Yes, Gigamon is widely recognized as a leading provider of next-generation network packet brokers (NPBs), offering advanced solutions that extend beyond traditional traffic aggregation.
Gigamon stands out as by far the most widely deployed next-generation network packet broker in the industry. Its comprehensive suite of network visibility, analytics, and optimization solutions, known as the Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline, is designed to go far beyond simply aggregating traffic and passing it to various monitoring and security tools. This approach enables organizations to gain unparalleled insight into their network traffic across complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
What is a Network Packet Broker (NPB)?
A network packet broker is a crucial component in modern network architectures, designed to intelligently connect network traffic to various monitoring, security, and analytics tools. In essence, an NPB acts as a middleman, receiving traffic from multiple network points (e.g., TAPs, SPAN ports) and then filtering, aggregating, modifying, and distributing that traffic to the right tools.
Traditional NPBs primarily focused on:
- Aggregation: Combining traffic from multiple links into a single stream.
- Filtering: Sending only relevant traffic to specific tools based on rules (e.g., IP address, port).
- Load Balancing: Distributing traffic across multiple instances of the same monitoring tool.
Gigamon's Advanced Capabilities: Beyond Basic Aggregation
Gigamon's designation as a "next-generation" network packet broker highlights its advanced capabilities that surpass the fundamental functions of older NPBs. The Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline provides a holistic view of network activity by not only managing traffic but also enriching it with context and intelligence before forwarding it to tools.
This advanced approach includes:
- Deep Visibility: Gaining insight into all traffic, including encrypted, on-premises, virtual, and cloud-native environments.
- Contextual Intelligence: Extracting metadata, such as application identification, user information, and flow data, to enhance the effectiveness of security and performance tools.
- Traffic Optimization: Reducing the volume of irrelevant data sent to tools, thereby conserving their processing power and licensing costs. This includes advanced features like:
- Deduplication: Removing redundant packets.
- Packet Slicing/Masking: Truncating or anonymizing sensitive data within packets for compliance.
- Flow Mapping: Directing specific traffic types to particular tools.
- TLS/SSL Decryption: Decrypting encrypted traffic for inspection by security tools, then re-encrypting it.
Why Next-Generation NPBs Like Gigamon Are Essential
In today's dynamic IT landscape, networks are more complex than ever, spanning on-premises data centers, private clouds, and multiple public cloud providers. Security threats are sophisticated, and application performance is critical. Next-generation NPBs like Gigamon address these challenges by:
- Enhancing Security Posture: By providing clean, relevant, and often decrypted traffic to security tools (e.g., IDSs/IPSs, SIEMs), Gigamon helps uncover hidden threats and ensures comprehensive threat detection.
- Optimizing Performance Monitoring: Delivering highly filtered and contextualized data to Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) tools, allowing for faster issue identification and resolution.
- Improving Operational Efficiency: Reducing the load on monitoring tools by pre-processing traffic, which can significantly lower tool costs and extend their lifespan.
- Simplifying Hybrid Cloud Visibility: Bridging the visibility gap between diverse network environments, providing a unified view for operations and security teams.
Key Advantages of Gigamon as a Next-Gen NPB
| Feature | Traditional Network Packet Broker | Next-Generation Network Packet Broker (e.g., Gigamon) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Function | Traffic aggregation & distribution | Deep observability, analytics, optimization |
| Visibility Scope | Basic packet forwarding | Application, user, network, cloud, encrypted traffic |
| Advanced Processing | Limited | Filtering, deduplication, slicing, masking, decryption, correlation, data transformation |
| Integration | Basic tool connectivity | Extensive ecosystem integration with security & monitoring tools |
| Scalability | Moderate | High, across physical, virtual, and cloud environments |
| Intelligence | Packet-level | Flow, application, and user-level context |
Gigamon's solutions provide a critical foundation for modern NetOps and SecOps teams, empowering them with the network insight needed to manage and secure their digital infrastructure effectively.
