Infoblox will today launch an upgraded operating system and four new appliances for network identity services. The systems promise improved failover, easier management and lower implementation costs for large distributed enterprises running critical network identity services.

The tools include support for Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and IP address management.

Infoblox’s director of field marketing, Roger Hockaday, said the new appliances and version 4 of the Network Identity Operating System (Nios) make control simpler. “

We’ve completely changed the GUI to allow easier database management,” Hockaday said. “We’ve also improved appliance failover and all the new hardware complies with RoHS [Restriction of Hazardous Substances] law.”

The Inflobox system uses ID Grid, a proprietary distributed database that stores the identity service information for each device in real time. “The latest change to the database allows us to partition it so that smaller Infoblox appliances only need to run a section of the database rather than the whole of it, which means firms can afford to put a smaller unit at the edge of the network,” said Hockaday.

The four new appliances are the low-end Infoblox-550 for small enterprises and branch offices; the 1050 model for medium-sized enterprises and bigger branches; and the high-end 1550 and 1552 models.

Infoblox said the 1550 model would be suitable for the headquarters of large firms while the dual-power-supply version, the 1552, would be appropriate for datacentres or disaster-recovery.

The Infoblox-1550 unit can support up to 400,000 database objects and 36,000 DNS queries per second.

Infoblox said, “If a data transaction is not completed due to data corruption, then the entire transaction is rolled back and redone. This is common in banking systems but rare [elsewhere] in the high-tech world.”

Infoblox’s new appliances running version 4 of the Nios operating system will be available from 1 July. The price for the entry-level Infoblox-550 appliance is expected to be about $6,000 (£3,250). The top-end 1552 model will be priced at about $32,000 (£17,300).