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Fast Track Companies: Garland Technology, No. 8

August 16, 2018

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JIM COURTNEY/BUFFALO BUSINESS FIRST

Chris Bihary co-founded the company with Jerry Dillard, who is from Garland, Texas, hence the name. Network Products Guide named Garland Technology the 2018 “Hot Company of the Year.”

April 27 was Garland Technology Day in Buffalo last year to mark the grand opening of global headquarters on Delaware Avenue.

It was a big day for the high-tech company and a sign of commitment to the region, even though “99 percent of our sales are outside of the Buffalo area,” said CEO Chris Bihary.


He’s a local guy (St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and Canisius College) with a hand in the world marketplace and an eye on taking his business to new heights.

And that’s saying something when you consider that sales were $5.7 million in 2017, up from $3 million two years earlier.

“It’s an exciting time for us,” said Bihary, co-founder with CTO Jerry Dillard. “We are on track to more than double this year.”

He described the company as “a channel-driven model, meaning that we utilize distributors and resellers. And we’re not just selling in the U.S. – we sell globally.”

Garland Technology, with a tagline of “See every bit, byte and packet,” provides network access technology solutions.

“Throughout 2017 the company grew by 63 percent and increased its distribution and partner reseller programs to over 60,” Bihary said. Garland “signed more than 100 new customers, expanding its portfolio of global leaders in both enterprise and service provider markets.”

Garland’s partner network is a list of heavy hitters including Toyo in China and Japan, Neox Networks in Germany, KomSvyazEnergy in Russia, Network Image in Sweden, Netpoleon in Southeast Asia and EPS Global domestically.

“Our technology partnerships include industry powerhouses Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, McAfee, Imperva and more,” he said.

Overall employment is 50, with about 20 people locally.

In a strategic move last month, Bihary and Dillard hired Erica Tank as president.

“As co-founders and at this growth point, we recognized that we needed to bring in someone to help take us to the next level,” Bihary said. “One thing I’ve seen with a lot of business owners is they like to keep their hand in too many of the pots. Jerry and I realized that in order to continue this growth, we needed someone to streamline operations. ... We believe in bringing on key people. She’s going to help scale this company to the next level.”


Jane Schmitt
Copy Editor
Buffalo Business First

[Visit the full article at Buffalo Business First]

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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.

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