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Network operations and security play pivotal roles in safeguarding infrastructure and assets. However, traditional approaches to deploying network security and monitoring often create more challenges than they solve. The process of hosting layers of security and monitoring systems, relying on existing switching infrastructure, poses issues such as interrupted traffic flow and escalating implementation costs with each added layer of security.

Challenges in Traditional Methods

Deploying network security and monitoring involves a laborious process of identifying and allocating network switches for forwarding traffic. The performance of network switches becomes a concern, as they are not designed to efficiently copy and forward massive amounts of traffic to various solutions. This repetitive process amplifies operational costs and elongates the time to implementation whenever an organization decides to enhance security layers.

The Solution: Dedicated Visibility Solutions

The key lies in offloading the burden of spanning/mirroring from infrastructure devices to dedicated visibility solutions. These solutions, designed specifically for capturing and delivering network traffic at a line rate, alleviate the strain on network teams. Once implemented, network teams can rest assured about their network switch performance, as external systems (like TAP devices) handle mirroring and copying, aggregating the data at a central point (typically a network packet broker). This centralized approach enables forwarding to different security and monitoring solutions as needed, streamlining the analysis, inspection, and detection of anomalies.

Benefits of an Organized Visibility Architecture:

1. Operational Efficiency: Significantly reduces the man-hours needed for implementing network security and monitoring solutions, concentrating the process within a single distribution platform (network packet broker).
2. Time to Implementation: Massively reduces the time required for implementation, as the network team doesn’t need to allocate new resources for each security layer. Aggregation and filtering further trim down the bandwidth requirement on security and monitoring solutions.
3. Focused Traffic Forwarding: By forwarding only dedicated and focused traffic, bandwidth requirements on security and monitoring solutions are optimized.

Specific Ways Visibility Empowers SecOps and NetOps Teams:

1. Improved Efficiency: Provides a single source of truth for network traffic data, enhancing troubleshooting speed and threat identification.
2. Cost Reduction: Diminishes the need for multiple security and monitoring solutions, cutting costs and simplifying the deployment of new solutions.
3. Risk Mitigation: Reduces the risk of security breaches by offering a better understanding of network traffic patterns, aiding in the identification of suspicious activity.

Conclusion

Visibility emerges as a critical component of any network security and monitoring solution. Purpose-built visibility empowers SecOps and NetOps teams to enhance efficiency, cut costs, and mitigate risks effectively.

About Niagara Networks:

Niagara Networks specializes in network visibility, providing advanced solutions tailored to the unique needs of enterprises and large, complex networks.

Don’t leave your network vulnerable – schedule a consultation with one of our network visibility experts today send an email to marketing@scopeme.com to evaluate and address your network visibility challenges.