Network Telemetry on Kemp LoadMaster

Since the dawn of IT systems and the networking that plumbs it all together, the argument between system and network admins have raged on, blaming each other when the users complain that “the application is not working!” While it was enough for the networking admin to provide “proof” and claim victory using the classic methods like ping and traceroute etc., applications of today have become a lot more complicated and that approach have become outdated.

Modern applications are now heavily reliant on network latency, throughput, and response times. It’s no longer enough to have connectivity throughout the chain of devices; every link in that chain must perform reliably to provide predictable performance in today’s world.

For that reason, network devices have a bigger role to play now, and they are required to provide insight into the entire lifecycle of the packet as it traverses between a source and destination. At the end of the day, it’s the “application experience” that keeps the user interested in what it has to offer, and that network insight allows application developers to optimise their applications accordingly.

We’ve all been familiar with Kemp’s LoadMaster products that have been in use for many years now. As a company focusing on improving the application experience through its products, Kemp recently announced the availability of the Network Telemetry feature as part of its load balancer product range.

Kemp Flowmon Collector

The network telemetry feature relies on the addition of Kemp Flowmon Collector as a standard feature with LoadMaster product line. As you might already be aware, LoadMaster comes in hardware and virtual/cloud appliance form-factors, so this addition applies to all of them.

Load balancers are an important part of the infrastructure as whichever application they front, they see all the traffic passing through and more importantly, the performance of it. So, it makes sense for this flow monitor to sit on the load balancer and provide the “Network as Source of Truth” by having visibility into the entire application delivery chain. With that visibility, application developers can proactively identify bottlenecks, misconfigurations, and potential security issues.

In larger environments, this insight also helps proactively by accommodating usage spikes and link saturation issues. Proactive is the key word here as most application issues are typically not visible until the application starts crashing. That can cost businesses a significant amount and is best avoided by anticipating and fix those issues before they occur.

In addition to supporting the standard formats, it is also compatible with all the common networking vendor products that you expect e.g. Cisco, Gigamon, VMware NSX, VMware VDS and AWS etc., to name a few.

Want to Learn More?

Firstly, go watch the BrightTalk webinar: How to Identify and Fix Application Problems with Kemp’s Network Telemetry on the subject as it gives you all the knowledge on this feature is important and how it can help with troubleshooting application issues.