6 Reasons Every NetOps Team Should Use a Packet-Based Analytics Solution - Part 2
June 27, 2018

Jay Botelho
LiveAction

Share this

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). Here are 3 more reasons to use these new NPM/APM analytics solutions.

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

4. Reduce tool sprawl

Teams are sick of adding more and more tools. The new NPM/APM solutions consolidate key functionality and offer flexible new dashboards that allow teams to monitor the information that matters most to their organization and team. For example, monitor key applications like Office365, WebEx and Salesforce in a single dashboard that includes application performance, network performance, transaction quality and VoIP quality; metrics that in the past required several solutions from several vendors to achieve the same level of visibility.

5. Get an integrated packet view

It's not enough to just be notified of abnormalities and problems. When these happen, you need immediate access to the packets that matter so you can troubleshoot and remediate. Also, NetOps needs information on the worst-performing parts of their network. Many products only calculate and display averages of network metrics like latency, utilization and VoIP quality, which can obscure problems that only affect a small number of flows. For example, a typical network will have thousands if not tens of thousands of HTTP flows at any given moment. If only a few exhibit poor network latency, and the dashboard shows the average network latency for all HTTP (which many dashboards do), the few flows that exhibit poor network latency will be masked by the good performance of all of the other flows. This example illustrates the absolute need to be able to pick the worst flows, out of millions, at any given moment to make sure critical issues are not overlooked.

6. Monitor SaaS SLAs

Whether you're offering a service or using one, being able to validate the agreement is critical, especially if problems arise. Packet data doesn't lie, which means if you have that information, you have what's needed to ensure SLAs are being delivered. Using today's modern dashboards, you can set your SLA thresholds for network latency, application latency, transaction quality and VoIP quality, and let the software constantly monitor millions of flows and let you know when even a single flow exceeds your SLAs.

As mentioned above, there's real cost associated with any kind of operational downtime, so avoiding or at least minimizing these issues is a NetOps priority. Therefore, it's critical to maintain a high-quality end-user experience for employees and customers. The powerful new analytics tools available today allow IT teams to anticipate network and application performance problems and react in real time. Rather than waiting for complaints, it's now possible to monitor every aspect of network traffic and performance at an incredibly granular level, making network problems much more visible even as the speed and volume of network traffic rises dramatically. The vision of network continuity all day, every day, across the entire network, is finally here.

Jay Botelho is Senior Director of Product Management at LiveAction
Share this

The Latest

December 02, 2024

From the accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) to the ongoing challenges of cost optimization and security, these IT leaders are navigating a complex and rapidly evolving landscape. Here's what you should know about the top priorities shaping the year ahead ...

November 26, 2024

In the heat of the holiday online shopping rush, retailers face persistent challenges such as increased web traffic or cyber threats that can lead to high-impact outages. With profit margins under high pressure, retailers are prioritizing strategic investments to help drive business value while improving the customer experience ...

November 25, 2024

In a fast-paced industry where customer service is a priority, the opportunity to use AI to personalize products and services, revolutionize delivery channels, and effectively manage peaks in demand such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are vast. By leveraging AI to streamline demand forecasting, optimize inventory, personalize customer interactions, and adjust pricing, retailers can have a better handle on these stress points, and deliver a seamless digital experience ...

November 21, 2024

Broad proliferation of cloud infrastructure combined with continued support for remote workers is driving increased complexity and visibility challenges for network operations teams, according to new research conducted by Dimensional Research and sponsored by Broadcom ...

November 20, 2024

New research from ServiceNow and ThoughtLab reveals that less than 30% of banks feel their transformation efforts are meeting evolving customer digital needs. Additionally, 52% say they must revamp their strategy to counter competition from outside the sector. Adapting to these challenges isn't just about staying competitive — it's about staying in business ...

November 19, 2024

Leaders in the financial services sector are bullish on AI, with 95% of business and IT decision makers saying that AI is a top C-Suite priority, and 96% of respondents believing it provides their business a competitive advantage, according to Riverbed's Global AI and Digital Experience Survey ...

November 18, 2024

SLOs have long been a staple for DevOps teams to monitor the health of their applications and infrastructure ... Now, as digital trends have shifted, more and more teams are looking to adapt this model for the mobile environment. This, however, is not without its challenges ...

November 14, 2024

Modernizing IT infrastructure has become essential for organizations striving to remain competitive. This modernization extends beyond merely upgrading hardware or software; it involves strategically leveraging new technologies like AI and cloud computing to enhance operational efficiency, increase data accessibility, and improve the end-user experience ...

November 13, 2024

AI sure grew fast in popularity, but are AI apps any good? ... If companies are going to keep integrating AI applications into their tech stack at the rate they are, then they need to be aware of AI's limitations. More importantly, they need to evolve their testing regiment ...

November 12, 2024

If you were lucky, you found out about the massive CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage last July by reading about it over coffee. Those less fortunate were awoken hours earlier by frantic calls from work ... Whether you were directly affected or not, there's an important lesson: all organizations should be conducting in-depth reviews of testing and change management ...