System Vitals

Sitting down this morning with a much needed cup of coffee I was alerted to this startling post from a cNet news feed.

"Thursday is the deadline for colleges and universities that receive Title IV federal aid to have implemented antipiracy procedures on their campuses as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008." - cnet

I was speechless, which for me is quite an astounding feat. So many thoughts ran around in my head but in the end only one thing came out of my mouth, "theres an app for that!".  Scrutinizer and NetFlow can easily help schools monitor for this type of traffic. Heck! It was one of the things Scrutinizer was built for. Understanding how users consume your networks bandwidth is important in todays world. Laws like this make monitoring your traffic a requirement. Matter of fact, it can be quite costly if you don't.

As I mentioned Scrutinizer is well suited to assist in this task. NetFlow gives you the flexibility to monitor all of your network traffic from one central location. Scrutinizer allows you to filter your data into meaningful, easy to swallow  reports that tell you who was doing what, where and when. It doesn't stop there.

Scrutinizers filtering engine allows you to customize how you view your data . Scrutinizer then gives you the ability to add a threshold to that report . Now you have a customized monitoring tool.  I created a quick video that explain . . . .



But that report only looks for high bandwidth consumption,  file sharing traffic can be small and and almost undetectable. In applications that don't store all of the NetFlow traffic this is true.  Scrutinizer stores all of your NetFlow data which gives our Flow Analytics engine the ability to  monitor all of your network traffic and alert you on suspicious traffic patterns. You guessed it, one of the monitoring algorithms is P2P. How fitting! . Flow Analytics also allows you to easily identify Top Applications, Conversations, Flows, Protocols, Domains, Countries, Subnets, etc. across dozens of routers and switches.

Do you have NetFlowV9 and NBAR? We are one of the only vendors that support this technology completely.  NBAR stands for  "Network Based Application Recognition"  and is the mechanism used by some Cisco routers and switches to recognize a dataflow by inspecting some packets sent. With NBAR you are going to be able to get a definitive answer on what applications are being used on your network. Scrutinizer supports it, reports on it and most importantly alerts on it!

I've shown you a few of the ways Scrutinizer can help you meet the needs of this new law. There are quite a few other important features so make sure to download a copy of Scrutinizer and kick the tires for 30 days.

The World Cup starts in two days and trust me, the IT managers are concerned. The potential load on corporate networks is enormous and with an event of this magnitude it could possibly cause expensive downtime. With statistics like 54% of Britains are planning to watch the World Cup on company computers, you can see why it is important to pay attention to your company's Internet Usage Policy now.

Jim Martin from ExpertReview.com wrote a blog that points out some of the scary statistics about corporate employees and network usage during the games.

"The survey of 2,000 workers also found that most people had given no thought to the possible consequences on their own workplace."  The article then goes on to say, "IT networks. More than half those polled did not know whether their organization had any restrictions or guidelines in place to stop them accessing sites to watch the tournament."

The doom and gloom continues with a report from SkyNews where Clodagh Murphy warns managers that during the event  it could take a longer time to download company information or, even worse, crash a system. With the geographical size of World Cup, not to mention the excitement of the final few games, you can see how this could be a digital catastrophe of 2012 proportions.

So what can you do?  The first step is to play by the rules. Go and find out the details of your company's Internet Usage Policy. If you don't have one, it is probably too late to effectively institute one now, BUT it would be a good time to start planning for next year. If you do have a policy, then send a friendly email reminding users of its existence and to respect the company's bandwidth and fellow users.

The next step is to use a network monitoring tool like Scrutinizer. "Monitoring is truly the key," describes Plixer's own Network Admin, Tom Pore. He used Scrutinizer to help identify high use traffic for March Madness in his blog.

I would then set up a threshold, using the alerting capability of the Thresholds Filter. You will quickly see the advantage of foresight when user complaints start rolling in about network and application speed. "I know that your Internet connection is slow, it must be flustering. I just  found the issue and have corrected it. You should be all set." Preemptive answers like this instill confidence in your Admin skills and ensure peace and tranquility during these troubling times.

The last step is a piece of personal advice. The World Cup has a global presence; network usage is going to be high and it is going to affect your network. People love their teams and there is little chance you are  going to directly change their minds. Instead of risking an all out war, be friendly, be polite and use your tools to help curb the strain it is going to put on your network. Following Admin Zen steps like these can get you the help and support you might need in the future. If this doesn't work or is not applicable to your environment then I suggest that you lock yourself in the server room, grab your headphones and play Metallica Guitar Hero as loud as possible. It is going to be a bumpy ride!

Things reportedly got kind of crazy today when a NetFlow Ninja popped into the Sanford, Maine offices of Plixer International. "He dropped down from the ceiling and handed me a letter demanding an nProbe,"  said Jon Mills, Marketing Manager for Plixer. "The freak was swinging a plastic sword and jabbing at my cubical walls. I nearly spilled coffee on my keyboard."

It is believed the ninja was curious about Plixer's IPFIX analysis capabilities with the nProbe, developed by Luca Deri. After several attempts to calm the ninja, Plixer support representatives were finally able to demonstrate the new functionality. Mills was unharmed by the would be assailant, claiming, "It turns out that he was really quite harmless. We're glad he let us take a few pictures and explain why we are one of the leaders in NetFlow Analysis."

"Our security camera snapped this picture of the scoundrel. I was going to send it to the Sanford Police, but there was something strange about this ninja... He sort of reminded me of Mix Master Mitch," remarked Karen Malankovich, Office Manager.



NetFlow reporting and sFlow analysis can be a very competitive business when it comes to network traffic monitoring.

Plixer is currently taking measures to increase the security presence in their office to help protect personnel from future breaches by ninjas, pirates or other historically displaced figures. Security monitoring solutions being implemented involve hardware provided by Ravica.com; who also supplies IT professionals with network traffic monitoring software and hardware, such as the nProbe and nBox. With these measures, Plixer expects similar incidents to be a thing of the past.

It has been an exciting few months for me. In November I accepted the role of International Sales Channel Manager at Plixer International. Now I have the ability to work with our global reseller network and preach the goodness of Netflow!

The first challenge that I ran into was dealing with the different holidays around the world. Local events and holiday can delay the sales timeline. Having knowledge of the holidays can help you plan and communicate effectively.

A quick solution was to use Google Calendars ability to add interesting calendars to my personal calendar. Google conveniently gives you a large selection of holiday calendars from all around the world. Now all I have to do is log into my calender and see that St. Patrick's Day (N. Ireland) is coming up in March and Good Friday is coming up in April (in quite a few countries). Best of all Google keeps the calenders up to date for you!

Another calendar that you might want to look at is the sports calendar. Again, knowing what events are happening in a specific part of the world can help build your relationship.

I was bit by this one early. I was working with a client in the UK.  I didn't know about an important football (soccer) event that was occurring that week. Early in my conversation it was clear that this was an important event. If I knew more about the subject ahead of time I would if been better prepared to share in the excitement.

So there you go, a quick and simple way to have an understanding of your resellers and their clients. 

In March I will be traveling to CeBit in Hannover Germany to meet with some of our resellers and current clients. Look for me to blog about the excitement on Systrax.

I had a vision the other day. In the future you will be able to sing karaoke with you favorite bands. Nope not just a sing-a-long but with 3-D holograms of the band members. Imagine performing a duet with Paul Stanley of Kiss. Or how about letting Garth Brooks perform backup vocals for your unique interpretation of "Friends in Low places"?

I understand  that current hologram technology is far from being ready for this, but you have to remember that this is a prediction of the future. So don't be a naysayer. Imagine something like this for Rock Band?

Let me know what you think.