Everyday each of us is faced with making hundreds of choices, from the mundane to the consequential, and each of these choices invariably have trade-offs. Do I hit snooze on my alarm clock in the morning to get a little more rest or do I get a jump on the day and have some free time in the evening? Should I buy a car to lock in a certain interest rate, or lease it and keep my options open in case a newer model comes along with better features? Should I choose a healthcare plan with comprehensive coverage that costs more, or opt for a less expensive plan that saves me money but might leave me exposed if I get sick?
Organizations face similar challenges when choosing the best tools to validate network infrastructure for application delivery – such as proxies, load balancers, and session border controllers – or to evaluate network security devices to effectively test their products and services. Needs are broad and budgets are limited, so choices and compromises must be made, and these decisions have real consequences. Is raw throughput the most important test capability for me, or does breadth of available test applications matter more? Do budget constraints require that I choose a solution that meets current test needs but lacks the flexibility and extensibility to meet my changing test needs in the future?
Keysight has addressed this dilemma head on with exciting, new software releases for BreakingPoint, CyPerf and IxLoad – our industry leading test solutions for application delivery and security resiliency testing – that, for the first time ever, gives users the ability to install and run all three of these powerful, network application and security test tools on our most powerful and scalable hardware offering, the APS-100/400GE series platform, via a single, unified deployment of the APS-M1010 management node and associated APS-ONE-100 compute nodes.
This unified test capability delivers new efficiencies and increased productivity by dramatically increasing the addressable use cases for layer 4-7 application and security testing, and unlocking new feature sets and functionality, including CyPerf capabilities like SSL VPN, ZTNA, and hybrid distributed testing, all on a single, unified deployment of the APS-M1010 and associated APS-ONE-100 compute nodes. Users gain the flexibility to test a wider range of products and services, like SmartNICs and DPUs, SD-WAN and SASE topologies, SSL-VPN Proxies and WAFs, while also allowing them to leverage modular, “pay as you grow” design and unparallelled performance and scalability of the APS-100/400GE series platform to drive multi-terabit levels of L4-7 application traffic and billions concurrent connections.
The release of BPS 10.70, CyPerf 6.00 and IxLoad 10.70 for APS-M1010 and APS-ONE-100 also introduces a new, unified WebUI for the KCOS operating system that gives users a single-entry point for configuring and running tests on all three applications:
From the KCOS dashboard, users can launch the BreakingPoint or CyPerf web UIs, download the IxLoad client, access the BreakingPoint Rest API browser, view BreakingPoint and CyPerf test results, and access other resources like user guides and documentation.
To launch a BreakingPoint test, under the “Create New Test” section, simply click on the “BreakingPoint Test” button. This will launch the BreakingPoint test application, and from there you can configure tests, reserve resources, launch tests, view real-time statistics and more.
To launch a CyPerf test, under the “Create New Test” section, simply click on the “CyPerf Test” button. This will launch the CyPerf test application, and from there you can configure tests, reserve resources, launch tests, view real-time statistics and more.
To launch an IxLoad test, under the “Resources” section, click on the “IxLoad Download Page” button to download the IxLoad Client which you can then install externally and use to configure and run IxLoad tests on the APS-M1010 and APS-ONE-100 deployment.
Additionally, an easy-to-use CLI allows users to quickly see what applications are installed and available on the APS-M1010 and APS-ONE-100 deployment. Users can use the CLI to switch the application running on a given compute node or an entire deployment, and even designate which application to run by default on any new compute node to be added to the deployment in the future:
Figure 7: KCOS CLI commands that can be used to manage the applications on the APS-M1010 and associated APS-ONE-100 compute nodes
It is often said that change is the only constant in life, and one has only to look at the network and application security sectors where the pace of change is constantly accelerating to find confirmation of this sentiment. Choosing the right test tool to invest in in this climate can be a fraught experience as test needs aren’t static, and the last thing you want to do is spend precious budget dollars getting locked into the wrong solution.
The unified test capabilities introduced with BreakingPoint 10.70, CyPerf 6.0, IxLoad 10.70, coupled with the APS-100/400GE series platform, gives users access to the full complement Keysight’s L4-7 network application and security test tools on a single deployment, unlocking a wide range of use cases and test capabilities on a scalable and powerful platform that can meet your current test needs, and grow with you as your test needs change and budgets allow – providing ease of mind that that critical applications, services, and infrastructure can be effectively validated today and going forward.
Learn more about the APS-100/400GE series appliances, and the BreakingPoint, CyPerf, and IxLoad application and security test tools.