Aprisma, which builds Spectrum, was originally part of Cabletron and is now in the shadow of Enterasys. Aprisma intended to spin out in February, having performed in the black to the tune of $3.4 million, according to SEC filings. The IPO was put on hold at the last moment as the SEC moved in to investigate Enterasys. Aprisma says its business continues to improve and as soon as the SEC investigation lifts, it will launch the IPO.
Spectrum has the best network discovery configuration application, as it allows for discovery by address, range and type. Any of these can be assigned to separate schedules, so we could set differing frequency for discovery of the backbone (an area that changes little) and user subnets (which change frequently and sometimes in bad ways).
The resulting discovery isn't bad either. Like InCharge, Spectrum supports Layer 2 discovery. But it's not a perfect process. During our testing, we discovered connections between devices that were no longer on the network. Even if the error was due to a faulty cache, it was annoying and time-consuming. Also, devices to be managed can be selected manually. Spectrum refers to this process as modeling. Unlike InCharge, Spectrum includes "not" filters, which makes creating subnet and device filters much easier.
The integrated network discovery found all of the hosts, but a separate BMC integration piece was required to integrate the BMC Knowledge Modules. Viewing the KMs also requires additional software on the SpectroGraph, Spectrum's Motif-like console.
Strangely, sometimes the discovery ran rather quickly, and sometimes it seemed to hesitate. It may have been due to the load on the server (the vendor had no explanation), but this process of discovery and modeling can be distributed, which we like as a production control function in systems or network operations.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
