Corvil » Solutions

Low Latency Data Center

1. Solution Overview

Data centers are evolving to meet rapidly escalating demands for higher levels of performance and resource virtualization. Low latency data centers typically involve a number of infrastructure components including:

• LAN switching fabrics for user access and general networking
• Inter-processor communications (IPC) fabric for low latency messaging between compute clusters
• Storage connections for access to shared storage/file resources

Each of these infrastructure components are potential sources of additional latency within the data center. Relevant timescales for measuring latency in these data center infrastructures are typically in terms of microseconds. At this timescale, these latencies are difficult to spot and eliminate using traditional monitoring tools. Equipment costs are escalating for leading-edge hardware required, making it difficult to justify a blanket upgrade that may - or may not - improve latency.

CorvilNet provides sub-microsecond precision one-way latency measurements for every single packet in the instrumented data center infrastructure. Microsecond latency measurements can be measured and reported for any segment of the data center including individual elements such as firewalls, switches, servers, etc. All latency measurements are calculated in real time with each appliance scaling to instrument up to four segments in the infrastructure. CorvilNet appliances continuously track the performance of your infrastructure, verify compliance to pre-specified service level targets, and enable advanced troubleshooting capabilities.

Applications in Low Latency Data Centers include:

Network Infrastructure Performance Monitoring

• Every element in the data center infrastructure has the potential to contribute additional unwanted latency in terms of milliseconds or microseconds. CorvilNet provides one-way latency measurements with sub-microsecond accuracy across any single element in the data center infrastructure. This provides unsurpassed granular measurements, allowing you to quickly determine whether requirements are being met, and to determine the root cause of any divergence from expectations.

Full Visibility and Reporting of Infrastructure Usage

• All of CorvilNet measurements are based on monitoring every single application packet and reporting utilization and latency at microsecond timescales. Combined with CorvilNet layer-7 DPI application recognition engine, this provides complete visibility of all traffic and users of the data center.

Infrastructure Service Level Compliance Reporting

• CorvilNet enables the specification of microsecond service level latency objectives. These can be measured across each instrumented element or segment of the data center infrastructure. Current performance versus these latency objectives can be reviewed at-a-glance using CorvilNet’s Service Index metric, while any SLA violations trigger automatic alerts and advanced troubleshooting analytics.

2. Key Functionality

• Monitor one-way latency, jitter and loss with sub-microsecond accuracy for all packets in the data center infrastructure
• Report all usage of the data center infrastructure with real-time microsecond granularity and layer 7 deep packet inspection
• Measure latency across individual elements or segments of the data center infrastructure
• Monitor every packet against precise latency and loss SLAs for each element or segment of the data center infrastructure
• Utilize SLA-Aware event-triggered smart packet captures that enable users to quickly identify the cause of programmed SLA violations
• Detect short timescale traffic spikes that cause excessive latency and quickly identify the application or traffic source

3. Diagram

4. Key Benefits

• Pro-actively manage latency at microsecond timescales for individual elements or segments of the data center infrastructure
• Control equipment costs by targeting upgrades where excessive latency has been quantitatively identified
• Resolve latency issues more quickly and more accurately
• Retain a complete historical record of service level compliance and be alerted whenever targets are violated
• Locate, analyze and resolve service level problems more quickly and more reliably using CorvilNet's advanced event troubleshooting features.