The use of Packet Brokers in a Network Visibility Architecture

The key to staying ahead of security threats or network performance problems is to have a network visibility architecture. By understanding the traffic that’s flowing on your network you can provide each tool with the right packet for protection, optimization, and success.

You can access all traffic by using network TAPs, they will provide you with complete visibility of your traffic. However, nowadays ‘complex networks’ challenge is getting the right data into the correct monitoring tool. When you first start to develop your network, you might only have a few segments and thus relatively fewer analysis tools, making it appear appropriate to connect them directly. But as your network scales up, those 1:1 connections will become a management headache. It's also possible that complex analytical tools like firewalls have even fewer ports, therefore it's important to avoid overloading technology to the point where performance is compromised.

Here is when the Network Packet Broker (NPB) enters the picture. An NPB is used to optimize traffic between TAPs and tools for network security, monitoring, and performance. They can route network traffic effectively by maintaining as many port maps between network ports as there are monitoring tool ports. Linked devices can work more efficiently with the help of this cutting-edge technology using data aggregation, filtering to optimize bandwidth utilization, and load balancing to increase efficiency.

The "Broker" functionality of NPB refers to its ability to aggregate, integrate, separate, manipulate, and process inputs from many sources while sending the data to a variety of appliance and tool destinations. Giving the right data to the right tool will improve security and performance, increase productivity, and reduce costs.

Key Benefits

As network architectures advance and grow more complicated, the use of NPB offers a key layer of intelligence to minimize complexity and benefits from:

• Accurate Data Analysis. Thanks to the advanced packet manipulation the packet broker will deliver the right data to the right tool, increasing their performance and efficiency.

• Enhanced Security. Providing firewalls, IPSs, and other security tools with the correct data in real-time helps to stop threats and prevent cybercrime.

• Rapid Recovery Time. The NPB’s manipulation features help to detect and determine the cause issues in real-time and with advanced intelligence applications it reduces downtime.

• Increase Productivity. NPBs help tools increase performance, decrease congestion, and achieve better coverage with fewer devices by processing only relevant traffic.

For more information contact the expert team at www.networkcritical.com/contact-us