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Reducing the Risks Associated with Deploying New Network-Centric Applications

Mike Heumann

It has been clear for quite some time that the network has become the lifeblood of nearly all enterprises. This is not just true for obvious network-centric enterprises such as retail sites or content distributors, but also for enterprises that utilize distributed applications such as SAP, Oracle, or any number of other network-centric applications.

Over the past few years, a number of new enterprise technologies have emerged that are critically reliant on network performance, but where this reliance is not necessarily obvious. These technologies include enterprise-class Voice over IP (VOIP) telephony solutions, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions, and enterprise collaboration tools.

While the vulnerability of "classical" distributed applications to network performance issues are well-understood, it is quite a different matter for a VDI session to momentarily "freeze", or for the CEO's VOIP call to get disrupted due to network issues. In short, these issues are far more visible than those associated with classical distributed applications, and as technologies such as software-defined networks (SDN) and hybrid private-public enterprise clouds become more prevalent, these issues are likely to become more rather than less pronounced.

So what do IT departments need to ensure that they can provide the levels of performance from these new technologies that users expect?

The most obvious answer is that they need to know what is really going on in their networks. While this sounds trite, it is far more difficult than one might expect. Causative factors such as microbursts, timeouts, and protocol errors can be difficult to detect with conventional application performance tools, and tying these causative events to the specific "new technology" outages can be even harder.

Given that many of these causative factors can be intermittent in nature certainly doesn't help. This is one of the primary reasons that many enterprises have introduced dedicated "network visibility fabrics" that provide instrumentation at key points in the network, exposing the full set of network packets and flow data that underlie these causative issues. While network visibility fabrics do not prevent these issues from occurring, they do speed the ability to resolve issues, which helps to avoid "outages" of network-centric technologies such as VDI, VoIP, network collaboration tools, and SDN frameworks.

As with most human endeavors, one of the best practices for making good decisions is to have the right data. Even the best decision-making processes can lead to wrong decisions by not having the right data. As networks (and the applications that depend on them) become more complex and carry more types of data, it becomes imperative to have the right data to avoid making guesses as to what is causing network issues. Look to see more enterprises implementing network visibility fabrics as dense 10Gb Ethernet networks become more prevalent, and more enterprises start to deploy these new technologies.

Mike Heumann is Sr. Director, Marketing (Endace) for Emulex.

Related Links:

www.emulex.com/

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Reducing the Risks Associated with Deploying New Network-Centric Applications

Mike Heumann

It has been clear for quite some time that the network has become the lifeblood of nearly all enterprises. This is not just true for obvious network-centric enterprises such as retail sites or content distributors, but also for enterprises that utilize distributed applications such as SAP, Oracle, or any number of other network-centric applications.

Over the past few years, a number of new enterprise technologies have emerged that are critically reliant on network performance, but where this reliance is not necessarily obvious. These technologies include enterprise-class Voice over IP (VOIP) telephony solutions, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions, and enterprise collaboration tools.

While the vulnerability of "classical" distributed applications to network performance issues are well-understood, it is quite a different matter for a VDI session to momentarily "freeze", or for the CEO's VOIP call to get disrupted due to network issues. In short, these issues are far more visible than those associated with classical distributed applications, and as technologies such as software-defined networks (SDN) and hybrid private-public enterprise clouds become more prevalent, these issues are likely to become more rather than less pronounced.

So what do IT departments need to ensure that they can provide the levels of performance from these new technologies that users expect?

The most obvious answer is that they need to know what is really going on in their networks. While this sounds trite, it is far more difficult than one might expect. Causative factors such as microbursts, timeouts, and protocol errors can be difficult to detect with conventional application performance tools, and tying these causative events to the specific "new technology" outages can be even harder.

Given that many of these causative factors can be intermittent in nature certainly doesn't help. This is one of the primary reasons that many enterprises have introduced dedicated "network visibility fabrics" that provide instrumentation at key points in the network, exposing the full set of network packets and flow data that underlie these causative issues. While network visibility fabrics do not prevent these issues from occurring, they do speed the ability to resolve issues, which helps to avoid "outages" of network-centric technologies such as VDI, VoIP, network collaboration tools, and SDN frameworks.

As with most human endeavors, one of the best practices for making good decisions is to have the right data. Even the best decision-making processes can lead to wrong decisions by not having the right data. As networks (and the applications that depend on them) become more complex and carry more types of data, it becomes imperative to have the right data to avoid making guesses as to what is causing network issues. Look to see more enterprises implementing network visibility fabrics as dense 10Gb Ethernet networks become more prevalent, and more enterprises start to deploy these new technologies.

Mike Heumann is Sr. Director, Marketing (Endace) for Emulex.

Related Links:

www.emulex.com/

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 ...

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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 ...