U S E C A S E B R I E F

Performance Visibility for Data Center AppsCloudGenix provides visibility into performance of apps hosted in the data center

Summary

Performance problems are some of the most challenging for I/T to re-

solve. Today’s data center applications are complex, multi-tiered, and

require a substantial amount of interaction between the client (typically

a web browser) and multiple back-end application servers. In order to re-

solve performance issues, the source of the problems must first be identi-

fied, which generally drives I/T to purchase several separate performance

management systems, and spend countless hours making difficult config-

uration changes on endpoints and network devices to collect data. Even

with dedicated, expensive infrastructure for managing application perfor-

mance, most I/T organizations find that they simply cannot identify the

root cause of performance issue with a reasonable degree of confidence.

When users experience slow response times with applications, their pro-

ductivity is hindered and the business suffers. It becomes cumbersome

for application, server, network, and desktop teams to identify where

the issue may reside within their domain, and generally, finger-pointing

ensues. In addition to hurting employee productivity, morale can be

negatively affected for all parties involved, and hours are wasted without

having the requisite data for coming to an educated conclusion on how to

resolve the issue.

CLOUDGENIX SOFTWARE-DEFINED

WAN (SD-WAN) IS THE INDUSTRY’S

MOST COMPLETE SOLUTION FOR

APPLICATIONS TO YOUR REMOTE

SITES OVER ANY WAN TRANSPORT

REGARDLESS OF WHERE THEY ARE

DEPLOYED: IN THE DATA CENTER,

CLOUD, OR SOFTWARE-AS-A-

SERVICE (SAAS)

Solution Requirements

In order to adequately solve the challenges listed above, any solution needs

to meet criteria in five key areas.

Introducing CloudGenix Clarity

CloudGenix Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) is the industry’s most com-

plete solution for customers that want to build hybrid networks consisting

of MPLS private WANs and commodity Internet connections for cloud ap-

plication adoption, remote office high availability, application performance,

and end-to-end visibility. Powered by CloudGenix Instant-On Networks

(ION) devices deployed in locations where visibility and control are desired,

CloudGenix SD-WAN allows you to create policies based on business intent

rather than a series of fragmented networking features, enables dynamic

path selection using the highest performing network, and provides visibility

into performance and availability for applications and networks.

CloudGenix Clarity is a foundational

component of the CloudGenix

SD-WAN solution that provides

endto- end visibility and analytics

for your applications and networks,

and operates independently of the

full suite of CloudGenix SD-WAN

capabilities. When the full suite of

SD-WAN capabilities are added,

CloudGenix begins using the ac-

tionable data gleaned from Clar-

ity to self-heal your network in an

automated manner.

CloudGenix ION

WAN Router

LAN Switch

Users & Computers

Clarity SD-WAN

MPLSInternet

CloudGenix ION

LAN Switch

Users & Computers

MPLSInternet

FIGURE 1: CLOUDGENIX CLARITY PROVIDES SIMPLE, SEAMLESS TRANSITION TO FULL SD-WAN

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COMPLETE VISIBILITY

the solution must see all applications, over all networks, using any WAN link, and provide visibility into performance, health, and quality

ACTIONABLE DATA

analytics and information presented by the solu-tion must be useful and actionable while provid-ing guidance based on machine learning

NATIVE SOLUTION

the solution must be native to eliminate complexity and require no additional hardware or software, connectors to third-party systems, agents, or new protocols or interfaces

CLOUD DELIVERED

the solution must be fully cloud-delivered to eliminate the otherwise substantial server and storage cost while also providing simple data ac-cess through export func-tions and a RESTful API

SELF-HEALING NETWORK

actionable data gleaned from application, site, and WAN link visibility must also able to be used to drive policy enforcement decisions to automatically heal the network accord-ing to policy

Identify the Source of Poor App Performance

CloudGenix dissects every flow on your network to determine performance

characteristics of the client, network, server, and application. From CloudGenix

Clarity, I/T can identify the source of poor app performance within a few clicks,

starting with a network-wide view of what applications are on the network,

how your WAN links are performing,

and drilling into the specifics of each

individual flow. The source of poor ap-

plication performance can be identi-

fied quickly — whether it’s congestion,

excessive packet loss, an overloaded

server, misbehaving application, or a

denial of service attack. Identifying

the source of these problems quickly

gets users back to being productive

and reduces I/T burden.

Solve Poor App Performance Problems

In addition to identifying the source of app performance issues, CloudGenix

can help you better ensure consistent application performance. CloudGenix al-

lows you to align application flows with network paths (including private WAN,

broadband, and cellular) between locations, to the Internet, or the cloud, to

ensure adequate resources are available where they are needed to meet your

performance expectations. Using a consistent application-centric policy that

includes performance, compliance, and security, your WAN can be managed

as a unified application fabric consisting of heterogeneous WAN links, rather

than managing a disjointed series of networking features that rarely work to-

gether. This allows I/T to use the right link at the right time while ensuring opti-

mum performance and availability.

CloudGenix Clarity inspects several

key performance indicators for every

flow on the network to determine

if application response time is af-

fected by the network round-trip

time, network transfer time, or server

response time — the three key pillars

of application performance. Network

round-trip time indicates how long

it takes a message to travel across

the network; network transfer time

indicates how much time is spent

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FIGURE 2: CLOUDGENIX CLARITY PROVIDES INSTANT VISIBILITY INTO KEY WAN AND APPLICATION METRICS, HELPING QUICKLY IDENTIFY ROOT CAUSE AND RESOLVE ISSUES

FIGURE 3: CLOUDGENIX CLARITY IS APPLICATION-AWARE AND EXPOSES COMPONENTS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO OVERALL USER EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR APPLICATIONS

© 2018 Cloudgenix inc. All rights reserved.

ABOUT CLOUDGENIXCloudGenix provides a software-defined WAN solution with AppFabric technology that enables you to build a global WAN based

on business policies for application performance, compliance, and security, across all sites and users. Unlike router-based solutions,

CloudGenix AppFabric allows you to define top-down global policies based on business intent rather than fragmented bottoms-up

configuration changes based on technical implementation. With CloudGenix, you can easily integrate heterogeneous WAN connections

for any site, take advantage of cloud and SaaS applications, improve visibility for app performance and SLAs, and dramatically simplify

network operations.

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sending data between nodes on the network for the given application, and

server response time indicates how long it took the server to respond to the

application message. Having visibility into these three points helps accurately

identify whether or not the problem is caused by poor network design, routing

issues, incorrect path selection, or an overloaded or misbehaving server.

CloudGenix Customer Example

A global engineering firm has deployed CloudGenix to simplify WAN opera-

tions, take advantage of multiple heterogeneous paths (MPLS, broadband) to

the remote offices, and offload Internet traffic from the private WAN. Along

with being able to reduce remote office hardware and set up an instant private

WAN over the Internet to any office, this customer noticed that one of their

data center web applications was not performing at a level that allowed their

employees to be productive. The customer examined the CloudGenix Clarity

dashboard and identified two problems. First, the private WAN connection to

the data center was becoming congested at several points throughout the day,

and second, the server response time for the server in question was extremely

high. Prior to having this visibility, the app, server, and network teams continu-

ally pointed fingers at one another as being the source of the problem.

With CloudGenix Clarity, the customer knew immediately that the primary

contributor to the poor performance was the server taking too long to re-

spond, and, that large file transfers were congesting the WAN at various times

throughout the day. Closer examination of the server in question revealed a

stuck process causing the CPU utilization to be stuck at 100%, which created a

significant delay in processing application messages. With CloudGenix Clar-

ity, both of these issues were identified in minutes, allowing them to resolve an

ongoing performance problem that had plagued them for months.

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2665 North First St., #110 San Jose, CA 95134 | 1.844.800.CGNX | info@cloudgenix.com