In the average data center, a network adapter is by no means a sexy device. After all, it doesn’t virtualize servers or store data on fancy flash memory, but instead it merely facilitates the flow of data between computers. However, with the network becoming an increasingly critical component of modern data centers, network adapter vendors have an opportunity to shine with unique approaches that can help organizations better utilize their big network pipes. Napatech is doing just that with a product that could give data centers a new perspective on network appliances.
While there are indeed proprietary appliances that can deliver network analysis, forensics, security, and other tasks, it’s now possible to use less-expensive standard servers instead. This is because multicore CPU architectures grace many of today’s boxes, and also because specialized network adapters can handle the capacity and efficiency required for high-speed network monitoring.
