Proteus: IP Address Management Built Right

As the Internet Protocol (IP) gradually became the media of choice for modern networks, security issues have arisen through the sheer growth in complexity involved. Version four of IP, or IPv4, has almost run out of available addresses. Despite solutions like Network Address Translation (NAT), the new version of the IP protocol, IPv6, needs to be adopted beginning now to address the lack of addresses and other issues with IPv4. New devices such as VoIP phones require a much richer set of configuration information from DHCP servers. The level of complexity required of DHCP services will only increase over time.

The reaction to this evolution began with using spreadsheets to track all of the data involved. This approach was superseded at large carriers by the adoption of IP Address Management (IPAM) solutions. These early solutions were very IP centered and did not generally manage DNS. They were also expensive. Second generation IPAM systems have been available to enterprises as well as carriers, but are still driven by technology constraints rather than by business models. These systems can pose integration concerns in large networks, and do not do a good job of eliminating the underlying complexity of IPAM or improve security dramatically.