The dynamic nature of microservices services has introduced a new level of complexity and challenge. Network services are no longer static but rather exist in a dynamic fashion, which leads to continuously changing patterns of traffic.
In addition, it is no longer possible for an organization to easily identify the service it is utilizing, due to the increase in the number of services on a single infrastructure.
In this type of environment, organizations have begun to understand and recognize that traditional methods of providing network visibility are now failing.
As a result, organizations have begun using network discovery as an essential component to support microservices architecture.
In this article, we will discuss the following:
- Why is network discovery critical to microservices environments?
- How does network discovery allow IT managers/leaders to better manage the increased levels of complexity?
Why is traditional network discovery no longer enough?
While many organizations already utilize some form of network discovery, these tools were designed in a different time and do not meet the needs of today’s microservice-based networks.
Older network discovery products primarily rely on identifying devices based on a physical address or an IP address that is assigned statically and configured to remain unchanged.
Although legacy tools can still provide value, the limitations of legacy discovery solutions become apparent when examining their ability to discover resources in modern microservices-based environments.
Without this enhanced level of visibility into a microservices environment, teams can only see the devices that exist within that environment as per Slurp’it.
How does network discovery play an important role in a highly dynamic environment?
- As the number of applications being developed using microservices architecture increases, there are many threats that need to be dealt with when developing applications using microservices architecture.
- It enables an organization to track both additions and removals from its asset inventory.
- It allows an organization to keep a record of all changes made to its assets and the documentation that supports each of the changes.
- Some tough challenges when developing applications using microservices architecture are data loss, deployment challenges, challenges regarding resource allocation, performance, etc.
- Furthermore, we need to see more of the changes within the microservices environment becoming automated as per Slurp’it.
What are the dangers of insufficient discovery in microservice architectures?
There are many risks associated with poor discovery, including those that may not be obvious until an event takes place.
- When outages occur, organizations can find it difficult to determine which services are impacted and the reasons for the impact. Because of this lack of clarity around dependencies, root cause analysis may take longer to complete as per Slurp’it.
- Security teams also face similar difficulties. The presence of unknown services, unmanaged endpoints, and unrecorded communications creates a larger attack surface area.
- Research has shown that visibility gaps are a common reason for the delays in responding to incidents and for the length of time that systems will remain unavailable due to an incident.
How can compliance be enhanced in dynamic environments?
An organization’s compliance framework is moving from “at that point in time compliance to continuous controls.” As we move toward architecture comprised of micro services, compliance frameworks will require near real-time verification via automation and discovery–the only way to meet these expectations.
Discovery of networks allows for identification of all the organizations’ assets that fall within the scope of compliance, identification of changes, and creation of audit evidence.
Without discovery, the compliance process will be dependent on incomplete data, manual processes, and not produce a true representation of the network.
Automation of discovery provides an accurate representation of the network for compliance and significantly reduces the stress related to audits for engineers as per Slurp’it.
What should IT executives consider with network discovery capabilities?
Not every discovery solution has the same capabilities.
Within an environment comprised of microservices —
- IT Leaders will want tools that provide continuous, dynamic, and automated networking with orchestration solutions.
- As service dependencies are more important than ever, the ability to provide visibility into service traffic flows and integrate into existing security and monitoring systems is critical.
- Discovery should be automated, scaled, and provide accurate information.
- The most vital aspect of discovery is that insights are provided to support decisions, rather than just raw data.
To conclude, network discovery is becoming increasingly important due to the evolving characteristics of networks. The creation of a microservice architecture presents new challenges related to the management and operation of networks. For more information, contact us at Slurp’it!