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Unlocking the Power of Network Telemetry for the US Public Sector – Blog 3
Co-authors: Lou Norman and Erich Stokes
Applications and the Benefits of Network Telemetry
Welcome to Part 3 of this blog series “Defining Network Telemetry.” In this section, we will discuss the true value of network telemetry and explore its wide-raging applications. By leveraging telemetry data, organizations can achieve significant improvements in network management and security.
To recap, in Part 1, we discussed how network telemetry is a transformative tool for the US Public Sector, providing comprehensive insights into network performance, security, and usage patterns.
In Part 2, we discussed how network telemetry plays a crucial role in enhancing security response times by providing detailed insights into network activities.
As we dive deeper in Blog 3, continue to think of telemetry data like a Golden Nugget for a network administrator. Just as a prospector sifts through dirt to find precious metals, analyzing telemetry data to extract valuable information can enhance network security and performance. Imagine the immense value when a network administrator uncovers hidden insights within a network and discovers gold.
Harnessing the Power of Telemetry
The true value of network telemetry lies in its applications. By leveraging telemetry data, organizations can achieve:
- Enhanced Network Visibility: Telemetry provides real-time insights into network performance, allowing organizations to monitor traffic patterns, detect anomalies, and optimize network resources. This visibility is crucial for identifying potential issues before they escalate into major problems.
- Improved Security Posture: Telemetry data enables proactive threat detection by continuously monitoring network activities and identifying deviations from normal behavior. This capability helps in reducing response times to security incidents and enhances the overall security operations by providing detailed insights into network activities.
- Efficient Network Management: With telemetry, organizations can automate network management tasks, such as traffic engineering and capacity planning, by using detailed data on network usage and performance. This automation reduces manual intervention and improves the efficiency of network operations.
Telemetry and the Cisco Security Portfolio
Tools like Secure Network Analytics (SNA), Telemetry Broker, XDR, Secure Workload, ThousandEyes, Catalyst Center, Meraki Dashboard, Identity Services Engine (ISE), Hypershield, and Splunk consume telemetry data to detect anomalies, identify threats, and provide actionable insights for security teams.
Cisco Security Portfolio – Telemetry Usage
| Application Data | |
| Cisco Secure Workload | Cisco Secure Workload leverages telemetry data to provide comprehensive visibility into application workload flows and interactions. By collecting metadata rather than full packets, the platform ensures low bandwidth usage while offering detailed insights into communication patterns and dependencies across on-premises and cloud environments. This telemetry data is crucial for identifying policy violations and potential threats, enabling organizations to maintain compliance and reduce the attack surface in complex, hybrid multi-cloud environments.
Secure Workload’s ability to process telemetry data quickly allows for real-time monitoring and alerts against unauthorized behavior. Secure Workload integrations ensure consistent policy enforcement from the data center to the cloud, enhancing the platform’s ability to provide a holistic view of the network. This integration supports agile application development and deployment while maintaining a strong security posture. |
| Cisco Hypershield | Cisco Hypershield leverages advanced telemetry data to enhance security by integrating AI-native architecture directly into network and workloads. This integration is facilitated through Tesseract Security Agents and network-based enforcers, which provide deep visibility and enforcement capabilities. These components monitor network connections, file and system calls, and kernel functions, generating event-based telemetry that is processed in real-time. This telemetry data is used to construct behavioral graphs, which are dynamic models of network behavior that enable application fingerprinting and inform threat detections. By processing telemetry directly at the edge, Hypershield minimizes data load and enhances real-time decision-making, reducing threat detection and response times.
Hypershield’s dual data plane technology allows for the testing and validation of new software upgrades or policy changes using live traffic without impacting the production environment. This approach ensures that updates can be deployed more frequently and with greater confidence, maintaining robust defenses against emerging threats. The system’s AI-powered management automates security policy lifecycles and infrastructure upgrades, allowing security teams to work more efficiently by automating complex analysis and decision-making processes while maintaining human oversight. This comprehensive use of network telemetry ensures that Hypershield provides continuous protection and high efficacy in threat detection and response. |
| Network Cloud | |
| Cisco Secure Network Analytics (SNA) | Cisco SNA leverages the power of network telemetry by using it as a rich data source to provide comprehensive visibility across the entire network, including private and public clouds. By analyzing network activities, it creates a baseline of normal behavior and employs advanced analytics, including behavioral modeling and machine learning, to detect anomalies and threats in real-time.
This agentless solution utilizes existing network infrastructure to monitor traffic, even if encrypted, enabling organizations to detect threats such as Command-and-Control attacks, ransomware, and insider threats with high confidence. This approach transforms the network into a proactive security sensor, enhancing threat detection and response capabilities without the need for additional probes or sensors. |
| Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) | Cisco ISE harnesses the power of network telemetry by integrating intelligence from across the security stack to become the policy decision point in a zero-trust architecture. This integration allows Cisco ISE to automatically discover, profile, authenticate, and authorize trusted endpoints and users connecting to the network infrastructure. By leveraging telemetry data, Cisco ISE can dynamically develop and maintain risk-based policies that ensure only trusted users and devices gain access to network resources. This approach moves protection beyond initial authentication, maintaining trust throughout the entire session.
Secure Network Analytics (SNA) integrates with Cisco ISE and enhances network visibility and control. This integration allows administrators to continuously monitor, analyze, and categorize host and user information from the network. SNA can detect anomalous behaviors and issue alerts, enabling rapid threat containment through Cisco ISE. This capability provides a comprehensive view of network activity, helping to identify a wide range of threats, including malware and insider threats, thereby enhancing overall security posture. Cisco ISE can incorporate and share this contextual information about endpoints with other Cisco products and over 200 other vendors solution to enrich and quantify solution efficacy for making critical decisions on whether traffic is malicious so it can be blocked in real time. |
| Splunk | Splunk, in collaboration with Cisco Secure Network Analytics (SNA), leverages network telemetry to enhance security by using the network as a sensor. This approach allows SNA to consume flow data directly from the infrastructure, providing comprehensive visibility into network activities without additional probes or sensors. The integration of advanced behavioral analytics and machine learning enables the identification of suspicious and malicious activities, delivering high-fidelity security insights directly into the Splunk platform. This capability reduces data volumes by compressing raw network telemetry, making it easier for security teams to understand and respond to threats effectively.
Furthermore, the seamless integration of SNA with Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) enhances threat detection and incident response capabilities without increasing costs. This unified solution is ideal for enterprises with mature security operations, regulated industries, and government agencies, offering a comprehensive, cost-effective approach to network security and incident response. By supporting AWS and Azure telemetry, the solution also provides security for hybrid environments, ensuring robust security across both on-premises and cloud infrastructures. |
| Cisco Telemetry Broker | Cisco Telemetry Broker is a powerful tool designed to optimize the management of network telemetry data. It acts as a utility to duplicate, transform, and filter network telemetry flows, thereby simplifying the consumption of telemetry data for business-critical tools. The broker can route and replicate telemetry data from a source location to multiple destination consumers, allowing for quick on-boarding of new telemetry-based tools. It also provides fine-grain control over what data consumers can see and analyze by filtering unnecessary data, which can help reduce costs associated with sending data to expensive tools. Cisco Telemetry Broker transforms data protocols from the exporter to the consumer’s protocol of choice, enabling tools to consume multiple data formats seamlessly.
One of the key features of the Cisco Telemetry Broker is its ability to transform AWS VPC flow logs and Azure NSG flow logs into IPFIX format, which can then be ingested into Cisco Secure Network Analytics (SNA) on-premises. This transformation capability expands the data collection capabilities of Secure Network Analytics by allowing it to ingest and analyze network telemetry from nonstandard sources. By converting these cloud-based telemetry sources into a format compatible with on-premises tools, the Cisco Telemetry Broker enhances visibility and analysis capabilities across hybrid cloud environments. This functionality is crucial for organizations looking to maintain comprehensive network security and performance monitoring across diverse environments. |
| Cisco Meraki Dashboard | The Cisco Meraki Dashboard harnesses the power of network telemetry by providing an intuitive and interactive web interface that connects users to a leading cloud IT platform. This platform allows for comprehensive network management and monitoring, offering real-time insights into network performance and health. By leveraging telemetry data, the Meraki Dashboard enables administrators to gain visibility into network traffic, device status, and application performance, which facilitates proactive network management and troubleshooting. This capability is crucial for maintaining optimal network performance and ensuring a seamless user experience. The Meraki Dashboard integrates advanced features such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance network management. These technologies optimize network efficiency, automate management tasks, and minimize potential bottlenecks during peak usage times. The dashboard’s ability to provide detailed telemetry data supports sustainability initiatives by allowing administrators to monitor and manage energy usage effectively, thus contributing to organizational sustainability goals. This integration of telemetry with AI-driven insights ensures that network operations are not only efficient but also aligned with broader business objectives. Additionally, the integration between Cisco XDR and Meraki MX creates a bi-directional flow of information, enhancing both security and network operations by providing valuable insights and enabling proactive threat monitoring. |
| XDR/Threat Intelligence | |
| Cisco XDR | Cisco XDR leverages network telemetry by collecting and correlating data from various sources, including on-premises networks and public clouds. This enables the identification of hosts, understanding of normal host behavior, and generation of alerts when device behavior changes in a manner relevant to network security. By ingesting public cloud logs and integrating with Cloud Service Provider APIs, Cisco XDR can detect adversary behavior and infiltrate deep into an organization’s cloud environment. The XDR Connector ingests network telemetry from sources like flow data and NGFW log information, sending it to a SaaS-based data repository for analysis and correlation, which enhances threat detection and response capabilities. Cisco XDR’s integration capabilities extend across multiple security domains, including network, cloud, endpoint, email, identity, and applications, providing unified visibility and deep context into advanced threats. This integration helps reduce time-consuming false positives and enhances the efficiency of security operations. The Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics (SCA) Network Detection and Response (NDR) has been integrated into Cisco XDR as an embedded component, enhancing threat detection capabilities by incorporating agentless behavioral and anomaly detection. The NDR component within XDR uses historical network data to improve threat hunting, forensic audits, and incident response. Cisco’s XDR/SCA solutions are designed to ingest NetFlow, IPFIX, and ETA data from on-premises Cisco Telemetry Broker (CTB), providing comprehensive visibility and analytics capabilities. The CTB facilitates the transformation of AWS VPC and Azure NSG flow logs into IPFIX format, enabling seamless integration with on-premises security tools. This capability extends to cloud environments, including AWS, GCP, and Azure, ensuring that diverse telemetry data can be effectively utilized for enhanced security monitoring and threat detection. |
| Networking | |
| Cisco ThousandEyes Traffic Insights | The Cisco ThousandEyes Traffic Insights leverages telemetry data to provide comprehensive visibility into network performance and security. By collecting and analyzing telemetry data, ThousandEyes can monitor traffic flows across various network layers, including the internet, cloud, and enterprise networks. This data is crucial for identifying performance bottlenecks and potential security threats, allowing organizations to proactively manage and optimize their digital experiences.
Telemetry data, which includes statistics, event records, and logs, is used to gain insights into network behavior and performance. This data helps in establishing a baseline of normal network activity, which is essential for detecting anomalies that could indicate security threats. By continuously monitoring and analyzing this data, ThousandEyes can provide actionable insights that help in reducing the mean time to identify and resolve issues, thereby enhancing the overall security posture of an organization. |
| Cisco Catalyst Center | Cisco Catalyst Center leverages network telemetry to enhance network management and operational efficiency. By utilizing telemetry, Catalyst Center provides a centralized platform for monitoring and managing network performance. It collects and analyzes data from various network devices, such as routers and switches, to offer real-time insights into network health and performance. This continuous streaming of telemetry data allows for proactive identification and resolution of network issues, reducing downtime and improving overall network reliability. The platform’s ability to integrate with third-party applications further enhances its capabilities, enabling automated workflows and improved IT operations.
Catalyst Center’s use of telemetry extends to security and compliance. By providing detailed visibility into network traffic and device behavior, it helps in detecting and mitigating security threats. The telemetry data is used to establish baselines of normal network behavior, allowing for the identification of anomalies that may indicate potential security breaches. This capability is crucial for maintaining a secure network environment, as it enables continuous monitoring and quick response to threats. The integration of telemetry with Cisco’s broader security solutions ensures that network security is maintained without compromising performance. |
Unleashing the Power of Telemetry
Now that you understand the value of network telemetry and how it integrates with the Cisco Security portfolio helping you achieve significant improvements in network management and security, we can move forward and explain how you can unleash the power of telemetry – especially for the needs of the public sector.
Optimize Network Performance
Optimizing network performance involves leveraging network telemetry data to gain comprehensive insights into the network’s operational status. Telemetry data provides real-time visibility into network traffic, device behavior, and application performance, allowing network administrators to monitor and troubleshoot issues effectively.
By continuously streaming data from network devices, telemetry enables the identification of bottlenecks and potential performance issues before they impact the network’s efficiency. This proactive approach allows for timely interventions, such as adjusting traffic flows or upgrading infrastructure, to ensure optimal network performance.
Furthermore, network telemetry data plays a crucial role in planning for future growth. By analyzing historical and real-time data, network administrators can forecast resource needs and optimize capacity planning. This ensures that the network can accommodate increasing demands without compromising performance.
Telemetry data also aids in understanding usage patterns and trends, enabling informed decisions about scaling network infrastructure and deploying new technologies. Overall, the use of telemetry data in network performance optimization leads to a more resilient, efficient, and scalable network environment.
Improve Operational Efficiency
Improving operational efficiency involves leveraging detailed insights into network usage and performance to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance user experiences. By analyzing network data, organizations can identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks, allowing them to optimize resource allocation and utilization.
This proactive approach not only minimizes waste but also ensures that network resources are used effectively, leading to cost savings. Additionally, enhanced visibility into network performance enables quicker identification and resolution of issues, reducing downtime and improving reliability. As a result, users experience a more seamless and responsive network, which contributes to overall satisfaction and productivity.
Conclusion
Network telemetry is a powerful feature embedded within your Cisco network hardware, offering a wealth of insights that can transform your network management and security strategies. By understanding and leveraging this Golden Nugget, organizations can unlock new levels of efficiency, security, and performance.
Empowering US Public Sector Customers with Telemetry
Cisco is dedicated to empowering US public sector customers by offering robust network telemetry solutions. Through comprehensive support and innovative technologies, Cisco assists organizations in seamlessly integrating telemetry data into their existing workflows.
This integration allows for enhanced decision-making capabilities, enabling these organizations to proactively address potential threats and optimize their operations.
By leveraging telemetry, public sector entities can gain valuable insights into their network environments, ensuring they remain secure and efficient in their operations. Cisco’s commitment to providing tailored solutions ensures that public sector customers can fully harness the power of telemetry to meet their unique needs and challenges.
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