Nov
22

Who needs Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) when you have Cyber Mondays?

Original Entry by : sonny.singh

I don’t know about you, but the winter holiday season is a bittersweet pill for me to swallow due in part to two occurrences which are aptly named “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday.” The connotations themselves conjure up images of sinister malevolence. Black Friday might as well be called “The Black Plague” and Cyber Monday could very well be the title for the next Terminator movie, ”Cyber Monday – Rise of the Machines.” The two lexicons of retail mind-control methods are emblazoned in the pre-frontal cortex of every consumer out there…unless by chance, you have been one of the lucky few individuals who is stuck in the 1950’s and opts to buy their holiday presents from the Sears Roebuck Holiday catalog, I envy you.

It’s gotten so bad that my wife and her girlfriends actually plot out which stores they plan to camp out at a month in advance. Look, I’m all for pitching a lawn chair at 2:00 a.m. in front of the movie theatre so I can catch the premier of “Gladiator Part 2” (still hoping Ridley Scott makes it happen), but standing in the cold, crisp night with 600 other annoying strangers for a better than normal discount on a Dutch oven is just plain wrong. The irony is it’s been proven the so-called deals at these twilight fire-sales aren’t really that good after all. You’re better spending your kid’s college money online within the comfort of your heated home and at a non-sleep deprived 8:00 p.m. but who am I to judge?

What’s equally ironic is the very Hydra (i.e. the merchants) that creates these two days of price-saving pandemonium doesn’t walk away unscathed themselves. EMC recently released a study that Cyber Monday attacks cost organizations up to $3.4 million per hour in losses¹! Just think, with that much money, you could buy every person in the United States one Dutch oven.  As the holiday season approaches, retail organizations look forward to, and prepare for what should be a daily revenue surge that respondents in the study calculate as an average of 55 percent. However, this spike in profits doesn’t come without a price. The study points out that while a majority of merchants experience a spike in holiday-timed attacks; most admit to not being able to detect them. The study highlights three intriguing data points:

  • Cyber Monday represents an average 55 percent surge in daily online/mobile retail revenues.
  • A corresponding surge in attacks drives hard losses, on average, as much as $500,000 per hour or $8,000 per minute. Customer churn from reputation and brand damage can drive losses to as much as $3.4 million from a single hour of disruption.
  • While 64 percent of organizations see significant increases in attack activity, only 23 percent of attacks can be detected quickly and remediated, and nearly 70 percent of organizations do not take additional precautions in anticipation of increased attacks.

When it comes down to it, what’s really at stake for a retailer is dealing with compromised network uptime and availability, not to mention the security aspect of credit and banking transaction fraud that could slip through, and most importantly, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that could be launched against a retail site to take them down during one of their highest revenue-generating days of the year.

It Just Got Real – Move Aside Santa Clause
Larry Ponemon, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder of The Ponemon Institute states, “Forward-thinking organizations that have the agility to break from the status quo and embrace innovation can not only better protect their business, but also gain a massive advantage. Reducing losses from fraud and increasing trust in the brand can propel a business ahead of its competitors.”¹  I wouldn’t be surprised if Larry was thinking of Emulex Endace Network Visibility Products (NVP), including its EndaceProbe™ Intelligent Network Recorders (INRs), EndaceFlow™ 3040 NetFlow Generator Appliances (NGAs) and EndaceVision™ Network Traffic Search Engine in particular because they are geared to safeguard and protect a retail organizations’ network infrastructure “soup to nuts.”

With the overwhelming deluge of online shoppers tapping away the paint off their keyboards, Cyber Monday and Black Fridays create an enormous and immediate spike in network traffic on retail networks which pose both significant problems from a data availability standpoint and that of network security. What is required is incorporating the right best practices, well in advance, in order to help resolve potential issues on the fly using advanced network monitoring tools such as those offered by Emulex. EndaceVision is the world’s first collaborative network traffic search engine and unlike most traditional analytics tools, EndaceVision runs in any web browser and is built around a powerful workflow that helps network engineers and security analysts quickly get to the precise information that they need to resolve a potential availability or security issue. Using EndaceVision, retailers can search through terabytes of network traffic stored on many different EndaceProbe INRs. With an application classification as part of the index, users can review the traffic through multiple different lenses and they can zoom in, add and remove filters to find the information that they need.

EndaceProbe INRs and EndaceFlow NGAs are designed to operate in high-density 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) networks, such as those found within large retail organizations, and can provide the visibility needed for helping IT staff identify performance problems, security flaws and abnormal activity, such as internally or externally occurring fraud taking place outside of normal traffic activity. EndaceProbe INRs can be deployed across a retailer’s network to capture and feed-back continuous network traffic information, enabling admins to retain complete blocks of network traffic across different time periods, different days, weeks and months in order to build a picture of legitimate peak and off-peak traffic, seasonal spikes, the manifestation of network security issues and the exploitation of network nodes for unauthorized activity such as those indicative of a typical Cyber Monday attack.

An EndaceProbe INR can be configured to collect full or partial packets, selected packets, random packets in a flow, or just header and metadata unique to particular data packet types or particular applications. With retailers often handling thousands, if not millions of similar transactions on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, fraudulent traffic can be easy to hide in the mix if IT admins are only taking brief snapshots of the network. A complete or focused prolonged period of capture means that transaction traffic and data packets can be reviewed and mined to determine if a particular node or branch is not transacting the way it should. By “recording” periods of network activity, retailers can review the impact of peak demand on the network, or any subsection of the network, to see the effects of external cyber attacks, pinpoint potential vulnerabilities on the network and implement measures that can be used proactively to prevent problems.

Conclusion

I realize there is no shortage of unemployed Computer Science graduates with lots of free time on their hands (not to mention the Russian Mafia) so it’s safe to say Cyber Monday attacks will not be ending any time soon. However, as Larry Ponemon points out, retailers that are prepared for the inevitable cyber security breach and utilize best-of-breed solutions like those we offer can beat the bad guys at their own game and live to fight another day.

So in a fitting farewell to this topic, I have to confess that the one redeeming and enjoyable repercussion of  Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays is the overwhelming sense of amusement I soak up the next day when reading about the inevitable riot that broke out between moms fighting over the last standing crock-pot in the local Wal-Mart. It almost makes these two days tolerable.

¹RSA and Ponemon Institute Study, October 2013 http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2013/20131028-01.htm

 

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Nov
15

Standing Up for Security

Original Entry by : Matt Walmsley

Earlier this month, I enjoyed some time working with LAN Assistans, our Nordic partner, as we co-exhibited at Nordic IT Security 2013 in Stockholm, Sweden. As part of our participation package, we had a short “open mic” session over lunch to talk about our security topic of choice.  Being stripped of my familiar presentation support aids like PowerPoint slides and asked to just stand up and talk really focused my mind (and increased my adrenaline levels!).

I often hear our team talk about our network recording and visualization solutions’ technical innovations, performance and features. In truth, Endace solutions have grown up from a DNA of engineering excellence, so it’s not so surprising that we love talking about our great technology! But for this open mic session, I thought I’d take a different approach and think about what our solutions enable our customers to do…here is a snippet of my “open mic” session:

Informed and Effective

We’re all a lot smarter after the event,” if only I had known …“

We’re Emulex and we provide the equivalent of a time machine for your network so that you can know exactly what happened when, where and how. We enable you to replay and analyze 100% of your network traffic before, during and after any network event so that you can identify and understand everything that happened. And that’s really useful for security operations.

When security issues occur, network security operations professionals are instantly under massive pressure from their organization to explain and resolve the problem. So how fast can you react to a security anomaly? And even more importantly, are you giving yourself the best chance of success when you act by ensuring that your actions are informed, appropriate and effective? When we combine our experience, instinct and understanding with hard evidence and insight, then we give ourselves the very best chance to make rapid, successful security interventions and actions.

So many of the security threats we now face are unknown, as attack vectors continue to diversify and accelerate. Advanced persistent threats present unknown unknowns that are impossible for us to anticipate. Defense and control are rationale and important steps, but by their very nature, focus on protecting against known vulnerabilities and threats and can’t be a complete security solution. Early identification and understanding of anomalous and nefarious network traffic is key to retarding and then eliminating the propagation pathways of attacks and the staging of malicious code.

The Truth is in The Packets

With simple integration into your favorite security event management tools, our high fidelity, high performance EndaceProbe Intelligent Network Recorders can be deployed on any speed link anywhere on your network to capture, record and index every single network packet, flow and conversations and make it available for analysis.  We’re like a turbocharged TiVo DVR, but for your network and your own private “Google of packets.”

“Why did my DNS traffic just peak?” Perhaps it’s a BotNet calling home and propagating across your organization.  Well, most monitoring solutions that just sample traffic may pick up on the DNS spike but only true high fidelity packet capture will give you the insight that DNS packets have been hijacked by a threat. It’s the difference between a fire alarm and CCTV in a building. One tells you there’s a fire, the other will show you who caused it, when, when where and how so you can reduce or remove the risk next time.

Swedes like Mice

So what did I take away from the Nordic IT Security Event? Well, my open mic session seemed to encourage plenty of visitors to our stand to find out more about our network recording and visualization solutions (of course, our very cool branded giveaways may have also been a factor – the favorite seemed to be our very cool USB illuminated travel mice!).

I also heard a lot of enterprises looking to evaluate sourcing their security operations as a managed service. Balancing responsiveness and control vs. risk transference and cost is often the reality of making your security budget go the distance. We’re already working with service providers like LAN Assistans on enabling managed service customers to get the advantage of “actionable insight” that Emulex’s Endace network recording and visualizations brings.

 

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Nov
08

NetFlow Visibility for Data Center High Throughput Networks

Original Entry by : rick.trujillo

After I wake up in the morning, I rush around to try to get myself and my family ready for work and school. I know that we must be in the car by 7:00 a.m. in order to make it on time to our destinations. My commute can vary from day to day depending upon a multitude of conditions, like weather, accidents or malfunctioning traffic signals. I don’t know whether my commute will take one hour or two hours. All I know is that I have a fixed schedule and I must have my daughter to school by 8:00 a.m. I try to get the latest traffic information to determine if I need to take an alternate route or if I will have to explain to the teacher why my daughter was late and call my boss to let him know that I may not make that all-important meeting. If only I had a way to get better visibility into what the traffic conditions were going to be like!!

Application and data delivery through a data center network is a lot like rush hour traffic. You may think that your data center has adequate capacity to handle the traffic that is moving in and out of the data center, but how do you know?

I recently had an opportunity to present on a webinar with Lee Doyle, Principal Research Analyst from Doyle Research. It was very insightful to work with him and listen to him talk about data center trends and requirements for solutions that can improve visibility in the network. Data center trends like the bump in network speeds to 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) and beyond, software-defined networking (SDN) and big data are trends that every CIO should be aware of. This trends will have significant impact on operational expenditures (OPEX) as it will become increasingly difficult to gain visibility into the network. There are many challenges that network operators face as well. They must maintain network reliability, guarantee application delivery to meet service level agreements (SLAs), provide low latency for critical applications and high security in the network. Time is money and downtime is even more expensive, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour or more.

Fortunately, there is a solution that makes sense that can provide the visibility, monitoring and analytics that allow you to be proactive and gain a faster time-to-resolution (TTR) for network issues. Emulex and SevOne have partnered together to bring a NetFlow visibility solution to the market. The combined solution will generate un-sampled NetFlow data from the EndaceFlow 3040 NetFlow Generator Appliance to the SevOne Dedicated NetFlow Collector that provides the real-time analytics to monitor network and application performance.

You can learn more about the joint solution and listen to the webinar, “Using NetFlow to Improve Network Visibility and Application Performance,” on BrightTalk here.

 

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Nov
06

Propelling Applications Forward with Network Visibility and Agility: Ecosystem Member for Cisco ACI

Original Entry by : rick.trujillo

We use technology in our everyday lives without a thought of how that content is delivered.  We conduct credit card transaction over a smartphone app for taxi fare, and stream live sporting events like the World Series not just to our television sets but to our smartphones, tablets and PCs. We connect to the corporate VPN while in mid-air over the Atlantic with an expectation that it should be seamless.

Innovation in technology continues to propel us forward from the physical to the virtual world. Server, storage and network virtualization, along with the cloud, has made it easier for the workforce and applications to be agile and mobile. Keeping applications and people connected is vital for any businesses to operate and generate revenue streams.

The data center must be able to adjust to these demands of increasingly mobile applications, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and migration of virtual machines (VMs), not just across servers, but across data centers, while maintaining quality of service (QoS) and security. Every connection is evolving in complexity.  Additionally, the network must be flexible enough to support the workloads as VMs and as applications move from one host to another on short notice, and for new services to be deployed rapidly.  In any case, it requires the administrator to configure and scale the network.  Traditionally, this requires identical Layer 2 configuration of all network devices attached to clustered hosts, including virtual LANs (VLANs). Configuration of the network is a manual process, which reduces scalability, flexibility and increases administration overhead. Virtual network overlays, such as virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN) Network Virtualization, Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) and Stateless Transport Tunneling (STT), are deployed to remove of the dependence on underlying infrastructure configuration. They do so by encapsulating traffic inside IP packets, so that traffic can cross Layer 3 boundaries, removing the need for preconfigured VLANs and VLAN trunking.  However, encapsulation can come at a cost of overhead, complications with load-balancing and interoperability issues.  When layers of abstraction are introduced, visibility into what is happening is often lost. The loss in visibility hinders the ability for network and security operation teams to troubleshoot, maintain and identify vulnerabilities on the most critical piece of the data center infrastructure, the network.

Cisco has announced details on its’ latest data center architecture: Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).  ACI embraces the modern data center deployment of applications with a system approach in combined hardware and software to provide the visibility and agility required.  It does so by addressing application-specific performance requirements by application, automating the provisioning of applications and providing fine-­‐grained reporting on the health of all applications running on the infrastructure.  The benefits of the ACI approach is to better align fabric automation with application and business policies, and to extend the application policy model  to network, security, application, compute, and storage.

As a valued Cisco ecosystem member, Emulex network monitoring and recording products are aligned with the ACI vision, to provide solutions that bring network visibility back from obscurity.  With the ability to monitor 100 percent of all network traffic and NetFlows, our solutions allow network and security teams to intelligently gather the information needed to troubleshoot network and application performance issues, identify vulnerabilities in security compliance and security breaches, so that they can be addressed quickly, while determining the root cause of those issues. Combined with the new Cisco Nexus 9000 and Application-Centric Infrastructure, we can help provide customers with application-level and real-time visibility into performance and security issues, so that they can be addressed quickly, while determining the root cause of those issues.  We support Cisco’s ACI vision and look forward to collaborating together on addressing the data flow demands of the data center today, as we believe our solutions address these challenges, monitoring for performance and cyber threats with 100 percent accuracy, regardless of network speed, or traffic type.

 

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Nov
01

Network Recording Tech Chat at Datacenter Acceleration

Original Entry by : mike.heumann

Earlier this week, I had a great conversation with several editors, analysts, and end-users on the Datacenter Acceleration Tech Chat earlier this week on the topic of “10Gb and Network Recording.”

Since this was the first time I had used this medium, it was quite a learning experience, especially managing multiple conversations simultaneously!  As you can imagine, network recording and search are key to the Endace portfolio and value to our customers. We covered a number of issues, including the use of network surveillance for security, application performance troubleshooting, and response/root cause analysis of network issues.  One of the questions was around how do monitoring and recording solutions relate to each other (is it an either/or situation, or can/how do you use both together).  The analogy I have always liked is that having better locks, an alarm, and video surveillance on your house or business is a far better solution that just having one or two of these options.  For those of you who didn’t get a chance to participate, the session is available here. Thanks to those of you that participated in this tech chat!

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Oct
16

Introducing the Fusion Connector for Splunk; Ideal for NetOps and SecOps Teams

Original Entry by : Barry Shaw

Network operations (NetOps) and security operations (SecOps) teams can now take advantage of our Emulex Endace Fusion Connector for Splunk, which will dramatically lower time-to-resolution (TTR) for network issues that typically take days to resolve in the absence of readily available packet data.  This Connector (available here on splunkbase <http://apps.splunk.com/app/1592>) easily installs into any 5.x Splunk deployment and provides a seamless bridge between logs and packets.

Splunk is a great tool for collecting logs from the multitude of devices and applications in the network, and its ability to quickly search and allow users to correlate disparate threads of information is unparalleled.  In the NetOp and SecOp world though, Splunk gives summary information about events where the ground truth data is actually the packets that crossed the wire.  For the most part, this summary information is just what is needed and can be used to resolve service and security issues.  However, for the 20 odd percent of issues that don’t fit neatly into this bucket, a seamless deep dive to the underlying packets is a massive boon.

With the Emulex Endace Fusion Connector for Splunk, our users can quickly pivot from a log event to the underlying packets.  Our Flow Search page within the Fusion Connector allows you to understand how much packet data relates to the log event, and allows rapid iteration and exploration by adjusting the parameters before you commit to extracting the packets to your tool of choice.

EndaceProbe™ Intelligent Network Recorders (INRs) and Splunk form a perfect complement for NetOps and SecOps teams.  By fusing the underlying ground truth data from anywhere in the network with the high level summary information in Splunk, we are providing our users the tools to rapidly investigate the hardest, most persistent issues and threats that afflict enterprise networks.

Initial customer feedback has been very positive and I’m excited to see what problems the Fusion Connector helps you solve.  Our mission here at Emulex is to speed up the resolution cycle, so you can close more tickets and resolve more issues, faster, with confidence that the issue has been correctly diagnosed and resolved.  Take a look at our Fusion Connector and let us know what you think! We have made a quick demo video as well. and feel free to send your feedback to inquiries@emulex.com.

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Oct
14

Application Delivery – Mean Time To Innocence

Original Entry by : sri.sundaralingam

In the world of application delivery and performance management, it’s not easy on the applications or networking operations side to troubleshoot and resolve end-to-end issues. I‘m sure you have heard of Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR); frequently used for measuring how long it takes to resolve a particular problem from the time a trouble ticket is open to when the problem is resolved (i.e. when the ticket is closed). Have you heard of Mean Time To Innocence (MTTI), which is basically the metric for how long it takes to prove the issue wasn’t your responsibility?

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Compuware’s PERFORM Global Conference. At this conference, Mike Hicks, who is the senior product line manager for Compuware’s DC RUM Application Performance Management (APM) product line spoke about his conversation with a customer regarding MTTI. When you are troubleshooting end-to-end application performance issues, the sooner you can isolate if it is a client (end user) related issue, networking issue, or back-end issue (example: database system) the more effectively you can shorten your MTTR. So if you are an application engineer (or network operations engineer) proving your innocence is the key to getting the right team within the enterprise IT group to look at the issue.  If you are not able to isolate the issue, the problem drags on, and finger pointing starts between the different teams (application, networking, database, etc). Hence MTTI becomes a critical factor in reducing your MTTR.

Here is a picture of Mike Hicks presenting how to deploy Compuware’s DC-RUM product line with Emulex EndaceProbe™ Intelligent Network Recorders (INRs) to improve your chances of cutting down MTTI and MTTR. Specifically, how to troubleshoot and isolate networking issues by leveraging EndaceProbe INR capabilities. EndaceProbe INRs provide reliable network history for going back in time (i.e. network forensics) when troubleshooting network related issues. Look for some exciting product announcements coming soon on this from Compuware and Emulex.

Compuware is a recognized and established Application Performance Management (APM) solutions vendor and Emulex, with its Endace® product line, is an established Network Recording solutions vendor. The combined solution provides a best-of-breed Application Aware Network Performance Monitoring (AA-NPM) solution that doesn’t lock customers into a single vendor/run-of-the-mill solution. We (the Emulex team) had a great time at the Compuware conference connecting with end users as well as the Compuware team. It was a great start to our relationship and an exciting journey lies ahead!

 

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Oct
02

Of NetFlows, Network Security and the Godfather…at Interop NY 2013

Original Entry by : sonny.singh

There is something very “je ne sais quoi” about traveling to New York which brings out the “I wanna be Sonny Corleone” in me. The first step in my ritualistic preparatory precursor is that I break out my extensive catalog of Frank Sinatra tunes and drink a stiff martini (dirty, with extra olives).  Every time I leave for New York, I take the time to re-learn every quotable line from my Godfather trilogy Blu-Ray box set (well, except for part three because it was a travesty) because having a tradeshow in New York and not honing in my “Godfather” lingo would be sacrilegious when speaking to partners and customers. It’s equally crucial to maintain that visage of confidence and cool collectiveness that only Marlon Brando could pull off while sitting at the table during one of his many sit-downs (or Robert DeNiro in “The Godfather Part II”). That said, the standard khaki slacks and one-size fits all black company logoed trade-show booth pullover are not exactly the cut of clothes that Michael Corleole favored, so I guess I’ll have to keep dreaming…

Speaking of shady characters and the underworld, you’ve got to hand it to them for adapting their crime expertise to suit the latest trends and racket potentials. The days of high-jacking trucks carrying $100K in Marlboro cigarette cases is a relic of the past. Why settle for a paltry sum of cash and risk getting lung cancer when it’s far more profitable to sit behind a computer and hack into a bank or government agency’s firewall? Large, organized crime syndicates have been launching sophisticated attacks against individuals and major corporations for decades. The result of their efforts is the theft of billions of dollars every year, and a large, ongoing presence in many of our most sensitive computer systems.  Check out this intriguing statistic:

“Russian-speaking hackers earned an estimated $4.5 billion globally using various online criminal tactics and are thus responsible for 36% of the estimated total of $12.5 billion earned globally by cybercriminals in 2011.¹”

The report I just cited goes on to say there is “an explosive increase of attacks” in the financial sector and online banking fraud is one of the fastest growing segments of cybercrime, with a big increase in 2011. What’s interesting is even non-technical criminals have also begun trying their luck in cybercrime, leading to an increase of outsourcing services such as consulting, training, and the sale of malware. All of these trends lead the researchers to conclude that “the Russian cybercrime market is experiencing a period of dynamic transition from a quantitative state to a qualitative one, moving away from the chaotic model of the development of the cybercrime world.”1

Emulex – Helping Data Centers Take a Bite out of Crime!

At Emulex, we live, breath and even dream about Information Security (InfoSec) because it’s our lifeblood and defines who we are. Interop NY offers the perfect setting to bring our vast knowledge of all things InfoSec to thought leaders from all facets of the InfoSec world – targeting the corporate and government sectors. And as part of Interop, we are proud to announce the new EndaceFlow™ 3040 NetFlow generator appliance. The EndaceFlow 3040 is purpose-built for use with high-density 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) networks, and generates 100 percent accurate NetFlows on up to four Ethernet links at speeds up to 10Gb per second (10Gbps) line rate. This level of performance speeds detection, identification and resolution of critical security and network issues, improving network uptime and reducing operational expenditures (OPEX) in enterprise data centers. As enterprises become more complex, NetOps and SecOps personnel are looking for new ways to improve their network visibility to ensure network security, guarantee performance of network-centric applications and to verify compliance with service level agreements (SLAs). Existing 10GbE NetFlow generators only provide sampled data on 10GbE links, as do switches and routers that are capable of generating NetFlow. Additionally, NetFlow generation on switches and routers significantly impacts their performance, especially during denial-of-service attacks. These sampled NetFlows don’t provide the visibility necessary to resolve critical network issues. By providing unsampled NetFlows, the EndaceFlow 3040 provides complete visibility in 10GbE networking environments.

By providing 100 percent NetFlow generation, new threats to network security and performance can more easily be detected, identified and resolved, resulting in detection of a wider range of network anomalies and intrusions in the security operations space, to identification of network choke points that impact application performance, and can be further treated with packet-based network recording and analysis tools.

Together with EndaceProbe™ Intelligent Network Recorders (INRs) and EndaceVision™,  you can manage InfoSec deployments by accelerating response times for network and security issues, maximize IT risk management and improve operational efficiency to capitalize on network uptime.

Swing by our booth and get a chance to meet Sonny Corleone…er, I mean Sonny Singh!

Ok, I know my handsome mug alone won’t get you to come talk to us, so how about you visit our Interop booth #728 and get your free gift and learn about our extensive network connectivity, monitoring and management solutions? Well, as a last enticer, if you stick around, check out our theatre presentations at booth #728 and we will enter your name to win a $50 Visa gift card. Don’t miss out.

In conclusion, I know my bland suburban lifestyle automatically disqualifies me from coming even remotely close to being associated with one of those dapper Hollywood depicted gangsters. After all, Tony Soprano wouldn’t have been caught dead driving a mini-van (it’s my wife’s by the way), so I guess I shouldn’t quit my day job (but I will continue to watch the Godfather every time it plays on AMC. No one can take that away from me).

 

 

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Sep
11

New Zealand Minister Visits Emulex

Original Entry by : sri.sundaralingam

I had the pleasure of hosting Hon Amy Adams at our Sunnyvale Emulex/Endace office earlier this week. One of the areas she is in charge of is communications and IT for New Zealand. The minister is in the San Francisco Bay Area visiting NZ-based technology companies and promoting trade and technology investment in New Zealand. It was a tremendous honor for me to host the minister, given the New Zealand government support in the past to invest in our R&D and go-to-market efforts.

I provided the minister an update on overall progress and investment from Emulex since the acquisition. The minister asked some great questions to understand the overall business opportunities and synergies for Emulex to continue to invest in the Endace product portfolio. We had a good discussion around the need for the New Zealand government to continue investing in engineering and IT talent in New Zealand for companies like us to benefit from as well.

Thanks to the minster and the team for the visit and time spent with us. For  me, it was certainly a great pleasure.

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Sep
10

Discover how network recording helps you meet SLAs

Original Entry by : mike.heumann

Emulex, a featured speaker on IT Monitoring and Metrics at the upcoming IT Service Management (ITSM) Summit, has a wealth of information to share from customers around the world who deploy network recording solutions to help meet service level agreements (SLAs). As mission-critical applications continue to grow, the networks they depend on are now key to meeting SLAs. Consider an online retailer with 4-nines availability built into their SLAs. Even when system availability requirements are met, if the performance is unacceptable just 3 percent of the time, this could translate to the equivalent of 11 days per year. Depending on which applications are affected, this level of resource downtime can have negative revenue impacts and also raise capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX and OPEX). Customers impacted by performance issues are also left feeling frustrated, alienated and angry and regaining their trust can be expensive.

Network recording can ease the burden on IT staff trying the meet network requirements while managing a tight budget. A prime example of today’s IT network challenge is how to maintain network SLA performance with higher speed networks deployed to meet the demanding needs of new applications. As networks move to 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) and beyond, the tools and processes used for 1GbE no longer suffice. It’s a catch-22 for IT managers – higher speed networks are required for faster performance, but the higher speed networks are more challenging to keep up 99.99 percent and thus are down more than the lower speed networks.

With network recording, our customers have found that they can lower time-to-resolution (TTR) significantly with a solution that captures 100 percent of the data, eliminating the guessing game when only samples of data are collected and analyzed. Furthermore, because our solution includes an Application Dock, any existing tools they have can still be used to analyze and prevent network downtime.

To learn more, join us for this interactive webinar tomorrow at 10 a.m. (PDT). We’ll even send you a $5 Starbuck’s eGift Card* to make the experience more enjoyable.

We also offer an interesting multinational financial corporation case study that goes into detail on the requirements of a network recording solution. Read it and prepare yourself and your data center for the next wave of mission-critical applications and their underlying network.

* Valid in the U.S. and Canada

 

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