Next-Generation Network Packet Brokers Report Summary – Next-Generation Network Packet Brokers: Defining the Future of Network Visibility Fabrics Executive Summary This research summary highlights the findings of a new Enterprise Management Associates study that examines emerging requirements for delivering network traffic data to out-of-band and inline network and security analysis tools. Specifically, it looks at the current usage of and emerging best practices for network visibility fabrics and network packet brokers. Based on a survey of 250 IT professionals, the research also explores next-generation use cases like traffic monitoring in virtualized infrastructure and the public cloud, and it looks at evolving form factors, such as disaggregated “white box” network packet brokers. Network Traffic Analysis is Essential to IT Operations and Security Teams Network traffic analysis is arguably the best way to understand what is happening in a network. Packets crossing the wire are the ultimate source of truth. They can tell analysts where traffic came from, where it’s going, and what it contains. IT operations and security teams typically use multiple tools that analyze traffic from various segments of the network. The delivery of traffic to all of these tools can be a significant challenge. Networks, applications, and data centers are constantly growing and evolving, creating more infrastructure and services that must be monitored. Many analysis tools need to collect data from the same network segments, which creates contention over access to traffic. Also, scale and complexity are expanding as enterprises embrace software-defined infrastructure, virtualization, public cloud services, and the Internet of Things to compete in an increasingly digital economy. In fact, this year EMA research found that enterprise network management decision-making is driven primarily by software-defined data center initiatives, server virtualization, public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) migration, and private cloud architecture.1 Many enterprises install a network visibility fabric to connect their traffic analysis tools with traffic data. A visibility fabric mirrors traffic from the production network for out-of-band monitoring, but it can also connect live traffic with inline security tools like firewalls and intrusion prevention systems. These fabrics consist of port mirroring solutions, inline bypass solutions, and network packet brokers. Mature IT organizations deploy and use these network visibility fabrics to provide tools with consistent access to traffic, but they also leverage the advanced traffic grooming and filtering features of network packet brokers to right-size data flows to individual tools. 1 PAGE 1 EMA, “Network Management Megatrends 2018: Exploring NetSecOps Convergence, Network Automation, and Cloud Networking,” April 2018. ©2018 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com Report Summary – Next-Generation Network Packet Brokers: Defining the Future of Network Visibility Fabrics Research Goal This research study looks at the current state of enterprise network visibility fabrics, with a particular emphasis and focus on network packet brokers, which form the core of any large and complex fabric. The goal is to identify the features, architecture, and administrative capabilities that enterprises most value in network packet brokers. This research also identifies how enterprises are adapting their visibility fabrics to new technology trends, such as virtualization, public cloud, and hardware-software disaggregation. Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) last examined this topic with the October 2013 research study “Network Visibility Controllers: Best Practices for Mainstreaming Monitoring Fabrics.” The new research will refer to the 2013 study occasionally to draw trendlines between then and now. This research study looks at the current state of enterprise network visibility fabrics, with a particular emphasis and focus on network packet brokers. Research Methodology For this research, EMA surveyed a random sample of 250 enterprise technology professionals who are directly involved in multiple aspects of their organization’s network visibility fabric. In fact, majorities of the respondents are involved in every aspect of the visibility fabric lifecycle, from product evaluation to deployment to actual use of the solutions. Most frequently, respondents are users of network monitoring tools connected to a visibility fabric (69 percent) and security monitoring tools connected to a fabric (70 percent). A significant majority of them are also responsible for managing and maintaining the visibility fabric itself. Slightly more than half of respondents indicated that they are involved in researching these solutions, purchasing them, and implementing them. While this research examines network visibility fabrics broadly, it is particularly focused on the use of network packet brokers, which are the core element of any mature and sophisticated visibility fabric. Thus, to qualify for this research, participants had to have a packet broker currently deployed in his or her environment. To gain a sense of how much experience an enterprise has with these solutions, EMA asked participants to reveal how long they have had these devices deployed. Figure 2 reveals that the plurality of respondents (47 percent) have had NPBs deployed for one to five years. Another significant portion (41 percent) only deployed NPBs in the last year. A small minority (12 percent) have had them in place for more than five years. 41% We have deployed this technology for less than 12 months We have deployed this technology for 1 to 5 years 47% We have deployed this technology for 5 years or more We have not deployed this technology 12% 0% Figure 2. Current status of deployment of Network Packet Brokers (NPBs) within an organization’s infrastructure PAGE 2 ©2018 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 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Report Summary – Next-Generation Network Packet Brokers: Defining the Future of Network Visibility Fabrics Executive Summary This research summary highlights the findings of a new Enterprise Management Associates study that examines emerging requirements for delivering network traffic data to out-of-band and inline network and security analysis tools. Specifically, it looks at the current usage of and emerging best practices for network visibility fabrics and network packet brokers. Based on a survey of 250 IT professionals, the research also explores next-generation use cases like traffic monitoring in virtualized infrastructure and the public cloud, and it looks at evolving form factors, such as disaggregated “white box” network packet brokers. Network Traffic Analysis is Essential to IT Operations and Security Teams Network traffic analysis is arguably the best way to understand what is happening in a network. Packets crossing the wire are the ultimate source of truth. They can tell analysts where traffic came from, where it’s going, and what it contains. IT operations and security teams typically use multiple tools that analyze traffic from various segments of the network. The delivery of traffic to all of these tools can be a significant challenge. Networks, applications, and data centers are constantly growing and evolving, creating more infrastructure and services that must be monitored. Many analysis tools need to collect data from the same network segments, which creates contention over access to traffic. Also, scale and complexity are expanding as enterprises embrace software-defined infrastructure, virtualization, public cloud services, and the Internet of Things to compete in an increasingly digital economy. In fact, this year EMA research found that enterprise network management decision-making is driven primarily by software-defined data center initiatives, server virtualization, public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) migration, and private cloud architecture.1 Many enterprises install a network visibility fabric to connect their traffic analysis tools with traffic data. A visibility fabric mirrors traffic from the production network for out-of-band monitoring, but it can also connect live traffic with inline security tools like firewalls and intrusion prevention systems. These fabrics consist of port mirroring solutions, inline bypass solutions, and network packet brokers. Mature IT organizations deploy and use these network visibility fabrics to provide tools with consistent access to traffic, but they also leverage the advanced traffic grooming and filtering features of network packet brokers to right-size data flows to individual tools. 1 PAGE 1 EMA, “Network Management Megatrends 2018: Exploring NetSecOps Convergence, Network Automation, and Cloud Networking,” April 2018. ©2018 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com Report Summary – Next-Generation Network Packet Brokers: Defining the Future of Network Visibility Fabrics Research Goal This research study looks at the current state of enterprise network visibility fabrics, with a particular emphasis and focus on network packet brokers, which form the core of any large and complex fabric. The goal is to identify the features, architecture, and administrative capabilities that enterprises most value in network packet brokers. This research also identifies how enterprises are adapting their visibility fabrics to new technology trends, such as virtualization, public cloud, and hardware-software disaggregation. Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) last examined this topic with the October 2013 research study “Network Visibility Controllers: Best Practices for Mainstreaming Monitoring Fabrics.” The new research will refer to the 2013 study occasionally to draw trendlines between then and now. This research study looks at the current state of enterprise network visibility fabrics, with a particular emphasis and focus on network packet brokers. Research Methodology For this research, EMA surveyed a random sample of 250 enterprise technology professionals who are directly involved in multiple aspects of their organization’s network visibility fabric. In fact, majorities of the respondents are involved in every aspect of the visibility fabric lifecycle, from product evaluation to deployment to actual use of the solutions. Most frequently, respondents are users of network monitoring tools connected to a visibility fabric (69 percent) and security monitoring tools connected to a fabric (70 percent). A significant majority of them are also responsible for managing and maintaining the visibility fabric itself. Slightly more than half of respondents indicated that they are involved in researching these solutions, purchasing them, and implementing them. While this research examines network visibility fabrics broadly, it is particularly focused on the use of network packet brokers, which are the core element of any mature and sophisticated visibility fabric. Thus, to qualify for this research, participants had to have a packet broker currently deployed in his or her environment. To gain a sense of how much experience an enterprise has with these solutions, EMA asked participants to reveal how long they have had these devices deployed. Figure 2 reveals that the plurality of respondents (47 percent) have had NPBs deployed for one to five years. Another significant portion (41 percent) only deployed NPBs in the last year. A small minority (12 percent) have had them in place for more than five years. 41% We have deployed this technology for less than 12 months We have deployed this technology for 1 to 5 years 47% We have deployed this technology for 5 years or more We have not deployed this technology 12% 0% Figure 2. Current status of deployment of Network Packet Brokers (NPBs) within an organization’s infrastructure PAGE 2 ©2018 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com
