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Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that Internet connectivity and the need to simplify network infrastructure around a standard protocol are fueling the growth of TCP/IP networks in the enterprise. With that growth comes the need for better IP address management and host naming tools, especially if IT managers want to lay the foundation for a more dynamic network that can accommodate frequent changes.
Historically, IT managers had to manually configure every computer they added or moved around the network. Many use a spreadsheet to track allocated addresses. While this works OK for small networks, it's clearly inadequate for large enterprises. Even though products that automate the address management process-using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Dynamic Domain Naming System (DDNS)- are readily available, many IT managers continue to manually allocate and track IP addresses.
In the enterprise, IP address management requires much more than simply keeping track of IP addresses. IP address management is closely related to host naming and involves three basic...