Reaching goals and exceeding expectations - Alliance Funding uses Incognito Software solutionl - Company Operations

Communications News, Nov, 1999

An innovative pioneer in the dynamic arena of nonconforming mortgage lending.

We reduced the paper trail and administrative hassle by 100% serving our end users in the best way possible.

As the consumer finance needs of he American public have evolved in recent years, Alliance Funding has been at the forefront. For 14 years, Alliance has generated over $1 billion in annual volume by identifying new ways for Americans to build and utilize the equity value of their homes. By instituting underwriting standards, creating new products, employing the latest technology, and innovating servicing techniques, Alliance Funding has given countless Americans unlimited access and unlimited possibilities.

When Alliance was looking for an integrated DHCP/DNS (dynamic host configuration protocol/domain name system) solution to improve network management of its remote sites and protect its assets--it was quite selective.

Alliance outlined four critical criteria:

* Fast convergence times between DNS zone transfers;

* Quick installation and rollout;

* Flexibility to manage and include custom profiles of DHCP options; and

* Dynamic DNS support to eliminate the use of WINS or LMHOSTS files to log into one NT Domain or to browse the network.

"IP Commander did all this and much more," says Thomas Gobuzas, senior network engineer at Alliance Funding. He strategically selected IP and DNS Commander. "The purchasing decision for a DHCP and DNS product was determined based on the overall capacity of the product to exist and work as one without relying on the support of two different vendors."

"We tried other products like Microsoft's DNS, but it just didn't work the way we liked," says Gobuzas. After testing several other products and dealing with corporate policies that required complicated demo procedures, Alliance Funding finally came across Incognito's DHCP and DNS solution.

"When we discovered IP and DNS Commander, we immediately focused our interest based on the company's desire to do an on-site demo. Not only were we able to download and run the demo products in full version, the staff and programmers at Incognito helped us configure key areas that addressed our key concerns," recounts Gobuzas. "I am pleased to say that there were no issues during the installation of either product, and configuration was as simple as point and click.

"We began at headquarters (HQ) and installed IP and DNS Commander. At HQ, we use two DNS Commander servers. One server is the primary running IP and DNS Commander, and the other is a secondary server running DNS Commander solely. Since both applications use very low overhead, the primary server is able to run both services concurrently. The primary DNS does zone transfers to all our remote sites that run DNS Commander and our local secondary. Our remote sites use the primary DNS server to resolve names, in addition to running DNS Commander and our local secondary. The local secondary is used to resolve names for HQ only.

"This method helped us reduce the requests to one single primary DNS and split the loadbetween two DNS servers. The secondary DNS server is running both on our Gigabit Ethernet backbone and our token-ring backbone. Either way, we have fault tolerance between primary, secondary, and remote sites."

Once Alliance's first three criteria were fulfilled, Gobuzas focused his attention on eliminating WINS by configuring IP and DNS Commander to work together. "We also needed full browsing capabilities within the Windows GUI without using NETBEUI, LMHOSTS files, or a WINS server," he says. "When we found out that the IP/DNS Commander suite could achieve this level of functionality, Incognito scored another point with us.

"We eliminated WINS by following directions from the Incognito support staff and by verifying the configuration with the documents found on the Incognito Web site. The support staff was extremely knowledgeable and courteous. They also helped us integrate other third-party products with their own. That was invaluable."

When the results came in, Gobuzas was quite impressed with how IP and DNS Commander helped manage Alliance's clients. "Our remote sites are located throughout the United States and are connected to our HQ via a high-speed Frame Relay network. Accurate tracking of IP address allocation is critical. With Incognito's IP Commander and DNS Commander product suite, we now can accurately track IP addressing to clients without having to manually contend for duplicate IP addresses," says Gobuzas, making his job much easier.

"Now, by using IP and DNS Commander in our environment, I'm able to identify users and audit their actions on the network. Using built-in audit trails easily identifies problems, and I can view incoming and outgoing acknowledgements on any server in real time," he says. "Needless to say, we reduced the paper trail and administrative hassle by 100%, serving our end users in the best way possible."

Gobuzas discovered additional benefits of using IP and DNS Commander--more free time. "Right now, Alliance Funding is moving to a new HQ in another state, and the entire IP structure is changing. While the majority of our IP networks will die at the old location, we still have a requirement of continuing to service every node and application without hindrance. Our goal is to make an invisible transition without disrupting business, and IP and DNS Commander will play a key role in making that happen. Since we've installed IP and DNS Commander, I'm not worried about the network and the administrative hassles of IP management," says Gobuzas. "It frees up my time to look after other pressing issues, such as disaster recovery and voice over Frame Relay. Honestly, if we didn't have IP and DNS Commander during this move, we would have probably lost about three business days, resulting in a substantial loss of revenues."