Overcoming Sales Myopia

Myopia is the word optometrist’s use for “shortsightedness.” You can see up close but the big, far away picture is a blur. Metaphorically, many sales professionals suffer from this myopia when developing solutions for their hard fought prospects and customers.

You cold call. You network. You follow-up leads. You attend trade shows. You advertise. You prospect. These activities fill your day in the hopes of finding another new account. Then you talk about problems and solutions. You make presentations. You handle objections. You buy lunch. You get engineers involved. You fend off competing solutions. You negotiate pricing, delivery and support. Finally, you get an order!

Needless to say, there is a lot of work on the path between prospect and order. So, when you finally get the order you want to make it a big as possible. What if you could add 10% or 15% to every order you close? That is a relatively small percentage but it can add up over the course of a year or a career. That extra revenue per sale could be just enough to get you on the Top Performer list, to get you that Hawaii trip or even to put you into the next tax bracket.

Think about how much work goes into getting a sale. So, once you are “in the door” you have to ask yourself, “How can I broaden the solution to get the maximum amount of this customer’s budget in my order book?” Adding Network Access to your design is an often overlooked revenue enhancer that is simple, quick and solution neutral.

The prospect may be adding nodes, tightening security, enhancing monitoring or upgrading technology. They are focusing on the initial application for which the budget was approved. This is where the savvy sales pro has an opportunity to create extra value, strengthen the solution, create competitive barriers and increase the size of the order.

Taps and Network Access products are necessary elements to implement many IT projects. However, they are often not given much thought in the design process. By discussing taps and access devices early, and adding them into the design, you can differentiate your proposal while increasing your revenue opportunity. Taps are broadly used so you can add them into a wide variety of applications. Once familiar with their use, you will find these products to be a simple and lucrative addition to your product portfolio. While taps are likely not what the prospect is initially asking for, there is a good chance that, if you bring it up, you will find that they will be needed somewhere in the project design.

Spending a little time with a tap vendor like Network Critical can help you increase your sales revenue and strengthen your position as a valuable consultant to your customers. You can learn more about taps and network access devices at http://www.networkcritical.com.

Being short sighted about solution development is a sales trap that is easy to fix. Look beyond the requested application and offer a complete solution. Sharpen your network access vision and you can grow revenue with every sale.

Mobulation Explosion

By: Dan O’Donnell

I will take credit here for coining a new word, “mobulation.” I hope mobulation will someday be added to Webster’s Dictionary and make me famous. In the mean time, I will write some thoughts about the pending mobulation explosion.

Let’s start with a clear definition. Mobulation is the population of mobile network connected devices including cell phones, smart phones, tablets and laptops. The mobulation explosion is my term for the incredible growth in mobile devices and the network traffic they create. Cisco predicts that by the end of 2012 there will be more mobile devices than people on this earth we all share. This prediction will have a near term critical impact on the networking industry. The report is the Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011 – 2016.

As more phones are put into service, more data will be generated. However, in addition to phone traffic, smart mobile devices are generating data and video traffic at a much greater rate. Here are some interesting numbers:
• Smartphones represent only 12 percent of global handsets in use today but they use over 82 percent of total handset traffic.
• The number of mobile-connected tablets tripled in 2011 to 34 million. Each tablet generates 3.4 times the network traffic than the average smartphone.
• Mobile connected laptops generate 22 times more traffic than smartphones. Mobile data traffic per laptop was 2.1GB per month, up 46 percent from 2010.
• Global mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold between 2011 and 2016 reaching 10.8 exabytes per month. (1 exabyte = 1 quintillion bytes or 10¹⁸ bytes)

These numbers remind me of when I was taking Astronomy in college. It is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the numbers. Imagine, though, what will happen to network traffic when smartphones represent 40% of the global handset market. Imagine the mobile data traffic loads when the tablet market, which is still very young, matures to ubiquity.

These events will have enormous impact on today’s networks and not just for service providers. As smart mobile devices blur the line between corporate and private data traffic, the increased throughput will impact enterprise as well as carrier networks. New strategies will be needed for network monitoring, management and security. More specialized and faster appliances will be required to protect corporate assets and keep confidential information secured.

The glue holding all these appliances together is the network access device. A well-planned monitoring strategy built around permanent network access equipment will help keep appliance port costs down and maintain high network availability. The AFS by Network Critical is one example of this foundational piece for network monitoring and security. The AFS provides access, aggregation, filtering and load-balanced distribution in a small 1U package.

The experts at Network Critical are working with enterprise and carrier clients every day designing intelligent, next generation access strategies. The Mobulation Explosion is happening now. Do not wait until your network is overwhelmed by an onslaught of mobile data traffic. Plan your high speed/high availability network access strategy now.

Virtually Simple

By Dan O’Donnell

Live simple. What a nice concept. Our lives in the technology industry, however, seem to be all about conquering the complicated rather than pursuing the simple.

Mobility, virtualization, more data, faster links, new applications and increasing vulnerability all require complex and sophisticated systems to manage and protect networks. Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure growth is increasing bandwidth requirements. Appliances are becoming more specialized so more are required. Connecting the tools without impacting network availability and managing all the appliances at 10Gbps link speeds is now becoming its own specialty.

A Gartner report, “Emerging Technology Analysis: Hosted Virtual Desktops” says the number of virtual desktops worldwide will increase to 66 million by 2014. While this growth of virtual technology is efficient for businesses, it adds complexity to network and application management. The need for greater visibility into network performance and application performance will increase just as dramatically as the growth of network bandwidth and virtual desktops.

Boiling it all down, there is a need to pursue simplicity in this ever more complicated environment. Time spent chasing network issues when the problem is with an application is time wasted. Time spent drilling down through layers and layers of analysis on 10Gbps link traffic can be frustrating while clients are experiencing outages or response time issues. Resolving performance issues proactively and optimizing network performance are more worthy pursuits than troubleshooting problems.

A side note on the business perspective of simple proactive network management…A team focused on trouble shooting is considered a cost center. A team focused on improving network performance and IT ROI is considered a strategic asset to the company.

So, in pursuit of a simple answer, what about a unified system providing end-to-end performance visibility across the network, allowing quick isolation of the root cause of performance issues? What about a solution that solves complex application issues simply? What about a couple of simple tools that are easy to deploy and take only a few RUs of rack space? What about connecting all your 1Gbps links through a port aggregator rolling them up to a few high-speed links for consolidated management? What about proactive network management, resolving issues before the clients even notice problems?

The Network Critical AFS port aggregator and the Visual Networks VPM Xpress 10G combine to provide a complete yet simple solution for link aggregation, network and application management. The AFS and Xpress solution allows network managers in virtual environments, carrier and cloud networks an efficient, simple solution to proactive network and application management.

Simple is good. Follow the links below for more information:

View the Network Critical AFS port aggregator here
Download the Network Critical Aggregating Filtering System (AFS) datasheet here
View the Visual Networks VPM Xpress 10G here
Download the Visual Networks VPM Xpress brochure here

Get Noticed in 2012

By: Dan O’Donnell

Remember Rodney Dangerfield, the comedian whose signature line was “I don’t get no respect.” Those with jobs in IT, Cyber Security, Networking and the like know the feeling. When things go right (which takes a lot of dedication, specialized knowledge and hard work) nobody notices. When things go wrong (which can happen no matter how hard you work to keep things humming) the entire company is screaming like a banshee on steroids. Suddenly, everyone knows your name.

Sales guys get noticed when they sell things. They get trips to Tahiti, awards and a lot of positive recognition. Marketing develops programs and ads that are creative and widely publicized. Engineering develops cool designs that turn into products everyone can see. Even the guys from Finance are always making charts and presentations to the CEO showing their ROI calculations and how to finance new projects.

How can IT and Networking demonstrate their positive contributions to the organization? The key is to look at your job in a new way. Categorize, quantify and report on your contributions. Network Security, for example, keeps bad things from happening that could ruin a company. Theft of confidential customer information, leakage of classified product designs, external hacks that slow or block system access are a few examples of bad things that the Network Security group helps prevent. When things go right these issues do not exist so it is hard to quantify the contributions. However, there are industry reports that track these trends that can be used to set baselines.

Using the Network Security example, a department head can develop a set of indices setting Key Performance Indicators based on industry norms for a variety of network and security metrics. Then correlate the economic impact of meeting and exceeding these metrics. What you will have is a report that shows the ongoing financial benefit that sound security practices and procedures can bring to the company every day. Remember, money not spent, is profit.

The idea here is to quantify and report on the positive contributions that are made every day. Take the technical jargon out of the reports. Resist the urge to discuss the benefits of dual stack routers for IPv6 conversion (save that for departmental meetings). The CEO is less interested in how you do it but keenly interested in the contribution to the bottom line. The CEO is a business person and his/her interest is shareholder return. Show that your ideas are necessary to protect the company brand, to create revenue, or to reduce risk and liability.

Finally, be proactive with these ideas. Develop your business oriented reports and ask for time to present. In 2012, resolve to take a quarterly trip in the elevator to the top floor. Show your value to the company. Perhaps, you too, will be on a plane to Tahiti with the Sales leaders.

The Year of the Tap

By: Dan O’Donnell

Welcome to 2012. As the technology parade winds its way down Main Street, pay attention to the little float called Tap and Access. It has been in the parade for a number of years but fresh flowers and new designs are causing a buzz in the curbside crowd.

During the last four years or so, there has been a quiet storm brewing in network monitoring solutions. The tap market has been growing dramatically. The primary driver for this architectural revolution has been broad market acceptance of taps as a permanent architectural element in network monitoring and management solutions.

Why are networks so universally transitioning from Span ports to tap solutions? Here are a few ideas:

• Too few Span ports – With the introduction of many specialized network appliances that all need 24/7 link access, there are not enough Span ports to go around
• In-Line Access – Many new security appliances provide network protection by taking immediate action to resolve threats. These appliances are installed risk-free on network links by connecting through reliable, hardware-based In-Line taps. This method of connecting active appliances is often called a “Virtual In-Line” connection.
• Data Switching and Port Aggregation – As link speed migrates from 100Mbps to 1Gbps to 10Gbps and beyond, there is an increasing need to aggregate multiple lower speed links up to higher end tools. Conversely, there is also a need to distribute core high speed access to multiple lower speed links. These port switching devices provide many sophisticated access features and take their input from taps on the links. This practice provides risk free fail-safe access to the links while the data switches manage and distribute the traffic.
• Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) – This will be a big, big, big transition for 2012. Next Gen Firewalls are ready for prime time. These new versions of firewalls are addressing the more sophisticated threat environment with higher level visibility and control and will be the perimeter security cornerstone of networks. The transition is underway now and the best practice for NGFW connectivity is using In-Line taps.

Network Critical, a global innovator of permanent, modular taps and high speed data switches, aggregators and load balancers, is leading the network access revolution. Tap solutions from simple access to complex aggregation and distribution architectures can be found in the Network Critical product portfolio.

As network operators develop plans for upgrading to NGFW, high speed port aggregation, In-Line security appliances and other specialized access applications, Network Critical will be supporting their access requirements.

Taps and access devices may not be the Grand Marshall of the technology parade in 2012, but the tap market may very well win the Sweepstakes Trophy for fastest growing support technology. Happy New Year!

Cloud Pilot Architecture

By: Dan O’Donnell

Many Service Providers (SP) are considering plans to provide cloud computing services. This new business model allows SPs to increase ARPU, add to their service offerings, differentiate themselves from their competitors, increase their customer base and become a strategic partner to their large business customers. This move makes perfect business sense and much of the infrastructure is already in place. However, as these Service Providers moves from a model of information transit to comprehensive information management there are many new issues to be addressed.

In the information transit model, the Service Provider SLA includes such guarantees as acceptable delay, network availability, bandwidth allocation and QoS parameters. In the new cloud model, the Service Provider becomes an Information Manger as well. Customer data is now resident on SP servers and located in SP data centers. Access must be managed and secured; the data must be protected and partitioned accurately and absolutely. The provider of cloud services is now responsible for the protection of their customer’s data, not only the transit of that information.

There are high level business process models being discussed in the TM Forum today as well as a wide variety of high level business model issues that need to be addressed. However, time to market will be a key determinant of who will be the leaders and who will be the laggards in this new frontier. In addition to understanding the business practices surrounding this new opportunity, it is important for SP’s to get their feet wet sooner rather than later. It is necessary to find some willing and friendly customers to pilot cloud models and to patiently work through the inevitable hitches and snags that will be present in any new service. When company data is involved, however, it is important that the access to this content is protected and the information flow is understood.

Fortunately, there are many excellent tools available today that can help manage, analyze and protect network data flows. There are three key areas of information flow that need to be closely managed:
1. Ingress information – Access from outside the cloud must be managed and secured to prevent attacks and malicious programs. Specialized tools for this fall into the IPS/IDS category.
2. Egress information – Attacks do not always come from external sources. Many SP and client company employees will have access to the network, the servers and company information for a variety of reasons. These authorized users include, SP service and support technicians, network engineers and managers are a just few. Any one of this group has the potential to maliciously or accidentally compromise confidential and proprietary data. There are tools to prevent data leakage that fall into the appliance group called DLP.
3. Network Forensics – It is important to understand application performance, network performance and overall data flow. There are many sniffers and probes available to analyze and report on network activity and performance. These are the base line appliances necessary for management of any network.

There are other tools to manage such issues as regulatory compliance, consumer experience management, network performance and others. By simply focusing on the three tools above, we can cover attacks from outside the firewall, breaches from inside the firewall, and overall comprehensive network analysis.

There are two primary ways for these tools to connect to network links. First is to directly connect each appliance inline on the link. This is where you connect the tool between the router and the switch directly in the path of the data flow. This allows all the data to flow through the tool. The tool can then analyze the data and perform protective functions when is sees anomalies or rule violations.

However, there are two problems with this method. First, is simply that the more potential points of failure you insert into a link, the higher your probability of failure becomes. Second is that these appliances are very intelligent, software intensive products. With any stacked software product, and with embedded hard drives, “stuff happens.” Further, as rules need to be updated or new versions are released, the product must be taken off-line for updates and reboots. The constant scheduling of network downtime is unacceptable in many of today’s 7/24/365 networks.

The solution is to connect a hardware based tap inline on the network link. Being hardware based products with no software operating system, taps are inherently very reliable. Beyond this, taps have fail-safe technology built in that will maintain the network link even in the event of a power failure to the device.

When you have a tap inserted into a network link you have many options available for connecting appliances or network tools. Depending on the function of the tool, it may need to see the data real time as it flows through the network or it may need to only look at a mirror copy of the data out of band. In either case, the ports needed to connect all these appliances are available using a network tap.

Taps can aggregate the information from many links to a single tool. This provides efficiency and potentially huge savings in the procurement of the necessary network appliances. The use of regeneration features in a tap allow for the same data on a link to be sent to many different appliances. Finally, by using filtering and distribution techniques, the tap can provide only the pertinent information to each tool as needed. This enhances the speed and efficiency of operation for the network tools.

The new leaders in cloud services will jump in quickly with pilots and beta customers to develop and test real product and service offerings. These market leaders will have the advantage of experience, brand awareness and an early customer base as competitive offerings start to crowd the market. In order to become an early leader in this market, the time to develop cloud services and plan for a reliable and secure network infrastructure is right now.

Learn more about Network Critical’s reliable line of TAPs here.

IPv6 RU Ready?

By: Dan O’Donnell

I have been using these texting acronyms when communicating with my high school daughter thinking I was being very current and cool using their language. “ru ready?” “im here” and so on. Well I was shocked when she told me the other day, “no one uses those terms anymore; everyone has keyboards and can type in English.” Of course, she was referring to their smart phones. Oh well, I thought, technology!

That “everyone” has a smart phone is a key driver for the movement to IPv6. The proliferation of devices with IP addresses including mobile devices, laptops and tablets is exhausting the available pool of IPv4 addresses. This change will eventually have a profound effect on networks. Here are some interesting numbers:

IPv4 allows for a pool of about four billion addresses. IPv6, using a 128-bit address supports 3.4 x 1038 addresses. Now, for you trivia experts, the number is called 340 undecillion. To further amaze and bedazzle your friends over a cocktail, here is the number of addresses available in IPv6: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456. You will need a big cocktail napkin to write that down.

So what does this mean for your network? Today, not much. Less than 1% of internet traffic consists of IPv6 and most devices today do not support IPv6. However, planning for the inevitable change is happening now. It is time to start getting familiar with the new format and asking your vendors for their IPv6 evolution plan. Ipv4 and IPv6 do not play well together but they can coexist. Some high routers, called “dual stack” routers can support both IPv4 and IPv6.

We are in for a long slow trudge as this transition develops. However, with the broad acceptance of tablets and smart phones coupled with the ubiquitous rollout of LTE networks, what looks like a slow trudge now could turn into a brisk run very soon.

Now that you know about the network address changes, be sure not to overlook your network support infrastructure in your planning. What about your probes that analyze packets and provide critical information about what is going on in your network? What about your network protection appliances such as IPS/IDS and DLP? What about your CEM appliances? All these tools are invaluable to your network operation. What about the TAPS that are used to connect these tools to your network, aggregate and filter link data before passing it to the appliances? Will your TAPs and other access switches pass IPv6? Can they aggregate and filter on IPv6?

Be sure to understand how all the equipment that touches your IPv4 packets will transition to the new world of IPv6. Smart phones quickly changed the way my daughter communicates with her friends. They will also be responsible for many important changes in your network design. It seems far in the future but as a prominent CEO once said, “Technology is measured in dog years.”

Learn how Network Critical’s TAP technology can help you plan for the future. Visit www.networkcritical.com for more information.

Military Communications for Humanitarian Missions

By Dan O’Donnell

When you think about global military organizations what comes to mind?  The first thought is probably war.  Military organizations, however, are involved in much more than just bombs, bullets and battles.   At a high level, the military is an organization that is highly skilled in the rapid deployment of human and physical resources under harsh circumstances.

This expertise and training makes the military the logical and preferred choice for responding to humanitarian missions as well as battlefield operations.  We have seen the heroic efforts of military coalitions after the disastrous earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.  The foundational element to the success of these missions is establishing coalition communications.

The most immediate challenge when responding to a disaster or other joint services operation is communications.  Imagine a multi-national coalition arriving on the scene of a disaster.  A command structure must be established among diverse organizations from different nations and cultures.  Further, the local authorities and other service organizations such as the Red Cross need to be integrated into the effort.  Now, assume the likelihood of a severely damaged or non-existent communications infrastructure.

Execution of the mission plan is dependent on the rapid deployment of a communications structure among all the responding organizations.  This interconnection of resources requires a complex configuration of communication policies and procedures including:

• Data sharing across the federation
• Application of policies determining who can access what information from what sources
• Authentication of who is accessing information
• Protection of critical and often confidential information

In order to establish trust and an open flow of information among federation partners, it is critical that the communication infrastructure be monitored to protect classified information while allowing a consistent flow of mission critical information among all partners.  There is no tolerance for network downtime in critical response missions. Therefore, there must be a balance of highly available connectivity and by-pass options for sophisticated, software intensive appliances.

There are a variety of network appliances that help automate this process, secure communications links and manage the flow of information.  When installed in-line, however, software intensive appliances can cause network disruption.  Network Critical V-Line taps allow multiple appliances to efficiently manage and protect packet flow while maintaining high availability of links. V-Line taps provide a simple hardware connection to network links for crucial security and monitoring appliances and allow maintenance, upgrades and changes to occur without breaking the link or interrupting network operations.

Network Critical is a proud participant in the TM Forum multi-vendor technology demonstrator (catalyst project) titled Rapid Communications Deployment – Federated Service Level Management to Support Multi-National Preparedness in Crisis. NATO C3 Agency is the primary champion of this work.  According to the NATO C3 Agency, “NATO C3 Agency is strongly supporting this TMF DIG Catalyst and pleased to work with the industry on proving and maturing the federated service management concept that Nations shall be able to reuse.”  Other companies participating in this catalyst project include CA, Infonova, Layer 7, Progress Software and TNO.

The project participants will demonstrate how an Information Communications and Technology Network (ICT) can quickly be built, managed and secured in the most difficult of circumstances.  Network Critical taps will be used in the demonstration to connect appliances providing Quality of Service and Security enforcement on the network while maintaining failsafe, continuous operation.

The results of this project will be demonstrated at TM Forum Management World in Dublin, Ireland the week of May 23^rd, 2011.   Included in the demonstration is a Network Critical V-Line tap providing in-line link access to a CA Net QoS device monitoring a live video conference link.  The live link will be provisioned using an automated interconnection of a Layer 7 policy appliance and an SLA library that will provide the right amount of bandwidth to the right location at the right time.  The Net QoS device will manage and enforce the SLAs and SLA violations to Mission Command.

Click here for more information about this project.

For more information about TM Forum Management World 2011, click here.

Going Mobile

By: Dan O’Donnell

It is funny how the meaning of words can change over time. When “The Who” wrote the song “Going Mobile” they had no idea what mobility would mean in 2011. Listen to “Going Mobile” by The Who here.

In the early 1970’s going mobile meant riding around in your car listening to your tape machine. At that time, going mobile actually was a symbol for getting away; becoming unreachable by others; achieving solitude.

Today, mobility means taking it all with you. Instant voice, text, email, video meetings and personal video entertainment now follow us when we are mobile.

Thank you Internet. Thank you Apple. Thank you Cisco.

A few months back, the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Forecast was released. It is well known that Cisco has deep relationships with the carriers who provide the mobile and wire line network services. Although it is difficult to predict anything that is four or five years into the future, since this report began in 2006, Cisco’s crystal ball, historically, has been very good.

According to the Bay Area News Group, the report predicts that by 2015 there will be 7.1 billion tablets, phones and other mobile devices connecting to the Internet globally. Note that the global population by that date will be about 7.2 billion. Mobile internet traffic increased 2.5 times just from 2009 to 2010. The report goes on to predict that in 2015, there will be 75 exabytes of data sent by those devices, a 26 fold increase from 2010. An exabyte is one billion gigabytes. More interesting is the fact that two thirds of that mobile traffic will be video according to Suraj Shetty, Cisco marketing vice president.

This is challenging information for network architects and security engineers because of the drastic changes that will be required in the next five years to accommodate the predicted level of traffic. Huge investments will be required to upgrade network links and trunks from 1Gto 10G to 100G in a very short time. Billions of dollars will be invested on 4G, LTE and other Next Generation Network topologies.

The faster the links, the harder it is to protect the data and manage network performance. It will be critical that network taps and tools keep up with new technologies and faster link speeds. The capability to tap into 100% of link data, filter out unnecessary information and send the relevant data to security and analytical appliances will be the key to network management in the 40G to 100G world.

Look for products, platforms and companies that can adapt to the network of the future.

Integrate future requirements into your architecture now.

Build a flexible plan to access, capture and analyze high speed links today and higher speed links tomorrow. In the networked and mobile decade of the 2010’s, mobility means access, not solitude.

It is funny, indeed, that today, solitude is virtual not mobile. So now, relax a moment, put on the ear buds and take a trip in the way-back machine to 1971, a much simpler time.

Click here to listen to “Going Mobile” by “The Who” on YouTube.

Then take a look here, (the way-forward machine) to see network access ideas for the 2010’s.

Sleepless in Seattle

By: Dan O’Donnell

I am on a plane to Seattle to talk with Network Engineers, Architects and Managers about network security. The attendees at this Net Security conference are responsible for corporate, government, e-commerce and service provider networks. If there is a job on earth that will cause sleepless nights it is Network Manager. In addition to worrying about hackers from outside while safeguarding confidential data on the inside, they also are responsible for designing and maintaining 99.99%+ reliability and consistent accessibility for authorized users.

While there are many specialized threats to networks today, there are also a wide variety of specialized tools to help mitigate those threats.

That is the good news.

However, if you are the network engineer responsible for keeping all these software intensive tools working, every new tool presents an interesting contradiction. For every security tool you add to the network, you introduce an additional failure point. This is particularly worrisome if your tools are active appliances that are installed in-line. An in-line appliance is an active component in the network link. Therefore, if the appliance goes down, the link goes down. While more tools can provide better security they can also create more operational headaches.

How many specialized appliances can one introduce on a link without impacting availability and reliability? If these appliances are installed in-line there is a Christmas tree light effect where if light goes out the whole string goes dark. Further, these appliances are software intensive. There are rule updates and firmware updates that need to be managed; but remember, the link must be available at all times, at least during business hours. That leaves the 2:00am to 4:00am window for network maintenance. So, putting aside the sleep lost from security worries for now, let’s look at an idea to help network engineers get some winks at night by scheduling maintenance upgrades during the day:

In-line appliances can be attached to network links using TAPs. These are network access devices that permanently attach to a link at the end points, typically a router, switch or firewall.

The TAP has monitor ports that allow the security appliances to connect to the network without actually being inserted directly into the network. The data flows through the TAP to the appliance and back into the TAP to the other end of the network.

This allows the appliance to see the data real time and take real time action if necessary.

However, it is the TAP, not the appliance that is attached in-line. If the appliance goes down, the link can stay active.

With a little planning, this method of attaching appliances to links provides maximum flexibility when establishing maintenance windows for software/firmware upgrades and reboots.

For more information on in-line taps and to see how they can let you add security and reliability while providing more flexibility to your maintenance windows, please visit networkcritical.com

Whether you are sleepless in Seattle, awake in Albuquerque or an insomniac in Indianapolis, connecting in-line appliances through TAPs can help you sleep better at night.