Infoblox is acquiring Kentik. With this move, Infoblox is expanding toward a more ambitious approach to observability across all layers of the network. Gaining insight into this is difficult, given how widely it is distributed across various clouds, endpoints, and solutions. The combination of the two companies is expected to track network traffic in real time, providing end-to-end visibility.
For now, a definitive agreement to acquire Kentik has been reached, so Infoblox must still await approval. However, the combination makes perfect sense. While Infoblox has been the foundation for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (DDI) for more than twenty years, Kentik adds real-time insight into network traffic. The platform processes flow data, routing information, cloud VPC logs, and device telemetry across data centers, the cloud, WAN, and the open internet.
The combination is designed to give customers a more complete picture of what is happening with which data and when. Infoblox knows what’s on the network and why it can be trusted; Kentik knows how traffic moves and whether it’s performing. Infoblox CEO Scott Harrell refers to “unmatched context” because traffic from every IT component passes through Infoblox’s technology.
Connecting to agent-based AI
The expansion into what it calls a holistic approach to observability has been underway for some time. Last month, Infoblox announced Infoblox IQ, an agentic operations layer that analyzes DNS queries, DHCP leases, and security events. In a single customer deployment, that system reduced over 504,000 events to just 24 prioritized actions. The MCP server, which connects to external AI tools, also returns in this deal as an open protocol for the shared data layer.
To achieve this, Infoblox uses DNS as a sensor and blocks malicious domains an average of 68 days earlier than traditional tools, according to the company. This preventive threat intelligence is now correlated with Kentik’s flow data. This allows a team to confirm whether an asset established a connection, how much data left the network, and which other systems were accessed.
Series of acquisitions
Infoblox already made an acquisition earlier this year. In May, Infoblox completed the acquisition of Axur, a Brazilian specialist in detecting external digital threats. Consolidation within the security and observability sectors has increased significantly in recent years, partly driven by the fact that multiple companies are aiming for the same “holistic” approach that Infoblox refers to here. Other terms that often refer to this are “platform” or, as Infoblox also uses, a “fabric.”
Read also: Infoblox deepens its focus on exposure management through Axur