Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Elastic bandwidth and the future of AI-driven networks

In this employee spotlight blog, Shaheen Kalla, Presales Team Lead, explores what the future of AI in networking may hold and the possibilities it presents. So much has been written about AI in the context of software engineering, machine learning, and data manipulation - especially where large datasets are involved. However, very little has been explored when it comes to AI from a networking perspective.

Bring a Business Service Perspective to Your Network Monitoring

In recent years, network performance and business performance have become increasingly intertwined. Now, virtually every critical employee and customer service is in some way reliant upon network connectivity. When connectivity falters, those critical processes can be impaired or stopped completely. However, for too many teams, it can be difficult to knowledgeably determine how specific outages or issues actually affect a business service. For example, say an operator discovers a device is down.

SQL Server Security: Protecting Your Data From Threats

If your organization isn’t focused on data security, it’s time to make some changes, particularly if you rely on SQL Server to manage and store valuable information. Cyber threats, data breaches, and malicious attacks are on the rise—and they are constantly evolving. That’s why it’s essential to have robust security measures in place. SQL Server has several built-in security features, but you must take a proactive approach to protect your data.

Announcing HAProxy 3.2

HAProxy 3.2 is here, and this release gives you more of what matters most: exceptional performance and efficiency, best-in-class SSL/TLS, deep observability, and flexible control over your traffic. These powerful capabilities help HAProxy remain the G2 category leader in API management, container networking, DDoS protection, web application firewall (WAF), and load balancing.

Flying Your Network Blind? | Obkio

We created this video for every IT team still relying on guesswork to manage network performance. Here’s the reality: No monitoring = flying blind No alerts = no prevention No visibility = slow troubleshooting, false assumptions, and frustrated users Even the best IT pros need the right tools, just like pilots need instruments. Have you ever thought about: – Why “no complaints” isn’t the same as “no issues”– The hidden cost of poor visibility– How skill only takes you so far without data to back it up.

The End of the Network Engineer as We Know It?

For decades, the enterprise network was a well-defined fortress and network engineers were its meticulous guardians. However, their visibility and control was largely confined within the parameters of their organization's infrastructure. The cloud revolution and the ubiquity of SaaS applications have shattered these traditional boundaries. Today, for virtually every organization, the internet is the new enterprise network.

How to Prepare for APRA CPS 230 Regulations

Understand what APRA CPS 230 means for your organization, and how to get compliance-ready by the July 2025 deadline. If you work for an Australian business in the financial services industry, you’ve likely already heard of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). You may also have heard that a new set of APRA regulations, CPS 230, will become mandatory for all APRA-regulated companies to comply with as of 1 July 2025.

How Managed Optical Fiber Networks (MOFN) Are Powering the AI-Driven Future of Data Center Interconnect (DCI)

As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly evolves from a research novelty to an enterprise essential, one often-overlooked component is under intense pressure: the network. AI’s hunger for data and real-time performance is forcing enterprises, cloud providers, and data center operators to rethink how they interconnect data centers. Enter Managed Optical Fiber Networks (MOFN) — a modern solution for modern DCI challenges.

Mission Impossible: Find out the Reasons Why Your Network Is Down (and How to Proactively Prevent Network Downtime)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to prevent network downtime before it takes your business offline. The threat is real. One moment, your network is up. The next calls drop, websites freeze, apps stall, and customers vanish. You hear the dreaded question echoing across departments: “Is the network down?” You’re not alone.

VPC Log Format: Custom and Advanced Configurations

VPC Flow Logs come with a default format that gives you basic network traffic details. But you can tweak the format to capture exactly what you need. This can lower costs, speed up processing, and make your logs fit better with what you’re trying to monitor. If you want to improve security, keep an eye on performance, or save money, adjusting your VPC logs can make a big difference. Let’s take a look at some practical ways to customize your logs beyond the default settings.

Harnessing Network Observability to Enhance Grid Resilience

Within the utility sector, a lot is changing. Utilities continue to pursue digital transformation, altering the way services are delivered and operations are managed. What hasn’t changed is the criticality of the services provided. These organizations deliver essential resources like natural gas, electricity, and water—services that we as consumers rely upon constantly for our comfort, sustenance, communications, and more.

Real-time detection of BGP blackholing and prefix hijacks

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) remains the backbone of inter-domain routing on the Internet, but its fundamental trust model leaves it vulnerable to misconfigurations, hijacks, and blackholing. When these issues occur, they often go undetected by the impacted networks—until users report degraded performance or service outages. This post walks through a real-world incident in which a legitimate traffic spike led to an upstream provider mistakenly blackholing a critical IP address.

Motadata AIOps | Monitoring Infrastructure Using Monitors & Monitor Settings

In the world of IT infrastructure management, having a real-time understanding of the health and performance of your systems is essential. Motadata AIOps introduces the Monitors, a way to provide comprehensive insights into your IT environment, empowering you to proactively manage and optimize your infrastructure.

Motadata AIOps - AI-Driven Network Monitoring Software

What positions Motadata AIOps as a standout among the premier network monitoring tools available in the market? In a crowded market of network monitoring tools, Motadata AIOps distinguishes itself through its intelligent and future-proof approach. The Network Observability tool leverages the power of AI to monitor your network and predict and prevent problems before they occur. This helps you achieve unmatched scalability for your growing network needs, while its open architecture and integration capabilities ensure a unified view of your entire IT environment.

Protecting Against SAP NetWeaver Vulnerability (CVE-2025-31324) with HAProxy

A critical vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver (CVE-2025-31324) is currently being exploited in the wild. Disclosed on April 24, 2025, this vulnerability has the highest possible CVSS score of 10.0, indicating severe risk. The vulnerability affects SAP NetWeaver Application Server Java's Visual Composer Framework (version 7.50), allowing unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files to NetWeaver servers. This can lead to remote code execution and complete system compromise.

5 Critical Steps in the Effective Change Management Process. Guide + Best Practices

Change is constant, but without a structured approach, it can lead to confusion, resistance, and costly disruptions. A well-planned change management process ensures transitions happen smoothly, minimizing risks while keeping teams aligned and operations running efficiently. Whether adopting new technology, restructuring teams, or refining business strategies, organizations that manage change effectively turn challenges into opportunities for growth.

Application Performance Monitoring Guide: Strategies, Best Practices, and Tools

With the introduction of cloud services and microservices, applications have become more complicated due to their increased layers of complexity and distributed architecture. While microservices clearly offer speed, they also make things harder for the developers and operations teams. These teams need to plan for the reliable and efficient performance of such applications. To combat these challenges, application performance monitoring (APM) has surfaced as an indispensable discipline.

Is There an Existential Crisis in Network Observability?

We've all been there. Users report that applications are slow, calls are dropping, or that "the internet is broken." Yet, a glance at the network dashboards shows a sea of green—latency looks acceptable, packet loss is minimal, and bandwidth seems fine. This common scenario highlights a fundamental challenge in network observability: the perceived disconnect between the technical measurements we gather and the actual experience of the people using our digital services.

Turning Network Telemetry into Network Intelligence

By applying data engineering and machine learning to raw network telemetry, it’s possible to surface insights that would otherwise go unnoticed. Learn how this approach helps teams detect anomalies in real time, forecast capacity needs, and automate responses across complex, multi-domain environments.

Navigating the Future of Data Infrastructure with Jonathan Atkin

AI is driving data infrastructure to a breaking point. In this episode of Uplink, Jonathan Atkin—Managing Director and Global Head of Communications Infrastructure Investment Research at RBC Capital Markets—joins host Michael Reid to explore how AI is reshaping connectivity, investment, and infrastructure strategy.

Hybrid Cloud Monitoring: A Comprehensive Guide to Strategies, Best Practices, and Tools

Modern infrastructures are no longer confined to on-premises servers alone. Instead, they span cloud environments, containers, microservices, and globally distributed systems. This landscape, known as a hybrid cloud environment, has become the new norm for organizations, primarily because it offers the scalability of the cloud and ownership over specific elements afforded by an on-premises setup.

Why Smarter Distribution Networks Are Winning the Race for Customer Loyalty

In today's competitive market, customer loyalty is no longer secured by product quality alone. It is increasingly determined by how well businesses deliver on expectations-literally. That's why more and more companies are turning totop distribution management software like SimplyDepo to streamline operations and meet rising customer demands from the very first mile to the last.

Level Up Your Network Visibility: DX NetOps Topology is Now Generally Available

The wait is finally over! We are thrilled to announce that DX NetOps 24.3.9 marks the official general availability (GA) of DX NetOps Topology, a key milestone in our network observability journey. After a successful early access program with many customer deployments, we are excited to bring this highly anticipated solution to the broader community. DX NetOps Topology is designed to provide you with the insights and operational efficiency needed to manage both traditional and software-defined networks.

Auto Scaling of Kubernetes Workloads Using Custom Application Metrics

Orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes and OpenShift help customers reduce costs by enabling on-demand, scalable compute resources. Customers can manually scale out and scale in their Kubernetes compute resources as needed. Autoscaling is the process of automatically adjusting compute resources to meet a system's performance requirements. As workloads grow, systems require additional resources to sustain performance and handle increasing demand.

Navigating the Cloud: Jonathan Staff on Cost, Flexibility, and the Future of Hybrid | Uplink Ep. 6

Cloud costs are climbing, and optimization isn’t always enough. In this episode, Jonathan Staff, Head of Private Cloud at Macquarie Cloud Services, explores how organizations are managing the growing complexity of cloud services. He shares his perspective on cost management, the role of hybrid cloud in balancing efficiency and flexibility, and the impact of AI on infrastructure planning.

Beyond the Horizon: The AI Landscape for MSPs - Managing Governance, Compliance, and Cyber Threats

In this episode of the Beyond the Horizon podcast, Pete Roythorne sits down with Nicole Reineke, Senior Director of AI Strategy at N-able, to explore the fast-changing world of AI and its impact on managed service providers (MSPs). From the weaponization of AI in cybersecurity to the critical role of data governance and ethical compliance, this conversation delves deep into both the potential and peril of emerging AI technologies.

7 Best Network Configuration Management Tools

If you want a secure, efficient, and compliant network, network configuration management is a must. Whether managing a small network or being responsible for a large enterprise system, having the right solution can make all the difference. Network configuration management tools provide valuable insights into devices on your network, and they can help quickly restore previous configurations in the event of a failure, misconfiguration, or security incident. What is network configuration management?

Leading analyst firm reveals the real cost of internet disruptions

‘Without the internet, Digital Experiences do not exist,’ begins Increase Revenue and Improve Customer Experience with Internet Performance Monitoring, a study commissioned by Catchpoint to quantify the financial damage from internet outages. At first glance, that might seem painfully obvious—like pointing out that water is wet. But pause for a moment and consider: the digital experience today isn't just an aspect of business; it is the business. Suddenly, the stakes feel very different.

8 Network Statistics IT Pros Should Know to Understand and Optimize Network Performance

Slow Zoom calls, dropped VPN connections, and lagging applications sound familiar? These common network frustrations often stem from underlying performance issues that could be diagnosed and resolved with the right data. For IT professionals, raw network metrics alone aren’t enough. To truly optimize performance, you need network statistics: aggregated, analyzed, and interpreted insights that turn numbers into actionable decisions.

Baseline configuration management: Why it's critical for network stability

Imagine this: You've onboarded 30 new switches, 15 firewalls, and 20 routers into your network. You assume they all follow company policy. But months later, half of them are misconfigured, a few are running vulnerable firmware, and one rogue device is exposing ports it shouldn't. That’s not poor luck—that’s poor baseline configuration.

Robocalls Aren't Going Away - But the FCC Is Taking Aim at a Big Vulnerability

If you've ever received a call that looked like it was from your bank or, worse, a family member, but turned out to be a scam, you're not alone. These spoofed calls continue to be a huge headache, not just for everyday people but for businesses, phone carriers, and regulators too. The good news? The FCC is stepping up again. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission released a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to close a serious gap in our defense against robocalls: non-IP networks.

Level Up Your Confidence & Problem-Solving Skills! | How Gaming Boosts Workplace Success

Gamers learn more than just strategies—they learn self-confidence and resilience. Success in-game translates to success at work, with a new mindset: there’s always a way to solve the problem, even if it means leveling up your skills!

Community and Collaboration: Lessons from Gaming - SolarWinds TechPod 098

This episode explores the intersection of gaming, particularly MMOs, and its impact on workplace dynamics. Dr. Melika Shirmohammadi and Mostafa Ayoobzadeh join hosts Chrystal Taylor and Sean Sebring to discuss their motivations for studying the positive aspects of gaming, the skills that can be transferred to professional environments, and the social stigma surrounding gaming as a hobby.

What is File Transfer Protocol (FTP)?

In today’s digital world, transferring data over networks is essential for businesses and individuals. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard method used to send and receive files between computers over the internet. The FTP protocol enables efficient file transfers, making it easier to share large files securely. However, ensuring data security is crucial to prevent unauthorized access. Secure FTP solutions, such as FTPS and SFTP, help protect sensitive information during transfers.

Establishing SD-WAN Observability to Fuel SASE Success

For today’s enterprises, ensuring optimized network connectivity and robust network security represent key imperatives. Given that, it makes sense that there’s rapidly growing use of solutions like secure access service edge (SASE). In fact, the SASE market is expected to grow to $5.9 billion by 2028. SASE delivers converged network and security capabilities. SASE is a cloud-based offering that is primarily delivered on an as-a-service basis.

Process Monitoring - Huge Value from a Quick Task

DX Unified Infrastructure Management (DX UIM) from Broadcom is a comprehensive solution for monitoring an organization’s entire IT infrastructure. The product provides IT administrators and operations teams with a centralized view of their infrastructure to ensure availability and performance of servers, network devices, storage systems, virtualization environments, applications, and cloud services.

Making Network Intelligence Accessible to Everyone

For years, network operations have relied on complex query languages that demand specialized knowledge. Extracting insights from network data often meant writing intricate commands in formats like SQL, a skill reserved for seasoned IT professionals. But what if anyone, regardless of expertise, could ask a simple question and get immediate, accurate answers from their network?

Internet Latency: What Is It, How to Measure It, and How to Improve It

Internet latency, the often-overlooked delay between sending and receiving data, can mean the difference between a flawless video conference and a frustrating, glitchy mess. Measured in milliseconds (ms), these microscopic delays accumulate, creating tangible performance issues across all online activities.

Reducing MTTR with Cloud Pathfinder

Learn how to quickly identify and resolve cloud connectivity issues with Kentik’s Cloud Pathfinder. We demonstrate how Cloud Pathfinder simplifies troubleshooting by automatically mapping cloud network paths, pinpointing misconfigured security rules or incorrect routes, and providing actionable insights powered by integrated AI analysis. Reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and gain instant visibility into your cloud infrastructure with Kentik.

What Is a Network Assessment, and What Is a Network Audit?

These days, networks are larger and more complex than ever. It’s all too easy to fall short when managing performance, security, and compliance. That’s where network assessments and network audits can help. Both network assessments and network audits can give you a more comprehensive understanding of your network and its current strengths, weaknesses, and threats. As a result, you can quickly identify and resolve issues.

Best RDP Providers for Secure Remote Connection [Updated List]

When it comes to selecting top RDP providers, securing your remote connection is non-negotiable. The best RDP providers go beyond simple access they offer robust encryption, multi-layered authentication, and proactive DDoS protection, ensuring your data stays private. Reliability, low latency, and fast SSD storage are crucial to prevent disruptions. Flexibility in server locations enhances performance, while scalable plans to accommodate business growth. When you decide to buy RDP, keep in mind that a great RDP provider also prioritizes 24/7 support, so you're never left in the dark.

What AI workloads really need from your network

The rapid advancement of generative AI has brought with it new challenges and complexities - particularly when it comes to networking. As organisations globally rush to leverage large language models (LLMs) to transform their operations, it’s imperative to understand that AI isn’t just about algorithms and data science, it’s also about the network that underpins it all.

Network Stress Testing: What It Is & How to Run One

You’ve optimized your QoS settings, fine-tuned your firewall, and even upgraded your bandwidth, but what happens when your network gets hit with 10x the normal traffic? Will it hold up, or will it buckle under the pressure, leaving your users staring at spinning wheels and timeout errors? If you’re an IT pro, you know outages don’t happen during idle hours. They strike when traffic spikes.

The State of SSL Stacks

A paper on this topic was prepared for internal use within HAProxy last year, and this version is now being shared publicly. Given the critical role of SSL in securing internet communication and the challenges presented by evolving SSL technologies, reverse proxies like HAProxy must continuously adapt their SSL strategies to maintain performance and compatibility, ensuring a secure and efficient experience for users. We are committed to providing ongoing updates on these developments.

Powering MNO's 5G Future - A Collaborative Vision

Most Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) prioritized the deployment of 5G RAN infrastructure for both data and voice. Refarming 3G radio spectrum, implementing network slicing, adopting cloud native architectures, and driving automation are key for mobile networks. This blog will explore these ideas and show how Ribbon’s solutions are focused on this accelerated adoption.

Connecting DigitalOcean and AWS

Connecting DigitalOcean and AWS with Megaport In this demo, Kevin Dresser, Solution Architect at Megaport, shows you how to connect your infrastructure across DigitalOcean and AWS using a Megaport Cloud Router (MCR). You’ll learn how to: Deploy a Cloud Router Create a virtual connection (VXC) to DigitalOcean via Partner Network Connect Set up a connection to AWS via Direct Connect Configure BGP and validate route learning Achieve seamless, private connectivity between cloud environments.

Maintaining Effective IT Infrastructure Monitoring in the Public Sector

Public sector organizations have needs very different from their commercial counterparts. Cybercriminals go after public sector organizations because they hold confidential, often classified, information—the exact data state-sponsored and other criminal groups salivate over. Based on tax payments, these organizations serve and answer to the public. Progress WhatsUp Gold offers ample out-of-the box monitoring features, helping you monitor more of what matters to your organization.

Mastering Network Configuration for Stability and Security

Your network is the central nervous system of your business. Its performance, reliability, and security have a direct impact on your organization’s operations, revenue, and reputation. Yet, lurking within this critical infrastructure is a common source of disruption and risk: network configuration changes.

Beyond the Horizon: Building Cyber Resiliency by Embracing the Inevitable

"Once you address the vulnerabilities you do know about, there will be more vulnerabilities you don't know about," In light of the recent cyberattacks making headlines the latest episode of Beyond the Horizons Podcast Lewis Pope explores how even if you think you're doing everything right, if you're preparing for the IF and not the WHEN you're not cyber resilient.

A Guide to Improving Network Performance

Discover practical ways to boost speed, reduce latency, and optimize your architecture with our complete guide to better network performance. Dropped video calls and audio troubles, payment delays, customer churn, frustrated employees, unfinished projects, lost revenue – the ripple effect of poor network performance can quickly become disastrous for your business. But when it comes to improving this performance, it’s hard to know where to start.

WhatsUp Gold IT-Infrastruktur-Monitoring: Überblick, Entwicklungen & Neuerungen

Erleben Sie in unserem exklusiven Webinar, wie Sie mit WhatsUp Gold Ihr IT-Monitoring auf das nächste Level heben. Wir zeigen Ihnen die neuesten Funktionen, spannende Weiterentwicklungen der letzten zwei Jahre und geben einen exklusiven Ausblick auf das, was kommt – darunter das leistungsstarke Network Traffic Analysis Plus (NTA+).

The Role that US VPNs Play in Enhancing Online Privacy Due to Changing Tech Trends

Living in a time when digital privacy has become a growing concern, Virtual Private Networks have emerged as the need of the hour to secure online activities. A US VPN, in particular, offers certain advantages to individuals and businesses alike for accessing content, securing data, and maintaining anonymity in an ever-connected world. As the trends in technology keep changing with time, so does the role of VPNs in ensuring online security and privacy.

Observe VMWare vCenter Cluster and Cloud with Confidence: Achieve Full Stack Observability with DX Operational Observability (DX O2)

As enterprises continue their cloud and container journeys as part of modernization efforts, they are realizing “hybrid reality” is here to stay. For many, moving all services to clouds or containers is not a viable option. As a result, at least some services will be required to remain on premises. This presents unique challenges and ongoing complexity for monitoring and observability.

Redoing My Progress WhatsUp Gold Home Lab with Proxmox: A Journey of Failover, Backup and Recovery

Greetings, tech enthusiasts! I hope you’re all doing well. Today, I’m thrilled to share the story of my recent adventure in rearchitecting my home lab with Proxmox. This journey has been a rollercoaster of unexpected challenges, valuable lessons, and rewarding successes. I built a resilient and efficient setup that exceeded my initial expectations by leveraging modern virtualization and storage technologies.

Top Microsoft Teams Metrics: How to Measure & Improve Call Quality

As an IT professional, you know that Microsoft Teams is only as good as the network it runs on. Poor call quality (choppy audio, frozen video, or sudden disconnections) can disrupt productivity and frustrate users. But how do you pinpoint the root cause? The answer lies in monitoring Microsoft Teams performance metrics.