Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cloud
    • Cloud
    • Database
    • Development
    • Networking

    InfoVista Joins Cloud Orchestration, SD-WAN To Up App Performance

    Written by

    Zeus Kerravala
    Published March 27, 2019
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      The industry’s largest enterprise communications show, Enterprise Connect, was held earlier this month in Orlando, Fla. For decades, the show has followed the trend of voice and video shifting away from its own proprietary network to IP networks and, most recently, to the cloud.

      The challenge for network managers is how to ensure the quality of network-based applications, particularly latency and jitter-sensitive ones—such as voice and video–remains high. Poor-performing apps can kill productivity because it makes it difficult to get any work.

      On March 18, InfoVista announced some updates to its SD-WAN product, Ipanema, that ensure application quality remains high. SD-WANs are still relatively new but certainly on the rise. ZK Research data finds that less than 20 percent of companies have production SD-WAN deployments, but well over half of companies are now looking at the technology.

      The value proposition most vendors take to market addresses a couple of big pain points: cost and application availability. All SD-WAN solutions use features such as multi-path to improve network uptime, and the use of broadband can lower costs. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that applications will perform better. Availability and performance are both important, but they are two different things.

      SD-WAN Enables Different Apps to Map to Various Networks

      With a basic SD-WAN, different apps can be mapped to the various networks being used to theoretically improve performance. For example, voice and video can be directed over MPLS and best-effort traffic sent over a broadband connection. In this case, if the MPLS network gets congested but doesn’t go down, nothing will change, and users will suffer because video will be blocky and voice packets will drop. 

      In the event of a failure, traffic will be moved to the alternate connection; hence availability remains high, but performance suffers. InfoVista uses a number of machine-learning techniques to understand application delivery requirements and maintain a high quality of experience. Each flow and user session is analyzed to ensure business policies are enforced.  

      Most SD-WAN vendors will look at a network metrics such as packet loss, jitter, delay and roundtrip time, but it can be difficult to extrapolate application experience from network information. InfoVista combines the network data with a number of application metrics, including throughput, session information, server response time, transaction time and packet data, and then calculates an application quality score on a range of 0-10.

      The process of automating and scoring application is nearly completely automated. Internal IT may have a good idea what on-premises application are running but likely have no idea what cloud services are crossing the network because of the rise of shadow IT. 

      Infovista’s ‘Massive Cloud Database’

      As part of this release, InfoVista has built a massive cloud data base that can identify every cloud service being used. This data is then used to create the policies to prioritize applications, orchestrate services and ensure quality of experience. The company uses a number of complementary mechanisms, such as dynamic bandwidth allocation, class-based queuing, advanced compression, acceleration, prioritization and dynamic path selection and recalculates network capacity and traffic demands every second.

      The cloud orchestrator is a great example of how on-premises infrastructure can work in conjunction with a cloud service to deliver a high-quality network experience.

      It would be impossible for most companies to build this kind of capability in-house because it requires massive compute power and constant scanning of cloud apps to keep the database up to date in real time. I find there’s a religious debate regarding on-prem infrastructure and cloud-managed.  Neither is better per se; the key is to use each to its strength.

      As part of this announcement, InfoVista also updated its portal customers use to manage the network. The tool has always displayed QoE metrics for users, but now it has the ability to drill down into applications for troubleshooting purposes.

      It also has historical data from retrospective analysis on a per-conversation basis. The new troubleshooting tools can reduce the time taken to find problems or at least understand it’s not a network problem. ZK Research data found that 90% of the time taken to solve a problem is identifying where it is and the drilldown capabilities can shorten that time dramatically.

      Networks Connect Users to Services

      In the digital era, businesses are network-centric, because it’s the thing that connects users to devices and to applications and the cloud. Networks can no longer exist in isolation from applications. The updates from InfoVista are a signal that the SD-WAN market is changing. 

      Historically, SD-WANs were about being cheaper than legacy networks with a bit of network resiliency thrown in. The new features tightly couple the network to applications to make them perform better, which is what business leaders care about.

      For many organizations, the network is the business, and that requires a fundamental re-think of the WAN to be application centric instead of transport centric.  

      Zeus Kerravala is the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. He spent 10 years at Yankee Group and prior to that held a number of corporate IT positions.

      Zeus Kerravala
      Zeus Kerravala
      https://zkresearch.com/
      Zeus Kerravala is an eWEEK regular contributor and the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. He spent 10 years at Yankee Group and prior to that held a number of corporate IT positions. Kerravala is considered one of the top 10 IT analysts in the world by Apollo Research, which evaluated 3,960 technology analysts and their individual press coverage metrics.

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×