To keep their networks secure, organizations are increasingly relying on inline monitoring appliances such as intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), Web application optimization devices, and firewalls. The more inline network security appliances you add, however, the more single points of failure you introduce to your network. That’s because if an appliance fails, traffic can no longer flow through that particular link. Bypass switches can help by providing a fail-safe path for network traffic when deployed inline with these monitoring appliances for high network resilience and availability.
A new level of high-density bypass switch available for inline network security appliances, Ixia’s iBypass HD stands out for a number of reasons. First, iBypass HD supports two to eight segments, with each segment operating independently to ensure link protection. You can connect and remove appliances without affecting traffic through the links or the performance of other segments.
A modular design ensures that the iBypass HD chassis can accept four hot-pluggable dual bypass modules (DBMs), each one providing two independent bypass switches for greater support and deployment flexibility. And, in the event of a tool failure, iBypass HD automatically switches to “bypass on” mode. This enables network traffic to continue flowing, sometimes configured to take an alternate path to route to backup monitoring tools like an IPS, for example.
