NetBeez impressions from #NFD9

I really didn’t know what to expect from NetBeez. As I said in my pre-NDF impressions I thought the idea of having to deploy an additional device to perform network analytics was redundant. I was thinking there had to be another way.

After seeing NetBeez presentation I had a change of opinion. As I finish this draft I am on a flight home but I plan to setup my Beez (a NetBeez agent that’s what they call a box) as soon as I get home and get some actual time with it. I will have more impressions to write about after that obviously.

The first impression I had was that this was a solution still in its infancy but the presenters were very eager to hear our feedback. I provided some feedback suggesting that a PoE option would be immensely useful. I was elaborating on that thought when I dunked my new Macbook in coffee which brought a sudden end to that.

To summarize the NetBeez device is really just a Rasberry Pi device that reports back to a cloud service. The devices can be used to monitor a number of user experience metrics and can also be used to build iperf sessions between individual NetBeez devices to assist with troubleshooting site-to-site connectivity issues. The management console appeared to be very well built and was definately aesthetically pleasing.

The point I was making though was that I could see far more potential that deploying a single NetBeez device to each site to effectively just monitor WAN performance in what amounts to elaborate IP SLA. I can see deploying a device to each IDF to monitor both LAN and WAN performance simultaneously. 

Further, they announced to us a new wireless NetBeez model which I thought had immense potential, especially when coupled with PoE. I could definitely see scattering a few NetBeez devices around office complexes and especially outdoor areas to monitor WiFi signal strength and performance from the user’s perspective.

All in all, the presentation was good but the solution is very early in development so I am sure they have more features to be developed. Bob McCouch did a much more complete write up on NetBeez and if what I have stated here piqued your interest then I highly suggest you check out his blog:

http://herdingpackets.net/2015/02/17/the-buzz-about-netbeez/