Faster, simpler, smaller, smarter: A cybersecurity dream becomes reality

More ports, same space, faster speeds, simpler deployment, foolproof configuration, fully scalable and a smarter way to protect your network. Sounds like an IT professional’s dream.

In the world of high technology, the holy grail of new products can be summed up with four words: Faster, Simpler, Smaller, Smarter. Think about Moore’s Law which states, “The number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.” This has become a mantra and goal in the high-tech industry for decades. The demise of Moore’s law has also been debated for decades. It has been said many times over the years, that, at some point, the law of physics will trump the law of Moore. That may eventually happen. However, with continued innovation in design, process and materials the pace of this progress has continued for over 50 years.

While Moore’s law applies to integrated circuit (IC) technology, it can be generally used to describe the rapid pace of innovation in the tech industry. Smart phones, computers, routers, switches, servers that make up network systems are also benefiting from these IC advances.

Over the last decade we have seen advancement from 1/10Gbps to 25Gbps to 40/100Gbps. These rapid advancements, while great for users, are challenging for network architects and managers who are tasked with monitoring, managing and protecting the networks and the information they move.

There are many specialized tools designed to monitor network data flows. Some of these tools are built for analysis and optimization of network traffic. Some tools are designed to block malicious attacks and deter theft of confidential information. In either case, the job of these tools becomes exponentially more difficult as network speed increases. It is much more complex to open packets, read, analyze and take action when the data is moving at one hundred billion bits per second than when the data is moving at ten billion bits per second. The dramatic increase in network link speed has led to a corresponding increase in complexity and price of the tools being used to monitor and protect networks.

Just as advances in materials, processes, design and software have helped make the IC industry more efficient, the same is happening in the ancillary products being used to provide visibility to the tools that monitor and protect networks. As network tool speeds and prices escalate, Network Critical has developed a new way to provide visibility to high speed links using simpler, lower cost, lower speed tools. It is the SmartNA-PortPlus.

Being new to the market, the SmartNA-PortPlus has the advantage of being designed using the latest, most advanced chip technology. Further, Network Critical engineers have written completely new software further enhancing the chip capabilities. This combination of new chips and innovative software provide visibility to 100G links with the flexibility to utilize both new and legacy management tools. Faster.

Remembering the sage advice of parents and mentors – when faced with a large, complex problem or project, it is best to break it up into smaller, more manageable pieces. This is a foundational principle of one of the key features of the SmartNA-PortPlus. This revolutionary new packet broker provides up to 48 ports of 10/25Gbps access. It also has six ports of 40/100Gbps access in the same unit. Then with the added extender box, SmartNA-PortPlus can easily scale up to 192 ports. Simply plug-in the extra ports to the mothership and you are ready to go, hassle free. When the sophisticated load balancing feature is deployed, high speed links can be accessed at up to 100Gbps and traffic distributed down to multiple 10/25Gbps ports where the tools are connected. The high speed incoming traffic load is parsed and balanced among the lower speed ports to provide more manageable segments of the incoming link to the connected lower speed tools. This allows for less complex and less expensive tools to efficiently manage very high-speed links. Simpler.

If you have not noticed the port math above, the 48 ports of 10/25Gbps access plus the six ports of 40/100Gbps access adds up to 1.8 Terabits per second of high speed, non-blocking access and visibility. That is a lot of power. More amazing, however, is that all this power is packed into a rack mountable, 1RU chassis saving valuable rack real estate. Smaller.

With all this speed and features, it may be thought that the SmartNA-PortPlus is a complicated product requiring seasoned experts to deploy. That thought would be erroneous. Powered by the intelligent and intuitive Drag ’n Vu Graphical User Interface, configuration and deployment is as easy as dragging the curser across a port diagram and clicking a mouse. A sophisticated computational engine running in the background enables fast, error-free configuration and management. Smarter.

The new SmartNA-PortPlus by Network Critical provides the fastest processing, highest density most flexible design and simplest management. While transition to higher speed inks continues to stress the tools that monitor and protect networks, the SmartNA-PortPlus extends the life of legacy tools providing robust security, accurate analysis and dramatic capital equipment savings. Faster, Simpler, Smaller, Smarter.