Most networks today have a “traditional” IT monitoring solution in place which provides alarming for devices, servers and applications. But as the network evolves, so does the complexity and security risks and it now makes sense to formalize the process, procedures, and policies that govern access and changes to these devices. Vulnerability and lifecycle management also plays an important role in maintaining the security and integrity of network infrastructure. Network Configuration and Change M...

InterComms talks to Marius Heuler, CTO Infosim®, about Infosim® StableNet® and the management and orchestration of SDN and NFV environments Marius Heuler has more than 15 years of experience in network management and optimization. As CTO and founding member of Infosim®, he is responsible for leading the Infosim® technical team in architecting, developing, and delivering StableNet®. He graduated from the University of Würzburg with a degree in Computer Science, holds several Cisco certifications,...

Once upon a time, all you needed was a firewall to call yourself “secure.” But then, things changed. More networks are created every day, every network is visible to the others, and they connect with each other all the time—no matter how far away or how unrelated. And malicious threats have taken notice . . . As the Internet got bigger, anonymity got smaller. It’s impossible to go “unnoticed” on the Internet now. Everybody is a target. Into today’s network landscape, every network is under the t...

We’ve been doing a lot of blogging around here lately about NCCM and the importance of having an automated configuration and change management system. We’ve even published a Best practices guide for NCCM. One of the main points in any NCCM system is having consistent and accurate configuration backups of all of your “key” devices. When I ask Network Managers to name their key devices, they generally start with WAN / Internet routers and Firewalls. This makes sense of course because, in a modern ...

Network performance management is something that virtually every business needs, but not something that every business is actively doing, or even aware of. And why should they? While understanding the technical side of things is best left to the IT department, understanding the benefits of a properly managed network is something that will help get the business managers on board, especially when good performance management solutions might be a cost that hadn't been considered. So what are the ben...

CT523-328-2ac-1n-bat LANforge WiFIRE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 3 radio WiFi Traffic Generator (with Battery) Supporting 328 Virtual STA Interfaces The CT523-328-2ac-1n-bat wireless traffic generator is an excellent choice for testing Access Points and other WiFi networks. The CT523-328-2ac-1n-bat uses a modified Wireless driver for WiFi NICs based on the Atheros chipset. The ath9k (a/b/g/n) chipset NICs can support up to 200 stations per radio. The ath10k (a/b/g/n/ac) chipset NICs can support up to 64 st...

If you are considering a wired clock system for your facility, the 2-wired Digital Master Clock System option with Sapling may be the best option for you. Take a look at the unique advantages of this system below. In addition to the written description, check out our video at the bottom to see a visual depiction of how the 2-Wire Digital Clock System works. Power/Data on the Same Line Most wired clock systems require three or four wires. With Sapling’s 2-Wire Digital Communication System, the co...

Part I Discovery “I am a rock, I am an Island…” These lyrics by Simon and Garfunkel pretty appropriately summarize what most IT companies would like you to believe about their products. They are islands that stand alone and don’t need any other products to be useful. Well, despite what they want, the truth is closer to the lyrics by the Rolling Stones – “We all need someone we can lean on”. Music history aside, the fact is that interoperability and integration is one of the most important keys t...

Rogers Communications, Canada’s second largest broadband provider by subscribers, has confirmed that the rollout of its planned 1Gbps internet service will commence this year in downtown Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Parts of the city earmarked for coverage include: Harbourfront, Cabbagetown, Riverdale, King Street West, Queen Street West, the Financial District, the Discovery District, Yonge & Bloor, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Ajax and Whitby. By the end of 20...

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...