Introduction to Kentik
Kentik is an advanced, scalable platform designed to help network operators plan, run, and fix their networks efficiently. It provides comprehensive network performance monitoring, troubleshooting, and analytics, making it an essential tool for organizations managing complex network infrastructures.
Key Features and Functionality
Network Monitoring and Analytics
Kentik offers a robust network monitoring system (NMS) that unifies metrics from various network devices, including those in private networks, cloud environments, data centers, and the internet. The platform supports traditional network monitoring features such as device discovery, up/down monitoring, and interface statistics, while also integrating advanced traffic analytics.
Data Collection and Correlation
Kentik collects network telemetry data from multiple sources, including flow records (NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX), SNMP data, and pcap-derived network performance data. This data is correlated and stored in a time-series database, enabling rapid ad-hoc queries and detailed visualizations.
Real-Time Insights and Alerting
The platform provides real-time insights into network events through its Insights & Alerting system. This feature surfaces emerging network issues before they impact customers, reduces alert fatigue with embedded analytics, and streamlines prioritization. It also includes auto-detection and intelligent alerting capabilities.
DDoS Detection and Mitigation
Kentik Detect is a key component that accurately detects DDoS attacks and triggers user-defined automatic mitigation actions, such as RTBH, Flowspec routing actions, and mitigation via special gateways or external services. It provides detailed analysis of attack characteristics and their impact on the network.
Capacity Planning
The platform ensures that the network has adequate capacity to handle current and expected traffic. It automates data analysis to detect capacity issues and predict future growth, preventing traffic congestion that could impact applications and users.
Network Cost Analytics
Kentik helps organizations understand how their resources are being utilized by determining the network spend drivers. It provides insights into how customers, applications, and internal departments are using high-cost resources, enabling better resource allocation and cost management.
Synthetic Testing
Kentik’s Synthetics feature allows for continuous ping and traceroute tests using public and private agents located in major internet hubs and cloud regions. This helps in evaluating network health and performance, with the ability to focus testing resources based on patterns in actual traffic.
Customizable Dashboards and Reporting
Users can create custom queries, save them as panels in dashboards, and share these dashboards with other users. The platform supports various display options, including graphical displays, tables, lists, and grids. It also allows for the automation of recurring reports and provides BGP-based path visualizations.
Security and Compliance
Kentik adheres to stringent security standards, including the NIST 800-53 framework and FIPS 140-2 encryption for data at rest. The platform is SOC2 and ISO 27000-certified, and it performs quarterly penetration tests. In the event of a security breach, Kentik notifies affected customers within 72 hours.
Deployment and Pricing
Kentik offers a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployment model, as well as the option for on-premises deployment. The pricing model is based on an annual subscription fee, which includes a platform fee and license fees for data sources. Additional packages such as FlowPaks, CloudPaks, and SynPaks are available for extended functionality.
Conclusion
In summary, Kentik is a powerful network observability platform that provides comprehensive monitoring, analytics, and troubleshooting capabilities, making it an indispensable tool for network operators seeking to optimize their network performance and security.