Gigamon unveils Software Defined Visibility 

“When you see every packet, you can secure every packet,” said Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst of ZK Research. “For this reason, having intelligent traffic visibility is critical in order to provide high security for today’s data centres and next-generation enterprises networks.”

“Software Defined Visibility is a first of its kind breakthrough. It enables security tools, such as IPSs, WAFs, Secure Web Gateways, Sandboxes and other in-line or out-of-band security appliances to program the Gigamon Visibility Fabric to automatically update traffic Flow Maps and GigaSMART operations based on real-time conditions,” said Shehzad Merchant, chief technology officer at Gigamon. “By enabling the programmability of our Visibility Fabric, customers gain the ability to dynamically adjust and enhance their visibility posture thereby improving security, while reducing costs and network complexities.”

Software Defined Visibility – Bringing Automated Security and Visibility Together

Software Defined Visibility is a framework that allows customers, security and network equipment vendors, as well as managed service providers, to control and program Gigamon’s Visibility Fabric via REST-based Application Program Interfaces (APIs). By writing programs that utilise Gigamon’s APIs, critical functions previously requiring manual intervention can be automated to improve responsiveness, enhance analysis and increase protection of key resources and information assets. Potential use case examples include:

Improve Security Efficiencies – Security administrators can develop applications to improve network detection, reaction and response by automating NetFlow generation and SSL decryption so that current security appliances are not overtaxed when performing deep packet inspection. For example, administrators can use the APIs that program the Visibility Fabric to dynamically change the traffic forwarding policies in response to threats or anomalous network traffic changes.
Automate Policy Management – As new virtual machines are spun up, administrators can write policy management programs that utilise Gigamon’s APIs to automatically follow new changes within virtual and physical networks.
Simplify Provisioning and Ticketing – For many organisations, IT Operations Management (ITOM) groups are burdened to manually perform common tasks, such as provisioning and ticketing of network port configurations, monitoring of new IP subnets and VLANs, and upgrading software images. With Software Defined Visibility, ITOM groups can develop programs to automate these processes.

Software Defined Visibility – Ideal for Managed Service Providers and Channel Partners
Because MSPs and channel partners have a strong interest in providing their customers with custom capabilities that improve security and reduce costs, Gigamon’s Software Defined Visibility creates a flexible foundation for them to create new and innovative ways to exceed service level agreements and customer expectations. Gigamon has already garnered MSP and channel support for developing custom solutions.

BAI Federal – “BAI Federal has supported the U.S. Government for nearly 40 years. Once you acknowledge that breaches will inevitably occur, it is easy to understand why we must evolve from a defense in depth strategy to continuous monitoring and orchestration. Gigamon’s API framework is a huge step forward as it enables the deployment of an active and living security infrastructure that can make decisions on where to focus valuable processing cycles while concurrently orchestrating response,” said Ryan Morris, Sr. director of operations at BAI Federal.

ePlus – “As an organisation driving security solutions into the technology we architect and integrate, ePlus helps organisations proactively control and secure their IT infrastructure thru advanced tools and visibility. Having API integration with Gigamon’s Visibility Fabric gives us greater agility and freedom to automate, customise and optimise distributed network architectures and highly virtualised next generation data centres,” said Lee Waskevich, security practice director at ePlus.

Software Defined Visibility – Enabled by GigaVUE-FM Fabric Manager

GigaVUE-FM 3.0 Fabric Manager enables Software Defined Visibility. GigaVUE-FM delivers a single pane-of-glass view of physical and virtual nodes across the Visibility Fabric, while providing an easy-to-use, wizard-based approach for configuring Flow Mapping® and GigaSMART® traffic policies. A single instance of GigaVUE-FM can manage hundreds of visibility nodes across multiple locations, containing more than a quarter of a million physical ports in addition to managing virtual infrastructures.

Flow Mapping technology helps reduce traffic and improve analyser performance. Flow Mapping is a patented technology at the heart of Gigamon’s GigaVUE Visibility Fabric nodes that takes line-rate traffic at 1Gb, 10Gb, 40Gb or 100Gb from a network TAP or a SPAN/mirror port (physical or virtual) and then optimises flows based on individual traffic profiles of the tools and applications that secure, monitor, and analyse the network infrastructure.

GigaSMART technology extends the intelligence and value of the Gigamon Visibility Fabric architecture by enhancing monitoring infrastructure and improving tool performance. A suite of applications is available to enable modification, manipulation, transformation, and transport of traffic from the network to the tools and appliances used for management, monitoring and security.