IDC Product Flash-nGenius PFS 3900 series.pdf - NetScout

Global Headquarters: 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA P.508.872.8200 F.508.935.4015 www.idc.com
PRODUCT FLASH
NetScout Delivers on Its Acquisition
of ONPATH; Extends Position in Network
Monitoring Switch Market
Rohit Mehra Debra Osswald
IN THIS PRODUCT FLASH
This IDC Flash discusses NetScout's new nGenius 3900 series packet flow switch, which was introduced on
January 22, 2013. Expanding on NetScout's original nGenius 1500 series packet flow switch, the nGenius
3900 series switch provides greater levels of modularity and density and introduces intelligent traffic
conditioning features with sustained line rate performance and ultra-low latency on every port. The nGenius
3900 series is a chassis-based, datacenter-class network monitoring switch designed to provide scalable,
highly available access to network traffic information across distributed networks for use with the nGenius
Service Assurance Solution or any other network monitoring, performance management, or security system.
The nGenius 3900 series switch is designed to handle today's high-bandwidth enterprise and service provider
network environments, with support for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 40GbE out of the box and architectural
support for 100GbE interfaces in the future. The nGenius 3900 series is based on technology obtained
through NetScout's acquisition of ONPATH Technologies in November 2012.
In addition, NetScout announced availability of its nGenius PFS Management software, which provides unified
management and provisioning for the nGenius 3900 series switch to simplify and automate manageability for
large-scale, multi-location network monitoring deployments.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
Communications service providers (CSPs) and large enterprises increasingly rely on networks and services to
support mission-critical functions including revenue generation, service delivery and support, supply chain
enablement, and compliance and control. As the volume and complexity of IP traffic increases across service
provider, enterprise, and cloud networks, the challenges of monitoring these networks for performance
management, network security, traffic management, user experiences, risk and compliance purposes, and
holistic network optimization grows. As datacenters consolidate and IP networks continue their transformation
to support cloud deployments, the migration from 1Gb to 10Gb links is further adding to the challenges of
monitoring and securing the network. IDC research shows that in 2012, shipments of 10Gb ports grew at more
than 70% year over year, and we forecast the adoption of 40Gb to accelerate at an even faster rate starting in
2013.
In addition, a host of IT user groups as well as network personnel require access to packet flow traffic data
throughout the network to monitor and properly maintain the network and services that traverse it. Specifically,
network and IT personnel require IP traffic data for performance management, unified communications
monitoring, SLA compliance, traffic rerouting and management, and cybersecurity purposes as well as to
support real-time hotspot analysis. Unfortunately, traffic data is difficult to come by using traditional
approaches to network monitoring. Legacy architectures support limited numbers of connection points with the
use of segment-specific taps or SPAN/mirror ports. Accessing packet-level network intelligence is also
complex, with organizations typically deploying different devices in the datacenter, core WAN, campus, and
network edge environments. Further, most of those devices are not optimized for 10GbE+ environments.
Today's growth in network bandwidth and complexity is driving the need for better approaches to network
monitoring and management. To meet this challenge, many organizations are adopting high-capacity network
monitoring fabrics designed to provide end-to-end monitoring of critical IP traffic flows. These new network
monitoring solutions enable service providers and enterprises alike with the ability to better manage, optimize,
and monetize network utilization by gleaning insights about packet traffic flows that can be used to provide the
organization with critical data that can be fed into analytics systems to provide network operations, marketing,
sales, product management, and customer support personnel with improved intelligence about how customers
are using their services and the network, the quality of experiences customers are having, what new offerings
might be relevant for customers, and much more.
The nGenius 3900 packet flow switch is designed to provide visibility across large-scale network monitoring
fabrics. Designed to get the right information to the right tools and applications at the right time, it aggregates
and distributes network traffic from a single monitoring point and delivers information to whatever devices and
systems require it. NetScout's new network monitoring switch can also provide information on traffic from
multiple ports to a single device. This approach simplifies monitoring complexity, provides greater granularity
and flexibility in directing network traffic flows, and lowers the cost of network operations while improving
network visibility.
Please contact the IDC Hotline at 800.343.4952, ext. 7988 (or +1.508.988.7988) or sales@idc.com for information on applying
the price of this document toward the purchase of an IDC service or for information on additional copies or Web rights. Visit us
on the Web at www.idc.com. To view a list of IDC offices worldwide, visit www.idc.com/offices.
Copyright 2013 IDC. Reproduction is forbidden unless authorized. All rights reserved.
Filing Information: February 2013, IDC #239322, Volume: 1
Enterprise Communications Infrastructure: Product Flash

The nGenius 3900 packet flow switch is a datacenter-class switching platform architected for highperformance,
low-latency networks. Available in a 1-, 3-, or 12-slot chassis, it is optimized for 10GbE
environments with up to 576 ports of 1/10GbE plus 48 ports of 40GbE, and it is architected to be 100GbE
ready. A common high-density interface module provides local switching and packet processing capabilities
that can be seamlessly interchanged across the chassis series. Each module is powered by a 720Gbps fullduplex
switching engine (1.44Tbps aggregate). It provides advanced Layer 2/3/4 traffic filtering and
conditioning on every port with wire speed performance as well as redundant, nonstop operation designed to
support mission-critical environments.
NetScout is concurrently announcing availability of its PFS Management software, a unified end-to-end
management solution for network monitoring fabrics constructed with the nGenius 3900 series packet flow
switch. The GUI-based software provides unified device management and enables end-to-end automated
drag-and-drop provisioning across distributed chassis. It is bundled with the nGenius server hardware and
supports distributed multichassis nGenius deployments. It provides a single view of switch inventory and port
status and includes integrated diagnostics and reporting. It provides secure role-based access control and
unified provisioning for networks with over 100,000 ports. Future integration with the nGenius Service
Assurance Solution will further extend end-to-end monitoring capabilities and manageability, enabling
organizations to control and provision the nGenius switch from within nGenius Performance Manager.
The nGenius 3900 series builds on NetScout's nGenius Service Assurance Solution and will enable service
providers and large enterprises to more capably address a diverse range of requirements as well as reduce
complexity, improve operational efficiency, and increase utilization of network and IT resources across highly
distributed network environments.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
Many organizations are now building a monitoring fabric to simplify and streamline the distribution of traffic
flows and extend the life of existing management tools. With the nGenius 3900 series packet flow switch,
NetScout has leveraged its technology leadership position in the performance management market to deliver
a powerful, differentiated network monitoring platform.
IDC has seen a strong commitment from NetScout to establish a leadership position in this market, dating
back to NetScout's acquisition of Simena in November 2011 and continuing with the acquisition of ONPATH.
The introduction of these new products strengthens NetScout's Unified Service Delivery Management strategy
and extends the value provided by the nGenius Service Assurance Solution to address a diverse range of
network environments and services for enterprises and service providers alike. IDC believes that with this
announcement, NetScout is well positioned to address the needs of the growing network monitoring switch
market.
#239322 ©2013 IDC