Ways to analyze your network traffic

Due to the importance of the network for the operation of enterprises, traffic should be seen as one of the most important resources to be managed. Just like for every amount of money that comes in and out of the company’s cash flow, accounting for traffic is of paramount importance for the efficient use of resources and the proper functioning of the network.

Detailed traffic analysis will allow the implementation of governance strategies that will ensure full transparency of how resources are used. Thus, allowing the manager to understand which applications consume the largest share of network traffic and whether they are relevant to the business.

Another aspect is the justification for IT costs. With a clear view of the consumption of each sector within a group, or which sectors send or receive more traffic from the data center, IT reinforces its strategic role and demonstrates solid data to justify the costs of a link increase or equipment upgrade, for instance. Management must be based on data.

NETWORK TRAFFIC STATEMENT

Who has never checked their bank balance and had to open the statement to find out more details? Imagine this same scenario for a company’s network traffic. Scenarios with traffic spikes and behavioral changes can cause intermittent or even total network outage.

TRAFip is a multi-vendor traffic analysis system developed by Telcomanager. By collecting data from IP flow protocols, TRAFip can provide detailed information about everything that goes through your network.

One of the features of TRAFip is the raw data reporting. For any monitored object, you can extract this report directly from the graph. Knowing where it goes, where it comes from, and what content passes through your network will be a differential to respond to or prevent various problems in your infrastructure.

Recently, while deploying TRAFip on a new Telcomanager customer, analyzing a raw data report, we were surprised by an unexpected volume of traffic. The client noticed that a VPN service was generating high consumption on his network without him knowing. Given this scenario, it was discovered that several employees were using the VPN service on their smartphones to “bypass” certain firewall rules.

TRAFFIC PROFILE

In addition to the report, TRAFip can demonstrate this stratification graphically. From the graph of each monitored object, we can see with whom it exchanges traffic the most, who contributes the most to its total traffic and what are the main content transmitted. For this, we use the traffic profile.

The traffic profile is one of the main settings of TRAFip, it allows us to graphically correlate the traffic of an object in relation to other objects. For example, view application traffic within a subnet (show sample graph) or view conversations between a subnet and other subnets (show sample graph).

One of the main doubts of TRAFip users is the difference between the profiles in matrix and distribution.

To clarify the difference between profile in matrix and profile in distribution, it is important to adopt a reference within the analyzed object. For this example, in relation to a group of subnets, we will adopt the source traffic graph as a reference:

If I want to know where the source traffic of this group is going, that is, the traffic generated by each of the subnets that make up this group, I need to break this graph according to the destination IP, so the profile will be in matrix.

If I want to know where the source traffic of this group is coming from, I need to break down this graph according to the source IP, so the profile will be in distribution.

Therefore, we can see in this example, with the group of subnets, that the profile in matrix is concerned with demonstrating the conversations between the group of subnets and the other subnets, while the profile in distribution is concerned with demonstrating the apportionment of traffic in relation to each of the subnets that are part of the group.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Want to learn more about IP flow monitoring and TRAFip. Telcomanager has a free certification program. Places are limited, please register on our website: https://www.telcomanager.com/t/curso

There is no doubt about the importance of investing in network management. Thus, it is noticeable that these good practices bring not only benefits to the visibility of the infrastructure, but also a way to ensure crucial information for increasingly assertive planning and strategies.

With this in mind, Telcomanager, Latin America’s leader in the software industry for network management, since 2002 in the market with a unique and innovative methodology, provides intelligent solutions for data monitoring in order to provide complete visibility to the customer’s infrastructure, allowing your company to monitor the main aspects of its network.

Posted in 09/12/2022