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Optimize Edge Networking With This Free Guide to Out-of-Band, SD-Branch, & More

by | Jan 12, 2021 | Out of Band Management, SD-Branch, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

GG2 – branch and edge networking

Edge networking continues to grow as a vital component to business. With more people working remotely, whether from home, in the field, or on the road, it’s now critical to have a network that goes wherever your people go. And achieving that kind of connectivity is becoming easier by the day, as companies like ZPE Systems carry on innovating new technologies to accommodate secure, on-the-go networking.

Traditional network architectures are becoming obsolete, simply because they can’t offer flexibility at the edge. Their rigid systems and protocols restrict both IT and non-IT staff from accessing the resources they need, when they need them. This has only spurred the evolution of better edge networking, and now many companies operate remotely 100-percent of the time.

Even if your goal isn’t to fully migrate your workforce out of the office, you can reap major benefits from strengthening your edge networking capabilities. That’s why you need to get our free Gorilla Guide to Deploying, Maintaining, and Maximizing Branch & Edge Networking. Keep reading to learn more.

What are some crucial edge networking capabilities & their benefits?

Think of a few ideal capabilities you’d like your business network to have.

  • Do you want to give full remote access to IT and network staff?
  • Do you want to gain in-depth visibility & control of branch networks?
  • Do you want to deliver safe, reliable connectivity where your workers go?
The good news is, you can get all these and more when you use an open, cloud-enabled edge networking platform like Nodegrid. Here’s how you can benefit:

  • You can make easy work of every deployment thanks to cloud-based provisioning. If you need to set up a new branch network, even at a very isolated location such as an offshore drilling platform, the cloud gives you push-button simplicity. You don’t have to preconfigure devices or put staff on-site to manually provision the stack. You can ship boxes that are 100% unconfigured, which gives you complete security, and then simply boot your devices. The cloud does everything for you using zero touch provisioning, so you can sit back and watch your network build itself.
  • You don’t have to put IT staff on-site in order to troubleshoot network issues, fix configuration errors, and restore uptime. You can take advantage of remote out-of-band management and cloud-based provisioning. These allow you to fulfill all of your network administration duties from afar. When a router goes offline or a software version needs to be rolled back, you can respond quickly and remediate the problem — even from thousands of miles away. These technologies work together so you can maintain branch networks without breaking a sweat.
  • You can optimize your branch networks by taking advantage of software-defined branch (SD-Branch) capabilities. Traditionally, SD-WAN gives you control of only what goes to and from your branch networks. But with SD-Branch, you can see and control WANs and LANs, with comprehensive capabilities that let you access what goes on inside each location. SD-Branch lets you manage at a granular level. Not only can you adjust traffic priorities and specific device settings, but you can also manage all the clients connected to your network. This means that you don’t need to dispatch support teams for troubleshooting or management, so you can save time & money on operations.
  • You can deliver pick-up-and-go networking by using Secure Access Service Edge. SASE is a new model that combines networking and security in the cloud, and delivers them to users wherever they need secure network access. It’s also identity driven to provide even more flexibility. For remote and on-the-go workers, you no longer need to allocate resources to configure company laptops or other devices. Because SASE ties network access to a user’s identity, you can let them connect from anywhere using any device. With SASE, business can continue seamlessly no matter what change you need to adapt to.

Why download our free guide?

For details about how you can improve your edge networking abilities, get our free Gorilla Guide to Deploying, Maintaining, and Maximizing Branch & Edge Networking. It shows you:

  • Why you need cloud provisioning — Discover how a cloud-based approach to provisioning gives you valuable benefits, such as hardened security and effortless deployments.
  • How the cloud makes out-of-band better — See how to easily maintain branch locations with the cloud on your side, from remote troubleshooting to configuration management.
  • Best practices for optimizing branch networks — Learn how to deploy and optimize your distributed networks, and take advantage of in-depth SD-Branch for total network control.
  • Why you need to get SASE — Explore Secure Access Service Edge and how it transforms the edge with nimble networking & security, for business that goes wherever your employees go.

It’s never been more critical to give your edge networking capabilities a boost. Now’s your chance to improve business agility with a free download, the Gorilla Guide to Deploying, Maintaining, and Maximizing Branch & Edge Networking.

Get the guide today!

See How Nodegrid’s Out-of-Band Eliminated EBRC’s Single Points of Failure

by | Dec 10, 2020 | Out of Band Management, Pillar 1 - Data Center Infrastructure Management, Remote Network Management

European Business Reliance Centre, or EBRC, requires out-of-band management capabilities to keep business running. As a managed services provider, EBRC helps companies outsource their IT efforts and acts as a one-stop shop for organizations in finance, healthcare, security, and other industries. The company employs hundreds of IT experts who maintain critical infrastructures and applications, from data center hosting to cloud computing.

Because service agreements and customer satisfaction rely on high levels of availability, EBRC must ensure that they have the tools in place to prevent downtime and disruptions. This is where out-of-band management comes into play.

What’s the Role of Out-of-Band Management?

Out-of-band management allows support teams to access their network infrastructure. Instead of relying on the production, or in-band network, out-of-band uses a completely separate network path. This helps lock out potential security attacks, and also provides access that doesn’t rely on the main network. This is important for network engineers and administrators, because they can gain secure control of their infrastructure even in the event of an outage.

How Does Nodegrid Improve Out-of-Band Management?

Nodegrid improves out-of-band management by allowing remote access to physical & virtual assets. Because it’s vendor neutral, companies can deploy Nodegrid’s out-of-band regardless of which vendor solutions they currently use or plan to use. Finally, Nodegrid provides secure remote management via WAN links and a variety of connection types, including broadband, cellular, satellite, and others.

What Are the Advantages of Using Nodegrid’s Out-of-Band?

Nodegrid’s out-of-band helps companies preserve customer satisfaction and boost efficiency of their network support efforts.

Whereas typical out-of-band solutions require slow phone lines, modems, and even on-site intervention, Nodegrid allows IT teams to gain fully remote control of their systems. Device outages, interruptions, or attacks no longer need to leave organizations paralyzed by downtime or scrambling to dispatch technicians to all affected sites. With Nodegrid, teams can respond instantly whether the problem occurred in a data center rack, branch MDF, or virtual environment.

Nodegrid also allows companies to do away with the limited control offered by traditional solutions. Support teams can use Nodegrid’s out-of-band to gain granular visibility and control over their distributed networks. This means that when a password needs to be reset, a firmware upgrade needs to be installed, or a device even needs to be rebooted, IT staff can perform these critical tasks efficiently from afar.

All of these advantages equate to streamlined operations and savings on management. But don’t take our word for it. Watch this 90-second clip featuring EBRC’s Michel Ackerman, who describes the convenience and simplicity that Nodegrid brought to the European MSP.

Get Your Guide to Business Continuity with Out-of-Band Management

by | Nov 19, 2020 | Out of Band Management

When business continuity is on your mind, out-of-band management should be, too. That’s because your network serves as the backbone of your enterprise. Whether you’re in retail, manufacturing, oil & gas, or another industry, you need to make sure information and services reach your appropriate user base. This could mean supporting critical point-of-sale systems on your showroom floor, or ensuring sensor data transmission from platforms drilling into the seafloor.

That’s why out-of-band is so critical to business continuity. This management network allows you to gain remote control of your physical and virtual assets, so that you can remediate issues, make configuration changes, update firmware, and more — even if you’re across the globe.

To help you understand more about this crucial technology, we’re giving you our free Gorilla Guide to Better Business Continuity.

But first, let’s recap what out-of-band management is

There are two approaches you can take to manage your network: in-band and out-of-band.

In-band management is when you access network assets via your main connection. With an in-band approach, you use https, SSH, or other protocols to gain access through your production network. This means that should a disruption occur, you’re left without any ability to manage your devices.

Out-of-band management is when you set up an isolated management path that’s separate from other networks. This gives you the ability to gain access to your systems, even if your main connection suffers an outage.

Businesses around the world use out-of-band for data center and branch networking continuity. Here’s a brief explainer video showing its advantages:  

What are the benefits of out-of-band management?

Out-of-band management brings many benefits to your enterprise, all of which improve your ability to maintain business continuity. 

  • 3 reasons why you need it — From improving response times and restoring uptime, to gaining more control of your infrastructure, discover 3 reasons why out-of-band is so critical to business continuity.
  • How automation makes you more efficient — See how automation streamlines network operations and processes, so you can stay focused on business and less on routine tasks.
  • Best practices for out-of-band networks — Get expert advice for setting up your out-of-band network, and designing a solution that’s secure & accessible.
  • How the cloud improves out-of-band — Learn about how cloud-based provisioning can help you set up devices and networks easily, and deliver your out-of-band configuration at the push of a button.

Let us show you how you can put your best network staff on the job, no matter where they’re located.

Download our free gorilla guide to better business continuity

Aging/Unsupported In-Band and Out-of-Band Infrastructure

by | Sep 1, 2020 | Case Studies, Out of Band Management

Background/Problem

A large distributed business enterprise with multiple data centers located around the globe, housing thousands of physical and virtual devices, routinely requires sysadmins to access the devices within these data centers. Sysadmins need to make any number of changes once given access to enterprise server farms: run scripts, reboot devices, provision users and servers, upgrade software, audit systems and so on.

This enterprise also has multiple admins at various data centers with overlapping responsibilities. These admins need a session sharing solution for collaboration — along with logging capability for auditing. Sounds simple, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. Each manufacturer of Servers, Switches, Routers, Storage, Power, and whatever, have their own unique command structure that pertains to their specific pieces of equipment, primarily because they want the user to standardize on, and only use, their equipment. With just a couple of server and power vendors and only one vendor of other device types, you could have eight or more management tools to use. Makes perfect sense right?

That’s not reality. There are many reason why enterprises have a mix of manufacturers’ equipment in their data centers. We’ll examine that at another time. For now let’s just focus on the fact that any given enterprise has a mix of Server, Switch and Router vendors, multiple Storage vendors, and uses VMware for their server virtualization environment. So what do they do about access and control?

This enterprise has a well-known and aging, In-Band and Out-of-Band solution deployed for access and control of their Serial Console Servers, KVM Switches, IPMI, DRAC, etc… with an outdated software component striving to pull all the pieces together. As for the Virtual world or the Cloud, every brand and enterprise has separate access and control solutions deployed specifically for virtual environments.

While these solutions work most of time, and will most likely continue to work for a while longer, they’re not likely the most efficient or cost effective way to go about access and control in today’s world. This is mainly because they really don’t work together to provide a single access and control solution across your enterprise. Other solutions on the market don’t provide a common user experience, don’t simplify complexity very well, and haven’t been upgraded to meet modern IT needs and requirements.

This is also true of other In-Band and Out-of Band solutions in existence today. They are growing old, have not really been upgraded (no new features or functions), are losing or will lose active support sooner rather than later, they don’t keep up with latest JAVA security requirements, and they still don’t provide access to other manufacturers’ devices, nor to your virtualized infrastructure in a single pane of glass solution. It would be far easier to use one tool instead of eight tools, to manage all of this enterprise’s IT devices.

The Solution – Nodegrid Manager Consolidated IT Device Management

The world’s first software defined infrastructure that provides secure, vendor-neutral access and control of physical and virtual environments.

Nodegrid Manager delivers a common user interface and a standardized command stack across all supported physical and virtual devices. One solution for IT infrastructure access and control.

Gone are the days when we need to know each manufacturer’s server and command structure to communicate with every device and virtual machine. NodeGrid Manager’s Normalization Engine handles all communication and translation of commands, allowing for seamless access to all supported physical and virtual environments and devices.

nodegrid-manager-screenshots-20151-1024×311

Key Benefits

Secure In-Band and Out-of-Band Network

  • Provides management of Virtual Appliances, VMs, Service Processors, Serial Consoles and KVM/IP
  • Day-Zero Provisioning

Vendor Independence

  • Service Processors: HP iLO, Dell DRAC, Cisco CIMC/UCS, IBM IMM, Oracle ILOM, IPMI (NetApp, EMC)
  • Serial Appliances: Opengear, Emerson/Avocent/Cyclades, Digi, Raritan, Lantronix
    KVM/IP: Avocent/Cyclades
  • Power: Emerson/Avocent, Raritan,
  • ServerTech, APC/Schneider
  • VMware VM: vSPC, MKS
  • Kernel-based Virtual Machine: virtual serial port

Easy Configuration and Installation

  • Policy based discovery and management minimizes configuration overhead

Compliance with Data Center Access and Security Policies

  • Customizable, multiple access levels and user group based roles

Automatic Event Tracking

  • Notification of fault conditions and alerts

Regulatory Compliance and Easy Troubleshooting

  • Online and off-line data logging with time stamps, auditing, local/remote record archiving.

Next Steps: Schedule a Demo and See What NodeGrid Can Do For You

We are perfectly positioned to meet anything manufacturers can throw at us. We pioneered IT infrastructure access and control back in the day and we’re pioneering IT infrastructure access and control for today and the future. Check us out. You’ll be glad you did.

Schedule a Nodegrid Demo Today

Supporting the Financial Industry with Enhanced Out-of-Band Management

by | Sep 1, 2020 | Case Studies, Out of Band Management

Background/Problem

A Fortune 250 multinational financial services institution needed a replacement for their Cisco Integrated Service Routers that were reaching End of Life (EOL). The customer wanted an Infrastructure Management solution that would replace the Cisco ISR’s while allowing them to continue their growth and innovation. They needed a solution focused on the next-generation of IT management, with a robust security stack and additional key features baked in. They needed security they could trust and verify against vulnerabilities and penetration tests. Customizable security policies with enterprise grade encryption options were also a part of their selection criteria.

As a result, the customer conducted a bake-off between ZPE’s Open Infrastructure Management solution and other purpose built Serial Consoles from legacy serial console vendors. ZPE provided the Nodegrid Serial Console (S Series) for evaluation, which was designed and built for managing hybrid environments like theirs that consist of both current and legacy devices. What was expected to be a long-term bake-off, turned out to be a quick and convincing win for ZPE’s Nodegrid Serial Console.

“The (Nodegrid Serial Console) solution was far superior to all the other units we tested” said their Global Networking Engineer. “It wasn’t even close.”

With a large administrative staff scattered around the world, the customer needed a highly secure remote access and control solution that delivers a 360-degree view of the global infrastructure, integrated with an existing management message bus, and enforced session self-termination from the user’s workstation all the way to the target device. They also required user defined roles, each with specific sets of permissions, access, and control rights over particular devices on the network.

NSCDiagram

Finally, the solution had to meet the strict regulatory requirements of the financial industry. The ability to provide detailed logging and auditing records for inspection and compliance was a must. – NSC allows the user to keep track of who accessed which devices, when, and what actions were executed by the particular user.

The Solution – Nodegrid Serial Console™

ZPE’s Nodegrid Open Infrastructure Management solution addressed all the customer’s needs and more. Nodegrid’s customizable user access and control settings gave the customer the flexibility it’s administrative staff needed. With enterprise grade security baked in, the customer was able to add an additional layer of security to their In-band and Out-of-Band Infrastructure. Nodegrid’s ability to provide detailed auditing and security logs helped the customer maintain compliancy.

Key Determining Factors

Software stack running on latest version Linux OS to clear vulnerabilities and penetration tests. Ability to keep it up to date based on latest HW/SW design
Strong 4096-bit encryption and cypher suite levels for secure communication and policies customization.
Patent pending full self-termination sessions and regulatory logging trail
Clustering for 360-view of the targets around the globe
Flexible integration with the management service bus in order to track changes, automate configuration via ZTP
Modern x86-64bit Linux OS allows the user to add custom extensions

Key Features

ZPE’s Nodegrid Solutions come with the following security features standard.

    • Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)
      • Some of the infrastructure needs to be deployed remotely – All that’s required to make sure deployment is successful is the MAC address of the new units.
    • Logging and Auditing for Inspection and Regulatory Compliance
      • Nodegrid logs all the standard data — who logged in and when — as well as data that our competitors don’t capture, such as the content of login console sessions – not just records of who and when, but the “what.”
    • Nodegrid’s security and logging features fulfill regulatory compliance needs of the financial industry.
      • Enterprise Grade Authentication and Authorization
      • Patent Pending Security
      • Disconnection Enforcement
        • Extensible Self-terminating Session Commands
        • TLS protocols, X.509 SSH certificates, Cypher Suite Levels
        • Firewall and Secure Tunnels
        • Alerts and ActionsEnterprise Grade Security
    • Fail-over to enterprise grade 4G/LTE modem, VPN, Firewall & IPsec
      • Your choice of carrier, model, features and plans. ZPE doesn’t lock you into one or two predetermined carriers. Choose any carrier regionally and globally based on availability, reception and cost. Ideal for network failover and redundancy at globally distributed remote offices and clinics.
T48S

Next Step: Schedule a Demo and See What NodeGrid Can Do For You

We are perfectly positioned to meet anything manufacturers can throw at us. We pioneered IT infrastructure access and control back in the day and we’re pioneering IT infrastructure access and control for today and the future. Check us out. You’ll be glad you did.

Schedule a Nodegrid Demo Today

Enhanced Out-of-Band Management with Nodegrid

by | Sep 1, 2020 | Case Studies, Out of Band Management

Background/Problem

A Fortune 250 multinational financial services institution needed a replacement for their Cisco Integrated Service Routers that were reaching End of Life (EOL). The customer wanted an Infrastructure Management solution that would replace the Cisco ISR’s while allowing them to continue their growth and innovation. They needed a solution focused on the next-generation of IT management, with a robust security stack and additional key features baked in. They needed security they could trust and verify against vulnerabilities and penetration tests. Customizable security policies with enterprise grade encryption options were also a part of their selection criteria.

As a result, the customer conducted a bake-off between ZPE’s Open Infrastructure Management solution and other purpose built Serial Consoles from legacy serial console vendors. ZPE provided the Nodegrid Serial Console (S Series) for evaluation, which was designed and built for managing hybrid environments like theirs that consist of both current and legacy devices. What was expected to be a long-term bake-off, turned out to be a quick and convincing win for ZPE’s Nodegrid Serial Console.

With a large administrative staff scattered around the world, the customer needed a highly secure remote access and control solution that delivers a 360-degree view of the global infrastructure, integrated with an existing management message bus, and enforced session self-termination from the user’s workstation all the way to the target device. They also required user defined roles, each with specific sets of permissions, access, and control rights over particular devices on the network.

Finally, the solution had to meet the strict regulatory requirements of the financial industry. The ability to provide detailed logging and auditing records for inspection and compliance was a must. – NSC allows the user to keep track of who accessed which devices, when, and what actions were executed by the particular user.

The Solution – Nodegrid Serial Console™

ZPE’s Nodegrid Open Infrastructure Management solution addressed all the customer’s needs and more. Nodegrid’s customizable user access and control settings gave the customer the flexibility it’s administrative staff needed. With enterprise grade security baked in, the customer was able to add an additional layer of security to their In-band and Out-of-Band Infrastructure. Nodegrid’s ability to provide detailed auditing and security logs helped the customer maintain compliancy.

Key Determining Factors

Software stack running on latest version Linux OS to clear vulnerabilities and penetration tests. Ability to keep it up to date based on latest HW/SW design
Strong 4096-bit encryption and cypher suite levels for secure communication and policies customization.
Patent pending full self-termination sessions and regulatory logging trail
Clustering for 360-view of the targets around the globe
Flexible integration with the management service bus in order to track changes, automate configuration via ZTP
Modern x86-64bit Linux OS allows the user to add custom extensions

Key Features

ZPE’s Nodegrid Solutions come with the following security features standard.

    • Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)
      • Some of the infrastructure needs to be deployed remotely – All that’s required to make sure deployment is successful is the MAC address of the new units.
    • Logging and Auditing for Inspection and Regulatory Compliance
      • Nodegrid logs all the standard data — who logged in and when — as well as data that our competitors don’t capture, such as the content of login console sessions – not just records of who and when, but the “what.”
    • Nodegrid’s security and logging features fulfill regulatory compliance needs of the financial industry.
      • Enterprise Grade Authentication and Authorization
      • Patent Pending Security
      • Disconnection Enforcement
        • Extensible Self-terminating Session Commands
        • TLS protocols, X.509 SSH certificates, Cypher Suite Levels
        • Firewall and Secure Tunnels
        • Alerts and ActionsEnterprise Grade Security
    • Fail-over to enterprise grade 4G/LTE modem, VPN, Firewall & IPsec
      • Your choice of carrier, model, features and plans. ZPE doesn’t lock you into one or two predetermined carriers. Choose any carrier regionally and globally based on availability, reception and cost. Ideal for network failover and redundancy at globally distributed remote offices and clinics.
NSCDiagram
  • Modern 64-bit Linux OS
  • World’s fastest serial console server: Dual-core x86-64bit Intel CPU with 4GB RAM and 32GB SSD memory (upgrades available)
  • World’s highest concurrent session in a serial console: 1,000+ sessions, 20 users per port at 115,200bps
  • World’s first all in one vendor-neutral PDU, support for IPMI and IoT management ports.
  • World’s first high-density 96 port 1U serial console server, also available in 16/32/48 port editions
    HTML5 remote console access – no
  • Java issues unlike outdated competitors
  • World’s first serial console server optimized for Docker and Open Compute Hardware Management
  • World’s first serial console server with bare metal booting and firmware recovery
  • Zero Touch Provisioning and failover to any cellular service provider of your choice (no vendor lock-in)
  • New, easy-to-use software development kit for software innovation

Nodegrid Serial Console is the Next Generation of Serial Console

Nodegrid Serial Console is robust, extensible and programmable. Nodegrid Serial Console (NSC) helps data center managers improve productivity and reduce MTTR costs with the latest technologies. The world’s fastest serial console server also sports industry-exclusive system configuration security checksum™, bare metal booting and recovery capabilities, and Docker readiness. No competing product comes close.

IT staff can manage more devices with fewer cables, IP addresses and configuration time using our industry-exclusive 1U 96 port serial console server. The Nodegrid Serial Console server consolidates and manages attached devices via a Serial Port Connection including: servers, network routers and switches, storage, PDUs, UPSs, and any other device with a serial port.

Nodegrid Serial Console also creates a secure network separation to protect IPMI and IoT management ports and maps IPMI and IoT devices to authorized users. Nodegrid has the ability to handle native Java based KVM viewers, translating them to HTML5 sessions and addressing security and compatibility issues. Provide DHCP IP addresses on the secure management network to your IPMI and IoT devices out of Nodegrid Serial Console and save configuration time.

Next Step: Schedule a Demo and See What Nodegrid Can Do For You

We are perfectly positioned to meet anything manufacturers can throw at us. We pioneered IT infrastructure access and control back in the day and we’re pioneering IT infrastructure access and control for today and the future. Check us out. You’ll be glad you did.

Schedule a Nodegrid Demo Today