Tying the Knot with Cisco and Juniper

We’re very pleased this month to announce that NetEvidence has signed formal partnerships with Cisco and Juniper, two of the most advanced and widely used equipment vendors in the network marketplace. This is really important for NetEvidence. One of Highlight’s core principles is that we don’t require our customers to install any extra hardware in the form of probes : all the information we collect comes from existing equipment – such as routers, switches. These devices have got progressively more powerful over the years and most user organizations don’t realize just how much capability is sitting unused in their existing network – the capability to tell them what applications are running, for example, how Classes of Service are being used, what the delay is between any two points, or simulate a Voice call across the network every few minutes and report on call-quality. Coupled with Highlight’s ‘nothing to install’ SaaS approach, this means customers literally sign up and within hours or days start lifting the fog from their network, with no further investment or effort. 

Extracting this sort of information from devices is hard and requires an intimate knowledge of the manufacturer’s software and technical interfaces  – and so these partnerships will make sure that as we continue to develop Highlight’s capabilities (into areas like WiFi and Flow, for example) we get the best possible support from those vendors – which translates into better service for our customers. To everyone at Cisco and Juniper, thanks for the help over the last few years, and we're looking forward to working with you even more closely.

Azzurri extends contract

We believe strongly that SaaS (Software as a Service) is the way to go : that organizations don’t want the headache and hassle of managing complex software products, but would rather buy in to a service – provided it’s stable, dependable and does what you need.

Buying into this trend, Azzurri Communications recently signed a contract with  NetEvidence which greatly extends the long-standing relationship between the two companies. Under the contract, Azzurri will use Highlight’s recently-added NOC (Network Operations Centre) functionality to run their two core NOC sites. This depth of functionality, and Highlight’s unique ease of use, means Azzurri now have a single, unified view of their network that’s used by Service Managers, Account Managers, and Engineers – as well as by their Customers.

Steve Clark, Azzurri’s Support Services Director said, “Highlight’s SaaS delivery model means new technologies and functionalities can be added easily, so our NOC customers receive the benefits immediately. The system is also highly scalable, so we can accommodate new business without having to increase headcount.  Most importantly, the SaaS model means there is no capital investment - we simply use what we need and increase our requirements as we grow.” 

Read the full press release here >>

The Silicon Cup: coming First

NetEvidence takes line honours and overall victory at Cowes

A NetEvidence yacht and its triumphant crew sailed into first place in their class at this year’s Equinix Silicon Cup held in September at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England.

Hundreds of IT professionals crewed over fifty yachts in the industry’s largest sailing competition during the two-day series of close-fought races across the Solent. 

NetEvidence entered two yachts into the competition with crew members travelling in from around the UK from its partner organisations.  While our ‘hard core’ team sailing a Farr 45, took line honours and overall victory in Class 1, the second yacht, a Beneteau 47 crewed by many who had never sailed before, achieved a respectable fourth place against seven in their class.

Elaborate masks were worn by everyone at the masquerade ball on the first evening which heightened the celebratory atmosphere. During the evening’s festivities funds were raised for a number of worthy childrens’ charities. 

“We’ve been involved in this regatta for six years and are thrilled to have won a trophy,” says Richard Thomas, Managing Director of NetEvidence.  “The races were exhilarating.  We had enormous fun both on and off the water and we’re very grateful to our partners for their outstanding teamwork and support.” 

Check the NetEvidence web site for some pictures ofo the event, and if you’re one of the lucky few who took part, thanks for the effort and energy that took us to beiing No 1.

Highlight V7: We need your help

Highlight Users take note: Version 7 is on the way. NetEvidence is embarking on a major project to further enhance the functionality, and scalability, of Highlight. These improvements will be delivered in a series of phased releases over approximately the next 12 months. Because Highlight is a Service product, the operational impact on users will be minimal and we’ll be publishing full details of the phases, new features, and timetable, as the project progresses.

Here’s where you come in. The V7 project will be a little different from our usual development process in that we’re looking to form a group of users who can play an active part: comment on our plans and ideas, contribute their own, and discuss what features are important to them and how they should work. We’ll be doing this via an online forum, and the number of people involved will initially be limited so at this stage, participation in shaping the next version of Highlight is by invitation only.

If you’re interested in taking part, please let us know by emailing us at takingpart@net-evidence.com.

We’re particularly interested in Corporate end-users, or Service Management personnel within Network Providers – but the key qualification is enthusiasm. It’s also a great opportunity to get your, or your organisation’s, feature requests put into the roadmap.

OTHER NEWS

Two-minute Tutorial: NetFlow - what’s the big story?

WThere are many ways  of finding out what’s going in within your network, and NetFlow (or ‘Flow Technology’ to be more generic) may be one of them. Powerful though it may be, it’s also one of the most over-hyped technologies around, to the point where everyone believes it can cure the common cold, but very few have any idea quite how – or whether - it works. If you have two minutes, here’s a short summary.

Flow is a technology which sits inside routers and switches, and watches Applications traffic as it flies past between, for example, Servers and Workstations on your network.  All of this traffic is in the form of Conversations (or ‘Flows’ here). Conversations are short-lived, for example to load a graphic on a web page, or download a single email. Devices – Server, Laptops or generically ‘End-points’ - normally have lots of conversations, or flows, on the go at once, so to tell them apart they tag each conversation with a number or ‘Port’. Think of Port Numbers as like Mail Drop numbers inside a large building : once the packet enters the building (or server) its Port Number means it can be passed to the right department (Web Server, SAP, Voice software, etc). To help track conversations, there are standard Port numbers for specific applications. Web Browsers don’t have to use 80, and Email clients don’t have to use 25, but it’s accepted that they normally do, and so Flow technology – which is watching all this go past, remember, and can see End Points and Ports  – can keep track of who’s generating how much traffic of what type.

This is useful stuff. The Flow software builds a list of what’s going on, and every few seconds dumps this onto the network, where a management station can pick it up, process it, and convert it into something a human can understand. But there are problems.

First, Ports. If all applications stuck to standard ports things would be simple – but they don’t. Management tools have to make a guess at converting port numbers into English. And some applications – such as FTP, or a lot of Voice calls - simply make up ports numbers as they go along. So while Flow gives a useful picture, it’s not complete, and may be misleading – in other words, you need to apply some expertise to the result.

Second, End Points (servers, laptops, etc). Thanks to the global shortage of IP address space, Address Translation and DHCP means Flow often can’t see individual stations within your network, but sees everything originating from your firewall address. On the public Internet, what looks like the BBC website is actually a mass of different servers, often in different locations, serving content, images, video, news, etc. In most cases, Flow will give you much more information than you thought you needed. 

Third, Overhead. Catching and passing on this level of granular information generates appreciable load on your routers and switches, and on your network. Turn it on with care.

Bottom line: Flow is powerful technology, but it carries significant overhead and needs moderate expertise to understand. It’s not really designed as a long-term, widely-deployed reporting technology – your network simply should not need that level of diagnostic on it all the time. It’s like driving your car with a mechanic permanently sitting in the passenger seat monitoring oil levels and exhaust quality. By all means keep Flow in your network, understand it, and have it available if you need to look deeper to solve a problem or take a detailed measurement. 

This is our philosophy towards Flow, and it’s driving our approach to development for Flow support within Highlight. We’re currently testing prototype Flow support, but also soliciting feedback from customers on how they’d want to use it, and what information they want ot get out of it. If you’re opinionated on the subject, let us know.