Big Switch Networks Releases Big Tap Monitoring Fabric 4.5 -- Next-Gen Network Packet Broker for Pervasive Security and Visibility

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - May 5, 2015) - Big Switch Networks®, the leader in bringing hyperscale networking to data centers worldwide, today announced the availability of Big Tap™ Monitoring Fabric 4.5, a next-generation Network Packet Broker (NPB). Big Tap is a modern 1G/10G/40G network visibility fabric that leverages software defined networking (SDN) principles and high-performance ODM or Dell Open Networking switches to provide scalable data center wide monitoring at ultra-low cost. Big Tap 4.5 closes the feature gap with traditional NPBs by providing pervasive security monitoring and visibility features, including inline/out-of-band deployment, flow-level granularity, and advanced analytics.

Big Tap 4.5 includes the following features:

• In-line deployment mode, in addition to out-of-band (enablement of DMZ deployment)
• Service chaining with in-line mode (allows multiple security tools to be processed in a chain, as specified by user-defined policy)
• sFlow generation (centrally configured flow generation on monitoring fabric)
• Enhanced visibility for security (DNS tracking, DHCP tracking)
• Header stripping for MPLS (support service provider WAN monitoring)
• Configurable hash setting for granular load balancing of tools (allows tool elasticity)

"With the release of Big Tap 4.5, we add the ability to interoperate with more partner products, giving the end user comprehensive monitoring and security capabilities they desire, all while providing huge CapEx and OpEx reductions," said Prashant Gandhi, Vice President of Product Management and Strategy at Big Switch. "With Big Tap's high-value SDN software powering open, high-performance Ethernet switches, customers can now combat cyber threats in a pervasive manner while future-proofing their monitoring infrastructure for scale and programmability. "

Big Tap 4.5 provides interoperability with several of our partner products to offer joint solutions:

• A10 Networks: Big Tap 4.5 enables admins to easily deploy and manage A10 security tools for DDoS protection and SSL Insight in in-line mode at the DMZ network.
• Blue Coat: The joint solution provides complete visibility into SSL encrypted in-line traffic, while also enabling analysis of the traffic offline for detecting malware.
• Cyphort: Big Tap's deep, enterprise-wide monitoring capabilities with Cyphort's distributed software approach delivers pervasive threat detection.
• ExtraHop: Big Tap interoperates with ExtraHop's products to achieve granular and scalable application monitoring and deeper data analytics.
• InMon: The joint solution with InMon enables real-time and pervasive flow-level visibility into the production network.

Expanded Switch Hardware Support