Government | State of Alabama

Alabama State Finds Stability and Security in Adonis

BACKGROUND

Bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west, the state of Alabama is known as “The Heart of Dixie” and “The Yellowhammer State”. In 1819, Alabama was the twenty-second state admitted to the Union and is now the 30th largest state in the United States. The state of Alabama is also heavily invested in the aerospace, education, health care, banking, and various industries including automobile manufacturing and mineral extraction.

The State Information Services Division’s (ISD) vision is to become a trusted leader, providing high value information technology services to up to 80 agencies in the state of Alabama. ISD is responsible for a broad range of information technologies for the State: server management, eCommunications, maintaining telephone service, and supporting state-run web sites. Alabama’s Information Services Division provides everything from protection against viruses and unsolicited email, to statewide networking and providing desktop, voice, data, wireless and video conferencing services for state agencies.

OPPORTUNITY

The Information Services Division was experiencing difficulty with its DNS functionality. The current external-facing DNS Servers were failing almost every other week, causing the over 200 state-run domains and websites to become unavailable each time. Patching, rebooting and upgrading DNS configurations was time consuming and costly, also resulting in far too much service downtime. Rob Glenn, IT Systems Specialist for the State of Alabama, found that the current servers were simply overwhelmed with the volume of traffic demanded by the State of Alabama. The Division needed a significantly more robust, appliance-based DNS server that would deliver a level of network security and stability that would far exceed that of their current servers.

SOLUTION

After considering several competing DNS appliance solutions from various vendors, the State of Alabama selected BlueCat Networks as their vendor of choice and purchased four Adonis 1000 DNS/DHCP appliances. BlueCat’s sales staff impressed Glenn, who found them to be more upfront, honest, and knowledgeable than the competition. Adonis’ award-winning features and rock-solid technology were equally impressive, offering the ISD the superior functionality and reliability they were looking for. “Adonis’ one-off administration was key,” Glenn stated. “Without any specialized training, we can use the Adonis’ Management Console with ease”.

The Adonis Management Console (AMC) is an easy to use, intuitive GUI, based on cross platform Java™ technology that combines sophisticated software tools and wizards, with powerful time-saving features. In addition to simplifying server management for administrators, the AMC’s design favors a one-to-many client/server architecture instead of a simplistic Web interface, making the management system unavailable to external attacks.

Knowing that even the smallest error with DNS can cause cessation of functionality and/or crippling system downtime, another key feature in the state of Alabama’s decision was Adonis’ error-checking capabilities. The Adonis Data Checker is the most advanced DNS error checking system available today, analyzing DNS data syntax and interdependencies, as well as pinpointing errors in a configuration before deployment. Whether the errors are syntactical or logical, Adonis detects them before they become full-blown network issues or initiate a chain reaction of failures.

IMPACT

During their first year of deployment, Alabama State’s Information Services Division saw a marked increase in their network’s uptime. “We don’t have to worry about DNS anymore,” says Glenn, “there is no more patching, no more downtime…it’s really relieved us of all those headaches”. The Adonis servers are efficiently facilitating management and maintenance of their entire network, without giving administrators any cause for concern in terms of network reliability or availability. The appliances have worked so well for Alabama State, that the ISD has purchased two additional Adonis 1000’s to be placed at a site in another city, for the purposes of disaster recovery.