Speed, mobility and agility have arguably become the greatest strengths reaped by organisations embracing the digital revolution. But what about visibility?
Companies are transforming technology infrastructure and processes at extraordinary rates, but at the same time are creating digital ‘islands’ using a multitude of new technologies and services that are expected to work together. And this is against the backdrop of an an increasingly complex and fragmented digital universe and a larger cyberattacks surface.
In order to regain control and reduce these risks, businesses need a common view of all digital services across technology, including all networks, locations and users; they need ‘visibility without borders’.
By taking this type of approach, network operators are able to gain multi-purpose, consistent, real-time visibility across physical, hybrid and cloud environments, with any service inside or outside the organisation. This is the promise made by Netscout, a provider of service assurance, security and business analytics.
Hannes Rheeder, GM: enterprise systems management at value-added distributor, Networks Unlimited Africa, which distributes Netscout products and solutions throughout Africa, explains: “In our increasingly connected world, borderless and integrated digital environments are coming to the fore, bringing with them technical complexities and business challenges.
“This is particularly relevant at the moment for next generation data centre, security and 5G strategies, as it allows IT operators to accelerate their digital transformation by breaking down technology and operational boundaries that are limiting automation and agility prospects.”
Rheeder says the smart visibility approach allows operators to deliver services without interruption and act upon network data without disrupting service.
“Visibility minimises risk,” says Rheeder. “Netscout’s visibility without borders approach has relevance for digital transformation; data centres, where multi-cloud operations are the new normal; and the effectiveness of network tools.”
What are the issues?
* In the quest for digital transformation, speed and agility have become a primary competitive advantage.
* Within the data centre, the use of the latest digital technology innovations can result in individual business services using different deployment models, resulting in fragmentation and raising the barriers to visibility. This in turn creates a risk of loss of control and expands the cyberattack surface.
* With regards to the effectiveness of tools, IT operators have traditionally depended on a combination of disparate security, application, server and network monitoring and management tools. These tools, which are built on conventional data types such as flows, device health metrics, logs, or byte code instrumentation, do not provide a consistent and accurate view of the interdependent services used in the modern multi-cloud architecture.
The solution
Packet data – the communication between all of the service components – provides the necessary perspective required in today’s multi-cloud architecture.
Netscout’s Smart Data technology addresses these traditional barriers to using wire data by producing patented, elastic metadata at the source and offering practical solutions for large-scale deployment of traffic-based data sources in the multi-cloud.
Using this data, IT teams can proactively monitor, assure and secure services whose components may run in different domains, using the same views and workflows whether on-prem, private, or public clouds.
“Starting with a common, high definition data platform that is transparent to data centre transformation and produces ‘visibility without borders’ will serve as the cornerstone of successful digital transformation initiatives. Netscout solutions provide unparalleled visibility to devices, subscribers and network infrastructure services.
With IT and security professionals under pressure to stay on top of the latest trends, this smart visibility approach produces positive results for business analytics and security,” concludes Rheeder.