Amazon Route 53 vs BlueCat Integrity comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and BlueCat are both solutions in the Managed DNS category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while BlueCat is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.9. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 20.7% mindshare in MDP, compared to BlueCat’s 5.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of BlueCat users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

BlueCat Integrity and Amazon Route 53 are competing in the DNS and IP management domain. BlueCat Integrity seems to have the upper hand in offering more comprehensive DNS and DHCP management, while Amazon Route 53 provides superior integration and scalability within AWS environments.

Features: BlueCat Integrity offers adaptability in DNS, DHCP, and IPAM with standout features like DDoS protection and extensive visibility for IP management. Its user-friendly interface and advanced automation enhance network stability. Amazon Route 53 is notable for seamless AWS integration, efficient DNS management, and cost-effective scalability for dynamic deployments.

Room for Improvement: BlueCat Integrity could improve in reporting capabilities, cloud support beyond AWS, and streamlining high availability configurations. Other areas include multi-factor authentication support and enhancing documentation. Amazon Route 53 could improve on-premises integration, simplify its pricing model, and enhance ease of use, automation, and DNS check functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BlueCat Integrity is strong in on-premises and hybrid cloud environments with customizable deployments. Its customer service varies, with feedback indicating both slow responses and praised personalized service. Amazon Route 53 excels in public and hybrid cloud settings, with easy integration with AWS services, though its customer support, while knowledgeable, sometimes experiences delays.

Pricing and ROI: BlueCat Integrity's higher pricing is offset by robust features and flexibility from subscription models, offering significant ROI through IT cost reduction and efficiency gains. Amazon Route 53 uses a volume-based model, cost-effective for smaller workloads but potentially expensive at larger scales. Both platforms deliver value with reduced downtime and improved reliability, despite different cost structures.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Route 53 vs. BlueCat Integrity Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Route 53 vs. BlueCat Integrity

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM NS1 Connect

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Managed DNS category, the mindshare of IBM NS1 Connect is 2.7%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon Route 53 is 20.7%, down from 24.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BlueCat Integrity is 5.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed DNS

Featured Reviews

Michael Wills

Senior Network Systems Engineer at McKesson

Balances cost and functionality, speeds up provisioning, and reduces the DNS maintenance work drastically

The provisioning is great. They have an API service that is simple to use and very quick. The changes that we make are replicated worldwide in a matter of usually milliseconds, sometimes seconds. They are done very rapidly. That's something that's obviously priceless when we're dealing with things like DNS. It is great as an API-first platform for DNS and application traffic management. It is very simple to use. It allows us to rapidly provision and deprovision things. We are all around happy with the solution. From a metrics standpoint, the solution that we came from had no metrics. So, it has been great. Their service team is excellent in taking the time to provide reports for both growth and strategic planning. It has been great.

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Jithin Scaria

Senior Professional I-Software Engineer Lead at Capgemini

Provides clear documentation, easy to understand, simplifies management and efficiently handles our domain-related configurations and DNS records

For initial setup, we generally use provisioning tools for these kinds of DNS records. The choice often depends on the cloud provider and the Infrastructure as Code (IAC) tools the client prefers. We adapt our approach accordingly rather than focusing on a single method within Route 53. The documentation is very user-friendly. Even someone with no prior experience can easily understand it. It provides step-by-step instructions and explains things in a clear and concise way. You can find everything you need to know about Route 53 and its features in the documentation, including white papers. In addition to manual configuration, you can also use third-party tools like Terraform, Pulumi, or AWS CloudFormation templates to manage your Route 53 configurations.

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Ian Slade

Sr. Manager Network Engineering and Architecture at SAIC

It improves our security by providing a single source of IP address usage and contact information

As a defense contractor, we must meet many compliance standards regarding logging, configuration, and administrative access. BlueCat is one of the few products that combines all the compliance components in a secure, reliable solution. Integrity requires some technological expertise and a full-time employee to run the system. It is one of several technologies that my group manages, but maintenance requires minimal effort. Upgrading and deploying the solution is a bigger task, but it is easy to maintain once it is running. BlueCat Integrity offers a single pane of glass view for our IP address space. From the GUI interface, you can see all the IP addresses and roll them up to the colored views of usage and availability. That capability is critical because we have multiple groups that are off on their own in a cloud environment. We can avoid IP address overlap by checking that as we add different projects. While I've worked at this company, we've had more than 50 acquisitions. As we acquire these companies, some IP addresses may overlap. We can integrate those, see the spaces, and adjust.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We leverage two things from Managed DNS that we couldn't do with any other solution. One is their filter chain technology, which allows us to shift some of the intelligence we need for the traffic steering to the DNS. The second one is data sources, which enables us to manipulate multiple records simultaneously using NS1's internal message DOS. In our case, we are trying to direct the traffic in over 150,000 different NS1 records to an arbitrary set of repeating responses."

"The Filter Chain is one of the most valuable features, for geo-load balancing and geo-fencing. The Filter Chain is the most useful because it allows us to do several things. With geo-fencing we can redirect a particular user to a particular answer. That's very valuable for us. Filter Chains with monitoring is our strategy to provide redundancy."

"Their Pulsar filters allow us to collect RUM metrics from our users so that we can determine the best paths for our users to take. That has been very useful in providing the best user experience, and for responding to and recovering from downtime of our multiple CDNs."

"We find that the low latency access to DNS queries has a direct effect on the customer experience. Visiting a site, whether it's an AdTech-based solution or marketing tech, the fact that whatever we're rendering on a page can be rendered better than the industry standard, in terms of time, ensures a better user experience."

"It massively speeds things up. Today, we allow developers to deploy services and have externally facing DNS scrapers that are created automatically without the addition of human intervention."

"The provisioning is great. They have an API service that is simple to use and very quick. The changes that we make are replicated worldwide in a matter of usually milliseconds, sometimes seconds. They are done very rapidly. That's something that's obviously priceless when we're dealing with things like DNS."

"For starters, it integrates with Terraform and a lot of our infrastructure is effectively built out using Terraform. That makes all this stuff extremely easy... when we deploy, all the entries are created and configuration is done."

"Everything we download into our observability platform so that we can also track any changes in traffic behavior or things like that is also something that we use quite a lot. I'd say traffic management, the speed of updates, and observability are the top three things that we use."

More IBM NS1 Connect pros

"Amazon Route 53 is a DNS resolution service that helps you to map your hostname to another hostname."

"The initial setup is good and straightforward."

"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."

"One of the best advantages is managed security."

"You can host your zone and name servers here, and keeping track of records is easy."

"The most valuable feature is that it works very well."

"The solution is cost-effective."

"The tool's health check functionality improved our company's service reliability since it is a good feature."

More Amazon Route 53 pros

"The most significant advantage of BlueCat is its foundation on open-source software, specifically BIND and ISC DHCP."

"I've been impressed by BlueCat's performance and user-friendly GUI."

"The most valuable aspect is its user-friendly interface. It is straightforward to use."

"This inherent stability, derived from its Linux-based architecture, provides a well-established and reliable platform."

"The solution includes automatic management of segments."

"It's a critical infrastructure piece. This is where all the IPs are named for the whole organization. It's a big deal. It has all the features related to DNS and DHCP. It's pretty amazing."

"As a defense contractor, we must meet many compliance standards regarding logging, configuration, and administrative access. BlueCat is one of the few products that combines all the compliance components in a secure, reliable solution."

"The most valuable piece, which has been a lifesaver, would be the BlueCat DNS resolver. BlueCat Cloud DNS resolver is a tool that takes a look into your cloud's DNS and then reports back everything it finds into BlueCat's DNS Edge solution. The Edge solution has a bunch of nice rules that you can configure to route the DNS traffic. That automation alone is a lifesaver for me for the day-to-day churn of the DNS components that change on an hourly, daily basis."

More BlueCat Integrity pros

Cons

"I would like to see the UI updated to allow me to do finer searches. I would also like to have the ability to get reports that can sort based on various metrics. For example, I would like to be able to say, "Show me the top 10 records by total queries" in an easy-to-digest format."

"We use our client in our infrastructure to communicate with NS1. This client is a bit complex in the way that it is set up. NS1 has their own client solution that you can deploy into your platform to do this, but even that is a bit complex. So, I would like a very simple, thin, light API agent that we can deploy into our platform to communicate with NS1. That would be welcome."

"There could maybe be additional ways to manage traffic. There are no major improvements we're looking for. It's a very complete solution."

"We would really like them to become a DNS registrar."

"The Filter Chain simulation is really good in the UI, but it would be nice to have something similar in the API so that we could simulate and test things before we deploy them."

"The reporting metrics are great from an API standpoint, but it would be a little bit nicer if there was some type of dashboard around that. There should also be some type of reporting that's more executive-level focused."

"We care about monitoring and telemetry work, and NS1 provides a pretty good system for monitoring. We can monitor our endpoints and points of presence around the world. If there are any issues, we can easily remove them from our network, but this area needs some improvement because it is not always reliable in NS1. In the past, we had a number of false-positive cases when the monitoring system told us about some problems in our infrastructure that were not true. NS1 is improving the system, and we are constantly talking about this with them. I know that they are releasing a new version of their monitoring system, which is really important for us, but this is a different area where we would expect them to improve."

"I would love to see improvement in the testing capabilities they provide. They have a simulate-filter feature so that you can simulate how your traffic would flow, based on their Filter Chains. I believe that was shut off for quite some time. Having that as a way to test our load-balanced CDN structure would be fantastic."

More IBM NS1 Connect cons

"A general area for improvement with AWS services is that while AWS quickly releases new services, sometimes these services are not as mature as expected, which can be frustrating."

"There is room for improvement in restricting access through one website from S3 buckets, as it still seems not very obvious."

"The number of domain types available on AWS, such as the .br domain for Brazil, should be expanded."

"It is difficult to manage the product if the person involved in the setup process doesn't know much about the solution."

"With Amazon Route 53, finding what you want is so much more difficult, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Since DNS is based on internet access, improving some security features would improve internet quality worldwide."

"It may not always be easy to integrate with on-premise infrastructure, especially with the complexity of the resolver and other factors involved. Improvements could be made to enhance the ability to integrate seamlessly."

More Amazon Route 53 cons

"Usability needs to be better."

"The UI is outdated and needs a modern refresh."

"The DNS and DHCP servers for guests are separated from the main organization. A lot of times, it doesn't allow you to choose a default IP space. When I log in to the GUI, it doesn't default to where I want it to be. So far, I haven't been able to find out how to change or specify that so that it defaults to a particular space, such as the main org. If I'm looking for the IP space for guests, I need to toggle and go to the guest site. Most of the time, I want the IP space for the org to be my main space, but it doesn't give me the ability to do that, or I haven't been able to find that over the last two years."

"The user interface could be improved, as the implementation of BlueCat can be complicated and requires personnel with expertise in DNS, DHCP, and IP management."

"The integration has room for improvement."

"The technical support is slow and has room for improvement."

"BlueCat Integrity can improve by increasing the amount of updates it releases."

"The IPAM dashboard could be enhanced to display more information and provide data analysis features."

More BlueCat Integrity cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Everything can always be cheaper, but as it is today the pricing is fair."

"We pay about $30,000 a month. We used to pay about $20,000 with Dyn every month, for lower volume than we're doing right now, but it had none of the features that we have available with NS1, so it was worth it for us. It seems competitive for us, given that we're doing 4.5 billion requests."

"NS1's pricing is much more aggressive than its competitors in the market and you get more value out of what you pay for it."

"From a cost standpoint, it's certainly not the most expensive out there, and it's also not the cheapest, but it does well to balance the cost and the functionality/reliability."

"The cost of this product is one of the reasons that we chose it."

"The price of the solution could be a little bit lower compared to Google DNS, which has more features than Amazon."

"Amazon Route 53 is not that expensive."

"The price of the product is perfectly fine in my opinion."

"It can be expensive compared to some other providers."

"We pay per use."

"The price of Amazon Route 53 is reasonable."

"Amazon Route 53 is not an expensive solution."

"The pricing depends on usage and is moderate."

More Amazon Route 53 pricing and cost advice

"BlueCat Integrity meets our expectations and aligns with our budget forecast."

"BlueCat Integrity is a little expensive, but it's worth the price because it offers the flexibility and features we need in our space. We have more than 25,000 employees, and it makes sense for a network of our size. It's required for us to be compliant in the defense industry. Given the restrictions we face, we must be able to easily show that we've complied with all the regulations."

"Compared to other solutions, BlueCat Integrity offers a competitive price."

"BlueCat Integrity is affordable."

"BlueCat Integrity's pricing is reasonable within the market."

"I am not sure about the exact pricing, but I believe their cost is lower compared to Infoblox."

"BlueCat Integrity is more cost-effective than Infoblox."

"Adaptive DNS's price depends on your network ranges, the services you want, and the level of support you require."

More BlueCat Integrity pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

University

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about NS1 Managed DNS?

For starters, Managed DNS from NS1 is an easy way to get the job done. Whether you're a novice or a pro, Managed DNS ...

See all answers

Azure DNS or Amazon Route 53?

Azure DNS is a hosting service of DNS domains. It has excellent operating time and performance, resulting in fast res...

See all answers

What do you like most about Amazon Route 53?

The most valuable features of the solution are the DNS, routing, and traffic features.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Route 53?

In my project, everything is already configured, and we focus on monitoring and health checks. There isn't room for r...

See all answers

What do you like most about BlueCat Adaptive DNS?

This inherent stability, derived from its Linux-based architecture, provides a well-established and reliable platform.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BlueCat Adaptive DNS?

The user interface could be improved, as the implementation of BlueCat can be complicated and requires personnel with...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for BlueCat Adaptive DNS?

We have been a partner of BlueCat for two years now, and we are responsible for deploying the solution over the Middl...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cloudflare vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 41% of the time

Akamai Edge DNS vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 19% of the time

Neustar UltraDNS vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 6% of the time

Infoblox DDI vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs IBM NS1 Connect

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM NS1 Connect Competitors

Azure DNS vs Amazon Route 53

Compared 64% of the time

Cloudflare vs Amazon Route 53

Compared 20% of the time

Google Cloud DNS vs Amazon Route 53

Compared 4% of the time

Akamai Edge DNS vs Amazon Route 53

Compared 3% of the time

Dyn vs Amazon Route 53

Compared 1% of the time

More Amazon Route 53 Competitors

Infoblox DDI vs BlueCat Integrity

Compared 50% of the time

Infoblox IPAM vs BlueCat Integrity

Compared 23% of the time

SolarWinds IPAM vs BlueCat Integrity

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudflare vs BlueCat Integrity

Compared 5% of the time

BT Diamond IP vs BlueCat Integrity

Compared 2% of the time

More BlueCat Integrity Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM NS1 Connect

December 2024

Download IBM NS1 Connect product report

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Route 53

December 2024

Download Amazon Route 53 product report

Buyer's Guide

BlueCat Integrity

December 2024

Download BlueCat Integrity product report

Also Known As

NS1 Managed DNS, NS1

Route 53

BlueCat Adaptive DNS, BlueCat Automation Manager, BlueCat DDI

Learn More

IBM

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

BlueCat

Overview

Why

In a 24/7 world, customers demand applications, websites, and content that load instantly and are always on. When those connections are unreliable or slow, businesses don’t meet customer expectations, causing customers to leave. When that occurs, revenue may suffer.

What

IBM NS1 Connect delivers the high-performance, reliable, secure network connectivity that businesses need to meet increasingly sophisticated customer expectations. Leveraging a global network with a 100% uptime SLA, IBM has the capacity and scale to meet the needs of any business. IBM NS1 Connect takes performance to the next level, powering the sophisticated needs of enterprises with complex network infrastructures.

How

IBM NS1 Connect provides network connectivity solutions that give networking teams the visibility, control and automation needed to help ensure your business stays online by steering traffic to the ideal network connections for any given moment. IBM NS1 Connect also enables IT teams to identify network performance anomalies through deep insights into DNS data flows, allowing them to identify configuration problems or network issues that affect performance so they can quickly resolve them.

Details

IBM NS1 Connect is a managed service that provides authoritative, premium DNS and advanced, customizable traffic steering that improves application performance and network resilience. Revenue-generating applications require authoritative DNS resolution to keep critical applications and websites online. Unless your DNS infrastructure is always-on and resilient, network reliability and user experience will suffer, your network reliability may suffer, resulting in poor user experiences if revenue-generating critical applications and websites are not online. IBM NS1 Connect’s always-on, API-first architecture provides fast, secure connections to users anywhere in the world with premium DNS and advanced, customizable traffic steering. It also enables your IT teams to efficiently monitor networks, deploy changes and conduct routine maintenance.

IBM NS1 Connect uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure that websites and applications are:

Online, all the time: Global network with 100% uptime SLA and DDoS protection
Fast: Top tier response and propagation times, custom traffic steering to optimize connections
Cheaper to run: Far less expensive than self-hosting
Automation friendly: API-first platform with Ansible/Terraform integrations and support for Pliant rapid network automation
Easier to troubleshoot: Unique DNS data insights offering

Designed for enterprises looking to optimize their DNS performance, IBM NS1 Connect is a managed service delivering authoritative DNS and advanced traffic steering that improves application performance and network resilience and provides fast, secure connections to users anywhere in the world. NS1 Connect streamlines DNS management by automating both simple and complex DNS configuration tasks via API and preconfigured integrations, so you can spend more time on higher-value work.

IBM NS1 Connect is delivered through our unified delivery platform. The cloud-based platform gives networking teams the visibility, control and automation needed to help ensure your business stays online by steering traffic to the ideal network connections for any given moment. IBM NS1 Connect solutions also enable IT teams to identify network performance anomalies through deep insights into DNS data flows, allowing them to identify configuration problems or network issues that affect performance so they can quickly resolve them.

For enterprises looking to further optimize DNS performance, IBM NS1 Connect offers rich DNS data analytics to streamline the identification of the root cause of anomalies within traffic.

IBM NS1 Connect Features

Global anycast DNS network: Enjoy fast connections to consumers around the globe through an anycast network with 26 points of presence (PoPs).
100% uptime SLA on DNS resolution: Maximize uptime and revenue generation with resilient, always-on, authoritative DNS.
API-first architecture: Integrate and automate workflows with NS1 Connect's well-documented API; every line of code starts as an API call, all functionality is available through the API.
Real-time user monitoring (RUM)-based traffic steering: Uses real-time intelligence on network performance and availability to direct DNS connections to the best available application resource; the widest range of filter options and data sources in the industry, not data that is extrapolated from sampling; the most flexible, granular controls for your network.
Built-in resilience: Add a single-tenant, redundant DNS layer and manage it from a single control plane as your primary DNS.
Managed DNS for China: Improve performance for the Chinese mainland by segmenting traffic with NS1 Connect’s Managed DNS for China.
DNS insights: Get a better understanding of DNS traffic patterns by mining your DNS data to identify security issues, misconfigurations and performance issues.
DDoS protection: Cap your query-based spending with protection against unexpected surges in traffic from distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Uptime monitor: Quickly identify issues and automatically adjust DNS traffic steering configurations with native health check alerts.
DevOps tool integrations: Preconfigured integrations with leading DevOps tools including Ansible and Terraform to help automate routine maintenance, manage data sources and feeds.
Propagation speed: fastest propagation in the industry, measured in seconds not minutes; worldwide propagation in under five seconds.
Independence: neutral arbiter between infrastructure services (CDNs, clouds).

IBM NS1 Connect helps enterprises modernize and optimize networking infrastructure to provide customers with faster connections to websites, applications, services and content.

Amazon Route 53 is a highly available and scalable cloud Domain Name System (DNS) web service. It is designed to give developers and businesses an extremely reliable and cost effective way to route end users to Internet applications by translating names like www.example.com into the numeric IP addresses like 192.0.2.1 that computers use to connect to each other. Amazon Route 53 is fully compliant with IPv6 as well.

BlueCat Integrity is a comprehensive DNS security solution that provides visibility and control over all DNS traffic on your network. It offers real-time threat detection and response, as well as policy enforcement to ensure compliance with security standards. With its advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, Integrity enables you to identify and mitigate security risks before they can cause damage. It also integrates with other security tools to provide a complete security ecosystem. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, BlueCat Integrity can help you protect your network from DNS-based attacks and ensure the integrity of your DNS infrastructure.

Sample Customers

Avast Software, Bloomberg L.P., BBC, Carfax, CNBC LLC, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Disney Streaming, Dropbox, EBAY Inc, Gannett Media Corp, Salesforce, Wayfair, Workday

Hess, Expedia, Kelloggs, Philips, HyperTrack

Computer Sciences Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Route 53 vs. BlueCat Integrity

December 2024

Free Report: Amazon Route 53 vs. BlueCat Integrity

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Route 53 vs. BlueCat Integrity and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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