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[Infographic] What Security Tools are you Deploying in your Network?

April 18, 2017

What tools are you deploying in your network? Are you securing your network with tools such as DDoS, NGFWs, Secure Sockets Layer or Data Loss Prevention?


There’s a TAP for that.

Active or Passive?

Most active in-band security appliances are placed directly in the flow of network traffic, though some are used as a passive out-of-band appliance sitting on the edge of the network. No matter which or both you are using, feeding your tools with 100% of every bit, byte and packet is imperative.

Is your tool passive or active?

Follow your network path in this new interactive infographic and pick which tool you are using. Is your tool passive or active?, What speed is your network and what media type are you using? Then see which network TAP will work best for your solution.

 

Following along with this interactive infographic

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Heartbeats Packets Inside the Bypass TAP

If the inline security tool goes off-line, the TAP will bypass the tool and automatically keep the link flowing. The Bypass TAP does this by sending heartbeat packets to the inline security tool. As long as the inline security tool is on-line, the heartbeat packets will be returned to the TAP, and the link traffic will continue to flow through the inline security tool.

If the heartbeat packets are not returned to the TAP (indicating that the inline security tool has gone off-line), the TAP will automatically 'bypass' the inline security tool and keep the link traffic flowing. The TAP also removes the heartbeat packets before sending the network traffic back onto the critical link.

While the TAP is in bypass mode, it continues to send heartbeat packets out to the inline security tool so that once the tool is back on-line, it will begin returning the heartbeat packets back to the TAP indicating that the tool is ready to go back to work. The TAP will then direct the network traffic back through the inline security tool along with the heartbeat packets placing the tool back inline.

Some of you may have noticed a flaw in the logic behind this solution!  You say, “What if the TAP should fail because it is also in-line? Then the link will also fail!” The TAP would now be considered a point of failure. That is a good catch – but in our blog on Bypass vs. Failsafe, I explained that if a TAP were to fail or lose power, it must provide failsafe protection to the link it is attached to. So our network TAP will go into Failsafe mode keeping the link flowing.

Glossary

  1. Single point of failure: a risk to an IT network if one part of the system brings down a larger part of the entire system.

  2. Heartbeat packet: a soft detection technology that monitors the health of inline appliances. Read the heartbeat packet blog here.

  3. Critical link: the connection between two or more network devices or appliances that if the connection fails then the network is disrupted.

NETWORK MANAGEMENT | THE 101 SERIES