Share your experience using Cygna Diamond IP Platform

While working as a core services engineer, I utilized BlueCat Integrity for our DDI solutions. Currently, I am working as a cybersecurity subject matter expert at HCL Technologies, and when I was using BlueCat Integrity, I was working at Autodesk.

We were using BlueCat Integrity for our DDI solutions including DNS, DHCP, and IP address management.

From a network security perspective, we were not using many features of BlueCat Integrity. For network security, we mostly used our network firewalls and other tools. We employed some IP safelisting features, but most of the network security tools were outside of BlueCat Integrity's scope. Back when I was at Autodesk, we were not utilizing much of those features.

For the networking aspects, we were only using IPAM and DHCP through BlueCat Integrity, and those functionalities were really good. We never had any trouble with them.

In my opinion, BlueCat Integrity's best features are the automations, which were much easier compared to our previous product, Infoblox. BlueCat Integrity gave us a lot of API features and many integrations were easier, providing us with in-depth access to the systems that we used, whereas Infoblox offered very limited access. With BlueCat Integrity, we had access to the configuration files.

The primary benefit my previous company realized from using BlueCat Integrity was that it was very cost-effective. When we compared the price, it was much better compared to the other vendor we had. Our deployments were faster, with all operational tasks being much easier compared to the previous solution.

We were using BlueCat Integrity APIs for a lot of automations for some of the projects that wanted to manage their resource records on their own. We provided them with API access and they were able to manage everything without needing the support of an operational engineer, allowing them to manage everything by themselves.

In my opinion, BlueCat Integrity could be improved as it still has some bugs that they are consistently fixing. I noticed that when we upgraded and performed a reboot, some configurations, such as enabling encrypted notifications, would get reverted. I understand they are addressing these in upcoming updates. Those were my past experiences, and while I did encounter some bugs, I noticed they are prompt in fixing them in the very next patches. Apart from that, I did not face many issues that I could suggest as improvements.

I used BlueCat Integrity for three years.

I would say BlueCat Integrity's stability is good, though I believe Infoblox is more stable.

We encountered a couple of situations where our BlueCat Integrity Address Manager was in a hung state, requiring us to rebuild it after performing an upgrade. This issue arose around twice, but it did not impact our productivity, as all other BDDS machines worked intact, and we never faced productivity impacts. However, having to spend some time redeploying the machine was a nuisance.

BlueCat was very much supportive. We had weekly meetings with BlueCat engineers and their dedicated managers, consistently receiving updates on product releases, patches, options, improvements, and everything on a very timely basis via newsletters and emails. The support from BlueCat was exceptional, as all issues were addressed without any major impacts, with support being very quick and faster compared to the previous vendor we had.

I would rate BlueCat Integrity's support a perfect 10 out of 10.

Our previous vendor was Infoblox, and we switched primarily because with Infoblox, we usually had to go through the L1 engineer who took time to escalate to the next level, making it a lengthy process. However, with BlueCat Integrity, we had dedicated engineers who were really proactive. When we had issues and reached out, BlueCat Integrity was prompt, with dedicated engineers usually joining us very soon after we opened the ticket. If the dedicated engineer was not in shift, for priority issues, we always got immediate assistance. For non-priority issues, dedicated engineers joined us as soon as they were available in shift, meaning we never felt lost in using BlueCat Integrity.

My experience with deployment was that it was straightforward and very easy. We had documents along with support from BlueCat Integrity engineers, making everything easy to understand. It was not complicated, and since we already knew the technology, deploying and configuring was easy. After the initial setup, we added more nodes to our existing setup, which was all easy.

I was involved in the deployment of BlueCat Integrity.

Our deployments were faster by at least 30 to 40%.

Regarding BlueCat Integrity's licensing model and its impact on budgeting and renewal processes, I am not really involved in that. Management levels and architects usually handle pricing and renewal discussions, and we just get an overall idea. I am not sure about the figures they discuss.

BlueCat Integrity really met our requirements and needs, as we always had all the functionality we wanted.

I have nothing additional to add about BlueCat Integrity beyond emphasizing the support we received from BlueCat Integrity. Their support engineers were really well-equipped with the knowledge to handle any issue relevant to our infrastructure configurations, the BlueCat Integrity product, or core technologies. We always got support for our issues, and everything was resolved quickly, with their team being very fast in reproducing issues in their labs and providing a solution.

I rate BlueCat Integrity at 9.5 out of 10 overall, only because of some stability issues; otherwise it would be a perfect 10.

BlueCat Integrity is one of my main roles here, and we use it a lot. We use BlueCat Integrity as our main DDI function. DDI stands for DHCP, DNS and IPAM, and we use the full functionality that BlueCat Integrity provides to us.

For example, regarding DNS, which is the most important functionality of the DDI, we depend on other products, even if they are BlueCat products, to provide us with categorization of external DNS.

In our company right now, we have more than 1,000 domains and we have a couple thousand networks. We are a company that has more than 300 locations and around 100,000 employees. With one person, it is not sufficient for our needs. However, it depends on the size of the company. If the company is a little bit smaller, one person for sure can take care of it. In my specific case, a team is necessary because of the scale and how large we are.

BlueCat Integrity is a very mature and reliable product, and we really love it. BlueCat has other products that we use as well, but this one is the base. If this one is not working well, it would not be a good product, and we would not even be using the other ones. We can say it is extremely mature and reliable, and these are the things that I like the most about it.

BlueCat Integrity provides a single pane of glass view of our IP address space for us, for sure. That is true.

It is extremely important. Otherwise, it would not be something that we would be using. For example, as I mentioned, BlueCat has even other additional products, and one of the things that we request them all the time is to integrate these other products in the single pane of glass, even though if it is not the core of DDI. This is pretty good, what they are doing, and they are improving and evolving it a lot, which is something we appreciate.

I would say yes, BlueCat Integrity has helped me to reduce human error in practice. The interface is pretty good and it has some automatic verifications that can be done.

Regarding what I dislike about BlueCat Integrity, they have improved the interface right now. It is more modern, and we are even using the new version. All the automation is good. I believe they could add more security features embedded in the product. Security features would be something that I would suggest.

For example, regarding DNS, which is the most important functionality of the DDI, BlueCat Integrity could suggest specific hardening on the DNS configuration when we are talking about the DNS records themselves. One thing I would love is whenever I configure a domain that is externally exposed, BlueCat Integrity could provide additional security guidance.

I specifically started to use BlueCat Integrity when I joined CGI around eight years ago. However, CGI has had it for longer than eight years.

The stability of BlueCat Integrity is pretty good. I do not recall the last time we had a very important incident with DNS. It is really pretty stable. This comes to the thing that I mentioned in the beginning. BlueCat Integrity is a platform that is mature and that we can trust.

Regarding scalability, our solution has so many servers and so much redundancy, and we did not even get into a point where we needed to add more servers because of load. We are pretty overprovisioned. If you need to add additional devices and if you know how to do it and if you need to increase your size, it is easy if you know what you are doing. The scalability of the product is pretty good. It is easy to replicate, create new sites, and expand the system.

I have contacted the technical support or customer support every week. I believe that we have the premium support regarding the quality and the speed. The support is excellent. We have a good relationship with them. When you have an issue, you know that the issue is not only yours, but theirs as well. The way I am talking to you reflects that I really appreciate this vendor. It is easy to work with them. Until now, I would give the support a score of 10. They have been doing a very good job.

I did not use a commercial product previously. I only used freeware tools. For example, the DNS server which is BIND. BlueCat Integrity actually relies on BIND as well. What BlueCat Integrity does is provide orchestration and management, a layer above BIND that helps us a lot with the management of everything. I have never used a product that was comparable. I used a little bit of SolarWinds, but I would not be so prepared to compare both. There are other IPAM solutions in the market. However, with the extent of BlueCat Integrity usage that I have as well as the experience, it is difficult for me to compare with the other ones because I used them briefly.

The initial deployment of BlueCat Integrity is easy. It is pretty good.

One person can do the deployment, but it really depends on the size of your company or the size of your installation. In our company right now, we have more than 1,000 domains and we have a couple thousand networks. We are a company that has more than 300 locations and around 100,000 employees. With one person, it is not sufficient for our needs. However, it depends on the size of the company. If the company is a little bit smaller, one person for sure can take care of it. In my specific case, a team is necessary because of the scale and because of how large we are.

If you ask me this question in six months regarding the pricing of BlueCat Integrity, I probably will have a better idea because it is a renewal time. I can tell you it is expensive or cheap, but I do not know what the market is charging for this product specifically. I am a technical person, not from procurement. Perhaps we are paying a price that is a lot for what the market is requesting for this kind of solution, or perhaps it is not a lot. The price I would like to pay does not necessarily mean that the price that the market has for this kind of solution. According to what I know, it is a fair price. However, I cannot tell you a lot more than that.

BlueCat Integrity's automation capabilities are pretty good, and we have been using it a lot. I would rate this review a 10.