NC1811

TECHNOLOGYUPDATE
LAYER X: THE VISIBILITY LAYER
NETWORK TRAFFIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN IMPORTANT,
AND INCREASING COMPLEXITY IS REINFORCING THE
FACT. YORAM EHRLICH, VP PRODUCTS AT NIAGARA
NETWORKS EXPLAINS THE ROLE OF NETWORK
PACKET BROKERS IN VIRTUAL SWITCHING FABRIC
According to Gartner, "The need for
tools that require packet data shows a
steady upward trajectory as network
bandwidth and capabilities continue to grow
faster than processing and storage
technologies." Network packet brokers
(NPBs) are just one component of a visibility
layer, but they help to solve this problem and
play a critical role as active devices that
direct raw data packets from SPAN ports and
tap points to specific security, performance
management, and monitoring tools. Gartner
adds, "These mediators are becoming critical
to build-out and upgrade projects."
As networks become increasingly complex,
NPBs are required for three reasons. First,
they enable total network visibility to identify
known, suspicious and unknown traffic.
Second, they support network robustness
with data loss prevention, advanced filtering
and high availability and thirdly, they provide
greater control to network management,
allowing administrators to map and analyse
traffic flows.
Not all NPBs are created equal, so be clear
about the use case you want to address and
how to deliver it most effectively. Some
considerations for the best type of packet
broker to use include number of ports, feeds
and speeds (1/10Gb, 40Gb, 100Gb), port
density, modularity for bypass and tap
support, and functionality.
NPB USE CASE
The following use cases highlight important
NPB features, including filtering,
aggregation/replication and load balancing.
They also show how NPBs are an invaluable
piece of network architecture.
Preventing performance erosion: All too
often, network capacity outstrips the
capabilities of monitoring, performance
management and security tools. Raw data
volumes will only increase. Using NPBs, you
can filter network traffic so you're only
sending appropriate traffic to each tool. You
can load balance across multiple lower
capacity tools, distributing the traffic to
maximise resource utilisation.
Pay-as-you-grow deployment: NPB load
balancing capabilities help to create the
most cost-effective deployment plan rather
than investing in the highest-capacity tools: it
can reduce total cost of ownership by paying
only for the tools required. As traffic
increases, you can incrementally add tools
without interrupting existing data flows.
Resilient network design: Tool redundancy
with the help of integrated bypass solutions
ensures network services remain available
even in cases of disruption or maintenance.
If one tool fails, traffic bypasses the
disruption and is redistributed to remaining
tools using NPB load balancing.
Upgrade avoidance: In the past,
upgrading network infrastructure required
investments in new networking tools.
However, NPBs allow you to distribute highrate
traffic across lower-rate tools until
you're ready to upgrade.
A sound NPB should be able to meet both
intermediate and long-term needs. When
contemplating future needs, it's important to
consider the impact that an SDN-framework
could have on the network visibility layer.
FROM STATIC TO DYNAMIC
WITH SDN
Traditionally, visibility layers have been semifixed
and static, manually setting mapping
configurations between sources and
destinations. In the past, you could eliminate
network blind spots without too much difficulty,
but now, complexity has reached a point
where dynamic, responsive mapping
configurations are essential.
When SDN architecture is built in, network
packet brokers and other visibility components
can achieve a level of flexibility that enables
automatic reconfigurations to block suspicious
traffic from passing through NPBs, dynamic
traffic forwarding for analysis by different tools
based on specific network events and
intelligent failover to maximise uptime, despite
system events.
Deploying NPBs on a visibility layer should
be built with SDN in mind. That way, you
can deploy monitoring, performance
management and security tools from
different manufacturers, while streamlining
orchestration and enabling more advanced
services in the future. Networking's future
lies in a virtual switching fabric across all
your connected devices. Network packet
brokers are a core piece of making that
future a reality. NC
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