Aviatrix Adds Observability API in Cloud-Native Push

Multicloud networking leader Aviatrix is making a big push into cloud-native integrations to help cloud networking and DevOps teams build common networking and management platforms, which has been a key challenge to enabling multicloud and hybrid environments.

Today, the company has introduced a Network Insights API, which can collect cloud networking details from the leading cloud providers as well as from the most popular data observability tools, including open-source projects such as OpenMetrics and Prometheus, as well as commercial observability platforms such as Datadog, Grafana, and New Relic. The goal is to give networking and DevOps teams a detailed picture of what’s going on in cloud networks.

Solving Network Blind Spots

This newest feature addition (Network Insights APIs will be included with the Aviatrix CoPilot product) shows that Aviatrix is doubling down on cloud-native integrations. At KubeCon in Paris, the company unveiled Distributed Cloud Firewall for Kubernetes, introducing secure cloud-native networking for Kubernetes environments.

Aviatrix also has customers to back it up. Audi is using the Network Insights API and Aviatrix CoPilot to unlock data from any cloud provider and put it in a central repository that can be used for security analytics functions. Ryan Wiley, technical lead at Audi AG, uses the API to build dashboards for better cloud networking visibility.

Here’s what Wiley said in the Aviatrix press release:

“Importantly for Audi, Network Insights API enables consolidation of network metrics from multiple cloud providers, tailored for our applications. It provides the network management team with real-time data for quicker, informed decision-making – all without requiring us to log into additional tools. With Network Insights API, Aviatrix delivered the exact solution we were seeking."

Indeed, with nonstop buzz about “observability,” it’s important for network practitioners to ask how they implement and integrate observability tools into broader, real-world solutions. Aviatrix cited recent data from Dynatrace showing that organizations already use 10 or more monitoring and visibility tools.

This move shows Aviatrix is adding to its cloud-native chops to solve a common frustration among networking managers trying to build multicloud networks – lack of visibility inside their networks at the major cloud operators, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).

Chris McHenry, VP of product with Aviatrix, wrote in a blog that Network Insights API will help users solve blind spots in multicloud networking to improve performance and fault resolution:

“Preventing application outages or significantly reducing mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR) after an application outage are shared goals across any organization. However, there has long been a blind spot between cloud networking and cloud ops, and application development and DevOps teams.

"The tension stems from both sides. For cloud teams, visibility into network performance and security is complex enough to achieve, let alone share effectively with the development side of the house. Cloud service providers (CSPs) and even third-party cloud networking solutions can be black boxes. Multicloud strategies and hybrid environments have further created visibility gaps, inconsistent metrics, and complex network paths, complicating network monitoring efforts.”

Integrating with Cloud Native

One important aspect of the announcement includes support for Prometheus and OpenMetrics, open-source observability projects under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). Aviatrix says that at the request of customers, it has added support for OpenMetrics standards. More than 40 observability vendors now support Prometheus and OpenMetrics.

These additions, along with the Distributed Cloud Firewall for Kubernetes product and integrations with Istio, a popular open-source service mesh technology (also in CNCF), demonstrate Aviatrix's increased activity in the cloud-native world.

Mitch Connors, open-source lead with Aviatrix, told me in a recent interview that these integrations are part of a deep push by Aviatrix into cloud-native tools. As part of his role at Aviatrix, Connors is one of the top contributors to Istio.

“You shouldn’t need different tools,” said Connors. “ We help carry the network engineers forward to on-prem, edge, or cloud… you don’t need to relearn tools from scratch. We’ll integrate where it makes sense.”

Network Insights will be included as a feature of Aviatrix CoPilot, which is available in the AWS Marketplace, Azure Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, and Oracle Cloud Marketplace. Subscribing to CoPilot grants rights to the new Network Insights API, according to Aviatrix.

Futuriom Take: Along with the recent Distributed Cloud Firewall for Kubernetes announcement, the Network Insights API launch shows that Aviatrix is adding important integrations to cloud-native and open-source technologies to provide a bridge from traditional networking environments to the cloud-native world.