Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

December 2021

Faster troubleshooting of microservices, containers, and Kubernetes with Dynamic Packet Capture

Troubleshooting container connectivity issues and performance hotspots in Kubernetes clusters can be a frustrating exercise in a dynamic environment where hundreds, possibly thousands of pods are continually being created and destroyed.

Wellness and surfing... with Kentik!

It’s an exciting time here at Kentik. We’re expanding into new markets, working closely with amazing customers, and continuing to hire talented people to grow our team. We announced a new round of funding in the fall. We’re continuously building on our product. And we have our sights set on scaling our systems to large numbers. As Kentik’s backend engineering manager, I know this has kept our team very busy.

How network security policies can protect your environment from future vulnerabilities like Log4j

If you have access to the internet, it’s likely that you have already heard of the critical vulnerability in the Log4j library. A zero-day vulnerability in the Java library Log4j, with the assigned CVE code of CVE-2021-44228, has been disclosed by Chen Zhaojun, a security researcher in the Alibaba Cloud Security team. It’s got people worried—and with good reason.

Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting for Remote Workers with SPI Health and Safety

With many businesses having switched to part-time or even full-time remote work, the challenge for IT teams becomes how to provide quick and efficient support for network problems remotely. In this article, we’re running you through how SPI Health and Safety is using Obkio to monitor network performance and troubleshoot performance issues for all their remote call center employees.

AIOps for Network Monitoring

Multi-cloud hybrid cloud environments, microservices architectures, the rapid growth in the number of mission-critical applications, and the sudden surge in remote work have made enterprise networks exponentially complex. These networks are often not designed to handle the variety of physical and wireless media that’s become common today, for instance, the number of video calls, data transfer through screen sharing, etc.

The future is not the Internet of Things... it is the Connected Intelligent Edge

The ‘Internet of Things’ was first coined to help people understand the concept of digital appliances that could communicate with an app or central hub. If you’ve been to CES at any point in the last decade, you could see many examples on the show floor, such as connected weight scales or a connected fridge. But these early examples of ‘connected’ tech felt more gimmicky than useful, and were largely contained to the consumer electronics industry.

DX NetOps Support for Symantec Secure Web Gateways (SWG)

DX NetOps network monitoring software now supports Symantec Secure Web Gateways (SWG). This short demo shows how the solution can provide visibility for SWGs in the context of your broader network and network delivery strategy. DX NetOps unifies alarms, performance and flow and can help solve key operational challenges for SWGs including event correlation and streamlined ticketing workflows.

Auvik's Network Vendor Diversity 2021: Who Reigns the Network?

At the end of November 2021, Auvik released our annual Network Vendor Diversity Report, and the data we collected had some interesting findings. Over 520,000 devices across 40,000 networks contributed, showing which vendors are taking a leading share of the market. In this roundup, we’ll show you some of the most interesting learnings we saw in 2021.

A Comprehensive Guide to Firewall Monitoring

Securing your company's network against online threats can seem like a daunting task. There are so many different e-commerce security threats, and it can be hard to know where to start or if you're adequately protected against all of them. One important weapon in the fight for network security is your firewall. Although your firewall will remain hidden from view for most of your employees most of the time, you shouldn't forget about it.

A Look Back At Console Connect In 2021

If the events of the last two years have proved anything it is that businesses need to be prepared for the unexpected. The ability to embrace change and adapt rapidly to uncertainty has become essential for businesses. In 2021, Console Connect continued to put agility at the heart of our organisation – both in terms of our approach to technology innovation, and also in how our automated platform is helping businesses embrace digital transformation.

Network AF, Episode 7: From Juilliard to bare metal with Zac Smith

In the latest episode of Network AF, your host Avi Freedman chats with Zac Smith. Zac is a 20-year networking veteran, the managing director of Equinix Metal, and a double bass player. Throughout Zac’s career, he’s focused on using software to build automated infrastructure platforms. That includes growing Voxel, the Linux-based hosting platform that sold to Internap in 2011, into one of the early, leading cloud-hosting companies.

Broadcom Software Agile Operations Division Overview

General Manager Serge Lucio discusses Broadcom Software's Agile Operations Division, which offers business-critical software solutions that help the world’s leading companies transform their operating model to be more agile. Our ValueOps, DevOps, and AIOps solutions help these organizations drive innovation and achieve operational excellence to realize better business outcomes – and better experiences for their customers.

N-able Backup and Other Keys to Our Success: Nicholas Paulukow, One2One

N-able™ Backup has proven to make a real difference in the efficiency and profitability of managed IT services provider One2One. Hear from One2One CEO Nicholas Paulukow about how the company dramatically reduced the staff time and cost needed to provide top-tier data protection services by switching to N-able Backup.

Data centre networking: SmartNICs

This blog post is part of our data centre networking series: With the explosion of application traffic and the multiplication of data centre workloads during the last decade, east-west traffic greatly increased and ended up impacting the traditional north-south based architectures. This raised the need to review the entire data centre architecture while keeping the goal of meeting performance, security, and monitoring requirements.

Data centre networking: What is OVN?

This blog post is part of our data centre networking series: With the development of open source software-defined networking solutions, virtualisation took a progressively more important place in modern data centres. Concepts like virtual switching and routing became part of the data centre networking scene, with OVS as a pioneering example.

ITOM 2021 recap: Features that enabled an incredible network management experience

From introducing new automation capabilities to offering all new integration options this past year, ManageEngine’s ITOM suite of solutions have been supercharged to seamlessly manage complex networks. These new, powerful product enhancements and feature releases have honed the ITOM suit’s superior network management capabilities for IT admins worldwide.

How to Measure Network Latency | Obkio

Latency is one of the core network metrics that you should be measuring when monitoring your network performance. Latency refers to the round-trip measure of time it takes for data to reach its destination across a network. Consistent delays or odd spikes in time when measuring latency are signs of major performance issues in your network. The most accurate way to measure Latency is by using a Network Monitoring Software, like Obkio.

Why is my SaaS application so slow?

Many companies today rely on SaaS connections in order for the business to function. Some users simply can’t operate in their job when an application becomes unavailable. When hundreds of users are impacted, this can cost a company serious money. That’s why keeping a proverbial finger on the pulse of application performance is generally worth the effort. But, it isn’t easy. Many popular SaaS applications are delivered from hundreds of locations around the world.

5 Network Traffic Analysis Tools to Know About

Network traffic analysis serves many purposes. It’s used for general network monitoring, security reasons, as well as the debugging of network issues. It can be helpful not only to network administrators but also to application developers. In this post, you’ll learn what network traffic analysis tools actually are and what are the top five you should know about.

What's New with DX Unified Infrastructure Management 20.4

DX Unified Infrastructure Management (DX UIM) enables comprehensive infrastructure observability. The solution delivers comprehensive coverage, modern administrative and operator consoles, zero-touch configuration, advanced alarm management, and more. This solution provides a unified, data-driven approach to infrastructure management. With the solution, your teams can proactively and efficiently manage all your digital ecosystems, including private and public clouds.

Let the Orion Platform Do the Heavy Lifting | Using the Orion API for Fun and Profit: Session 2

Continuing the discussion from the previous THWACK Livecast about letting the Orion® Platform products automate your work, we’ll be stepping away from the web console and start digging into the SolarWinds Orion Application Programming Interface (API). The power of the Orion API is in its flexibility. If you want to unmanage or mute devices to coincide with your change management windows, or do bulk actions on devices, or even add devices to monitoring from nothing more than an IP address, it can be done with the API.

December/2021 - CVE-2021-44228: Log4Shell Remote Code Execution Mitigation

This post will be updated over the next several days. Recently, a Remote Code Execution vulnerability was discovered in the Apache Log4J library. This vulnerability, which is tracked in CVE-2021-44228, dubbed Log4Shell, allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. While HAProxy Enterprise, HAProxy ALOHA, and other products within the HAProxy Technologies portfolio are not impacted by this (they do not use the Log4J library at all), you can use them to block the attack.

Why you Need WiFi Observability in the Era of Work From Anywhere

“Work from anywhere” is now a common occurrence. With so many companies now dependent on a distributed workforce, IT teams need to be able to quickly diagnose and troubleshoot WiFi problems. Moreover, they, themselves, are often working remotely. In order to successfully do their jobs, consistent WiFi is obviously essential for remote workers.

Web Performance of the World's Top 50 Travel Sites in 2021

2021 holiday travel has been a rebound for the industry. Just this week, I was attempting to purchase flights for a long weekend before travel picks up for the holidays. However, after a failed attempt to sign up for their Executive Club and enduring slow page loads after every click, I abandoned the site and booked elsewhere. Just like that, I was a lost customer.

How Better Collaboration and Planning Drive a Superior Digital Experience

An outstanding customer experience is one that keeps customers coming back, while spreading the word about their experience. Your applications are the heartbeat of that service delivery experience for both customers and other end users. When the experience wows, customer satisfaction grows.

Broadcom Announces Intent to Acquire AppNeta

Broadcom announced its intent to acquire privately-held AppNeta, headquartered in Boston, MA. AppNeta is a provider of SaaS-based solutions that provide enterprise IT teams with precise, end-to-end visibility into network performance from the end-user’s point of view. Combined with Broadcom Software’s DX NetOps, AppNeta'a monitoring capabilities will help enterprises and service providers to more efficiently diagnose and improve network performance for end-users, independent of what network they use to access applications.

Better Together - DX NetOps and AppNeta Enable a New Level of Network Visibility, Anywhere

Broadcom announced its intent to acquire privately-held AppNeta, headquartered in Boston, MA. AppNeta is a provider of SaaS-based solutions that provide enterprise IT teams with precise, end-to-end visibility into network performance from the end-user’s point of view. Together, DX NetOps and AppNeta deliver network visibility into any connected experience over any network.

From Julliard to Bare Metal with Zac Smith | Network AF Episode 7

On this episode of Network AF, Avi talks with Zac Smith, Bare Metal Managing Director at Equinix. Zac is a graduate of Juilliard, has started multiple networking companies, and is an Operating Board Member of Pursuit. This nonprofit program teaches and mentors underrepresented communities, creating opportunities in the tech and networking space.

Broadcom Software Announces Intent to Acquire AppNeta

As consumers, we are all intimately aware of our individual dependence on the internet. Now consider that dependency and apply it to the business-critical services that your company uses daily. Nearly overnight, companies are at the mercy of the internet, a network of public networks as nearly all employees work remotely and apps that were once hosted internally move to external SaaS providers.

AppNeta Brings Borderless Monitoring to Broadcom's NetOps Solution

It was at the turn of the millennium. I was one of the first engineers entrusted with the job of installing Network Computers, the thin client that Oracle had just introduced as an alternative to personal computers. During the process, as I described the benefits of network computing and three-tier architecture to customers, there was a palpable skepticism all around. Twenty years have passed since. Client-server gave way to three-tier architecture, and with the internet came cloud computing.

Broadcom and AppNeta: Better Together

Broadcom Software just announced the intention to acquire AppNeta, a pioneer in end-user experience over the internet. AppNeta will be integrated with DX NetOps, the network monitoring software portfolio within Broadcom’s Enterprise Software Division. The acquisition marks a key milestone in the DX NetOps vision to assure Network Observability Anywhere. AppNeta adds solutions, technologies, and people that will enable DX NetOps to deliver more value to our customers and partners.

The Need for an Agile Services-Driven Network: Part 1 in the IP Wave Series

The major challenge facing communications service providers (CSPs) is not about handling ever-growing bandwidth demands without increasing Capex. Smart selection of network technologies that leverage advances in aggregating, routing, and transmitting bits largely have the answer for that. The much more pressing challenge is on the services front, from competition, substitution, and the inability to maximize revenues. These concerns reduce the top line and restrict CSPs’ ability to maneuver.

MPLS Versus SD-WAN: Competing Or Complementary?

Bandwidth demands per enterprise site continue to skyrocket, while additional pressure has been added to the WAN in the wake of the pandemic and shift to remote working, moving demand from well-connected offices to a scattering of disparate locations. Yet, while WAN bandwidth demands are increasing by orders of magnitude every year, budgets rarely keep pace and significant numbers of those ‘better connected’ branch locations experience network congestion during peak hours.

How to Measure Jitter | Obkio

Jitter is one of the core network metrics that you should be measuring when monitoring your network performance. Jitter is your network's biggest enemy when using UC and real-time apps like IP telephony, video conferencing, and virtual desktop infrastructure. The most accurate way to measure Jitter is by using a Network Monitoring Software, like Obkio. For example: The amount of jitter displayed over an aggregated period of 1h is the worst median jitter of all the small 1-min periods within that hour.

Auvik Rollup & Roadmap Update - Q4 2021

Patrick Albert, VP Product Management, and Julie Forsythe, VP Engineering discussed the latest Auvik developments and handy new features in our Q4 2021 Rollup & Roadmap Update. See what's new, from Discovery Dashboard, syslog, and device information improvements to certification updates for SAML SSO admins to out-of-the-box identification support for 40 more devices, and get a sneak peek into what we're working on to improve your troubleshooting experience and product extensibility.

Tiggee LLC Announces Acquisition of PerfOps Data Suite

Tiggee LLC, parent company of DNS Made Easy and Constellix has announced the acquisition of PerfOps and its enterprise data monitoring suite. Adding PerfOps to the Tiggee family enhances the company's position in the DNS and Cloud industry and will allow Tiggee to leverage its direct knowledge and 20-plus years of experience to increase the effectiveness and value of PerfOps for the industry as a whole.

How to Monitor Cloud Services and Why It Matters

In this webinar, we explain how—and why—tools like traceroute, when used as part of synthetic monitoring, provide deep insight into network problems such as SaaS or cloud application slowdowns. Presented by Michael Patterson, Kentik network technologist, founder and former CEO of Plixer Watch this on-demand webinar to learn.

Network Tips to Ensure a Successful AWS Migration

Join Kentik Cloud Solutions Architect, Ted Turner, and Kentik Solutions Architect, Jim Muggli, for this on-demand webinar discussion about the network solutions needed to ensure a successful AWS migration. Watch learn how to ensure your infrastructure team can overcome the top three AWS network challenges.

Network AF, Episode 6: Cat Gurinski on mentorship and the shared languages of network engineering

In the latest episode of the Network AF podcast, your host Avi Freedman welcomes his friend and networking pro Cat Gurinski to the show. As a senior network engineer with loads of experience, Cat is most passionate about automation and troubleshooting, and especially loves to use Python and Arista’s pyeapi frameworks in her pursuits. She’s also the current chair of the NANOG Program Committee, and previously worked for companies like Best Buy, Switch and Data, and Equinix.

Superfast Troubleshooting of Network User Performance Issues

In our first edition of our Work From Anywhere series, we look at the value of troubleshooting end-user hardware and application issues. Exploring the granular detail that the solution provides, we look at how understanding information around the end-users hardware can help reduce mean-time-to-resolution and increasing productivity of service/support desk teams.

The 10 top network outages of 2021

Every year the internet experiences numerous disruptions and outages, and 2021 was certainly no exception. This year we documented outages, including multiple government-directed shutdowns, as well as what might be the internet’s biggest outage in history. In this post, I run through 10 of the top outages that we covered in 2021. Needless to say, the world’s network engineers deserve a load of #HugOps in 2021.

Domain-Centric vs. Domain-Agnostic AIOps: What to Use When

AIOps platforms fall into two main categories: domain-centric and domain-agnostic solutions. What are the differences between domain-centric and domain-agnostic AIOps, and why should you choose one type of solution or the other? Read on for guidance on understanding the respective pros and cons of domain-centric and domain-agnostic AIOps.