What Is a Network Packet Broker?
What is a network packet broker (NPB)? A network packet broker is a technology that implements a range of monitoring tools to access and analyze traffic (also known as “network packets”) across a network. Simply put, NPBs function as ‘brokers’ (or managers) of network traffic. The packet broker collects traffic from multiple network links, filtering and distributing each individual packet to the correct network monitoring tool. By doing so, network packet brokers ensure improved effectiveness from network monitoring and security tools, by delivering improved data from across the network.
See and understand your network.
What Is a Next-Generation Network Packet Broker?
While a traditional packet broker can help ensure improved tool effectiveness, a next-generation network packet broker takes things further, ensuring that the right traffic is sent to the right inline and out-of-band prevention tools. Whether a network setup is on-premises, virtual or in the cloud, an intelligent network packet broker provides the perfect visibility foundation. Next-generation network packet brokers support:
- Threat prevention
- Load balancing
- High resiliency of inline network security tools
- Large numbers of out-of-band threat detection tools
- Accuracy of network monitoring tools
- Analysis of network performance
- Aggregation of high-speed network TAPs
“Gigamon is a compelling option for any security-focused network monitoring project due to its ability to inspect network packets, including the encrypted traffic, along with its ability to promote more efficient use of existing security tools via its inline bypass architecture.”
Rik Turner • Principal Analyst, Infrastructure Solutions • Ovum
ZK Research
Everything you need to make the cases for buying a NGNPB.
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