Integrity and other vendors and found that BlueCat Integrity was one of the most reliable options in terms of both security and administration. Their support team was also helpful and quick.

I give BlueCat Integrity a ten out of ten.

BlueCat Integrity does not require maintenance. There are no specific patches and the solution updates automatically so we don't have any additional downtime.

The value and security that BlueCat Integrity adds to an organization demonstrates the value of a full-stack integrated DDI management solution.

BlueCat Integrity is the most reliable DDI solution with awesome customer support. Whenever we have any issues or urgent customer or business needs, they are always there to help. We call them and they immediately start working on the issue, and they come up with a solution quickly. We can usually implement the solution within one or two days. Their customer support is that good.

We use BlueCat Integrity to have visibility into our address management.

BlueCat Integrity is fairly straightforward. I have been using it myself for quite a long time. The actual user interface is a little dated, but that is being addressed in the upcoming release.

BlueCat Integrity provides a single-pane-of-glass view of our IP address space, which is important for our organization to see what is being utilized.

For the six years we have been using BlueCat Integrity, we have begun to transition from Microsoft to BlueCat DHCP and DNS. The ability to easily view our options and zones is a significant improvement over our previous approach. The user interface has improved over time, but it is still somewhat dated. A major UI overhaul is planned for release 10, which is scheduled for release next spring.

BlueCat Integrity can help reduce human error by pushing changes to multiple places with only one human input, reducing the likelihood of errors. Compared to our previous solution, BlueCat has reduced human errors by 25 percent.

BlueCat Integrity has not really helped us consolidate any tools. We were already using one Microsoft tool, and now we are using one BlueCat tool, with the advantage of only having to use one interface with BlueCat Integrity versus multiple with Microsoft.

BlueCat Integrity is a solid product. It does not have flashy features, but it is reliable and we have few problems with it. BlueCat does a good job of keeping the product up-to-date with security patches and updates. BlueCat Integrity provides us with flexibility and visibility that we did not have before.

The most important improvement is that it would be nice to have more built-in tools for bulk updates and bulk changes. I understand that there are APIs for this, but that requires coding skills. I am no longer a coder, so it would be helpful to have built-in tools for imports and other tasks.

The UI is outdated and needs a modern refresh.

The RFC is over 25 years old, and some record types have become obsolete. I would like newer DNS record types, even if they are not part of the RFC.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for six years.

We originally used Microsoft for DHCP, DNS, and IP address management. We have since migrated to BlueCat Integrity for better visibility into our address management. Multiple people are able to manage using BlueCat Integrity.

The initial deployment was straightforward. The basic deployment took one month, but the full deployment with the server took around six months and was completed by two people.

Originally, we compared BlueCat Integrity to other products. It was not the cheapest nor the most expensive solution, but it was among the more expensive ones. Overall, I would say that it is priced fairly, though perhaps a bit on the high side.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten.

BlueCat Integrity is deployed in our corporate environment across multiple locations around the world.

We would like to utilize BlueCat Integrity to initiate operations in multiple regions, aiming to establish a disaster recovery, scalability, and resilience plan for the APAC and MA regions.

BlueCat Integrity is user-friendly, thanks to its powerful API. Our technicians appreciate the solution's excellent graphical interface, which makes it easy to comprehend.

BlueCat Integrity is flexible, fast, and quite optimized.

Currently, our company is satisfied with BlueCat Integrity, which has granted us peace of mind. 

The most valuable features are scalability and cloud infrastructure.

During our testing phase, we encountered some issues with Active Directory and DNS reverse lookups.

I have evaluated BlueCat Integrity and will be implementing it in July. 

In the limited contact I have had with BlueCat Integrity's support, they have been excellent.

Positive

We previously utilized Microsoft on-premises, but we transitioned to BlueCat Integrity for cloud support.

The deployment process is straightforward. We intend to deploy based on regions and site types, such as forward operating bases, followed by administrative offices, headquarters, warehouses, and finally factories or plants.

Our management decided that there is a return on investment and that is why they have decided to move forward with BlueCat Integrity.

BlueCat Integrity meets our expectations and aligns with our budget forecast.

We evaluated Infoblox and chose BlueCat Integrity because it uses fewer resources and offers a better price. We appreciate their support and consulting services, as they understand that BlueCat Integrity is not widely known in the world due to being newer in the market. However, they compensate for this by providing effective consulting services that offer proof of concept and demonstrate value.

I give BlueCat Integrity a ten out of ten.

I suggest that any organization which doesn't believe they require a comprehensive, integrated DDI management solution should consider utilizing the consultation services offered by BlueCat Integrity. This will help them understand the value it brings.

I recommend that organizations try BlueCat Integrity, as they will love it.

It primarily serves as our DNS solution.

The insight into the overall health of our network, particularly in terms of DNS functionality, is positive. This visibility proves invaluable when troubleshooting and resolving issues. It provides a holistic view, including information on DNS and DHCP services, making it a thorough and effective tool for monitoring and managing DNS functionality.

DNS security is safeguarded comprehensively from end to end.

It offers a unified view of our IP address space through a single pane of glass. Whether using IPM or Integrity with DNS, you can easily correlate and match all assigned IPs with the DNS configuration. This integration ensures that each IP address in IPM corresponds to a DNS name, providing comprehensive visibility.

It has been seamlessly integrated with various IT operation manager platforms, including SolarWinds. While it might not be accurate to label the integration with Integrity as direct, it's apt to say that our BlueCat solution is monitored by SolarWinds. Additionally, for internet access, such as reaching domains like Google.com, we rely on Cisco Umbrella.

It helped us in minimizing human errors by facilitating automation through the use of scripts.

The design with BlueCat ensures minimal downtime as it is highly redundant. In the event of a server failure, multiple servers seamlessly handle the traffic, making the occurrence of downtime highly improbable.

It did not contribute to the consolidation of any previously used tools or applications.

It assisted in saving time for other projects.

One of the standout features of BlueCat is its foundation on Linux, making it one of the earliest DNS solutions. This inherent stability, derived from its Linux-based architecture, provides a well-established and reliable platform. Once you become familiar with the technology, managing it becomes straightforward.

It primarily supports DNS high availability failover when the servers share the same subnet. However, it does not offer robust support for high availability failover with different subnets, especially if the servers are located in different data centers and belong to distinct IP networks. In such cases, setting up high availability becomes challenging, often requiring manual failovers.

We have been using it for approximately five months.

There were no stability issues.

It provides good scalability capabilities.

I am satisfied with its customer service and support. I would rate it eight out of ten.

We were using NS-1 previously but decided to switch, primarily because IBM acquired the company, and subsequently, they discontinued the solution.

The initial setup was somewhat challenging, but it wasn't overly difficult.

The deployment process spanned approximately two months. The overall project required four resources, including roles such as design and project management, to complete it.

I am not sure about the exact pricing, but I believe their cost is lower compared to Infoblox.

The previous solution reached its end, leading the vendor to discontinue the service. During the customer review, we evaluated options between BlueCat and Infoblox.

For a medium-sized company, having a DNS solution is essential. Whether it's BlueCat, Infoblox, or another option, it's crucial for smooth operations. While it's technically possible to work with Linux Spine or other solutions like F5 DNS, they are often challenging to manage due to the absence of a graphical user interface. Having a dedicated DNS solution tailored for medium-sized companies, like BlueCat, is indispensable for scalability and efficiency. Before implementing BlueCat, it's advisable to ensure that employees undergo training. You may consider requesting an evaluation license from BlueCat to set up a lab for training resources dedicated to working on the BlueCat DNS solution. Additionally, exploring a POC could be beneficial. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

We replaced our legacy solution used to manage our network with BlueCat Integrity, a vendor-backed solution.

BlueCat Integrity is easy to use for end users and not difficult for administrators. I have used much more difficult solutions that are not directly related to DDI. For end users, the solution is intuitive on a daily basis.

It provides a single pane of glass view for our IP address space, which is important for our organization.

BlueCat Integrity is flexible and user-friendly for our end users.

BlueCat Integrity has helped improve our organization by simplifying the end user's experience and improving our integration with third parties. 

Managing our DDI infrastructure globally is simple, and BlueCat's personalized relationship with us is valuable to our organization.

The interface is good, better than what we were used to.

The integration has room for improvement.

Everything related to automation can be improved.

The deployment process needs to be simplified.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for ten years.

Yes. In-house built solution, lacking lots of features, complex to support and almost impossible to evolve or enhance with new functionalities (e.g.: IPv6 support)

The deployment took around three years because we were migrating from our pre-existing in-house tool.

The solution was deployed through an in-house team with support from BlueCat's professional services, who played a critical role in the success of our migration.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity eight out of ten.

Our company includes sixteen OS staff who use the solution for segment server management and ILO code. 

Of the twenty-four segments available, we currently use four. 

The solution includes automatic management of segments. 

The solution does not export reports in a comprehensive format that allows us to see usage, administrators, VLAN, and backups. 

A reporting format similar to Infoblox would be beneficial because theirs include VLAN and function information, LAN or WAN determinations, number of segments, usage, and backups. 

I have been using the solution for one year. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable.

I would prefer the last sixteen management segments be handled through Infoblox because it is better at scaling. 

Technical support is knowledgeable but responses are often delayed. 

Neutral

The initial setup is straightforward. 

Ongoing administration includes reinitiating a license that includes technical support. 

Infoblox provides better scaling and includes reports with functional information that is comprehensive. 

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

We use BlueCat Integrity for IP networking.

BlueCat Integrity is easy to learn and use. It provides a single pane of glass view for our IP address space. The Single pane of glass is important because it allows us to manage our large environment in one place.

It has helped reduce human error by 70 percent and has helped reduce downtime by 80 percent.

We have been able to free up staff time to focus on other projects and tasks.

BlueCat Integrity's automation capabilities saved us around 80 percent of our time.

It has improved our network stability and has saved us around 40 percent of our costs.

BlueCat Integrity's scalability and user-friendliness are the most valuable features.

BlueCat Integrity can improve by increasing the amount of updates it releases.

I have been using BlueCat Integrity for two years.

I would rate the stability of BlueCat Integrity ten out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of BlueCat Integrity ten out of ten.

BlueCat's technical support is knowledgeable and quick to respond.

Positive

The initial deployment is straightforward.

BlueCat Integrity is affordable.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity nine out of ten.

We have five users within our organization.

Our client is an enterprise organization.

I recommend BlueCat Integrity to others.