Getting the right network visibility architecture might be a daunting experience for the consumer because of the wide range of features, performance parameters, costs, etc which are part of the decision-making process.
Check out these 5 factors which can be easily overlooked but are key when buying the network visibility tool.
Hidden costs
After you buy the network visibility tools, some vendors might send you big bills for the software license. Be careful about a complex licensing model that will require you to pay premium prices for additional ports. Other hidden costs could include high support and maintenance costs
Open to any kind of optical modules from different vendors
Although the SFP transceiver is specified by a multi-source agreement (MSA) between competing manufacturers, some networking equipment manufacturers engage in vendor lock-in practices and hence deliberately break compatibility with generic SFPs by adding a check in the device’s firmware that will only enable the vendor’s own modules. SFP can be more expensive than the unititself and if the SFP is blocked then the user does not have the possibility to buy an SFP from a different source.
Closed or Open system
When buying a network visibility tool, do check if it has closed or open system. Prior knowledge of this might be useful if you wish to add your own software or use your existing software management. Some vendors do not inform the customer if the customer can add his own software or additional features.
Dependency between features and performance
Not all features run with full performance and not all features can run at the same time with a certain amount of performance. Customers usually do not get enough information about this from the vendors.
Complete access to the meta data without additional charges
There are sophisticated network visibility tools which can extract meta data for the user. However, some vendors might charge you for complete access to your data.