Technology | SYMBOL

BlueCat Networks is “One-Stop-Stop” for Symbol Technologies

OVERVIEW

Symbol Technologies, an innovative leader in mobile products and services, offers enterprises the “ability to rapidly and cost-effectively capture, move and manage information in real-time”. Their numbers speak for themselves. Based in Holtsville, New York, the company boasts 92 offices worldwide, more than 5000 full-time associates and close to $2 Billion in revenues. Symbol holds over 800 patents, providing mobile computing hardware and software, wireless infrastructure, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and advanced data capture solutions to a wide range of corporate clients. Their customer list is a combination of leading retailers, transport companies, health care providers and government agencies; among them - GM, CVS Pharmacy, Blockbuster, Boeing, FedEx and Marks & Spencer.

OPPORTUNITY

Val Polikoff and the Network Administration team at Symbol were laboring under a mixed environment consisting of DHCP services running on Windows servers with inherent security and stability issues and older versions of BIND running on external DNS servers-- all ofwhich were maintained manually. Their objective when approaching IPAM, DNS and DHCP vendors was to regain control of this network, ensure secure, reliable functionality for DNS and DHCP services and tie it all together with an overall IP Address Management (IPAM) solution.

SOLUTION

Symbol selected BlueCat Networks (BCN) from all other vendors based on the quality of BCN technology and a strong client delivery track record. In response, BlueCat Networks quickly stepped in to standardize and secure Symbol’s worldwide DNS and DHCP network. To accomplish this, a combination of Adonis 1000 DNS/DHCP and Adonis 500 DHCP appliances were implemented.

In order to implement a highly available DNS infrastructure, a pair of Adonis 1000 DNS/DHCP appliances were installed (in high-availability mode - XHA™) and configured as a ‘Hidden Master’. This clustered DNS server was installed at the Symbol headquarters in New York, with two additional XHA™ pairs of Adonis 1000 appliances configured as slaves to the Hidden Master and installed at remote locations. This architecture provided Symbol with an extremely stable and highly available DNS environment that far surpassed performance and availability of the systems Adonis replaced.

Symbol also had a requirement for a high performance DHCP infrastructure. To realize this goal, the Adonis 500 DHCP appliance was used. Each of Symbols’ remote sites made use of a single Adonis 500 DHCP appliance and for added redundancy, the DHCP appliances were configured to use DHCP Failover. This supplied Symbol with a highly available DHCP infrastructure with no single point of failure for their internal clients.

The single point of control that ties the entire Symbol DNS and DHCP infrastructure together while offering highly scalable IP Address Management functionality is the Proteus 5000 Enterprise IPAM Appliance™. The Proteus appliance was installed at the Symbol headquarters and provides Symbol’s globally dispersed IPAM, DNS and DHCP administration team with centralized provisioning, management and monitoring of all Adonis appliances.

IMPACT

The BlueCat solution enabled Symbol’s team to perform numerous dynamic IP management tasks with ease. Polikoff asserted that, “Adonis’ data-checking notified us of errors and made recommendations for resolution. This built in expertise is, in itself, reason to purchase Adonis”. The team was also impressed with the “unparalleled Post-Purchase level of support” from BlueCat, reporting that specialists were hands-on during the appliance installation, data migration and ensuing deployment phases, literally lightening the load for the mobility specialists. BlueCat Networks has ensured that Symbol’s business keeps on moving in the fast-paced world of technology.