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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...