Well, these days we love analytics.
The more data we have, the more we can analyze that data,
and ultimately this leads to an entire conversation
around network assurance and the idea
that we can very quickly resolve issues.
Well, first of all, very quickly identify the issues
and then very quickly resolve the issues
ideally in a proactive methodology.
Meaning I don't wait for a problem to happen.
I see the problem happening because of my analytics. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
I see the problem happening because of my analytics.
I know I'm about to have a problem
or maybe I'm just now starting to experience one
as I can go out there and look for the resolution,
hopefully before users even notice
that there was a problem.
So Cisco has a product known as our SD-WAN analytics.
And this is an optional module in the SD-WAN space.
Now we say it's an optional module.
We say, well, why wouldn't we just deploy it? WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
We say, well, why wouldn't we just deploy it?
Well, because this is going to require an additional license
and so it will cost a little bit more
to run it in our infrastructure.
And by the way, this used to be a product known as V-ANNELITICS.
So Cisco continues to replace our V language a little bit here.
I know we just saw the tele-quality of experience
as yet to be swapped out, at least at the time of this video. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
as yet to be swapped out, at least at the time of this video.
But they do continue to re-brand,
to get rid of the Veptella name.
So it's SD-WAN analytics.
But if you are interested in reading white papers
and the like, then it might show up under V-ANNELITICS as well.
So the idea here is that it's going to provide insights
into the data that's being collected by our SD-WAN devices.
So a few examples of this would be to take a look
at utilization trends, which circuits are being consumed WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
at utilization trends, which circuits are being consumed
the most, which applications are consuming the most bandwidth.
These kinds of conversations can help us to do proper planning
and again to potentially proactively identify some issues.
We also have capacity projections.
I love this idea where they're going to,
or this platform is going to look at the data
and do a little bit of potentially bandwidth forecasting.
To say, all right, we have a maybe 100 meg circuit. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
To say, all right, we have a maybe 100 meg circuit.
And based on our analytics, we think that as our bandwidth
is becoming more and more used,
that this is only going to last us another three months.
That we might want to call our service provider
and ask about increasing this to maybe a 200 or 250 megabit
per second circuit.
And that way it's not a big surprise
when all of a sudden we're driving a bunch of traffic one day.
Hopefully we can get ahead of that
and get a bigger circuit provisioned. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and get a bigger circuit provisioned.
We can also continue to monitor that VIP telequality
of experience, and we can track that over time.
And so hopefully once we have a baseline,
we'll know that, all right, yeah, that looks good
that we have a VQO, we have eight.
But traditionally, we're bouncing between nine and 10.
So something is a little bit wrong, even though on the surface,
it might actually look fine.
On top of all of this, we can do a little bit
of security monitoring via Cisco Talos,
which is their security cloud platform. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
which is their security cloud platform.
So we can analyze in real time some amount of threat monitoring.
This is really useful, and it demonstrates a little bit
of the power of going with something
like a Cisco solution for SD-WAN
because they have integrations into so many other platforms.
It's not just about the SD-WAN solution,
but the fact that we can integrate
into their security platform, for example. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
into their security platform, for example.
And speaking of which, we do have another platform
that Cisco acquired, and that is Thousand Eyes.
Thousand Eyes is a monitoring platform
that lives in the cloud.
That is going to help us to gain deep insights
into what's happening in our network.
And the way it does is pretty interesting.
It deploys agents into three primary locations WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
It deploys agents into three primary locations
to our endpoints.
So that would be our user laptops
and desktop PCs and the like,
to our enterprise devices, such as switches
and access points and even our virtual machine hosts
and the like, and then also to the cloud.
Meaning that if I'm monitoring a particular application,
let's say I'm trying to figure out
why there's a problem with this application,
I'm going to get the view from the endpoint that says, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
I'm going to get the view from the endpoint that says,
hey, I can't reach that application.
And the enterprise devices in my networks
that say, hey, these sites are fine,
but these other sites are not fine.
And then also from the cloud, which might tell us
whether my network is even the problem.
Because maybe we're having problems,
but so is everybody else outside of our organization.
And so it's a really great architecture.
And I love the name Thousand Eyes
because it describes very well what they're doing.
They're deploying these agents as their eyes WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
They're deploying these agents as their eyes
throughout the entire world via the cloud,
but then also drilling down as granularly
as to our individual endpoints,
so we can track what's happening.
So this is another integration that we can make
into SD-WAN.
So if we look at Cisco SD-WAN,
we can get onto our V-manage
and we can say, you know what,
deploy Thousand Eyes agents onto our SD-WAN edges. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
deploy Thousand Eyes agents onto our SD-WAN edges.
With just a few simple clicks,
this architecture starts to get built out
because deploying agents to our enterprise devices
can be a little bit cumbersome,
but with the fact that I can just log into V-manage
and have it automate that deployment
to all my WAN devices and then gain all of the insights
that I'm getting from Thousand Eyes,
hey, that's actually very, very powerful, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
hey, that's actually very, very powerful,
especially when I combine it with the analytics
I'm getting from SD-WAN analytics.
Now, the one downside to this is that
this doesn't come free,
these Thousand Eyes agents require Thousand Eyes licensing
and we already mentioned that SD-WAN analytics
requires licensing.
So if we're gonna do both of these solutions,
we're gonna need to purchase some licensing out there
and that's a conversation to have with Cisco,
but these platforms all integrate with one another
and they can provide some very powerful insights WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and they can provide some very powerful insights
that ultimately are going to bring us back
to this conversation.
How quickly can I identify a problem?
How quickly can I resolve that problem?
And if I can be proactive and anticipating
when there are going to be problems,
that is a massive conversation that every organization
is having because of the immense benefits and value
that it provides.