Application Performance Management

One of the most challenging things when using a network is running into a performance problem and then waiting on an IT team to fix that problem. But worse than a performance problem is a security problem creating the performance problem. Application vulnerabilities rank as the top security threat to organizations today.

As Anthony Haywood, CTO of Idappcom, explained to TMC (News - Alert) Contributor, Erin Monda, “IT’s never infallible and for this reason penetration testing is often heralded as the hero of the hour. That said technology has moved on and, while still valid in certain circumstances, historical penetration testing techniques are often limited in their effectiveness. A traditional test is executed from outside the network perimeter with the tester seeking applications to attack.”

“However, as these assaults are all from a single IP address, intelligent security software will recognize this behavior as the IP doesn’t change. Within the first two or three attempts the source address is blacklisted or fire walled and all subsequent traffic is immaterial as all activities are seen and treated as malicious,” Haywood added.

There isn’t one single piece of advice, like “be proactive,” to answer all your prayers. Instead you need two pieces of advice, “be proactive” and “be intelligent,” allowing your network to perform in perfect harmony. Therefore, to address application threats IT staffs are adopting next generation network solutions that are proactive and intelligent, providing visibility, management, and security into the applications on the network. It’s about survival!!

Therefore, Vineyard Networks, software developer and deliverer of network application intelligence solutions to third party vendors, has released its Network Application Visibility Layer (NAVL) 2.7 library, enabling service providers and network infrastructure vendors to add application intelligent classification to their solutions easily. Who is using the application? What are the threat levels? The NAVL library gives you these intelligent answers so you can proactively address threats in your network.

Some of the highlights of Vineyard Networks’ Network Application Visibility Layer Library include: real-time application visibility; transition to more intelligent application awareness; and a variety of network and security infrastructure solutions.

Building application-intelligent technology is time and resource intensive, yet businesses are actively upgrading to next-generation solutions because vendors cannot afford the delay. But as I pointed out in a recent interview with Jason Richards, CEO and founder of Vineyard Networks, it is a bumpy road when implementing new and advanced solutions. Richards assured me as he assures vendors, “We’ve got a technology platform that today is deployed in over 100,000 enterprise gateways around the world. We’ve got some time on the engine – it’s tried, it’s tested, it’s true, it’s innovative, it’s high performance, covering thousand of applications….We also bring an element of leadership and experience along with that platform through our support programs and our technical integration programs, which we pass that information on to the vendor as well, providing such information as best practices.” With NAVL, network infrastructure vendors and service providers can add application intelligence to their solution(s) in less time, for less money, and with lowered risk.