Network Diagramming Channel Feature

What Companies Will Need to Do to Keep Up with Network Monitoring This Year

By Allison Boccamazzo
TMCnet Web Editor

There are quite a few things that those of you in the networking monitoring industry need to know before you take one more step this year. With each year, there are always new things to preserve, improve upon and keep up with to remain efficient and successful for what will hopefully extend past the next twelve months. In light of this, let’s take a look back at some of the most important advancements and trends that have emerged in the market this past year to then look at what will impact business in 2013.

In March of 2012, industry analyst and research firm IDC (News - Alert) released a study forecasting the worldwide network management market for 2012-2017, estimating the market to grow at a CAGR of 7.5 percent to $4 billion from 2012-2017. Clearly, the network monitoring and management space has only continued to remain strong. Two things that may have significantly contributed to this growth are investment in network security and Big Data.

TMC was able to recently speak with Paul Ginn, director of marketing at APCON (News - Alert), a company providing complete network visibility for improved network security and optimized monitoring tool efficiency, who divulged his similar perception on.

“We have seen a growing trend of attacks on enterprise networks in 2012. Network security is a concern and will carry over as one of the major investment areas in 2013,” Ginn explains. “Whether it is security policy adoption, security tool investment or architecture modification, responses will continue to be implemented to keep business-critical network functions secure.” Meanwhile, “the explosion of data and content variety is driving profound network architecture changes. Big data requires exceptional technologies to efficiently process large quantities of data within tolerable elapsed times. The volume of transactions and the number of external interface points further increases the complexity of network monitoring management, and therefore, increases the importance of a sound network monitoring architecture.”

APCON is one of many in the network monitoring space who have been directly impacted by these trends. Ginn told us that due to the exponential rise in Big Data, APCON recently introduced an array of network monitoring products to help with such things as tool overload, including packet slicing, packet de-duplication and high capacity blades to handle high-bandwidth Ethernet traffic (10G to 40G).

Also, due to rising concerns to meet network security, the company ensured that its products were a part of the network security ecosystem. “Our switches send the right data to the right tool for analysis. Working hand in hand with network security tools and on a larger scale, all network monitoring and analysis tools, APCON enables complete network visibility by allowing the monitoring of all network data points,” Ginn explains, adding that the company also does this at a lower monitoring cost because its patented packet collection, modification and analysis technologies allow for better tool efficiency.

Among the many achievements and advanced developments APCON has rolled out over the past year are time stamping, packet slicing, a new packet controller, its new INTELLAFLEX high-density port blades, a self-contained switch and monitoring tool and a multi-switch management solution.

Just like every monitoring and management company, APCON is preparing for 2013, and is working on its SDN initiative, new partnerships and further support for Big Data.

Among Ginn’s predictions for this year in network monitoring, he projects that overall data center infrastructure and architecture will see some pretty significant changes, that CIOs will take a closer look at how to cut costs, that cloud security will reach the top of mind, that mobile devices will drive security policy changes, and that network monitoring will evolve to become a key IT priority this year.

So what’s it going to take for you to make it through 2013 in this space? According to Ginn, specific requirements for SDN and government enforced regulations.

“The future of networking will rely more and more on software based applications which will accelerate the pace of innovation. But Innovation will need to be based on new norms that are still currently being defined,” he explains. Adding that “to counter cyber-attacks, government-enforced regulations for network compliance and network security will be crucial, especially for government supply chains. But we also predict these regulations spilling out to private sector.”

To find out more about OPNET Technologies (News - Alert) and Vice President of R & D and Chief Architect Gurmeet Lamba, visit the company at ITEXPO Miami. Taking place Jan. 29- Feb 1, in Miami, Florida, ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the only gathering where the community of communications and technology buyers, sellers, resellers, and manufacturers meet to forge relationships and close deals. Rabban is speaking during “Time to Rethink Performance Management” For more information on ITEXPO, click here.