IP address management (IPAM) is a means of planning, tracking, and managing the Internet Protocol address space used in a network.
IPAM integrates DNS and DHCP so that each is aware of changes in the other (for instance DNS knowing of the IP address taken by a client via DHCP, and updating itself accordingly). Additional functionality, such as controlling reservations in DHCP as well as other data aggregation and reporting capability, is also common.
IPAM tools are increasingly important as new IPv6 networks are deployed with larger address pools, different subnetting techniques, and more complex 128-bit hexadecimal numbers which are not as easily human-readable as IPv4 addresses. IPv6 networking, mobile computing, and multihoming require more dynamic address management.