Application Filtering Is Now Available with GigaVUE-OS 5.6

With the arrival of spring comes the release of our latest GigaVUE-OS software to meet your urgent networking and security requirements while increasing tool efficiency and reducing IT costs and workloads. Here are some of the highlights:

• Automate identification and classification of more than 3,000 applications and optimize tool efficiency by forwarding the right applications to the right tools with the new Application Filtering Intelligence GigaSMART^® application
• Protect your data by using IPSec for transmitting mirrored traffic from Gigamon G-vTAP agents to the GigaVUE^® V Series node in AWS, Azure and OpenStack environments
• Reduce deployment complexity and operating costs by aggregating network traffic from different VPCs/VNETs in AWS and Azure environments using a central GigaVUE V Series node
• Gain visibility into cloud deployments and remote sites with L2GRE and VxLAN tunnel de-encapsulation on GigaVUE-TA platforms (excluding GigaVUE-TA1/TA10) and all GigaVUE-HC platforms without GigaSMART. (Note: This feature requires the Advanced Features License on the TA platforms.)
• Fine-tune traffic distribution to tools within a tool group (inline or out of band) by assigning a weight/percentage using Weighted Hashing

Below, you’ll find more detailed information on each capability.

#1. Application Filtering Intelligence, a New GigaSMART Application Available as a Subscription Service

More and more organizations are adopting digital applications, with IDC predicting that the digital transformation market will grow from $1.1T in 2018 to $1.9T in 2021. But IT can find it challenging to gain visibility into today’s complex applications, which are frequently outsourced, third-party based, custom built, and multitiered with physical, virtual and cloud components.

With that in mind, we’re excited to announce Application Filtering Intelligence, a new GigaSMART application that uses deep packet inspection to identify, categorize and filter more than 3,000 applications. This new feature extends our L4 network traffic filtering and forwarding technology to L7 applications and protocols.

As seen in Figure 1, the Application Filtering subscription service enables you to:

• Automatically identify and classify more than 3,000 applications across your infrastructure
• Identify custom applications and proprietary protocols or extensions through custom signature definitions
• Understand the composition of your network traffic and find applications that consume the most bandwidth
• Optimize tool efficiency by forwarding only the right applications to the right tools
• Filter applications and protocols in or out, individually or by category

#2. IPSec for Transmitting Mirrored Traffic from G-vTAP Agents to  GigaVUE V Series Nodes in AWS, Azure and OpenStack Environments

If you’re concerned about securely transmitting mirrored traffic from Gigamon G-vTAP agents to your centralized GigaVUE V Series node in AWS, Azure or OpenStack environments, this is the perfect time to leverage IPSec. You can now secure that mirrored traffic from spoofing by threat actors, as shown in Figure 2.

#3. Centralized and Reduced Components in GigaSECURE Cloud for AWS and Azure

As shown in Figures 3 and 4, with the new GigaSECURE^® Cloud architecture you can:

• Reduce deployment complexity with simplified architecture and fewer components
• Cut operating costs by aggregating network traffic from different Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) or Azure Virtual Network (VNET) environments using a central GigaVUE V Series node

#4. Tunnel De-Encapsulation (L2GRE and VXLAN) Without GigaSMART

Until now, you needed a GigaSMART license for tunnel termination to gain visibility into your cloud deployments and remote sites. As shown in Figure 5, with this new release you can gain visibility into cloud and remote sites with de-encapsulation for L2GRE and VXLAN tunnels for all GigaVUE-HC Series and GigaVUE-TA platforms (excluding TA1/TA10), without purchasing GigaSMART. (Note: This feature requires the Advanced Features License on the GigaVUE-TA platforms.)

#5. Weighted Hashing in GigaStream and Inline Tool Groups

Controlling traffic distribution to out-of-band and inline tools can be challenging. As shown in Figure 6, this feature lets you custom tune the traffic distribution to tools within a tool group (inline or out of band) by assigning a weight or percentage to each tool.

How to Learn More

Check out these resources to learn more about Application Filtering Intelligence and other GigaVUE-OS enhancements:

• Application Filtering Intelligence web page
• GigaVUE-HC Series data sheet
• GigaSECURE Cloud web page