Page 14 - THE Journal, January/February 2019

14
| JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
FEATURE |ITTRENDS
The SDN Difference
There are three major components to SDN for Carmel’s network First is that management console which watches the physical aspects
of the network and lets IT know when something has gone down It
also archives and and backs up configurations and and allows for “zero touch provisioning ” in in which IT can set up a a a template on on the the system unbox the the switch plug it it it it in turn it it it it on on and have it it it it talk immediately to the console pull down its its its own own configuration bring itself itself up and make itself itself ready to go That’s a a a a “huge time save ” Perry said Second is network access control to focus on on on the the user aspects
of the the network Right now that’s implemented in a a a a a “limited capacity ” said Perry Currently the NAC can identify devices and and device device types and and some users (those using wireless devices for the most part) Long-term however the the NAC “is going to to be amped up to to identify users wherever they log
in in in however they log
in in in ” At that point the the NAC will be able to identify them and pass that data back to to the the management console to to create rules on the the fly for that user: “Oh this is is Johnny Bravo in room 28 at at the the high school He is in health class so I need to to go tell the web filter to to unblock the the health-related websites for the the next hour while he’s in class ” When the the the student leaves that class the the the NAC will identify him or her in the the the next location shut down the the previous access and return it to the the default The third piece is is the application analytics engine which is is also slated for full deployment during the summer Currently what it it does is monitor the the the “health” of the the the data traveling over the the the infrastructure Eventually when fully up and and running the engine will help with troubleshooting and and identification of problems “before our users have a a a a a chance to complain ” Recently that need was brought to light when an on-premise Moodle server started acting up on “old virtual hardware ” As As Perry explained “As the the the students would go to take quizzes a a bunch of them could open it then there would be five or six in in the the class that couldn’t get in in no matter what and and and then their session would would drop and and and they would would lose the the the the quiz and and and have to to start over It
took us about a a a a a a week of really watching and testing before we we could pin down the the problem It
was the the server hardware If we’d had the application analytics at at at at that time it it would have told us within a a a a a a a a a matter of of minutes that that the the server just couldn’t handle the the amount of of traffic that that was coming at it We moved the server over to new hardware Problem went away ” The application analytics engine will also be able to to handle automated reprioritization of data flow If there’s a a a a a a a sudden spike in Facebook traffic at at at the the the the stadium or Google traffic from the the the the theater the the the the engine would recognize that for what it it was and reallocate capacity — say off o of the learning management system (because it’s after school) to where it it was needed