Manage, Secure, and Optmize the Performance and Availability of Business Services
Server virtualization, data center consolidation, and Web services initiatives are changing the IT landscape. Organizations are increasingly finding significant gaps in their ability to secure and manage the availability and performance of key business services.
Riverbed Cascade™ (formerly Mazu Profiler) combines visibility into end-to-end application delivery dependencies and Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) to address these management gaps. Riverbed's management solution spans network, security, and data center operations groups to provide application performance management, improved threat and compliance management, and CMDB discovery.
Cascade provides a new way of managing application performance and security by analyzing the interactions of users with the applications, systems, and network devices that comprise the application delivery infrastructure. Cascade delivers the critical data customers need to quickly resolve problems that affect service - such as unauthorized usage, availability and performance issues, and security threats - as well as to inform consolidation, virtualization and optimization initiatives.
How it Works
Cascade collects network flow data and enhances it with application and user identification, behavioral analytics, and network performance metrics. Because you can create groupings based on logical business categories, Cascade presents a complex infrastructure in a business context. Pre-defined and customizable behavioral analytics enable users to identify performance, availability, and security issues before they disrupt business services. Complete and accurate usage and dependency data provide the key inputs for making the right optimization and change management decisions. Cascade also provides an extensive set of integrations, which enable it to interoperate intelligently with other systems to increase their value and improve your workflow. Cascade's passive, agent-less deployment allows fast implementation.
Implementation
Unlike solutions which require deep packet inspection on every WAN link, Cascade's passive, agent-less deployment allows fast and cost-effective implementation and quick time to value. Cascade Gateways collects network flow data already existing in an organization’s network provides intelligent de-duplication retaining information on where each flow was recorded, and sends this condensed data to the Cascade Profiler. Profiler complements this information with layer 7 application and response time data retrieved from a Cascade Sensor deployed in the datacenter. These records are then further enhanced with user identification information provided by active directories, switch port information, QoS, and SNMP data. The result is a complete view of a business application flow from the back end server to the users desktop. Cascade also provides an extensive set of integrations, with management systems typically deployed in an IT environment to further streamline workflows and provide value across multiple operations teams.
How it's Used
Cascade provides users the ability to effectively manage change in their IT infrastructures. As a result, customers are able to ensure the availability, performance, and security of business services as well as to reduce costs and satisfy regulatory requirements. Specifically, customers use Cascade for:
Application performance management - Behavioral analytics combined with user-defined policies deliver the information and policies to proactively assure service delivery. Contextual alerts provide the information needed to quickly resolve issues.
Improved security - Extensive analytics identify hard-to-detect security threats such as zero-day attacks, "boutique" malware, and credentialed attacks.
Visibility into WAN and virtualized environments - Get full visibility into traditionally "blind" environments such as optimized WANs and virtualized systems.
Automated regulatory compliance - Visibility and reporting capabilities support automated planning and policy enforcement and reduce the effort and cost required to support audits.
Data center consolidations and moves - Application dependency mapping provides the information needed for proper planning. Change impact information ensures smooth implementation.
CMDB Discovery - Discovery and dependency mapping that is pervasive, continuous, and passive for coverage that is accurate, cost-effective, and enterprise-wide.
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