UPDATED 14:12 EST / DECEMBER 11 2018

CLOUD

In the data center without walls, NetScout manages rapid innovation and business expectations

Companies like NetScout Systems Inc. can put the current state of the tech industry in some perspective. Founded more than 30 years ago, the firm has witnessed the engines of technology ramp up in speed and complexity, yet there is still one requirement that hasn’t changed.

“We’ve seen so much technical transformation; it’s so rapid right now,” said Arabella Hallawell (pictured), senior director of product marketing at NetScout Systems Inc. “Still, when it comes to our customers, information technology teams, they still have the very same technology problem that they saw 20 to 30 years ago, which is ‘it had better work.’”

Hallawell spoke with John Walls (@JohnWalls21), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Justin Warren (@jpwarren), during AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. They discussed the challenges presented by hybrid computing models and how NetScout seeks to meet the demanding needs of its IT customers. (* Disclosure below.)

Visibility for hybrid infrastructure

The problem for NetScout and other firms in the application and network performance management space is that a business and its partners have to be able to see the moving parts in the IT infrastructure to know whether the technology is working or not. As the enterprise increasingly embraces a model where data resides in multiple locations — on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge — that is the challenge executives such as Hallawell are seeking to meet.

“Right now that problem has become so much harder to diagnose, and that’s really what we’re trying to help our customers do,” Hallawell explained. “How do they get that end-to-end visibility around what’s happening in this data center without walls?”

Expectations within organizations have changed as well. Where the data resides or what the technology roadblocks may be no longer matters to IT customers inside the enterprise. They simply want access to information or business tools when they need it, wherever it may be.

“The problem with that is the IT organization often has to manage a very difficult environment,” Hallawell said. “You’ve got a panoply of all these different capabilities, and how do you manage that when someone says they can’t have any latency over a 5G network?”

To help navigate the transition taking place within a complex IT infrastructure, NetScout recently enhanced its suite of visibility, analytics and security solutions to improve network-wide clarity.

“Making sure that you can manage that transition and journey with confidence is what we really focus on with our customers,” Hallawell said. “We’re trying to work with every single part of this new fabric so our customers can still have that same confidence.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: NetScout Systems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither NetScout nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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