* Making sure a computer network is secure and reliable has become a priority for businesses in the digital age.
* This has led to the rise of network traffic analysis tools that help businesses constantly monitor their computer networks and flag threats or other issues.
* IT Central Station, where IT professionals can weigh in on software tools they use, recently conducted a survey on network traffic analysis.
* Here are the 8 top NTA companies according to a May survey.
* Click here for more BI Prime stories.
Keeping watch over a network is increasingly important for any business in the digital age.
All kinds of companies, from small businesses to big corporations, need to make sure their networks are secure and that they can quickly respond to problems, from a hacking attack or glitches that are slowing down traffic.
This has led to the rise of network traffic analysis (NTA) technologies that enable businesses to continuously monitor the state of their computer networks. NTA tools quickly detect and respond to threats, and flag other problems on a network.
NTA is still a small market, but it is expanding rapidly, Lawrence Orans, research vice president at Gartner, said.
"We've seen very strong growth in this market," he told Business Insider. 'There are dozens of vendors competing...The barrier to entry is low. It's relatively simple to develop a sensor that can monitor network traffic. Also, there are well known machine learning algorithms that can be applied to analyzing network traffic."
Many NTA technologies are typically deployed in private data centers, although Gartner expects cloud-based systems "to start growing over the next few years," Orans said.
The sharp pivot to remote work in the COVID-19 crisis will likely speed up this process.
IT Central Station, the review site where IT professionals weigh in on the software they use, recently conducted a survey on NTA tools.
Here are the top network traffic analysis technologies, according to a May IT Central Station survey of IT professionals:
Cisco
Rating: 4 out of 5
Ranking score: 72
Most compared to: Darktrace, Splunk User Behavior Analytics
It's not surprising that Cisco, the most dominant networking company in the world, would also be a player in a space focused on monitoring and flagging issues on a network. Cisco Stealthwatch gets high marks from IT professionals who have tried it. One of them said in a May IT Central Station survey that the Cisco product "reduced the amount of time to detect an immediate threat."
Darktrace
Rating: 3.8 out of 5
Ranking score: 54
Most compared to: Cisco Stealthwatch, Vector AI, Crowdstrike Falcon
Darktrace is a hot cybersecurity startup that had been valued at $1.7 billion and had been expected to go public soon. The company, which has offices in San Francisco, London and Hong Kong, is known for having board members who served in prominent intelligence agencies, including the CIA and MI5. An IT professional surveyed by IT Central Station said Darktrace is effective in flagging "the behavior of users and malicious external or internal threats."
Plixer
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Ranking score: 46
Most compared to: Cisco Stealthwatch, SolarWinds Network Traffic Analyzer, PRTG Network Monitor
Founded in 1999, Plixer, which is based in Kennebunk, Maine, was acquired by Battery Ventures in 2018.
Its Scrutinizer technology collects and processes meta data from different sources on a network, including Cisco, VMware and Amazon Web Services logs to provide insights into the state of a network, according to Gartner. An IT Central Station reviewer said its Scrutinizer technology "improved our fault-finding by at least 50 percent." The tool offers access to historical data that enhanced the ability to find issues in day-to-day networking, the reviewer said.
Vectra AI
Rating: 4.4 out of 5
Ranking score: 22
Most compared to: Darktrace, Cisco Stealthwatch, Awake Security Platform
Vectra has raised $222.5 million from investors including Accel and Wipro Ventures making it one of the hottest cybersecurity startups today. Founded in 2012, the Silicon Valley company's CEO Hitesh Sheth said he realized the power of AI in rapidly detecting problems on a network.
"In 2012, there was an inflection point that I saw in using AI that comes from security," he told Business Insider in an interview last year.
Awake Security
Rating: 4.7 out of 5
Ranking score: 18
Most compared to: Darktrace, Vectra AI, Cisco Stealthwatch
Silicon Valley startup Awake Security, which uses AI to secure networks, has raised $66 million from investors, including Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Partners. In fact, the company secured its most recent round, $36 million, just last month as the coronavirus crisis was escalating, highlighting strong investor interest in the company.
CEO Rahul Kashyap said it was looking to stronger growth after the COVID-19 crisis. "Our round was oversubscribed, and this capital injection gives us the ability to move faster when this is done," told Business Insider in an interview in April.
Fidelis Cybersecurity
Rating: 4 out of 5
Ranking score: 11
Most compared to: CrowdStrike Falcon, FireEye Endpoint Security, Altivo Networks
Founded in 2002, Fidelis Cybsersecurity is known for threat-detection and response technologies. An IT Central Station reviewer said Fidelis's Elevate technology "improved our hunt ability with quick search tools, to zone in on malware or other anomalies."
Fidelis, whose technology has been used by the University of California system, was acquired earlier this year by Skyview Capital.
Aruba
Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Ranking score: 10
Most compared to: Cisco Stealthwatch, Darktrace, Splunk User Behavior Analytics
Founded in 2002, Aruba Networks was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $3 billion in 2015 and is now owned by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The networking company has become a critical part of HPE's bid to establish a stronger position in cloud and edge computing.
Aruba focused more closely on the network traffic analysis market two years ago after it acquired Niara, according to Gartner. Aruba's IntroSpect technology uses machine learning and statistical analysis to monitor network traffic.
RSA
Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Ranking score: 8
Most compared to: Vectra AI, Darktrace, ExtraHop
RSA is one of the most well-known network security companies. Its NetWitness Network product also got upbeat reviews from professionals, including one who praised the "way it captures the traffic, and it contains every detail of the communication." However, other professionals also pointed to areas where it can be improved, such as its detection features.
RSA is also in transition after Dell, which acquired it after the tech giant bought EMC and VMware in 2015, announced that it was selling the network security company for $2.1 billion to a consortium that included the Symphony Technology Group. The transaction is expected to close in a few months.
Here's IT Central Station's ranking criteria, for the curious:
IT Central Station computes a ranking score for each product based on a composite of:
* Number of reviews' average star rating
* Number of times the product has been compared to alternative solutions
* Number of views of reviews
* Number of followers on IT Central Station.
The total ranking of a product is based on a weighted aggregate score. The score is calculated as follows: The product with the highest count in each area gets the highest available score. (Twenty points for reviews; 16 points for views, comparisons, and followers.) Every other product gets assigned points based on its total in proportion to the No. 1 product in that area.
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