TAP into Technology | Garland Technology Blog

[Webinar] Find Your Network Blind Spots Sponsored by Palo Alto's Fuel User Group

Written by Chris Bihary | 3/17/16 12:00 PM

At last year’s Ignite Conference and the 6 Spark User Summits we attended, we were surprised to find just how many network professionals are still relying on SPAN ports.

Even though SPAN ports seemed to serve network architects well in the past, there’s always been a fundamental problem with them for enterprise networks—their inability to provide 100% visibility.

The increasing complexity of modern enterprise networks is making network blind spots easier to recognize. With next generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), network forensics and other security appliances connected to the network in conjunction with a litany of monitoring tools (deep packet inspectors, application performance monitoring, sniffers and more), it’s tougher than ever to design a network for total threat prevention.

Overcoming the limitations of SPAN port connectivity with so many in-line and out-of-band security and monitoring tools requires network TAP solutions that eliminate your network blind spots—and the upcoming Fuel User Group webinar, Find Your Blind Spots. Plan for Visibility, will help you understand how to make this a reality.

 Garland Technology, Fuel User Group Founding Partner to Present the Find Your Blind Spots. Plan For Visibility Webinar

The current network reality is that without 100% visibility to network traffic, your investment in expensive security appliances and monitoring tools are wasted. When these in-line and out-of-band solutions aren’t guaranteed to see all traffic - every bit, byte, and packet®, suspicious communications are left to slip into the network and spark potentially devastating data breaches or performance issues. 

However, no matter how many times we explain the importance of network visibility, SPAN port remains a common connectivity option and blind spots persist. We know that for many network architects and our fellow Fuel User Group members, proof is in more practical examples and explanations.  

On March 22, 2016 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm EDT, Garland Technology Co-Founders Chris Bihary (CEO) and Jerry Dillard (CTO) will present the Find Your Blind Spots. Plan for Visibility webinar is for the Fuel User Group members, Garland customers, Palo Alto Networks NGFW customers and resellers, and anyone interested in learning more about network visibility.

This webinar will have a chief focus on real-world visibility scenarios and network TAP demos. You’ll learn about: 

  • Finding a baseline for network traffic with Palo Alto Networks NGFWs
  • Gaining visibility in network environments that require up to 2 in-band appliances and 3 out-of-band monitoring tools
  • Managing the network edge by improving visibility for environments with 4 in-line appliances and 8 out-of-band monitoring tools.

In addition to these real-world use cases, Chris Bihary and Jerry Dillard will walk the audience through a live-demo of the packet capture and analysis process when network TAPs are implemented in the network while utilizing NextComputing's Packet Continuum Cluster. With before and after snapshots of the network visibility in the packet capture and analysis process, you can see the concrete difference between SPAN port blind spots and network TAP guaranteed visibility.

There’s still plenty of time to pre-register for the upcoming Find Your Blind Spots. Plan for Visibility webinar presented by the Fuel User Group and Garland Technology. Click here to register for the webinar and tune in on March 22 at 2:00pm ET to find out how to eliminate the blind spots in your network.