International Law Firm Stephenson Harwood Deploys Infoblox Appliances to Manage Core Network Services


SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - September 21, 2009) - Infoblox Inc., today announced that Stephenson Harwood, the UK-based international commercial law firm is now using Infoblox appliances to run internal and external domain name resolution (DNS), IP address assignment (DHCP) and IP address management (IPAM). Additionally, Stephenson Harwood has become the first law firm to purchase Infoblox's new PortIQ appliance.

Based in the UK, and with offices in Europe and Asia, Stephenson Harwood provides clients with quality resources and expert local knowledge in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. It has clients across a range of sectors that include financial services, transportation, real estate and energy.

"Our customers demand the highest level of customer service from their legal partners; this mandates an IT system that is highly reliable and secure," said Chris Petrie, IT Director at Stephenson Harwood. "Our networks now support far more than data traffic, and the accepted Microsoft-based approach to DNS and DHCP was already compromising that availability, the network is now the carrier for so many crucial services, it became obvious that a next-generation solution was required. We needed a secure, appliance-based solution that provided centralized management of our core network services worldwide. Whilst also giving us the tools to easily gain access to accurate IP records and critical auditing and compliance records."

The standard Microsoft solution for DNS and DHCP required regular downtime for maintenance and urgent vulnerability patching, and had no compliance reporting and auditing functionality and other security issues. The use and upkeep of manual spreadsheets to manage IP addresses was considered a threat to network reliability and security given Stephenson Harwood's growth and network complexity and geographic distribution.

Stephenson Harwood carried out a technical review of several appliance solutions and moved directly to an evaluation of Infoblox. Stephenson Harwood purchased 16 appliances including Infoblox-250's, -550's and -1050's to be used in the data center and worldwide branch offices. Infoblox appliances provided the simplicity of appliances with the power of advanced distributed database technology to control, automate and simplify delivery and management of core network services, including DNS, DHCP, IPAM and more.

Additionally, Stephenson Harwood has become the first law firm to purchase the Infoblox PortIQ appliance, which can easily identify the physical port associated with every connected device and get reports on network port utilization -- essential for network capacity planning, security investigations, and ease of troubleshooting.

"Infoblox is the market leader," said Chris Petrie. "We purchased Infoblox appliances because the appliances give us the tools to provide real-time and historical information for regulatory compliance issues, greater security and more efficient network operations. The Infoblox migration was straightforward and seamless and I now have an infrastructure that allows me to focus on important projects that drive competitive advantage for Stephenson Harwood, safe in the knowledge that I now have 99.999% availability for our core network services."

Stephenson Harwood's deployment of Infoblox DNS appliances have resulted in secure, streamlined and simplified core network services. The IT department now has a highly available, secure and efficient system that has dramatically decreased dedicated manpower and maintenance hours. And, Stephenson Harwood has a bulletproof foundation to lay the groundwork for future applications including VoIP, cloud computing and IPv6.

For more information about Infoblox solutions, visit: http://www.infoblox.com/solutions/.

For expert commentary on DNS, DHCP and IPAM related topics, visit: http://www.cricketondns.com/ and http://www.infra20.com/.

About Infoblox

Infoblox delivers highly reliable and manageable platforms for core network services like domain name resolution (DNS), IP address assignment (DHCP), IP address management (IPAM) and more. Infoblox solutions -- essential for the move from static networks to dynamic infrastructure and applications -- are used by over 3,000 organizations worldwide, including over 100 of the Fortune 500. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and operates in more than 30 countries.

Contact Information: Media Contacts: Jennifer Jasper Infoblox 408.625.4309