Infoblox to buy Kentik in network observability push

Infoblox has agreed to acquire Kentik, combining Infoblox's DNS and network identity data with Kentik's network observability tools.

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Kentik is known for software that gives companies a live view of traffic moving across networks, applications and cloud environments. Infoblox manages DNS, DHCP, IP address management and network identity services. The company said the combination would extend its visibility into how traffic moves across hybrid and multi-cloud systems.

The proposed acquisition comes as companies manage increasingly complex infrastructure spanning data centres, cloud services, wide area networks and internet-facing applications. It also reflects a broader push by technology suppliers to build data sets that AI systems can use to automate operational tasks.

Infoblox said adding Kentik would help customers monitor infrastructure continuously, identify issues more quickly and improve the data available to AI tools used in network and security operations. It framed the deal around the need for real-time traffic intelligence and a closer link between asset visibility, network behaviour and security analysis.

That focus has become more urgent as businesses test so-called agentic AI systems that can take action with less human input. Security agencies in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, including the Australian Signals Directorate, have warned organisations to put controls around such systems as they take on a larger operational role in critical infrastructure and other sensitive environments.

What Kentik adds

Kentik's platform ingests network flow records, routing and path data, cloud virtual private cloud logs, synthetic tests and telemetry from network devices. Customers use that information to trace where traffic travelled, how it performed, and where failures or delays occurred.

Combined with Infoblox's data on devices, applications, DNS names and trusted network assets, that should give customers a more complete picture of activity across their estates, according to the companies. In practice, it could help operations teams connect traffic flows to named assets and users rather than viewing them as isolated network events.

Infoblox also said the combined system would merge threat intelligence derived from DNS activity with Kentik's traffic data. The goal is to help security teams determine whether a device connected to a suspicious destination, how much data moved, and which other systems it contacted afterwards.

AI and operations

Both companies placed AI at the centre of the deal's rationale. Infoblox said organisations need a clean, continuously updated data layer if they want AI tools to produce reliable answers and support operational decisions.

It said the planned integration would create a shared operational data fabric that could connect to orchestration tools and AI systems already used by customers. The company also pointed to support for open protocols, including its Model Context Protocol Server, as a way to link infrastructure data to those systems.

Scott Harrell, Chief Executive Officer of Infoblox, set out the company's position on the transaction.

"Infoblox sits at a unique intersection. Every device, application and cloud workload on a customer's network runs through our technology, generating unparalleled context. With Kentik, we expand and enrich that context, allowing us to provide networking, cloud and security teams the real-time hybrid cloud intelligence they need to act with confidence," Harrell said.

He added: "Our customers need robust data and insights for their agentic operations so they can provide the increasing levels of resiliency, performance and security their businesses demand. Together with Kentik, we're able to deliver that."

Market position

Infoblox said it has spent more than two decades providing the DNS, DHCP and IP address management systems many large organisations rely on to run and secure their networks. Its customer base includes more than 5,700 organisations, among them many large US corporates.

Kentik has built its business around network intelligence for infrastructure teams that need visibility across data centres, cloud estates, WANs and the public internet without relying on multiple separate tools. Its products are used to investigate outages, track performance problems and monitor network costs.

The combination points to continued consolidation in network and security software as suppliers try to give customers a single operational view across fragmented environments. Enterprises have long bought DNS management, observability and security analytics from different vendors. The overlap between those areas is increasing as AI systems require broader, cleaner pools of infrastructure data.

Avi Freedman, Chief Executive Officer of Kentik, said the deal would bring together network context and operational intelligence.

"Kentik's vision has been to help organisations operate increasingly complex networks with intelligence rather than intuition, and Infoblox is the trusted source of truth and identity that provides the foundation for the infrastructure our customers depend on every day," Freedman said. "Combining that authoritative infrastructure context with Kentik's network intelligence platform creates powerful new opportunities to automate operations, accelerate troubleshooting, strengthen security and support the velocity of networking today."