At IRIS Network Systems, we deploy our expertise in large-scale network configuration, implementation and management to bring enterprise managers and engineers a Network Management Solution (NMS) that is capable of real-time, in-depth reporting on the vast array of devices on multi-vendor networks.

IRIS is a robust and scalable data collection framework designed to deliver network management data as quickly as possible to the user in the most meaningful way possible.

Inspired from dealing with the challenges faced by an ISP every day, IRIS was designed from the point of view of dealing with large amounts of data and providing a generic and extensible way of presenting that data.

Because of this unique approach, it allows the system to solve a variety of problems with relative simplicity.

Keep reading to get an insight into IRIS Network Systems, their products, services and network technologies.

You are a Founding Director at IRIS Network Systems. What made you start this company?

The ethos behind starting Iris was that we all come from a Networking background and for 15 + years we never had a one-stop-application / toolset that we could get all our info from, to many systems working toward the outcome of pin-pointing the issue on the network.

The cost, correlative information integration and maintenance of these systems are very often prohibitive and also catch far less network issues, end the end you end up monitoring the monitoring systems.

What does IRIS Network Systems focus on specifically?

We integrate system functionality from as many sources that makes sense to the customer and also to the Iris architecture.

Information like system logs, packet flow, device data can then be assessed by Iris and acted upon, be that a threshold breach alert, information displayed in a graph or even flow analysis.

All the SW we use is OSS and are a firm believers and contributors in the community.

Can you explain a few of the network monitoring software solutions IRIS Network Systems offer? (IRIS Core, IRIS Flow, IRIS SD Reporter, IRIS Maps and IRIS IPAM)

IRIS Core is the core framework and deals with collecting information from various sources like SNMP, screen scrapes, Telemetry

IRIS Flow is a packet flow collection architecture where we can collect flow data, for example Cisco Netflow and present that data.

IRIS SD Reporter collects CDR records from VoIP SBC’s (ACME/Broadworx), one can then search, alert or report on that data.

IRIS Maps collects data which can then be used to construct a visual representation of a network’s physical or logical topology.

How does an organisation benefit from your products/services?

We sell IRIS as a SAAS and our team providing the service has a long history in the ISP industry from a variety of backgrounds, all providing the best service experience for our customers.

The integration we offer is a single portal to get to all your data.

How does IRIS Network Systems stand out from the competition?

We have a few competitors in this area, along with our methodology used in collecting the data from the network which is very lite, our pure service and depth of knowledge at the ISP level and our ethos of customer centricity, give us the edge.

Our architectural flexibility and ability to adopt new trends like Telemetry and AI are also key factors and we are often doing “testing” PoC’s with customers for this purpose.

What are your thoughts on going from hardware to software when it comes to Networks?

I have been at the ISP level since 1999 and the bottom line is, compute resource power has increased tremendously over the last few years and having the ability to code in a relatively easy way to get flexible outcomes, is a no brainer.

I like to think of the splitting of resources, switch traffic in HW and everything else in SW.

What do you think of SDN/NFV?

I was listening to a web seminar this week with Shawn Morris from NTT talking about the growth of their network by some insane magnitude over the last 5 years and no staff resource increase, this just solidified the fact that as any network provider or administrator one has to automate or at least start.

The key aspects of, less peer review, lower resource requirements and consistency of configuration, give SDN/NFV an edge that I think we cannot fill with human resources.

In the NMS space it is no different, the amount of data now available from the network with fully fledged telemetry is huge, that coupled with the size and complexity of some networks, we need to start relying on more AI methodology to make computed decisions and filter this back to a NOC for example.

Where do you see the future go in this industry? What technologies will the focus be on in the upcoming years?

Up until recently it was all big data and virtualisation. However, we are seeing a shift toward machine learning and AI trend analysis of big data. We firmly believe that machine learning can add value in two big areas. The first is the ability to correlate and make repetitive analysis of event data fast and reduce the data for humans to consume. The second is the ability for algorithms to mathematically find trends in the data and predict outcomes and behaviour that we wouldn’t normally see.

What new Network technologies are you most impressed by?

I would say that vendors adopting Telemetry as a standard way of monitoring is a big step forward. The virtualisation stacks of SDN still have some work ahead but it’s showing promise. The sheer power of big data cluster computing is quite impressive and the ability of AI ops to analyse this data is very exciting.  However, the most impressive technology I personally find interesting is our ability to keep increasing the throughput of fibre optics despite the limitation of what we can do with light.

When recruiting for IRIS Network Systems, what is the biggest difficulty you come across?

We only hire the best, so by definition it’s going to be difficult. When you join the Iris team you are not taking a job, you are part of a dynamic team and a lot is expected. We have a lot of fun and we love what we do. Monitoring is our passion and above all we absolutely put our customers first.  Some people don’t get that – so we don’t hire them.

What skills and expertise does a Network Engineer need to have who would like to work at IRIS Network Systems?

It’s not so much a skills thing, as it’s an attitude thing. We value self-taught people as this demonstrates and ability to learn which is the biggest skill you need.

A knowledge of TCP/IP and the OSI fundamentals is always helpful and experience with open-source monitoring tools, of course. But really, at the core level, it’s all about whether you have the passion about your work or you don’t.

What would be your one piece of advice to a Network Engineer?

The ISP world is changing so fast, so never stop learning, stay focused and have fun, after all it is a cool world out there.

Want to know more about IRIS Network Systems? Visit their website here