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Solving Critical Network Security Problems

May 23, 2019

Corelightblog

I wanted to try something fun for our new joint solution with Corelight. We all know joint solutions aren't the most exciting to read, right? But in our defense, we need them for a technology alliance to move forward. We need them to provide insight into the relationships; how we’re going to work together in a data center and what’s the value proposition. To liven things up Garland Technology decided to create a short, easy to digest, and entertaining video explaining what challenges we solve together. 


Corelight
and Garland Technology address three different use cases in our recent joint solution brief. A simple perimeter deployment using a Garland Copper Network TAP and  Corelight AP 200 Sensor, a colocation deployment that scales multi-network environments, and a deployment for public cloud. 


Simple Perimeter Deployment


For network security monitoring and DNS visibility, the perimeter deployment gives a fast and affordable way to capture DNS traffic in the first use case. Garland Technology’s Copper TAP provides complete network visibility by passing and capturing all live wire data to active, inline security devices. Corelight’s AP 200 Sensor then transforms the captured traffic into protocol comprehensive logs.

Colocation Deployment


In the second use case, managing remote sensors and inline devices is made easy with the Corelight and Garland multi-network deployment. The scalable design allows 100% network visibility with Garland’s SelectTAP Fiber Modular Chassis tapping multiple links, sending traffic through the PacketMAX Advanced Aggregator for aggregation and deduplication. The traffic is then transmitted to the Corelight sensors.

Deployment in the Public Cloud


In the third and final use case, traffic capture takes place in a public cloud environment via a Nubeva Prism. The traffic is transmitted to Garland and then streamed to a Corelight Sensor.

Together, Corelight and Garland Technology solve critical problems for security teams. They allow visibility to the network perimeter, providing a fast and affordable way to capture DNS traffic for comprehensive insights into malicious DNS activity.


Want to learn more? Explore the full joint solution today to learn more on the Complete Network Traffic Analysis and Visibility at Scale that's made possible when Corelight and Garland work together. 

See Everything. Secure Everything.

Contact us now to secure and optimized your network operations

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.

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