The Benefits of Using ProfiSight Network Traffic Analyzer

With a network traffic analyzer

Before getting into how this type of traffic analyzer can make a difference to your network forensics and troubleshooting techniques, let’s talk first about the most common methods used these days: packet analysis and flow analysis.

Packet analysis technology is widely used to dig down into what is happening over a network by focusing on the individual packets that cross your traffic rather than on the flow of the network.

Even though this method generally provides the most insights into your network traffic, as complete packets can be captured and further analyzed, it also gives you huge amounts of data. This makes it almost impossible for you to take real-time decisions and immediately expose the worst-performing parts of the network. You need time to shift through a lot of data for evidence of an issue or an intrusion, just like finding a needle in a haystack.

Also, in high-speed networks, packet analysis requires expensive hardware and substantial infrastructure for storage and analysis.

And that’s where a flow analysis tool can come in handy

Instead of giving you loads and loads of data that will also come with added cost, a flow-based tool focuses on the flow of the network, the “who,” “what,” and “when” of network transactions.

Flow analysis tools are based on a technology that provides insights about who is communicating with whom, with which devices or end-points, and which protocol. It gives you a lot of visibility of your network’s traffic without the added weight of a packet analysis tool.

It makes it easier to dig into certain conversations, giving you a fast and efficient way to understand what type of traffic is traversing the network. Also, since this data is so light, you can store it for as long as you want, and network forensics and security monitoring tools can make use of it to monitor and alert for traffic abnormalities.