IP Address Management (IPAM) is a method of organising and tracking IP addresses on a network. The thing is that every device needs an IP address to work correctly and interact with other devices. However, the number of addresses is enormous – so enormous that organising them is challenging.
Globally, some institutions keep things in order, like IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which is responsible for all the IPs in the world, and regional internet registries like ARIN (North America) or APNIC (Asia-Pacific Center), to which IANA distributes large blocks of IPs.
Internet service providers (ISPs) are the next in the chain as they receive addresses from RIRs that are responsible for assigning IPs in a given geographic region.
However, this is just as far as it goes; inside your company, not other organisations, but you are responsible for assigning IPs, tracking, and coordinating them. That is where IPAM comes to your aid.
How is IPAM helpful?
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Enhanced security
Proper IP management at your service leaves less opportunity for hackers to go unnoticed while trying to access your system. If you keep track of addresses on your network, you can figure out in seconds if something is not going on as usual and can take measures before your data is stolen.
That is especially important now, when we witness unprecedented cyberattacks—both in scale and number.
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Increased efficiency
The more processes you automate, the fewer human resources you need to manage IPs. Tech teams have more time for important tasks, and errors are also less likely.
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Improved performance
With a thorough view of IPs available, you can use addresses effectively and avoid conflicts. This means more stable network performance, which also indirectly benefits security. It is especially important if you rely on cloud services or remote work.
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Compliance with regulations
Depending on your niche and the country where you registered your business, you may have to adhere to legal regulations and keep a detailed and transparent record of your IT infrastructure, including reports for audits. Proper IPAM helps you organize architecture and generate documents while saving you time.
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Easy scalability and upgrades
Maintaining a network is one thing, but adjusting and developing it to meet the needs of a growing business or keep up with the times is another challenge.
When things are in order, expanding to new locations or switching to other technologies is much easier, and the risks of losing data or experiencing disruptions are much smaller.
Who needs IPAM?
You may think IPAM is only for the world’s largest companies with large networks. In fact, a business’s size or industry doesn’t matter. If you have a network (even a small one) to manage or your organisation runs cloud-based services or datacenters, IPAM will benefit you, especially when there are plenty of tools for that.
IPAM solutions
There are plenty of IPAM software solutions. They differ in scale and the features they offer. There are even free options that are worth trying for smaller companies with relatively few addresses to manage.
However, some instruments are not directly intended for IPAM, but can greatly benefit it. While it may seem unreasonable to add anything to a dedicated tool, there are solid reasons to use additional solutions as they:
- Provide real-time insights into network performance and allow for solving problems before they escalate
- Enforce additional security rules
- Are handy in combining IPAM with other processes like DNS management
- Allow for maintaining compliance with local or industry-specific regulations, which are hard to stick to using only IPAM software
- Support hybrid or multi-cloud environments that use different deployment models and reduce the risk of errors
- Can be helpful if you do not want to change your IPAM software but still need some extra features on top of what your current one offers
These additional tools are:
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Network monitoring software
Perpetually monitor network activity and IP address usage, and identify anomalies or unauthorised access attempts.
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Network configuration management tools
Manual network management is reasonable sometimes; however, it requires more human resources and time and is prone to errors. Dedicated tools automate device configuration, so IP address assignment goes smoothly.
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Load balancers
By distributing traffic across numerous servers, load balancers optimize the use of available IP spaces, reduce the possibility of bottlenecks and drops in speed, and prevent servers from crashing due to overload. Besides, they can help prevent DDoS attacks and increase the overall security.
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Proxies
You can manage numerous requests using proxies via the same IP address. This is handy when you have a limited number of addresses available and need to make the most of them. Also, it will help even out the load between servers in use.
All of that ensures a smooth connection and reduces latency. Besides, proxies can also serve as an additional security layer by helping to identify unauthorized access attempts. As you can see, in relation to IPAM, proxies are pretty multipurpose tools.
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IP addresses reconciliation tools
Designed to identify differences between the records in the IPAM system and actual network usage.
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Network access control (NAC) solutions
Ensure that only authorized addresses can connect to the network by enforcing security rules based on the IP addresses.
Conclusion
Using Excel spreadsheets for IP address management may seem tempting as it is free and does not require implementing anything new; however, this method takes a lot of time and resources, is unsafe, and is prone to mistakes.
Besides, it is an unrealistic idea for big networks. Instead, numerous tools are not hard to get or use, yet they will help you keep your network organised, optimised, fast, and secure.
It, in turn, allows you to invest time into strategic decisions instead of routine tasks and grow and strengthen your business. Think about it.
