Arista Networks and ExtraHop Networks team up to launch an integrated visibility and monitoring solution for SDN-based datacentre networks-- the imaginatively named ExtraHop-Arista Persistent Monitoring Architecture for SDN. 

According to the two companies software-defined data centres are more complex than the legacy equivalents, demanding management tools able to provide visibility and correlation of data across the entire application delivery stack. 

Persistent Monitoring Architecture aggregates a copy of all traffic via the Data ANalyZer (DANZ) capabilities of the Arista Extensible Operating System (EOS), while the ExtraHop Context and Correlation Engine (CCE) automatically discovers, classifes and maps application and infrastructure dependencies without using agents. 

The system includes continuous virtual and physical server (and associated MAC addresses) auto-discovery, and provides admins with persistent visibility of virtual machines movied via VMware VMotion (including virtual machines spun up, spun down and migrated across the data centre). 

“In many ways, virtualisation and software-defined datacenters can simplify the management of IT operations. However, many organizations find that when applications are divorced from dedicated infrastructure and the network, traditional approaches to monitoring performance, availability, and security no longer work,” ExtraHop says. “Together, ExtraHop and Arista offer organisations a solution purpose-built to deliver the persistent visibility they need to reap the full benefits of virtualised, software-defined environments, and we’re doing it at one-tenth the cost of legacy-based offerings.”

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