"So I get that IPAM is a cool idea, but really what's the point of putting all my data into some tool that doesn't do anything more than I already have?
I have six spreadsheets right now that represent our IP address space; one of them has all our public IPs in it, then there's one for each of four data centers (each team looks after their own IP space), and the last one is used by the internal IT team for their addressing needs. It works pretty well - each team gets to manage the spreadsheet in the way they like. For a few years we stored the data center addressing sheets in a network file share, and had a few problems with various people overwriting the spreadsheets but we probably only find 1 or 2 duplicate assignments each month now, so we just reassign as required.
For a while we tried tracking individual host assignments in the spreadsheets too, but the files started getting big; so now we - or at least two of the data center teams - just track which subnets are in use, and we check the BIND zone file when we need to give an IP address out - if the IP we want is free in the appropriate file, we tell the requester the IP we're giving them, then send an email over to the DNS team to update the files.
So really, why would I bother spending money on something that's just a fancy spreadsheet?"
Ok, let's be clear - that's not me speaking. But I'll bet that either you know somebody who has made some of those arguments, or perhaps you feel that way too?
So let's take a straw poll: Be honest, do you (or your company) manage your IPs in a spreadsheet? If so, how is that working out for you? Do you know why you choose spreadsheets rather than an IPAM solution?
I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions. In my next post I'll share some of mine!
John.