The networks that your business operates on are often open and complex. Your IT department is responsible for mitigating network risks, managing performance and auditing data to ensure functionality. Using NetFlow forensics can help your IT team maintain the competitiveness and reliability of the systems required to run your business. In IT, network security forensics involves the monitoring and analysis of your network's traffic to gather information, obtain legal evidence and detect network in...

Defining unified communications is more complicated than it seems, but a thorough understanding of UC technology is required before informed buying decisions can be made. Not only is the UC value proposition difficult to articulate, but it involves multiple decisions that impact both the IT group and end users. In brief, UC is a platform that seamlessly integrates communications applications across multiple modes -- such as voice, data and video -- and delivers a consistent end-user experience a...

Ixia, an international leader in application performance and security resilience technology, conducted a survey to better understand how network security resilience solutions and techniques are used within the modern enterprise. While information exists on security products and threats, very little is available on how it is actually being used and the techniques and technology to ensure that security is completely integrated into the corporate network structure. This report presents the research...

I’ve been working in the Network Management business for over 20 years, and in that time I have certainly seen my share of networks. Big and small, centralized and distributed, brand name vendor devices in shiny datacenters, and no-name brands in basements and bunkers. The one consistent surprise I continue to encounter is how many of these organization (even the shiny datacenter ones) lack a backup system for their network device configurations. I find that a little amazing, since I also can’t ...

In this Webinar John Olson, from NetFlow Auditor, discusses the top 10 Best Practices for using Netflow data to analyse, report and alert on multiple aspects of Network traffic. These best practices include: Understanding where is the best place in your network to collect netflow data from How long you should retain your flow data Why you should archive more than just the top 100 flows When static thresholds should be replaced by adaptive thresholds More... Thanks to NetFlow Auditor for the...

CIO Review 20 Most Promising Networking Solution Providers Virtualization has become the life blood of the networking industry today. With the advent of technologies such as software-defined networking and network function virtualization, the black box paradigm or the legacy networking model has been shattered. In the past, the industry witnessed networking technology such as Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), which eventually gave way to Ethernet, the predominant network of choice. This p...

In continuing with our post explaining how Sapling’s master clocks can receive time, the second option a user has to receive time is through a GPS Receiver. Receiving time from a GPS satellite is not only extremely accurate, it is also very secure. With the GPS Receiver, the facility does not have to go outside the facility’s established firewall and use a time source via the Internet. A GPS receiver is built-in to the master clock and sends out the master clock’s exact location to satellites ar...

So far, we have explored what NCCM is, and taken a deep dive into device policy checking – in this post we are going to be exploring Real Time Configuration Change Detection (or just Change Detection as I will call it in this blog). Change Detection is the process by which your NCCM system is notified - either directly by the device or from a 3rd party system that a configuration change has been made on that device. Why is this important? Let’s identify 3 main reasons that Change Detection is a ...

Bloomberg reports that Canadian rural broadband specialist Xplornet Communications is working with Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada on an initial public offering (IPO) planned for this year, according to anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter who added that the New Brunswick-based fixed-wireless ISP has not yet decided on the stake size or price range. In May Xplornet’s management expressed the desire to examine new ways to continue growing, including a potential IPO, after reve...

Ixia recently added passive SSL decryption to the ATI Processor (ATIP). ATIP is an optional module in several of our Net Tool Optimizer (NTO) packet brokers that delivers application-level insight into your network with details such as application ID, user location, and handset and browser type. ATIP gives you this information via an intuitive real-time dashboard, filtered application forwarding, and rich NetFlow/IPFIX. Adding SSL decryption to ATIP was a logical enhancement, given the increasin...

See Virtual with the Clarity of Physical The cost-saving shift to virtualization has challenged network teams to maintain accurate views. While application performance is often the first casualty when visibility is reduced, the right solution can match and in some cases even exceed the capabilities of traditional monitoring strategies. Virtual Eyes Network teams are the de facto “first responders” when application performance degrades. For this reason, it’s critical to maintain visibility into a...

These days, your network is as important to your business as any other item—including your products. Whether your customers are internal or external, you need a dependable and secure network that grows with your business. Without one, you are dead in the water. IT managers have a nearly impossible job. They must understand, manage, and secure the network all the time against all problems. Anything less than a 100 percent working network is a failure. There is a very familiar saying: Don’t miss t...

In our last blog post “Why you need NCCM as part of your Network Management Platform” I introduced the many reasons that growing networks should investigate and implement an NCCM solution. One of the reasons is that an NCCM system can help with automation in a key area which is related to network security as well as compliance and availability – Policy Checking. So, in this post, I will be taking a deeper dive into Network Device Policy Checking which will (hopefully) shed some light onto what I...

Nationwide operators Telus and Bell Canada were declared winners of residual AWS-3 (2100MHz/1700MHz) 4G spectrum licences at the end of August in the ‘leftover’ concession auction run by Industry Canada. Telus paid CAD58 million (USD43.8 million) for six additional AWS-3 licence blocks covering Manitoba and Saskatchewan, while Bell secured another nine AWS-3 concessions (three in each of the Far North territories: Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) costing CAD206,000. The two national ope...

Infosim® Global Webinar Day Why is this app so terribly slow? How to achieve full Application Monitoring with StableNet® Join Matthias Schmid, Director of Project Management with Infosim® for a Webinar and Live Demo on “How to achieve full Application Monitoring with StableNet®”.     This Webinar will provide insight into: Why you need holistic monitoring for all your company applications How the technologies offered by StableNet® will help you master this challenge Furthermo...

Canadian nationwide rural fixed-wireless broadband provider Xplornet Communications has agreed to acquire 100% of Calgary-based WiMAX network operator Platinum Communications for CAD0.16 (USD0.12) per share in cash. Platinum operates a wireless broadband network offering internet and digital phone services to residents and businesses across the province of Alberta, catering primarily to rural and near-urban areas that are often beyond the reach of traditional (fixed) internet providers. Bernard ...

Sapling’s IP Clock System is unlike your typical clock system. This synchronized clock system is powered by (PoE) or Power-over-Ethernet, receiving power and data through a CAT5 cable, there is no need for an additional outlet. This system allows for easy set up and operation for any user and has a number of unique features that make it stand out among the rest. One such feature is that each clock has its own built-in web interface. The web interface allows a user to adjust many different settin...

There is no doubt that virtualization is one of the hottest technology topics with communication service providers (CSPs) today. Nearly all the forecasts suggest that widespread NFV adoption will happen over the next few years, with CSPs benefitting from significantly reduced operational costs and much higher revenues resulting from increased service flexibility and velocity. So much for the hype – but where do NFV standards, guidelines and technology implementations stand today and when will th...

In the landscape of Enterprise Network Management most products (and IT Professionals) tend to focus on “traditional” IT monitoring. By that I mean the monitoring of devices, servers, and applications for performance issues and faults. That makes sense because most networks evolve in a similar fashion. They are first built out to accommodate the needs of the business. This primarily involves supporting access for people to applications they need to do their jobs. Once the initial buildout is don...

Our team is excited to represent Viavi Solutions during an industy (IT and cloud-focused) event, VMworld, in San Francisco at booth #2235. We’ll be showcasing our latest innovation – the GigaStor Software Edition designed for managing performance in virtual, cloud, and remote environments. Here are some topline thoughts about why this product matters for our customers and core technologies trending today, what a great time it is for the industry and to be Viavi! For starters, the solution is abl...