Ixia (Keysight) Case Studies Virtual Insights with CloudLens: European ISP Extends Visibility into Virtualized Infrastructure

	Virtual Insights with CloudLens: European ISP Extends Visibility into Virtualized Infrastructure Ixia (Keysight)

Virtual Insights with CloudLens: European ISP Extends Visibility into Virtualized Infrastructure

Ixia (Keysight)

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Virtual Private Cloud Wearables - Virtual Reality Glasses, Headsets & Controllers
Applicable Industries	Glass National Security & Defense
Use Cases	Traffic Monitoring Transportation Simulation
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Challenge	Proximus, the largest internet service provider (ISP) in Belgium, embarked on a network function virtualization (NFV) initiative in 2018. The project involved deploying various telecommunication applications using a cloud infrastructure, including virtual IP multimedia subsystems (vIMS), and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). However, migrating complex physical ISP networks to a new network with virtualized functions was a long-term project, taking several years. During this transition, Proximus faced the challenge of maintaining the same visibility and analytics across both physical and virtual functions. The company had deployed several traffic analytics probes that relied on physical taps, tap aggregation switches, and Keysight Vision network packet brokers in the legacy environment. However, in the new virtual environment, network functions ran as virtual machines (VMs) on the same physical server, and the east-west traffic did not cross any of the physical links where the physical taps would have been located. Proximus needed to maintain the same level of visibility in the virtual environment as in the physical one, while also containing the total cost of ownership. Read More
About Customer	Proximus is the largest internet service provider (ISP) in Belgium. In 2018, the company launched its network function virtualization (NFV) initiative, deploying various telecommunication applications using a cloud infrastructure. This included virtual IP multimedia subsystems (vIMS) and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). The migration from complex physical ISP networks to a new network with virtualized functions was a long-term project, taking several years. During this transition, Proximus faced the challenge of maintaining the same visibility and analytics across both physical and virtual functions. The company was also driven by the need to contain the total cost of ownership while preserving their investments in existing monitoring and security tools. Read More
Customer Name	Proximus Read More
Solution	Proximus addressed these challenges by deploying Keysight CloudLens, a visibility solution for virtualized environments. One of the key components of this solution, CloudLens vTap, offers virtual tapping and filtering capabilities. This enabled Proximus to capture traffic from the virtualized environment that previously fell into a blind spot and forward it to the right destination. Proximus did not need to change their current processes for support, monitoring, and security. The end-to-end reporting remained the same using a single platform, regardless of the origin of the traffic, be it physical or virtual. Proximus deployed Open vSwitch software and CloudLens vTap to mirror the network traffic at the virtual workload or virtual switch level. The virtual taps were deployed to the monitored hosts and managed from the CloudLens management server (CLMS), which administers the virtual taps and packet capture policies. The VisionONE network packet broker sanitized the mirrored network traffic between the virtualized functions via a generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel to third-party monitoring and security tools. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Virtual Private Cloud

Wearables - Virtual Reality Glasses, Headsets & Controllers

Applicable Industries

Glass

National Security & Defense

Use Cases

Traffic Monitoring

Transportation Simulation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Challenge

Proximus, the largest internet service provider (ISP) in Belgium, embarked on a network function virtualization (NFV) initiative in 2018. The project involved deploying various telecommunication applications using a cloud infrastructure, including virtual IP multimedia subsystems (vIMS), and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). However, migrating complex physical ISP networks to a new network with virtualized functions was a long-term project, taking several years. During this transition, Proximus faced the challenge of maintaining the same visibility and analytics across both physical and virtual functions. The company had deployed several traffic analytics probes that relied on physical taps, tap aggregation switches, and Keysight Vision network packet brokers in the legacy environment. However, in the new virtual environment, network functions ran as virtual machines (VMs) on the same physical server, and the east-west traffic did not cross any of the physical links where the physical taps would have been located. Proximus needed to maintain the same level of visibility in the virtual environment as in the physical one, while also containing the total cost of ownership.

About Customer

Proximus is the largest internet service provider (ISP) in Belgium. In 2018, the company launched its network function virtualization (NFV) initiative, deploying various telecommunication applications using a cloud infrastructure. This included virtual IP multimedia subsystems (vIMS) and software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN). The migration from complex physical ISP networks to a new network with virtualized functions was a long-term project, taking several years. During this transition, Proximus faced the challenge of maintaining the same visibility and analytics across both physical and virtual functions. The company was also driven by the need to contain the total cost of ownership while preserving their investments in existing monitoring and security tools.

Customer Name

Proximus

Solution

Proximus addressed these challenges by deploying Keysight CloudLens, a visibility solution for virtualized environments. One of the key components of this solution, CloudLens vTap, offers virtual tapping and filtering capabilities. This enabled Proximus to capture traffic from the virtualized environment that previously fell into a blind spot and forward it to the right destination. Proximus did not need to change their current processes for support, monitoring, and security. The end-to-end reporting remained the same using a single platform, regardless of the origin of the traffic, be it physical or virtual. Proximus deployed Open vSwitch software and CloudLens vTap to mirror the network traffic at the virtual workload or virtual switch level. The virtual taps were deployed to the monitored hosts and managed from the CloudLens management server (CLMS), which administers the virtual taps and packet capture policies. The VisionONE network packet broker sanitized the mirrored network traffic between the virtualized functions via a generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel to third-party monitoring and security tools.

Impact #1	The deployment of Keysight CloudLens allowed Proximus to continue delivering support, security, and monitoring during the migration from physical to virtual environments. The solution eliminated blind spots that could hide security vulnerabilities, attacks, or other network-related issues. It also enabled Proximus to regain network visibility into their software-defined data center (SDDC), including challenging virtualized east-west traffic spanning one or even multiple clouds. With visibility into packet-level data, Proximus gained valuable insight, enabling them to improve the speed of detection and incident remediation. The continuous validation of security infrastructure helped them ensure their solutions were configured properly and working effectively.

Impact #1

The deployment of Keysight CloudLens allowed Proximus to continue delivering support, security, and monitoring during the migration from physical to virtual environments. The solution eliminated blind spots that could hide security vulnerabilities, attacks, or other network-related issues. It also enabled Proximus to regain network visibility into their software-defined data center (SDDC), including challenging virtualized east-west traffic spanning one or even multiple clouds. With visibility into packet-level data, Proximus gained valuable insight, enabling them to improve the speed of detection and incident remediation. The continuous validation of security infrastructure helped them ensure their solutions were configured properly and working effectively.

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Overview

Virtual Insights with CloudLens: European ISP Extends Visibility into Virtualized Infrastructure

Operational Impact