Netscout expands network observability for the digital edge

As the prevalence and importance of mission-critical applications and services expand at remote sites, deep-dive observability of expanded networks is becoming more critical in reducing business risk, and to support firms in ever more extended enterprises, Netscout Systems has introduced a suite of business edge observability products.

Putting the launch into context, the visibility platform and performance management services provider cited research from the Uptime Institute pointing to what it called “the painful costs” of outages. Indeed, it calculated 16% of respondents in its study stated their most recent outage cost more than $1m, and 54% said costs exceeded $100,000.

“With the rise of edge computing, IoT [internet of things] solutions, frontline interactions, perimeter threats and hybrid workers, detailed visibility into remote resources, exchanges and application experiences is more critical than ever,” said Mark Leary, research director of network analytics and automation at research house IDC.

“Key functions such as scalable deep packet inspection and synthetic transaction testing provide comprehensive views and valuable control mechanisms for the digital infrastructure, bolstering operational efficiency, worker productivity, customer satisfaction, security posture and, ultimately, financial performance.”

Netscout chief technology officer Bruce Kelley added: “Consider the intricacies of hospitals. When electronic patient records, or imaging and radiology applications, are unavailable, the impact extends beyond the downtime cost.

“Hospital applications are business-critical, supporting patient safety, patient treatment, customer services and the overall trust of the institution. A service disruption related to performance or security is more than a major business issue as patient care is on the line.”

All of this, said Netscout, reinforces the need for automating IT operations so mission-critical applications and data can be available locally. It added that the increased complexity of SASE, SD-WAN, SaaS and UCaaS service usage further challenges ensuring high-quality digital experiences at remote sites, but warned that traditional methods, including application point tools, synthetics-only, user self-diagnosis and ad hoc troubleshooting, are ineffective and time-consuming.

Netscout also observed that since IT teams often have limited resources at remote locations, they require instrumentation that provides a combination of synthetic transaction capabilities and deep packet inspection to prevent visibility gaps and determine the root cause quickly.

To this end, the business edge observability offerings – nGenius Edge Sensors and Remote InfiniStreamNGs – are designed to deliver IT observability for remote locations at the digital edge, seeing use in locations such as retail stores, manufacturing facilities, banks, utility companies, hospitals and government offices.

They are said to combine the power of the company’s patented Adaptive Services Intelligence technology with synthetic testing and automatic decryption together to deliver “comprehensive” visibility that scales to any essential business edge.

In all, Netscout assured that for remote sites, nGenius Edge Sensors and Remote InfiniStreamNGs become the eyes and ears of an IT team, reducing the time to troubleshoot and resolve issues.