Be a Jedi Master – Packet Design Style

The new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” movie reminds us a lot about the challenges of networking. Just when you think you’ve solved a major issue, such as defeating the Empire, another potentially more damaging one asserts itself. In the case of the new Star Wars it’s the “First Order.” The common element of course is the Force, with various characters trying to learn and use it to their advantage for good or evil.

We were first introduced to the Force in “Star Wars: A New Hope” when the character Obi-Wan Kenobi – played by the venerable Sir Alec Guinness – uses his well-honed powers of awareness and a deep connection with all living things to declare, “I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”

In The Force Awakens, the evil Kylo Ren’s mastery of the Force let him know that he had an errant Stormtrooper on his hands. It also alerted Princess (now General) Leia that something tragic had occurred (If you haven’t seen the movie yet, we won’t give it away here). No one called these characters, or sent them an email or an angry text. They knew something was awry because they had the skills and propensity to sense the problem.

This is what we are continually trying to do in the networking space, as new technologies such as SDN test our powers and require us to come up with new ways of understanding and controlling what is happening.

In some respects this is exactly what Packet Design customers can do. By intelligently instrumenting their network they can detect problems before others are even aware. They don’t need to wait in dread for a midnight phone call to let them know something terrible has happened. For example:

• Hundreds of routers cried out in terror and failed
• Thousands of links were suddenly silenced
• Hundreds of thousands of connections dropped
• Millions of dollars were lost

To what lengths will service providers and enterprises go to ensure their services are available, stable, and profitable?

Want to learn more about using the Force for good, not evil? Strap on your light saber, jump into the nearest Millennium Falcon (or your preferred airline) and join us in Paris in early March as we help our customers unlock the power of the Explorer Suite. Whether you are a padawan, or well on your way to becoming a Jedi Master, after the Symposium, your peers will whisper behind your back, “the force is strong in this one.”