Tracking Capacity Under COVID-19

Indeni users are reporting an unprecedented load on firewalls and load balancers from increased internet usage during the global COVID-19 response. Networks designed and optimized primarily for internal and North-South traffic are experiencing heavy loads due to remote VPN access and traffic tromboning as employees work from home and replace in-person meetings with teleconferencing. In response to customer requests, we have fast-tracked an out-of-cycle release for a new feature to help our users anticipate and avoid performance issues associated with responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

There are many companies that have stepped up to reduce the IT burden, and Indeni is pleased to contribute to this effort. For the foreseeable future, we are extending the demo license for our visibility automation solution to 90 days and raising the device limit to assure sufficient coverage of affected security infrastructure. Our VM-based solution can be installed and provide missing visibility in less than 30 minutes, without requiring any assistance (or interference) from us to set up.

The last few months have strained our infrastructure, both physical and virtual, as COVID-19 has made ripples throughout the world, and we recognize that the impact will continue. Some organizations, especially those providing health services, are even more sensitive than normal to any possible glitch. 

For example, Indeni customers in the health care space are offering video visits to minimize patient exposure and prevent the spread of the illnesses, but the extra network traffic can potentially stress their firewalls and load balancers, especially if they attempt to analyze video the same way they would normal web browsing. To ensure maximum reliability, Indeni continuously assesses device health by comparing expectations of device capacity against current load. The ability to proactively alert administrators of capacity limits is key to keeping these devices up and running during times of crisis.   

Indeni’s new capability is the ability to track utilization against automatically-learned security device limits. Indeni is capable of collecting high-resolution data on the exact utilization of connections, VPN tunnels, TLS inspection, and more, and comparing it to the inherent or dynamic limits set within the firewalls, load balancers, and content inspection appliances. This will help network and security engineers identify newly emerging performance issues before anyone is impacted.

This new feature expands on Indeni’s existing feature to track VPN user count versus license limits, which was added in response to urgent customer needs during the polar vortex in January 2019. Indeni is proud to maintain our history of supporting IT during times of humanitarian crisis.

Existing customers can upgrade to version 7.1.5 which includes this capability. Those who are not currently using Indeni, but would benefit from this capability, can download Indeni from our website or reach out directly to us at [email protected]. We promise to find a way to give access to this capability even to those organizations that cannot currently purchase our software. Whatever we can do to help.

With all the trouble this virus is causing, it seems we are witnessing a rare case where communities and nations who are normally at odds are cooperating together for humanity’s sake. We’re happy to be able to make this small contribution to humanity’s stand against COVID-19.