I’m blogging this from the hotel room near Union Square, and so far, RSA has been a lot of fun. Yesterday I took a few minutes to take some [very raw] video footage of the Expo to share with those of you who were unable to attend the show. Please excuse the audio quality; as [...]
Posts under ‘Tool Aggregation’
Network Emulation and Monitoring: Call for Input
Good morning to all of our readers, and thank you for your time and attention here on our blog.
In the past year plus, we’ve covered a wide gamut of topics on The Network View. We’ve done a series about how to calculate an ROI (or cost savings, more like it) for simplifying the complexity of passive monitoring tools in the data center. We spent many weeks sharing insights from SPoTs (Security Pros on Twitter), many of whom you already knew, and a few who were very likely new folks to some of you. We shared some key players at a few security tool vendors in our ALIST series. And we’ve covered research, trends, 2010 predictions, and even some network emulation topics.
Network and Security Monitoring: Study Shows Much Room For Improvement
A few days ago we announced the results of Monitoring Optimization 2010: Trends and Issues Surrounding Network and Security Monitoring from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). We commissioned EMA for this study in mid-2009 because we found a significant shortage of available data regarding out-of-band / passive monitoring. Quite simply, we have been building out our product strategy with a particular approach in mind. This approach has been validated innumerable times by prospects and customers, but the smart strategist doesn’t build a product based strictly on anecdotal data or a myopic view of the world.
So we took matters into our own hands.
Data Center Staffs Need Relief in 2010
Symantec recently released their third annual 2010 State of the Data Center report, and there were some especially important findings in the area of data center staff productivity. We’ve been talking about this important topic for a long time, and this seems like an ideal time to review the key findings, translate exactly what they mean for data centers, and tie it all together.
Predictions for 2010: Breaking Down IDC’s Take for Data Centers and Service Providers
Continuing our end of year review of the various predictions from IT and networking thought leaders, today we turn our attention to IDC. For those of us who have been in high tech since the early 90s (or longer), IDC is a well-known entity. I remember working with them directly back in my days of fab planning and market research at Advanced Micro Devices, and they always offered a spin that made me take pause when interpreting trends and new developments.
A Look Inside Security Tools (ALIST): Bill Roth of LogLogic
After a one-week hiatus for the Thanksgiving holiday (and we hope you liked our “MeThinks” entry), we turn our attention back to the ALIST series. For those of you who are familiar with the SIEM space, you should already know about LogLogic. Bill Roth, their new CMO, has graciously agreed to take part in the ALIST series. As a quick aside from our focus on SEs and Technical Marketing types, let’s get the viewpoint from the executive suite.
MeThinks: Now is a Great Time to Give Thanks
This week we will enjoy a major holiday here in the USA, Thanksgiving. This tradition originated in the earliest days of our country’s existence, and we still take pause once each year to celebrate all of the good things that life has placed before us. While this is most certainly a time to enjoy family and be together, we want to take a brief moment to express gratitude as a company for the good things that have befallen us in the past year.
A Look Inside Security Tools (ALIST): Johnnie Konstantas of Altor Networks
After our one-week hiatus from the ALIST series, we turn our attention back here to profile a key executive at Altor Networks. Johnnie Konstantas has a long track record of technical and marketing leadership success at leading companies such as Juniper Networks, CheckPoint, and most recently, Varonis Systems. Now, she leads the charge to market Altor Networks’ virtualization security products. Let’s get right to the interview…
A Look Inside Security Tools (ALIST): Rob Andrews of Sonicwall
Today we are kicking off our “A Look Inside Security Tools” (ALIST) series, starting with Rob Andrews, System Engineer from Sonicwall. Over the next several weeks, we will be interviewing technical sales professionals from leading security monitoring tool companies. But don’t worry, this will not be a straight product pitch. We do offer each subject to share an elevator pitch about their flagship product, but we will also delve into a range of security topics associated with virtualization, cloud computing, and “Golden Eggs”.
PODCAST: How to Maximize Monitoring Coverage When You Run Out of SPANs or Taps
Monitoring Is Critical
As security and IT professionals, network and application monitoring has become increasingly important for a variety of reasons, including:
• New Data Security and Lawful Intercept compliance requirements that mandate full monitoring coverage, rather than sampling, the most common monitoring approach before these regulations emerged
• Service-Level Agreements that require a minimum level of performance and availability on important
services and applications
• New high-bandwidth applications such as IPTV and VoIP that must not only be monitored, but must also be delivered to the user with the packets in the correct sequence
• Increased dependence on electronics communications mediums and digital business transactions, requiring minimized downtime to support revenue and other financial goals
• Desire to shorten troubleshooting and disaster recovery activities without interrupting business processes or making customers aware that a problem happened in the first place
• Need to increase the network operations team’s productivity and to pre-empt upgrade and service needs before problems emerge
Clearly, these issues are relevant to both technical and business stakeholders, so monitoring has become a core requirement for network operations and security purposes.