The disaggregation of IP address from ISPs provides us with an opportunity to simplify network management, centralizing management and expanding our connectivity options. Static IP Anywhere provides us with simplified management, increased control, reduced complexity and costs and higher availability.
In an ever-evolving digital world, the demand for stable and reliable internet connectivity continues to rise. Businesses and home networks often need to employ static IP addresses for stability, ease of remote access or for access control.
The traditional way to obtain and manage static IP addresses is challenging, can be expensive and highly dependent on the connectivity providers available.
We spent some time re-imaging how we could use our technology to fulfill the needs of Static IP addresses and bypass the traditional needs. The end result, the ability to deliver static IP addresses to any connection, allowing a much broader set of connectivity options and avoiding needs such as BGP.
What Are Static IP Addresses and Why do I Need One?
Static IP addresses, as the name suggests, are constant. Unlike dynamic IP addresses, which are temporary and change over time, static IP addresses are fixed, providing a consistent point of contact for devices over the internet. Businesses and home networks might employ static IPs for their stability and easy remote access.
Static IP addresses are useful in a variety of ways, including remote access, running various internet facing servers, and to more simply manage networks. There are many security and compliance frameworks, such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS), that require the deployment of static IP addresses throughout IT environments to allow devices such as firewalls, intrusion detection, and intrusion prevention devices to do their job on a known range of IPs. There are many audio, video, surveillance, and building management systems that require static IP addresses.
While Static IPs are necessary, obtaining and operating Static IP's is fraught with challenges.
The concept of disaggregating IP addresses from ISPs is a revolutionary idea. It involves separating the provision of static IP addresses from the internet access service provided by ISPs. This approach allows for greater flexibility and adaptability, as users can have a consistent static IP address regardless of their internet connection or location.
The key technology enabling this shift is known as overlay networking.
Overlay networking, also known as tunneling, creates an abstraction layer over existing physical networks. It allows for the creation of virtual networks that can span across physical network boundaries.
These virtual networks encapsulate network packets within a transport protocol, effectively "tunneling" data over the existing network infrastructure. This technology enables the separation of IP address management from the physical infrastructure provided by ISPs, facilitating a more versatile and dynamic approach to network management.
Overlay networks are not new (they're used in the datacenter environment extensively), but they have not reached the ISP yet, and there are business reasons which prevent it's adoption:
