Skip to main content

How a Tap or SPAN Choice Impacts APM

Keith Bromley

For application performance monitoring (APM), many in IT tend to focus a significant amount of their time on the tool that performs the analysis. Unfortunately for them, the battle is won or lost at the data access level. If you don’t have the right data, you can’t fix the problem correctly.

This viewpoint is backed up by an APMdigest post back in August where Jim Frey cited some critical survey research. The research showed that "26% reported that their biggest challenge with incident response is that data exists, but they can’t access or analyze it easily." Key point – you need access to the right data at the right time to solve your problems.

This begs the question — how do I get the right data access?

The best source of data is from a network tap. A tap makes a complete copy of ALL the data passing through it. It is a passive device, so it does not alter any of the data and has a negligible effect on transmission time.

Taps are great because they are "set and forget." You simply plug the device into the network with a one-time disruption and you are done. No programming is required. Best of all, you can place taps anywhere in the network that you need data from — ingress, egress, remote offices, etc.

The one drawback to using taps is that if you install lots of them (which you will want to do), the amount of data feeds can overload the input ports to your APM tools. However, this issue is easily resolved by installing a network packet broker (NPB) to aggregate the data from the taps, filter the data as necessary, and then send that data on to the APM tool. This eliminates the overcrowding of the data ports on your APM tool.

An alternative to a tap is to use a mirroring port (also referred to as a SPAN port) off of your network switches. However, this is not recommended. One reason is that these ports are active devices, i.e. they can materially change data packet characteristics as the packets flow through the device. This is especially important when using data from these ports to diagnose problems.

In addition, bad packets (i.e. malformed packets) are dropped by the SPAN port. This ends up giving you a "digital view" of the situation, i.e. everything is fine and then there is a problem. Missing packets that could show degradation prior to data loss (which could have been useful to create a quicker diagnosis) is missing, along with any context as to what was happening before the problem began.

In the end, optimum data capture can be achieved using a tap and NPB. This results in a faster mean time to repair (MTTR).

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

How a Tap or SPAN Choice Impacts APM

Keith Bromley

For application performance monitoring (APM), many in IT tend to focus a significant amount of their time on the tool that performs the analysis. Unfortunately for them, the battle is won or lost at the data access level. If you don’t have the right data, you can’t fix the problem correctly.

This viewpoint is backed up by an APMdigest post back in August where Jim Frey cited some critical survey research. The research showed that "26% reported that their biggest challenge with incident response is that data exists, but they can’t access or analyze it easily." Key point – you need access to the right data at the right time to solve your problems.

This begs the question — how do I get the right data access?

The best source of data is from a network tap. A tap makes a complete copy of ALL the data passing through it. It is a passive device, so it does not alter any of the data and has a negligible effect on transmission time.

Taps are great because they are "set and forget." You simply plug the device into the network with a one-time disruption and you are done. No programming is required. Best of all, you can place taps anywhere in the network that you need data from — ingress, egress, remote offices, etc.

The one drawback to using taps is that if you install lots of them (which you will want to do), the amount of data feeds can overload the input ports to your APM tools. However, this issue is easily resolved by installing a network packet broker (NPB) to aggregate the data from the taps, filter the data as necessary, and then send that data on to the APM tool. This eliminates the overcrowding of the data ports on your APM tool.

An alternative to a tap is to use a mirroring port (also referred to as a SPAN port) off of your network switches. However, this is not recommended. One reason is that these ports are active devices, i.e. they can materially change data packet characteristics as the packets flow through the device. This is especially important when using data from these ports to diagnose problems.

In addition, bad packets (i.e. malformed packets) are dropped by the SPAN port. This ends up giving you a "digital view" of the situation, i.e. everything is fine and then there is a problem. Missing packets that could show degradation prior to data loss (which could have been useful to create a quicker diagnosis) is missing, along with any context as to what was happening before the problem began.

In the end, optimum data capture can be achieved using a tap and NPB. This results in a faster mean time to repair (MTTR).

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...