Network storms are imminent: will operations teams be ready to address the risks?

“Traditional network monitoring tools identify problems only after the damage is done,” said Dr. Rony Kay, founder and CEO of cPacket. “Operations teams lack real-time information to quickly recognise telltale signs of problems like performance degradation, intermittent abnormalities, and applications misbehavior. In contrast, our pervasive network intelligence solutions enable them to proactively pinpoint and mitigate imminent issues before they become costly disruptions.”

The modern applications delivery model relies on data centres, virtualisation, and high-speed networks. End-users depend on consistent and reliable connectivity between the data centres and client devices. It drives a rapid worldwide growth of capacity, volume, and speed of traffic. Every day, more business activities depend on reliable network delivery and consequently it implies inherent operational risks of performance degradation and harmful interruptions. Minimising these risks requires a new approach to performance assurance and quick corrective actions.

Fundamental deficiencies of the outdated currently used monitoring tools include:
· First, legacy monitoring solutions were not designed for the scale of the modern infrastructure; they were architected decades ago to collect information after-the-fact and not for today’s high speed, complex, risk-filled environment.
· Second, the legacy monitoring solutions provide coarse average metrics instead of granular visibility into specific applications traffic at sub-sub milliseconds resolution of microbursts and spikes.
· Third, the legacy solutions are limited to local information about a few individual links, instead of providing global insight into the overall traffic behavior across a complex multi-hop topology.

cPacket’s pervasive network intelligence solutions address these issues. The company’s cVu monitoring devices are designed for the scale and speed of modern data centre infrastructure. The heavy lifting of inspecting every bit in every packet and every flow in real-time is done “on-the-wire” by cPacket’s Smart Ports, which are high-speed and cost-effective distributed sensors. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are extracted at each Smart Port on-the-fly and are correlated centrally, allowing simple access from a unified dashboard. The KPIs include granular traffic behaviors - like microbursts, applications spikes, and intermittencies – enabling predictive analysis, proactive alerting and detailed reporting. cPacket’s proprietary algorithmic chip is the engine that is powering the unique smart ports of all its products.
Kay concluded: “The modern applications delivery model depends on reliable and consistent network performance. Our goal is to empower network professionals with proactive performance assurance to minimise downtime risks, optimise efficiency, and reduce operational costs”.