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6 Reasons Every NetOps Team Should Use a Packet-Based Analytics Solution - Part 1

Jay Botelho

Today's networks are driving more digital change than ever before, which is putting increased pressure on those responsible for deploying, monitoring and maintaining them. As a result, there's a premium on actionable real-time visibility into networks and application performance issues.

NetOps teams are now expected to proactively identify problems before they impact the organization, and if problems do arise, to solve them in real time to minimize the effects on the end user. The goal is to provide actionable network transaction-based monitoring, rapid root-cause analysis and integrated packet-level forensics in a single solution, so teams can quickly identify latency, communication and capacity issues.

However, extracting insight from the flood of information traveling through today's high-speed networks is a constant challenge faced by those responsible for network performance and reliability. Statistical summaries and aggregated data are traditionally just a starting point for further investigation into problems. And historically, packet data has not scaled for high-speed real-time monitoring. As a result, a new breed of solution has been born that simultaneously provides the precision of packet-based analytics with the speed of flow-based monitoring (at a reasonable cost).

The end result is actionable visibility, which helps teams focus on the biggest problem areas, which essentially requires four elements.

First, the data must be acquired from wire data, a datacenter, the cloud or the edge.

Next, the network and data must be monitored for end-user experience in true real time.

Third, the team must be ready to investigate a problem or issue, from traffic to trace files.

And finally, a certain level of the packet data must be retained so teams can troubleshoot. How can this level of network visibility be put into action?

Here are 6 reasons to use these new NPM/APM analytics solutions:

1. Find out quickly if it's the application or the network

When problems emerge, you need to solve them fast. Understanding if this is an application or a network issue – and having the packet data to back up that claim – is critical to eliminating debates and war room discussions.

For example, see at a glance which transactions on the networks are experiencing the worst network and the worst application latency, from network-wide down to an individual server. When you see application latency that is outside of the norm, a single click can provide the actual packet data comprising the network transaction. This is the best data possible for determining the root cause of the problem. Often times application errors can quickly be identified in the packet payload data.

2. Gain visibility into the line of business

For many companies, the business is the application(s) they run. For example, an online retailer is defined by the performance of the web servers and associated web applications driving the storefront. Visibility into key performance indicators for these specific applications, including network and application latency and transaction quality for each and every transaction, drives real-time response that keeps the storefront running at its maximum potential.

3. Speed to resolution

Every second counts when the network or an application has a problem. Having the ability to navigate fluidly in real-time at up to 35 Gbps of network traffic, and then immediately click through to specific packet data dramatically speeds resolution time. Plus, the less time the network team or IT spends troubleshooting, the more time they can spend on projects to improve the network, like cloud migrations or building data warehouses.

Read 6 Reasons Every NetOps Team Should Use a Packet-Based Analytics Solution - Part 2 for 3 more reasons to use the new NPM/APM analytics solutions.

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6 Reasons Every NetOps Team Should Use a Packet-Based Analytics Solution - Part 1

Jay Botelho

Today's networks are driving more digital change than ever before, which is putting increased pressure on those responsible for deploying, monitoring and maintaining them. As a result, there's a premium on actionable real-time visibility into networks and application performance issues.

NetOps teams are now expected to proactively identify problems before they impact the organization, and if problems do arise, to solve them in real time to minimize the effects on the end user. The goal is to provide actionable network transaction-based monitoring, rapid root-cause analysis and integrated packet-level forensics in a single solution, so teams can quickly identify latency, communication and capacity issues.

However, extracting insight from the flood of information traveling through today's high-speed networks is a constant challenge faced by those responsible for network performance and reliability. Statistical summaries and aggregated data are traditionally just a starting point for further investigation into problems. And historically, packet data has not scaled for high-speed real-time monitoring. As a result, a new breed of solution has been born that simultaneously provides the precision of packet-based analytics with the speed of flow-based monitoring (at a reasonable cost).

The end result is actionable visibility, which helps teams focus on the biggest problem areas, which essentially requires four elements.

First, the data must be acquired from wire data, a datacenter, the cloud or the edge.

Next, the network and data must be monitored for end-user experience in true real time.

Third, the team must be ready to investigate a problem or issue, from traffic to trace files.

And finally, a certain level of the packet data must be retained so teams can troubleshoot. How can this level of network visibility be put into action?

Here are 6 reasons to use these new NPM/APM analytics solutions:

1. Find out quickly if it's the application or the network

When problems emerge, you need to solve them fast. Understanding if this is an application or a network issue – and having the packet data to back up that claim – is critical to eliminating debates and war room discussions.

For example, see at a glance which transactions on the networks are experiencing the worst network and the worst application latency, from network-wide down to an individual server. When you see application latency that is outside of the norm, a single click can provide the actual packet data comprising the network transaction. This is the best data possible for determining the root cause of the problem. Often times application errors can quickly be identified in the packet payload data.

2. Gain visibility into the line of business

For many companies, the business is the application(s) they run. For example, an online retailer is defined by the performance of the web servers and associated web applications driving the storefront. Visibility into key performance indicators for these specific applications, including network and application latency and transaction quality for each and every transaction, drives real-time response that keeps the storefront running at its maximum potential.

3. Speed to resolution

Every second counts when the network or an application has a problem. Having the ability to navigate fluidly in real-time at up to 35 Gbps of network traffic, and then immediately click through to specific packet data dramatically speeds resolution time. Plus, the less time the network team or IT spends troubleshooting, the more time they can spend on projects to improve the network, like cloud migrations or building data warehouses.

Read 6 Reasons Every NetOps Team Should Use a Packet-Based Analytics Solution - Part 2 for 3 more reasons to use the new NPM/APM analytics solutions.

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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...