In a recent release, NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, a provider of business assurance, has announced new security capabilities on the nGenius 5000 series packet flow switch, its open compute-based packet broker platform.
Today, IT and security teams often use disparate products to achieve security and service assurance visibility, which results in high capital expenditures and silos of visibility. The newly-available inline security functionality from NETSCOUT addresses these challenges by providing network professionals with a common, unified packet acquisition plane that is both software-driven and cost-effective.
“The packet broker market is in dire need of next-generation solutions to help customers boost overall efficiency across IT and security,” said Jessy F. Cavazos, industry director, Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert). “Since the threat landscape is extensive and continually evolving, security architectures need to be pervasive and unified without breaking the bank. NETSCOUT’s software-driven approach, combining both active and passive monitoring, can serve as a strong foundation to support next-generation architectures.”
As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to connect more and more devices and systems to networks, the need for pervasive security visibility is more critical, requiring scalability and potentially increasing cost. To address these challenges, the nGenius 5000 packet flow switches are designed to provide the smart and cost-effective data acquisition layer needed for today’s distributed networks. Built on open compute-based hardware with software-based packet broker functionality, the nGenius 5000 packet flow switches enable economies of scale, while keeping costs down.
“What we find especially attractive about the NETSCOUT approach is that it supports all packet brokering capabilities and applications on open compute-based switches – including inline security,” said Phil Higgins, CEO, Brookcourt Solutions. “Unifying security and network visibility onto a single platform means substantial capex reduction for our clients. Their teams can also collaborate better thanks to the unified architecture and common operating system.”
The nGenius switches are an integral part of the NETSCOUT service and security assurance platform, which offers unique advantages, such as the ability to monitor the health of a visibility fabric from the nGeniusONE console.
“We have seen significant traction with enterprise and service provider customers who have adopted the disaggregated architecture,” said Sanjay Munshi, VP, product management, Packet Flow Systems, NETSCOUT. “Compared to the traditional architecture, we are now shipping four times the number of ports with the software-driven approach and the dollar value of orders for our PFS 5000 now exceeds our conventional hardware-based PFS models.”