Network Observability is the ability to gain insights into the internal workings of a network by analyzing its external outputs.
Network observability is the ability to answer any question about your network quickly and easily, based on data you have pulled from the outputs of your network.
What is Network Observability?
In simple terms you have a tool/software which collects all the data from your network and stores it in a vendor agnostic database, you then query that database with questions like, “how many switches do I have running EIGRP?”
Hi, I’m Roger Perkin, CCIE#50038 a Network Automation Architect based in the UK with over 20 years experience in Network Engineering.
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Network Observability Tools
Whilst a lot of the tools are focused on observability and application observability the ones closer to the top focus on network observability.
Table of Contents
1. SuzieQ
The first network observability tool we are going to look at is SuzieQ.
Getting started with SuzieQ
Difference between Open source and Enterprise SuzieQ
Deep Dive into SuzieQ
SuzieQ is the first open source, multi-vendor network observability platform application. It is both a framework and an application using that framework, that is focused on improving your understanding of your network.
https://suzieq.readthedocs.io/
SuzieQ is available as an open source CLI driven tool or also as an enterprise tool with a graphical interface.
2. IP Fabric
IP Fabric is a network observability and assurance platform that offers comprehensive visibility and insights into complex network environments. Here are the key points about IP Fabric in terms of network observability:
- Automated Network Discovery and Mapping
- IP Fabric automatically discovers and maps network assets, configurations, and interconnections across the entire infrastructure.
- It provides a holistic understanding of the network inventory and how different components interact with each other.
- Network Path Visibility and Analysis
- IP Fabric analyzes network behavior and traffic flows to understand application paths across the network.
- It can identify potential issues, validate if application paths will be successful or fail, and pinpoint the root cause.
- Network Change and Compliance Tracking
- The platform creates snapshots of the network state at any given point in time, allowing comparison of changes over time.
- It provides visibility into planned and unplanned network changes, enabling compliance tracking and change validation.
- Intent-Based Network Assurance
- IP Fabric comes with pre-defined intent checks (over 120) based on best practices and network intents.
- It can flag good or bad network elements by comparing the observed state against defined intents and thresholds.
- Network Automation and API Integration
- IP Fabric supports network automation through API calls for tasks like triggering snapshots, validating changes, and retrieving observed state data.
- It integrates with solutions like NetBox for enhanced network modeling and documentation.
- Vendor-Agnostic and Multi-Domain Support
- The platform supports multi-vendor and multi-domain network environments, providing visibility across diverse network architectures and technologies.
IP Fabric positions itself as an automated network assurance platform that transforms raw network data into actionable intelligence and insights. By combining network discovery, path analysis, change tracking, intent-based assurance, and automation capabilities, IP Fabric aims to deliver comprehensive network observability, enabling organizations to ensure reliable application delivery and network performance across complex infrastructures
3. Datadog
Datadog is a leading observability platform that provides comprehensive network monitoring and observability capabilities.
Network Observability Features in Datadog
- Real-Time Network Insights
- Visualize network traffic across applications, availability zones, containers, and data centers
- Track metrics and monitor traffic health between endpoints at IP, port, application, and process levels
- Optimize cloud migrations with visibility into traffic flows
- Deep DNS Visibility
- Analyze DNS performance across systems without SSH access
- Distinguish between server-side failures and client-side errors
- Cloud Service Monitoring
- Monitor and analyze traffic to managed cloud services like AWS, GCP, and Azure
- Determine if issues originate from internal systems or cloud providers
- Network Performance Monitoring
- Get visibility into network performance alongside DNS, application, and infrastructure performance
- Correlate network metrics with other telemetry data for faster troubleshooting
- Network Device Monitoring
- Monitor network devices like routers, switches, firewalls from various vendors
- Collect and analyze device metrics, logs, and events in a unified view
Datadog’s network observability capabilities enable deep visibility into network traffic, performance, and dependencies across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Its ability to correlate network data with other telemetry sources like application traces, logs, and infrastructure metrics provides a holistic view for effective troubleshooting and optimization.
4. Dynatrace
Dynatrace is a software intelligence platform that provides comprehensive observability, monitoring, and security capabilities for modern cloud environments. Here are the key points about Dynatrace.
What is Dynatrace?
Dynatrace is a unified observability and security platform designed to help organizations monitor, optimize, and secure their applications, infrastructure, and digital experiences.
It offers full-stack monitoring and observability for cloud-native applications, microservices, containers, and hybrid infrastructures, providing real-time insights into performance and user experiences.
Key Features of Dynatrace
- Full-Stack Monitoring: Observability for applications, microservices, networks, containers, cloud platforms, and data center technologies.
- Application Security: Application vulnerability analysis, threat protection, and runtime application security.
- Real-User Monitoring: Records user actions and collects insights into real user experiences.
- Synthetic Monitoring: Simulates user interactions to evaluate website functionality and performance.
- Log Management and Analytics: Collects, stores, and analyzes log data from various sources.
- AI-Powered Observability: Leverages AI and machine learning for intelligent monitoring, automated root cause analysis, and proactive issue prevention.
- AIOps Capabilities: Advanced AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) features for automated remediation and optimization.
Dynatrace is recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Performance Monitoring and Observability, and is widely adopted by enterprises for its comprehensive observability, AIOps, and security capabilities in cloud environments
5. Cisco Thousand Eyes
Cisco ThousandEyes is a network intelligence and digital experience monitoring platform that provides comprehensive network observability capabilities. Here’s what it offers in terms of network observability:
Network Observability with Cisco ThousandEyes
- End-to-End Network Path Visibility
- Hop-by-hop visibility across LAN, WAN, internet, and cloud networks
- Correlates network performance with BGP routing data and application transaction metrics
- Internet and Cloud Intelligence
- Monitors internet performance and cloud connectivity architectures
- Detects internet and SaaS application outages in real-time
- Utilizes collective network telemetry from ISPs, cloud providers, and edge services
- Application and Service Delivery Monitoring
- Monitors application delivery and user experiences across networks and services
- Synthetic monitoring of web and API transactions
- Client-based endpoint agent monitors end-to-end network path and application experience
- Collaboration and Visibility Sharing
- Shares data using interactive ShareLinks for vendor/customer collaboration
- Provides visibility into networks and services not owned or controlled
- Integration with Cisco Solutions
- Integrates with Cisco SD-WAN for WAN edge to cloud visibility
- Provides bidirectional visibility into the Webex environment with Webex Agents
Cisco ThousandEyes enables organizations to gain comprehensive visibility into the networks, internet, cloud, and services impacting their digital experiences. Its combination of active and passive monitoring techniques, coupled with real-time outage detection and collaboration capabilities, makes it a powerful network observability solution for identifying and resolving performance issues quickly
6. New Relic
New Relic offers the following network observability capabilities:
- Network Performance Monitoring
- Analyzes the performance of routers, switches, and other networking devices
- Builds a network map to identify network performance issues
- Monitors metrics like network traffic, CPU, memory, and disk usage
- Full-Stack Observability
- Provides visibility into the entire technology stack, including networks
- Correlates network performance with application, infrastructure, and user experience data
- Enables holistic troubleshooting across the full stack
- Cloud and Infrastructure Monitoring
- Monitors cloud infrastructure and services like AWS, GCP, Azure
- Tracks network traffic to and from cloud providers
- Identifies if network issues originate from internal systems or cloud networks
- Integration with Network Monitoring Tools
- Integrates with over 750+ tools, likely including network monitoring solutions
- Allows ingesting and correlating network data from third-party tools
- Dashboards and Visualization
- Customizable dashboards to visualize network performance metrics
- Ability to combine network data with other telemetry sources like logs, traces, etc.
While not a dedicated network monitoring tool, New Relic positions itself as a comprehensive observability platform that provides network visibility in the context of the full technology stack. Its ability to ingest and correlate network data with application, infrastructure, and user experience metrics enables holistic network observability for faster troubleshooting and optimization
7. AppDynamics
AppDynamics offers the following network observability capabilities:
- Network Monitoring and Visibility
- Monitors networks, internet service providers (ISPs), SaaS applications, DNS, and third-party services that applications rely on
- Provides visibility into internet and WAN connectivity performance impacting user experience
- Correlates network and internet performance metrics with application performance
- Full-Stack Observability
- Combines application performance monitoring (APM) with network monitoring for end-to-end observability
- Correlates network data with application, infrastructure, and business metrics for holistic visibility
- Enables isolating application issues from underlying network disruptions
- Integration with Cisco ThousandEyes
- Integrates with Cisco ThousandEyes for internet and cloud intelligence
- Provides visibility into external networks, cloud services, and SaaS applications
- Offers hop-by-hop visibility across LAN, WAN, internet, and cloud networks
- Visualization and Dashboarding
- Visualizes network, internet, application, and infrastructure performance metrics in custom dashboards
- Leverages network and internet metrics within AppDynamics’ data visualization tool
- Cross-Team Collaboration
- Enables collaboration across application, network, and cloud infrastructure teams
- Simplifies reporting and root cause analysis across AppOps, SRE, and NetOps teams
AppDynamics positions itself as a comprehensive observability platform that combines application and network monitoring capabilities. By integrating with Cisco ThousandEyes, it aims to provide full-stack observability, enabling organizations to monitor and correlate performance across their entire technology stack, including external networks and services
8. Splunk
Splunk offers comprehensive network observability capabilities through its Observability Cloud and Infrastructure Monitoring solutions. Here are the key points about Splunk’s network observability offerings:
Network Observability with Splunk
- Network Explorer
- A network observability capability within Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring
- Ingests and analyzes network telemetry data from hosts
- Provides visibility into network topology, anomalies, and high-cost traffic patterns
- Helps identify sources of network issues and optimize cloud network investments
- Network Monitoring Integration
- Collects and analyzes network protocol metrics, traffic data, and network device metrics
- Monitors network performance, bandwidth usage, errors, and connectivity issues
- Correlates network data with application, infrastructure, and user experience metrics
- Full-Stack Observability
- Combines network monitoring with application and infrastructure monitoring
- Enables end-to-end visibility across the entire technology stack
- Helps isolate application issues from underlying network disruptions
- Real-Time Monitoring and Analytics
- Ingests and analyzes network data in real-time using machine learning
- Identifies network anomalies, performance bottlenecks, and root causes
- Provides visualizations, dashboards, and alerting for network issues
- Open and Extensible Platform
- Integrates with various network monitoring tools and data sources
- Supports custom data ingestion and analysis through APIs and SDKs
- Enables collaboration across teams like NetOps, DevOps, and SREs
Splunk positions itself as a comprehensive observability platform, offering network observability capabilities alongside application performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and log management. Its ability to ingest and correlate diverse data sources, including network telemetry, enables organizations to gain end-to-end visibility and quickly identify and resolve network-related issues impacting their digital services
9. Grafana
Grafana offers the following capabilities for network observability:
- Visualization and Dashboarding
- Grafana provides powerful data visualization and dashboarding capabilities
- Allows creating custom dashboards to visualize network performance metrics, traffic flows, and logs
- Enables correlating and displaying network data alongside application, infrastructure, and user experience metrics
- Integration with Network Monitoring Tools
- Grafana can integrate with various network monitoring tools and data sources
- Supports ingesting and visualizing data from tools like Prometheus, SNMP exporters, and network flow collectors
- Allows combining network telemetry with other data sources like logs, traces, and application metrics
- Loki for Network Log Analytics
- Grafana Loki is a horizontally-scalable log aggregation system
- Can ingest and analyze large volumes of network logs and flow data
- Enables querying and exploring network logs using LogQL for troubleshooting and forensics
- Open and Extensible Platform
- Grafana is an open-source platform with a vibrant community
- Allows extending functionality through plugins, exporters, and custom data sources
- Provides APIs and SDKs for custom data ingestion and analysis
While Grafana is not a dedicated network monitoring tool itself, it serves as a powerful observability platform that can ingest, analyze, and visualize network data from various sources. When combined with tools like Prometheus, SNMP exporters, flow collectors, and Loki, Grafana enables comprehensive network observability by correlating network telemetry with application, infrastructure, and user experience data.Grafana’s strength lies in its ability to provide a unified view of network performance, traffic flows, and logs alongside other observability data, facilitating holistic troubleshooting and optimization of complex systems.
10. Logic Monitor
LogicMonitor offers the following network observability capabilities:
- Network Monitoring and Visibility
- Monitors network devices like routers, switches, firewalls from various vendors
- Provides visibility into network topology, traffic flows, bandwidth usage, and connectivity
- Automatically discovers and maps relationships between network components
- Full-Stack Observability
- Unified platform to monitor entire IT stack including networks, applications, and infrastructure
- Correlates network data with application performance, logs, and infrastructure metrics
- Enables identifying if issues originate from the network or other components
- AIOps and Automation
- Leverages AI/ML for intelligent network monitoring and root cause analysis
- Automatically identifies network anomalies, performance bottlenecks, and high-cost traffic patterns
- Reduces alert noise and enables proactive issue prevention through automated remediation
- Hybrid Cloud and Multi-Cloud Support
- Monitors hybrid and multi-cloud network environments at scale
- Provides visibility into cloud network performance and connectivity to cloud services
- Integrations and Data Ingestion
- Over 2,000 out-of-the-box integrations for network devices, applications, and services
- Ingests and correlates diverse data sources like flows, packets, logs, and SNMP metrics
LogicMonitor positions itself as a unified observability platform that provides comprehensive network visibility alongside application and infrastructure monitoring. Its AI/ML-driven approach, automation capabilities, and ability to ingest and correlate diverse data sources enable organizations to gain end-to-end observability and quickly identify and resolve network-related issues impacting their digital services
11. Instana
https://www.ibm.com/products/instana
Instana does not appear to have dedicated network observability capabilities. Instana is primarily focused on application performance monitoring (APM) and observability for cloud-native, hybrid, and on-premises applications.The key points about Instana’s observability capabilities are:
- Application Monitoring and Tracing
- Instana automatically discovers and maps application components and dependencies
- Traces every request and profiles every process across the application stack
- Provides end-to-end visibility into application performance and user experiences
- Full-Stack Observability
- Correlates application performance data with infrastructure metrics and logs
- Enables identifying if issues originate from the application, infrastructure, or other components
- Provides a unified view of the entire technology stack for troubleshooting
- Automated Monitoring and AI/ML
- Fully automated application monitoring lifecycle, from discovery to root cause analysis
- Leverages AI/ML for intelligent monitoring, anomaly detection, and recommendations
- Enables proactive issue prevention and automated remediation
- Integrations and Data Ingestion
- Integrates with various data sources, including logs, metrics, and traces
- Supports ingesting data from cloud platforms, containers, and on-premises environments
While Instana provides comprehensive observability for applications and infrastructure it is not really focused on network observability.
12. Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic offers the following network observability capabilities:
- Network Traffic Monitoring
- Ability to collect and analyze network flow logs (e.g. AWS VPC Flow Logs)
- Provides visibility into network activity, traffic patterns, and user behavior
- Preconfigured dashboards to visualize network traffic metrics
- Network Security Monitoring
- Detects suspicious network activity and potential threats
- Integrates with Observable Networks for advanced threat detection on networked devices
- Enables monitoring authentication logs for user session activity
- Network Telemetry Ingestion
- Can ingest and analyze diverse network telemetry data using open-source tools like ktranslate
- Supports ingesting enriched network flow data in formats like Carbon2.0
- Allows querying and visualizing network metrics alongside other observability data
- AWS Network Observability
- Provides curated views for monitoring and troubleshooting AWS networking services
- Collects logs and metrics from AWS services like VPC, Load Balancers, API Gateway
- Offers AI-powered analytics and global intelligence for AWS network performance
- Cloud Network Visibility
- Delivers insights into cloud network configuration changes and potential threats
- Enables proactive detection of malicious activity across AWS accounts and regions
- Supports multi-cloud and hybrid cloud network environments
While not a dedicated network monitoring tool, Sumo Logic positions itself as an observability platform that can ingest, analyze, and correlate network data from various sources. By integrating with network security tools, ingesting flow logs, and leveraging AI/ML, Sumo Logic aims to provide comprehensive network observability alongside application and infrastructure monitoring capabilities.Sumo Logic’s strength lies in its ability to unify and analyze diverse data sources, enabling organizations to gain end-to-end visibility across their technology stack, including network performance, security, and user behavior.
13. Azure Monitor
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/overview
Azure Monitor offers the following network observability capabilities:
- Network Observability AKS Add-on
- Provides comprehensive observability into the network health and connectivity of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters
- Collects cluster-level networking metrics for visibility into the Kubernetes networking stack
- Enables identifying root causes of networking issues within AKS clusters
- Integration with Azure CNI (Cilium) and Istio Service Mesh
- Works seamlessly with Azure CNI powered by Cilium for container networking observability
- Integrates with the managed Istio service mesh add-on for observing service mesh traffic
- Provides end-to-end observability across network layers in AKS environments
- Azure Monitor for Networks
- Monitors network performance metrics for Azure networking services like Virtual Networks, Load Balancers, and Application Gateways
- Enables visualizing network traffic flows and identifying performance bottlenecks
- Provides insights into network configuration changes and potential threats
- Azure Monitor Logs and Log Analytics
- Collects and analyzes various network logs like flow logs, firewall logs, and DNS logs
- Allows querying and visualizing network log data alongside other telemetry sources
- Supports ingesting and monitoring network data from hybrid and multi-cloud environments
- Integration with Third-Party Network Monitoring Tools
- Integrates with third-party network monitoring solutions through APIs and data ingestion pipelines
- Enables correlating network data from external tools with Azure’s monitoring capabilities
While Azure Monitor is not solely dedicated to network observability, it provides comprehensive capabilities for monitoring and gaining visibility into network performance, connectivity, and security across Azure services, AKS clusters, and hybrid/multi-cloud environments. By integrating with specialized networking components like Cilium and Istio, as well as supporting third-party tool integration, Azure Monitor aims to deliver end-to-end network observability alongside its application and infrastructure monitoring capabilities.
14. ManageEngine
ManageEngine offers a comprehensive network observability solution through its OpManager product. Here are the key points about ManageEngine’s network observability capabilities:
- Network Monitoring and Visibility
- OpManager provides deep visibility into the performance of routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, wireless LAN controllers, servers, VMs, and other network devices.
- It monitors network services, system performance, and offers real-time monitoring of device health, availability, and performance.
- Wireless Network Monitoring
- OpManager offers comprehensive monitoring of wireless networks, including access points, wireless routers, switches, and WiFi systems.
- It tracks wireless network traffic, WiFi signal strength, and other wireless network statistics.
- WAN Link Monitoring
- Leverages Cisco IPSLA technology to monitor and visualize WAN link availability, troubleshoot WAN outages, and monitor WAN link performance.
- Advanced Network Visualization
- Provides Layer 2 maps, virtual topology maps, business views, and 3D floor/rack views for data centers, enabling advanced network visualization.
- Offers centralized visibility across multiple locations and remote probes.
- Network Event Correlation and Alerting
- Correlates raw network events, filters out unwanted events, and presents meaningful alarms based on severity levels.
- Full-Stack Observability
- Positions OpManager as an observability solution that provides full-stack visibility into application performance, facilitating anomaly detection and root cause analysis.
- Hybrid Network Monitoring
- OpManager Plus is designed as a hybrid network observability tool, monitoring both on-premises and cloud infrastructure components.
- Offers end-to-end monitoring of hybrid networks, eliminating the need for multiple tools.
ManageEngine’s OpManager and OpManager Plus products are positioned as comprehensive network observability solutions, providing real-time monitoring, advanced visualization, event correlation, and full-stack visibility across hybrid networks, including on-premises and cloud components. The search results highlight OpManager’s capabilities in monitoring various network devices, services, and links, as well as its integration with cloud platforms and support for advanced features like WAN link monitoring and wireless network monitoring.
15. AKIPS
AKIPS is a powerful and comprehensive network monitoring software solution that specializes in network observability for complex environments. Here are the key points about AKIPS in terms of network observability:
- Unmatched Visibility and Scalability
- AKIPS provides unmatched visibility across the entire network infrastructure
- It can scale to monitor over 1 million interfaces and 500,000 flows per second
- Offers access to 3 years of historical data with 1-minute granularity
- Intelligent Network Discovery
- Uses an efficient ping-based method to discover network devices without overloading the network
- Automatically fingerprints devices using SNMP v3 engine ID and interface MAC addresses
- Detects and configures vendor-specific MIB objects for enhanced device compatibility
- Intelligent Polling and Traffic Reduction
- Employs adaptive polling to reduce SNMP traffic by 60%
- Dynamically adjusts polling intervals based on counter/gauge value changes
- Suspends polling for down interfaces to minimize unnecessary traffic
- Comprehensive Monitoring Capabilities
- Monitors network devices, services, performance, and traffic flows
- Collects and analyzes syslog messages, SNMP traps, and NetFlow data
- Maps edge switch ports, IP/MAC addresses, and tracks location history
- Alerting, Filtering, and Event Management
- Powerful alerting based on regex rules, time of day, devices, and groups
- Filtering options for devices, vendors, models, locations, and more
- Comprehensive event dashboard for network status and device availability
AKIPS positions itself as a highly scalable and feature-rich network monitoring solution that provides deep visibility into complex network infrastructures. Its intelligent discovery, polling, and traffic reduction techniques, coupled with comprehensive monitoring capabilities and advanced filtering/alerting, make it a powerful tool for network observability in large-scale environments
16. Obkio
Obkio is a network performance monitoring and observability solution that focuses on providing comprehensive visibility into network health and performance. Here are the key points about Obkio in terms of network observability:
- Holistic Network Visibility
- Obkio goes beyond traditional network monitoring by offering a more holistic and detailed view of the network.
- It provides end-to-end visibility into user experiences, applications/services, and network infrastructure, enabling identification of issues across the entire technology stack.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Troubleshooting
- Obkio continuously monitors network performance in real-time, allowing for proactive issue detection and troubleshooting.
- It measures real-time network metrics, identifies live network problems, and pinpoints the source of issues, whether it’s the user, application, or network.
- Distributed Network Monitoring
- Obkio is designed to monitor complex, distributed network environments, including remote users, branch offices, data centers, and various network types (SD-WAN, MPLS, VPN, WiFi, Internet).
- It enables visibility into network performance across multiple locations and diverse network architectures.
- User Experience Monitoring
- Obkio incorporates user experience monitoring through techniques like real-user monitoring (RUM), synthetic monitoring, and end-to-end monitoring.
- This allows for understanding the impact of network performance on user experiences and ensuring optimal service delivery.
- Application and Service Monitoring
- Obkio monitors the performance of critical applications and services, such as VoIP, Unified Communications (UC), ERP systems, Office 365, cloud services, and SASE.
- This capability enables correlating application performance with underlying network conditions.
Obkio positions itself as a network observability solution that simplifies network monitoring and troubleshooting for businesses of all sizes. By providing comprehensive visibility across the entire network stack, real-time monitoring, and user experience insights, Obkio aims to empower organizations with the necessary tools to ensure optimal network performance and reliability.
17. Zabbix
Zabbix is a powerful and comprehensive network monitoring solution that offers robust network observability capabilities. Here are the key points about Zabbix in terms of network observability:
- Comprehensive Network Monitoring
- Zabbix can monitor various network metrics like traffic, bandwidth usage, packet loss, interface errors, TCP connections, link status, and interface speed/status.
- It supports SNMP v1, v2c, v3, and SNMP trap collection for compatibility with legacy and modern network devices.
- Zabbix can collect network data from different sources, validate metrics, transform data, and normalize values for consistency.
- Network Device Monitoring
- Zabbix monitors network device health, availability, uptime, CPU, memory, power supply status, temperature sensors, and fan states.
- It enables defining flexible problem thresholds and receiving alerts for network infrastructure issues.
- Zabbix supports automatic remediation by executing remote commands and scripts.
- Network Visibility and Analytics
- Zabbix provides advanced visualization capabilities for network data, including long-term bandwidth usage trends.
- It offers data aggregation functions to gain insights into network traffic patterns, errors, and resource utilization.
- Zabbix can dynamically detect anomalous network behavior and adjust expected metric baselines.
- Network Discovery and Mapping
- Zabbix can automatically discover network devices, interfaces, and other resources using low-level discovery features.
- It supports network scanning, automatic onboarding/offboarding of devices, and grouping discovered hosts.
- Zabbix can react to new devices being reachable on specific ports or protocols.
- Integration and Extensibility
- Zabbix offers ready-to-use templates for integrating with various network hardware vendors, alerting systems, ticketing systems, IoT, and ITSM solutions.
- It is an open-source solution with a global partner and vendor support network.
- Zabbix is designed to be scalable, from smart home applications to large, multi-tenant enterprise environments.
Zabbix positions itself as an enterprise-class network observability solution, providing comprehensive monitoring, visibility, analytics, and automation capabilities for network infrastructure. Its ability to integrate with various data sources, vendors, and systems, coupled with its scalability and open-source nature, make it a powerful tool for network observability in diverse environments
18. SevOne
https://www.ibm.com/products/sevone-network-performance-management
SevOne is an IBM network performance management and monitoring solution that provides automated network observability capabilities. Here are the key points about SevOne’s network observability features:
Automated Network Observability
- SevOne Automated Network Observability is an add-on to the core SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) product.
- It enables closed-loop automation for network configuration, provisioning, management, and testing based on machine learning (ML) driven insights from SevOne NPM.
- It allows NetOps teams to automate repetitive network tasks and tool integrations using low-code workflow automation, reducing dependency on subject matter experts.
Network Monitoring and Analytics
- SevOne NPM provides real-time visibility and insights into complex multi-vendor networks across enterprise, communication service provider, and managed service provider environments.
- It collects performance metrics and flow data from physical, virtual, and software-defined infrastructure components.
- It uses automated baselining with machine learning to generate intelligent alerts for proactive incident management.
- The LiveMaps feature highlights the most significant network issues from a single pane of glass.
Integrations and Extensibility
- SevOne offers pre-built workflow templates and over 1,000 drag-and-drop building blocks to automate custom network tasks and processes.
- It enables self-service API-based data ingestion from unsupported protocols or technologies using the Universal Collector framework.
- SevOne provides two-way integration with leading IT service management (ITSM) systems like ServiceNow.
In summary, SevOne combines network performance monitoring with automated observability capabilities, allowing NetOps teams to proactively monitor, analyze, and automatically take actions to optimize multi-vendor network performance
What is Network Observability?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is observability in a network?
Network observability refers to the ability to gain comprehensive visibility and insights into the performance, behavior, and state of a network infrastructure. It involves the continuous collection, analysis, and visualization of data from various network components, allowing organizations to ensure network reliability, security, and optimal performance. Here’s a concise answer to “What is observability in a network?”:
Observability in a network is the capability to monitor, analyze, and understand the internal state and operations of a network infrastructure in real-time. It provides deep visibility into network traffic flows, performance metrics, connectivity, and dependencies between network components. Network observability enables organizations to proactively identify and troubleshoot issues, optimize resource utilization, and ensure seamless delivery of applications and services to end-users.
What are the basic concepts about network observability?
Network observability refers to the ability to gain deep visibility and insights into the internal state, performance, and behavior of a network infrastructure. Its primary purpose is to understand how the network is operating in real-time and how it impacts business objectives and user experiences.
Key Components
The key components of network observability include:
Data Collection: Gathering diverse data sources like metrics, logs, events, traces (MELT) from network devices, applications, and services.
Data Processing and Analysis: Using advanced analytics, machine learning, and statistical models to process the collected data, identify patterns, anomalies, and trends in network behavior.
Alerting and Notification: Setting up alerts based on predefined thresholds or anomalous behavior to notify administrators proactively.
Visualization and Reporting: Presenting analyzed data in a user-friendly, graphical format through dashboards and reports for quick decision-making and troubleshooting.
Goals and Benefits
The main goals and benefits of network observability include:
Proactive issue detection and resolution before impacting users or performance.
Improved network performance, efficiency, and reliability.
Enhanced security by identifying threats and vulnerabilities.
Understanding the impact of network issues on end-user experiences.
Automating root cause analysis with a high degree of probability.
Providing insightful intelligence by contextualizing network data.
Observability vs. Monitoring
Network observability goes beyond traditional network monitoring, which focuses on measuring and reporting basic metrics. Observability provides a more holistic understanding of how the network behaves in real-time, enabling teams to answer any question about the network quickly and easily.
Pillars of Network Observability
The three key pillars of network observability are:
Telemetry: Collecting diverse data sources like flow logs, routing tables, latency data, etc., to understand the network’s internal state.
Data Platform: Ingesting, contextualizing, and enriching telemetry data to enable meaningful analysis and decision-making.
Action: Deploying workflows, automations, and integrations to remediate issues and optimize network performance based on observability insights.
In summary, network observability is a comprehensive approach to gaining deep visibility into network operations, performance, and user experiences, enabling proactive issue resolution, improved efficiency, and better alignment with business objectives.
What is the difference between network monitoring and network observability?
The key difference between network monitoring and network observability lies in their scope, approach, and the insights they provide.
Network Monitoring:
Focuses on monitoring specific network metrics, devices, and components
Collects data on predefined metrics like bandwidth usage, traffic flows, device health, etc.
Provides visibility into the current state and performance of individual network elements
Helps detect issues and deviations from normal behavior based on set thresholds
Primarily used for real-time monitoring, alerting, and reactive troubleshooting
Network Observability:
Takes a holistic approach to understanding the network’s internal behavior and state
Collects and analyzes diverse data sources like metrics, logs, traces, events, etc.
Provides deeper insights into how different network components interact and influence each other
Enables proactive issue detection, root cause analysis, and understanding of network patterns
Focuses on the end-user experience and application delivery across the network
Leverages techniques like streaming telemetry, deep packet inspection, and AI/ML
In summary, network monitoring is about measuring and reporting on specific network elements, while network observability aims to provide a comprehensive, contextual understanding of the network’s behavior as a whole. Observability goes beyond monitoring by incorporating various data sources, enabling proactive issue resolution, and facilitating a deeper understanding of how the network impacts application performance and user experiences.
What are the four pillars of data observability?
The four pillars of data observability are Metrics, Metadata, Lineage & Logs.
Metrics: These refer to the internal properties and statistical measures of the data itself, such as mean, standard deviation, nullness, etc. Metrics allow for real-time anomaly detection and alerting on data issues.
Metadata: This refers to the external properties that describe the data, such as its structure, schema, timing, ownership, and access controls. Metadata is crucial for understanding the context and meaning of data.
Lineage: Lineage tracks the dependencies and relationships between different data assets, enabling upstream root cause analysis and downstream impact analysis when issues arise.
Logs: Logs provide a record of how external systems, tools, and users interact with and transform the data. They offer context for understanding the data’s journey and provenance.
Missing any one pillar would result in an incomplete ability to reconstruct the state of data and understand its health, quality, and reliability over time. The four pillars enable data teams to monitor, analyze, and gain insights into their data assets, ensuring data reliability and facilitating data-driven decision-making
What are the four golden signals of observability?
The four golden signals of observability are Latency, Traffic, Errors & Saturation.
These four signals provide a high-level view into the performance and health of a system or service. They were introduced by the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team at Google as a way to consistently measure and monitor service health across different applications and infrastructure components.
Here’s a brief explanation of each golden signal:
Latency: This measures the time it takes to service a request. High latency can indicate performance issues or bottlenecks in the system.
Traffic: This refers to the demand or load on the system, typically measured in requests per second or similar metrics. Monitoring traffic levels helps understand usage patterns and capacity requirements.
Errors: This tracks the rate of failed requests or the proportion of errors in the system. A high error rate can signify bugs, outages, or other issues impacting system health.
Saturation: This signal represents the degree to which the system’s resources (CPU, memory, I/O, etc.) are being utilized. High saturation can lead to degraded performance or failures.
By monitoring these four golden signals across services and infrastructure components, teams can gain better observability into the overall health and performance of their systems. This enables faster detection and resolution of issues, as well as capacity planning and optimization efforts.
The golden signals provide a consistent, service-level view of system behavior, complementing other observability data sources like logs, metrics, and distributed tracing. They serve as a foundational framework for implementing effective monitoring and observability practices.
Network Observability is the ability to gain insights into the internal workings of a network by collecting data and then querying that database
What is Network Observability?
What is Network Observability?
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What is Network Observability?
100 Reasons why you need Network Observability Tools in your network
- Network observability is crucial for understanding the performance and behavior of modern, complex networks.
- Network observability provides insights into network traffic patterns, application performance, and potential security threats.
- Network observability tools collect and analyze data from various sources, including network devices, servers, and applications.
- Network observability enables proactive monitoring and troubleshooting, helping to identify and resolve issues before they impact users.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the reliability and availability of mission-critical applications and services.
- Network observability helps organizations gain visibility into their cloud environments, enabling better resource management and cost optimization.
- Network observability is a key component of modern DevOps practices, enabling teams to quickly identify and resolve issues during the software development lifecycle.
- Network observability solutions often leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect anomalies and provide actionable insights.
- Network observability can help organizations comply with regulatory requirements by providing detailed logs and audit trails.
- Network observability tools can be integrated with existing monitoring and management platforms for a unified view of the IT infrastructure.
- Network observability is crucial for understanding the end-user experience and identifying potential bottlenecks or performance issues.
- Network observability data can be used to optimize network configurations and resource allocation for better performance and efficiency.
- Network observability provides visibility into inter-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, enabling seamless management and monitoring.
- Network observability solutions often include visualization tools for better understanding and communicating network behavior and issues.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security of networks by detecting and responding to potential threats and vulnerabilities.
- Network observability can help organizations troubleshoot and resolve issues faster, reducing downtime and minimizing the impact on business operations.
- Network observability enables organizations to proactively plan for capacity and scalability requirements based on historical data and trends.
- Network observability data can be used for root cause analysis, helping to identify the underlying causes of issues and prevent future occurrences.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing software-defined networks (SDNs) and network virtualization environments.
- Network observability solutions often provide real-time alerts and notifications, enabling rapid response to critical events and issues.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring compliance with service level agreements (SLAs) and meeting performance targets.
- Network observability can help organizations optimize their network infrastructure and reduce operational costs by identifying inefficiencies and areas for improvement.
- Network observability provides insights into application dependencies and interactions, enabling better application performance management.
- Network observability solutions can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution, depending on the organization’s requirements.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing multi-cloud environments, ensuring consistent performance and security across different cloud platforms.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
- Network observability can help organizations identify and mitigate potential security risks and vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
- Network observability provides visibility into network micro-segmentation and zero-trust architectures, enabling better security and access control.
- Network observability is crucial for managing and optimizing edge computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.
- Network observability can help organizations understand and optimize their network traffic patterns, enabling better bandwidth management and resource allocation.
- Network observability solutions often include advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, enabling data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Network observability is essential for ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data and workloads in regulated industries.
Traces: Identifying the Root Cause
Traces provide critical context to identify the root cause of network issues by collecting data from various components and servers across distributed environments.
Optimize Network Performance
Network observability empowers organizations to optimize network performance by gaining insights into network behavior, traffic patterns, and potential bottlenecks.
Centralized Data Collection
A central platform collects and correlates telemetry data from diverse data sources, including logs, metrics, and traces, providing a unified view of network health.
Extend Traditional Network Monitoring
Network observability extends traditional network monitoring by leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to detect anomalies and provide meaningful insights.
Seamless Integration
Network observability solutions seamlessly integrate with existing network monitoring tools, complementing and enhancing their capabilities.
Dynamic Alerting and Notification
Dynamic alerting and notification systems based on custom thresholds and baselines prevent alert fatigue and enable proactive incident response.
Visualize Network Behavior
Graphical dashboards and infographics visualize network behavior, performance metrics, and potential issues, empowering administrators to make data-driven decisions.
Continuous Improvement
Network observability fosters a culture of continuous improvement by providing insights into network reliability, responsiveness, and user experience, enabling proactive maintenance and optimization.
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