On Aug 19, 2013, at 13:24, Blake Dunlap <iki...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Greetings,
>    Anyone out there have experiences with Netscout or any of their
> nGenius products and wish to share impressions? Currently looking at them
> in comparison to say Netbrain, NetQoS, smarts, etc.
> 
> -Blake


We've been using Netscout's nGenius for years. Their Gig probes and 
Infinistream probes are rather expensive but the resulting application 
visibility justifies the cost.  We have basically built up our network 
visibility over time starting with a PM server and a single probe, used as a 
netflow collector, then gradually superseding netflow with dedicated Netscout 
probes.  We used fiber and copper taps instead of SPAN ports since we believe 
SPAN ports are better used tactically. Take that instrumentation cost into 
consideration.  

To be fair, we haven't evaluated the other apps that you have mentioned, as of 
late.  We do have a Concord eHealth implementation which we use for historic 
SNMP network statistics.  It's good for showing us WHEN and WHERE we have a 
bandwidth spike but it doesn't answer the WHO and WHAT questions like nGenius 
does.  We use the Inifnistream probes strategically as a "network TiVo" which 
allows us to grab the packets we need for retrospective performance or forensic 
analysis. All of the Gig probes can do packet capture but they're limited.  The 
Infinistreams are basically deployed at our core and network perimeter.  Our 
Gig probes are more ubiquitous at the datacenter and distribution sites.  Our 
basic philosophy of use is to monitor all the data center switches and any 
network choke points, especially ingress (ISP, extranet, VPN, dedicated 
circuits, etc).  We also have a couple of portables that we use for our more 
on-going issues.  

We do have a few of the 10G probes but we coupled that with a Gigamon 
deployment since it was too cost prohibitive to purchase multiple 10G 
tool/interfaces everywhere in our data centers.  Gigamon allows us to leverage 
many of our existing tools but that may not be germane to the conversation.  

-bb

Reply via email to