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Lancope Adds Application Awareness, Visualization Tools To Network Behavior Analysis: Page 2 of 3

Another major enhancement is the ability to assign network assets to any number of "host groups for reporting and policy management," instead of inflexible zones. Previously, StealthWatch required that a device be assigned to a single zone. So, for example, an Microsoft Exchange Server could be assigned to an Exchange Server zone or a New York zone or a sales and marketing zone, etc., but not more than one.

Zones are appropriate for security analysis and reporting, says EMA's Frey, but the flexible grouping is far better for network operations. Groupings can be used to tailor reports by organizing data in a way that reflects business operations.

"With the more flexible, business-oriented grouping, data can be presented, viewed and studied in a way that is consistent with the way the organization ... is organized," he says. So, he adds, reports can be used effectively for collaboration within IT teams and to work with people in the supported end user community.

The relational mapping feature produces customizable diagrams to show network flow between assets based on network topologies, different parts of the network, groupings, and so on. Frey believes this will help network and security personnel spot problems more quickly.

"Humans are good at pattern recognition in graphical image consumption; they've never been particularly adept at processing and consuming tables of data," he says. "When you present data in way that's visually impactful, there's a huge productivity and efficiency improvement."