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Cato SD-WAN service targets last-mile management

In networking news, Cato Networks unveils an SD-WAN tool to detect network outages; SolarWinds spotlights DevOps features; and Kaloom gets $10 million.

Luke O'Neill
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Published: 21 Nov 2018

Cato Networks, a provider of software-defined WAN, introduced this week last-mile management for its Cato Cloud SD-WAN. Cato's Intelligent Last-Mile Management service uses continuous link profiling to detect network performance fluctuations. The Cato SD-WAN service aims to resolve brownouts or blackouts in access lines.

The last-mile technology from Cato monitors the reachability and performance of the network, upstream and downstream from the internet service provider (ISP). Establishing normal network behavior helps detect brownouts and blackouts and isolate root cause down to the specific service or last-mile location.

The Cato SD-WAN service profiles each last-mile connection by measuring packet loss, latency and jitter metrics for every monitored service across every managed link. This last-mile profile establishes a model for defining and detecting brownouts. Cato can change this profile over time to capture seasonal changes and other fluctuations in its calculations.

The last-mile management service measures link connectivity and service-specific uptime using Ping, domain name system, HTTP and traceroute. Cato monitors the customer connection from the location, through the ISP's premises, to Cato points of presence and key cloud applications and resources. Cato SD-WAN can isolate problems down to the Cato network, the ISP or the ISP's peers.

Essentially, the new service melds the self-service management of the cloud with last-mile management. Enterprises retain control over their moves, adds and changes, offloading last-mile operations onto Cato and its partners. General availability of the new Cato SD-WAN service is set for the first quarter of 2019.  

SolarWinds highlights new DevOps features

Network management vendor SolarWinds has added new features to its software-as-a-service DevOps portfolio. The updates help monitor metrics, traces and logs within cloud environments. The tools can be used individually to provide visibility into cloud-based infrastructure and application performance or used together as a DevOps toolkit. SolarWinds will highlight its latest DevOps tools next week at AWS re:Invent 2018 in Las Vegas. 

Specifically, SolarWinds has added container views and exception tracking to AppOptics, an infrastructure and application monitoring service. With container views, DevOps teams can see container-specific attributes, as well as container key performance indicators. With exception tracking, DevOps teams can surface error events that are currently reported by the instrumentation and get a list of error messages for the given time period for the current service and the volume of each error message.

Additionally, SolarWinds added support for JavaScript Object Notation in its log management tool, Papertrail, which can now ingest, index, search, filter and render structured JSON log messages in its interface. This allows DevOps teams to troubleshoot application errors, diagnose operational issues, detect anomalies and trace problems by monitoring Java application logs.

Lastly, SolarWinds has added a common login feature in which users can log in with their IDs and passwords and access the entire DevOps portfolio.

Kaloom raises $10 million, eyes expansion

Kaloom, a provider of automated data center networking software, has raised $10 million in Series A1 funding. The latest round of financing was led by capital investment fund Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Somel Investments, with participation from MBUZZ Investments. Kaloom's total investments have reached $20.7 million.

Based in Montreal, Kaloom also has an office in San Jose, Calif. The company aims to provide automated and programmable data center networking fabric, as it looks to change how data centers are built and managed by cloud providers, telcos and enterprises.

The new funding, subject to closing conditions, is expected to support Kaloom's automated Software Defined Fabric (SDF), an industrialized software product for open networking white boxes, including Accton, Delta and others. Kaloom's SDF is designed for hyperscale and distributed data center environments that need low latency and programmable services. The company will also use the funds to expand its employee base from 70 to 100 by the end of the year.

According to Kaloom, customers are looking "to do something 'bottom up' with the networking fabric, where the switches self-discover and self-provision themselves automatically in a network that ultimately supports programmability."

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