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Garland Technology Introduces New XtraTAP™ Packet Broker All In One Visibility Solution

December 3, 2020

XtraTAP Packet Broker

NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Garland Technology, a leading provider of network TAP, packet broker and cloud visibility solutions, today announced the release of the new XtraTAPTM: Packer broker. These Network TAP Packet Broker hybrids combine Garland Technology's high quality network TAPs with high density packet brokers, incorporating TAP visibility with filtering, aggregation and load balancing. Streamlining modern visibility fabrics to save rack space and budget, providing network tools the ultimate in traffic visibility optimization.

"Our goal is to help IT Teams improve their network tool performance and maximize their investments," states Chris Bihary, CEO / Co-Founder, Garland Technology. "These tools need packet visibility, so we designed an all-in-one solution that is easy to use, provides packets to multiple tools, saves budget and rack space, allowing you to focus on what's important — properly securing and analyzing the network."

SUMMARY AND HIGHLIGHTS OF PRODUCT

XtraTAPTM Packet Broker — is a high density 1U appliance with four 1G/10G passive network TAPs, and 32 1G/10G and four 40G packet broker monitoring ports. This XtraTAP also comes in a smaller ½ rack appliance with one 1G/10G passive TAP and ten 1G/10G packet broker monitoring ports, designed to bring added functionality to smaller deployments.

The XtraTAP provides full duplex TAP visibility, critical for out-of-band monitoring. The packet broker functionality provides traffic aggregation, layer 2-4 filtering, session/flow aware load balancing and configurable hash-based load balancing, utilization alerts, as well as the ability for remote management. This all-in-one appliance is made, tested and supported in the USA.

The continuous release of new products reflects the ongoing innovation Garland Technology is delivering to their customers worldwide.

XtraTAP Resources
XtraTAPTM Packet Broker product information:
https://www.garlandtechnology.com/products/xtratap-packet-broker

 

For full press release, please visit: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/garland-technology-introduces-new-xtratap-packet-broker-all-in-one-visibility-solution-301185273.html

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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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