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[Recorded Webinar]: The In’s and Out’s of Internal and External Network TAPs

Written by Chris Bihary | 11/5/15 2:30 PM

Join Garland Technology, a founding Partner of the Fuel User Group and Fuel’s new Networking & Connectivity special interest group for a recorded webinar to better understand the In’s and Out’s of Internal and External Network TAPs

This webinar was specifically designed for Fuel Users of Palo Alto’s next generation firewalls; you do need to be a Fuel Member to view the webinar.

To stand a chance of defending against increasingly sophisticated attacks, next-gen firewalls can’t afford to miss a bit, byte or packet.  If they can’t see all the traffic, they can’t effectively block malware or stop malicious communications from entering the network.  A switch SPAN port doesn’t provide the reliability companies need to give their security appliances 100% of the traffic – packets get lost when spikes occur.  

There’s no denying that network TAPs are the best practice for ensuring total packet inspection—but there’s more to the discussion than just deciding to implement network TAPs. When deploying network TAPs, companies have two basic options—internal solutions embedded in the security appliance itself and external solutions which are inserted in the network and can support multiple appliances.

Watch Now: The In’s and Out’s of Internal and External Network TAPs

On November 11, 2015, Garland Technology Co-Founders Chris Bihary (CEO) and Jerry Dillard (CTO) hosted a webinar discussing the critical differences between internal and external network TAPs—and which one is right for your business. You know that your next-generation firewall and other modern security appliances need network TAPs to ensure 100% packet visibility, but now you need to figure out the best way to implement them.

Chris Bihary and Jerry Dillard dove into the gritty details associated with hardware-based external network TAPs and the NIC-based internal solutions found in appliances like Palo Alto’s next-gen firewall.

Some of the key topics that were discussed included:

  • Failsafe capabilities
  • Load balancing in the case of traffic spikes
  • Maintenance and troubleshooting scenarios
  • Network downtime comparison
  • Scenarios that involve multiple security appliances
  • Ability to scale for network speed and appliance throughput
  • Firewall health monitoring 

Demonstrations from Jerry Dillard included:

    • Changing TAP modes: breakout, aggregation and bypass
    • High Availability scenario
    • Two bypass TAPs in series

Understanding the differences between internal and external network TAPs is essential for ensuring the effectiveness of your security infrastructure and the longevity of your appliance investments as networks evolve over time.

Watch Now: The In’s and Out’s of Internal and External Network TAPs. Please note, you do need join the Fuel User Group to view this webinar.