Paul Barrett With Insights on NETSCOUT’s Diverse Data Model
About Paul Barrett
In 2020, Paul Barrett, Chief Technology Officer of Enterprise at Netscout, discussed the company's data model and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on enterprise VPN usage. He described Netscout's data model as having multiple levels, including the storage of raw packets and rich data related to individual transactions, and noted that for most network protocols the company can map data to a common model, allowing insight into different applications and protocols in a single pane of glass. Barrett stated that Netscout services the largest and most complex organizations in the US and globally, and that for many of these organizations, VPN services were originally designed for a small subset of the workforce. Barrett explained that the shift to widespread remote work created challenges, as many organizations' VPN configurations were not architected for the sudden increase in demand. He distinguished between full VPN connections, where all internet traffic goes through the enterprise network, and split VPN connections, where only business service traffic goes through the VPN. Barrett said that a lot of energy had been put into providing visibility around VPN services, which had previously not been seen as a critical component. He also noted that customers were thinking about future needs, such as split VPN migration and over-provisioning, and that organizations that had already transitioned to virtualized infrastructure were in a stronger position to adapt.