Kentik Network Intelligence Platform

My main use case for Kentik involves performing general analysis and checking the connections about BGP. When we have traffic in our network or about our downstream that we have in our network, we make decisions about this platform using Kentik. With that analysis, we make decisions to solve the problem using the metrics that we have there.

I can give a quick specific example of how I have used Kentik to solve a problem: I use this platform when we solve the problem with port 53 when we have a DNS amplification in our network, or some DDoS happening in our network, directed to our clients that we have in our network. We are able to observe this situation if we see the amplification of the packets. If we have larger packets directed to our clients, we make the decision to solve this problem by rerouting the traffic to our products for the scrubbing center that we have in our network.

I have something to add about my main use case with Kentik. I appreciate the facilities that we have to observe this information and how smoothly this platform runs. It is easy to use and does everything to maintain our network health all the time. I can say that I am so happy with this platform because it is very useful for us.

The best features that Kentik offers, in my opinion, include the volume of the package traffic in the network. It is able to solve the problem the first time and has collaborated with the communication that we have, the boundary that shows us the internal and the external traffic. It is so great for all of the companies that need monitoring for package traffic using Kentik.

Kentik has positively impacted our organization because when something happens, we use Kentik to analyze the problem and it brings us a faster solution to the problem, and the troubleshooting is clearer. I can say that it is so great for our network, and we use this platform in our network every day.

I think a feature that is missing is that I do not know if it is my lack of information about it, but I observe that we need to use less specific IP addresses to look for a problem. Because if we put the destination IP address, I just want to put our ASN, and have Kentik put the information on our screen about the prefix that has packets from attacks. It should be more intelligent with analyzing these volumes that we have in our network with these metrics.

At the moment, I observe that Kentik offers several functionalities, and I see that it has a more efficient analysis. That is all that I can observe and am able to observe about the necessity that we have in our network.

I have worked in this position for five years.

When I say it is able to solve the problem the first time, I can tell you a bit more about how Kentik helps me act quickly: sometimes we use the inline configuration or automatic configuration that we use in Flowspec to analyze the packages. About this, I can say it is so great for us because if we configure it with Flowspec, the orchestration that we use, which is Kentik, makes the decision and automatically forwards the traffic to another position that we have in our network, or outgoing that we use. The first thing I do in this network is analyze the volume of the inbound traffic in our network because of the interface saturation when several packages enter our network. We analyze using the metrics of AS number, port number, and the port formation, among other things.

I rate Kentik with a 10.

I choose 10 as my rating because I love this rating for Kentik: I think this platform is super smooth, super soft, and easy to use. We do not lose our time trying to discover another new feature. We know that Kentik offers, more naturally, what we need to solve our problem. Because of that, I imagine this platform is great and the 10 rating is honest. My overall review rating for Kentik is 10.

Kentik is typically used for troubleshooting and investigating flows that require detailed analysis. The primary use case involves troubleshooting traffic across the network to understand its origin and destination, which allows for better comprehension of inbound and outbound traffic within the network.

For example, when a customer complains about increased usage on their circuits, Kentik enables investigation into which ASN or prefix this new traffic originates from. The available dimensions can be filtered according to the specific ticket and investigation being conducted, allowing investigation into whether the traffic is new to a new ASN or from a new customer. Kentik displays exactly what is needed and wanted for each investigation.

Dashboards are maintained for monitoring DDoS events, and probes can be used to run tests when not working to gather data, which proves beneficial. There are cases where customers report packet drops at specific destinations during peak times. A probe can be created using a source from the network to test this destination, providing data to demonstrate that traffic moving through the network is not experiencing drops and that the problem may exist with the returning path.

The best features Kentik offers are the Kentik probes, synthetic tests, dashboards, and metrics. For example, a metric can be configured inside an interface so that when the metric falls below one gigabit, an alarm is received indicating that traffic is decreasing or increasing, which provides considerable assistance.

Kentik has positively impacted the organization by providing greater control over certain subjects and enabling monitoring of current traffic. This allows for better understanding of whether there is a critical ongoing case related to incoming traffic, such as a DDoS event, which is crucial for a service provider dealing with numerous customers.

Kentik functions well for current usage, and there is no improvement experience to share.

Kentik has been used for the past three and a half years.

There are no stability issues.

There are no scalability issues.

A significant case involved Kentik sharing the current traffic level, which helped determine whether high traffic was due to a significant event within a customer's network or if traffic was lower than expected. The metrics provided considerable assistance, allowing for the creation of a metric inside a specific interface configured on the device to send an alarm when traffic decreases, particularly for VIP customers where closer monitoring is essential.

For others considering using Kentik, it would be beneficial to understand more about the dimensions when investigating a case or traffic, as the dimensions inside Network Explorer are very useful and powerful for investigating the details of each traffic within the network. The review rating for Kentik is 8 out of 10.

I can also determine whether it is symmetric or asymmetric traffic, and if it goes through any provider that has some kind of bottleneck. That is very important.

Regarding the security part, which is also possible to handle through Kentik, you can configure it in a way that makes the network more secure and reduces the amount of dirty traffic or attacks received.

Kentik has had a high positive impact on my organization. Besides the cost reduction, it has been possible to perform troubleshooting more effectively, and also regarding DDoS-related attacks.

In addition to cost reduction, we had a more reliable connection. Since the moment we identified that it was possible to have a direct connection with content providers like CDN77, Cloudflare, and Akamai, we established a direct connection there through a PNI with these content providers, making the network less dependent on an IP transit provider.

I believe that something which could help with the interface configuration, such as what is the best way to configure an interface's description so that Kentik can validate, check, or bring more information, would be beneficial.

For example, CDN77 is a streaming platform that was consuming more than 20 GB through Globenet's transit. From the moment we identified that it was high and paid traffic through a transit provider, we were able to contact this streaming provider, establish a PNI, and reduce transit consumption by 20 GB.

I advise others who are thinking about using Kentik to use the tool for cost reduction at first. In a second moment, if they do not have any security tool, they should implement Kentik, because it is possible to block a large attack using only the tool without needing to do a cleanup or clean pipe at that first moment. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

I'm using Kentik for my own internal use. My primary use case is to monitor our equipment and to get a more detailed view of where our inbound and outbound traffic is going.

From Kentik's traffic analysis features, I can identify my top talkers because I can configure flow information and see where my BGP peers are going. That is the main top insight I can obtain from Kentik.

Kentik's custom dashboards have been useful for decision-making. I can adjust them however I want and tailor them to my needs.

Compared to PRTG, Kentik's real-time network monitoring features are definitely superior. Everything is presented in graphs, which makes it easier to monitor and read. The user interface is also user-friendly.

I do not currently use Kentik's anomaly detection.

I had communication with Kentik's technical support through a WhatsApp group. When I faced any issues or there were problems with my Kentik collector, they provided immediate support and feedback regarding my configuration.

Regarding additional features for Kentik, I would appreciate more options. Currently, the way I'm configuring it uses reactive alerts, which means alerts are triggered when an issue occurs. I would prefer more proactive alerts in the future. For example, if Kentik notices that packets are dropping on a certain interface, I would want an alert beforehand that could suggest the interface might go down or experience issues before the problem actually happens.

Based on my two weeks of experience, I believe Kentik is very good. However, there are still other features I want to explore, such as DDoS features or analytics features including CDN analytics. I haven't fully explored these yet. So far, there is definitely room for improvement, but in my experience, I believe it's already quite good.

I have been using Kentik for two weeks so far.

I rate Kentik's technical support at seven or eight because we did not face many issues, so I couldn't really evaluate them thoroughly.

I switched to Kentik because my previous license was expiring, and I was looking for a better solution or something comparable. I found that Kentik seems to provide more features and has an artificial intelligence troubleshooting agent that could help diagnose issues.

PRTG had a counteroffer with another solution they were working on, but I decided to proceed with Kentik.

The initial setup with Kentik was straightforward. With the guides from my account manager, the setup was simple. The guides they provided were easy to follow.

I need five administrators for Kentik. Regarding the pricing, I'm not thoroughly versed in it because my sales representative handled that aspect. Based on my understanding, I believe it's worth the price.

I had communication with Kentik's technical support through a WhatsApp group.

I rate my overall experience with Kentik as a product at nine out of ten.

We are using Kentik mostly for synthetic tests, and from one last year, network monitoring as well.

We are using it for inter DC BGP tests and server monitoring as well.

The best part of Kentik is the synthetic test, which we use extensively in our environment since I'm working in a company that uses customer use cases.

It simulates the same scenario that customers use with our products.

It simulates the same things, and we see that the customer traffic pattern, the number of props, is coming from the disruptions on the link, the latency issues, the HTTP errors, and the number of props coming from each hub, which I can visualize to see where the latency is.

There's always room for improvements and better relations when using any kind of product.

We faced some issues with Kentik UI and alerting, which we asked them to fix, and they succeeded.

They have come up with a new product called NMS, which had many things needing improvement in the beginning, but they improved it in later versions.

They keep improving their product, but currently, I don't find anything causing issues in our environment.

I have experience using Kentik for almost two plus, or three plus years.

The graphical user interface setup of Kentik is easy.

However, if you are setting up the Kentik agents in your environment, you will need the Kentik team's help for setting up the Kentik agents because it requires a number of commands to set up, which people may not know.

Stability-wise, Kentik is good.

We rarely have something that breaks it down, but they have some maintenance windows where they make the product down for reasons such as EMR or EU maintenance.

That happens with every company, but stability-wise, it is good.

I don't find any issues; it was only once that I felt it had some impact, but that got resolved very soon.

Based on stability, I would give Kentik a nine.

The scalability of Kentik depends on the credits and the packs you have with the Kentik team.

You can scale as much as you can with devices and tests, but you should have a good number of credits in your account, so that is dependent.

The Kentik support team is good.

If you want me to rate them on a scale, I would give them eight.

I had a call with the Kentik support team for fifteen minutes, so I'm going to give them eight for now.

The reason for giving them an eight is that they are good and address our issues.

They have monthly calls and discuss the product roadmap with us, including what is needed and what is not.

However, when we are working on some real issues with Kentik, I sometimes feel there's a delay due to the busyness of their teams.

We faced some outages and were not able to get the desired results from Kentik tools, so that took a little time to resolve.

To some extent, Kentik is easy to use.

It is easy to setup.

It is easy to make it better or integrate.

You can do it by yourself, so I don't find any need for help on setting it up.

I would say Kentik's pricing is not cheap.

From my perspective as part of the technical team, I would not categorize it as expensive, but I know it is not cheap.

We are customers of Kentik.

Kentik is worth the money to have as a tool.

We have started using Kentik's AI capabilities.

We are not using it extensively, but they provided us a demo that was great.

We need to start using it more frequently, so currently, we know how to use it, but we are not heavy users yet.

I would recommend Kentik to other people.

If someone is looking for a synthetic tool that can also conduct other tests plus network monitoring using SNMP and older versions, and with them coming up with syslog, Kentik is a central tool for the whole monitoring of the infrastructure.

They can go for it, especially if they are looking for some synthetic tests and want to work with a great team.

Overall, I would give Kentik nine stars.

I compared Kentik with ThousandEyes.

The solution is valuable for client experience, especially in the financial sector. The most important feature is cybersecurity. The pricing is good, but the functionality is the most important aspect for clients. The solution is easy to deploy and requires only one person to set up, making it easy and quick. Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives.

The product could strive for more improvements to become closer to perfect.

I have used the solution for one month in a demo environment.

The solution is scalable.

The solution is more Cisco-oriented, which seems to better fit clients with a Cisco environment.

The initial setup is straightforward and easy. It takes approximately two days to deploy.

One person can make the installation, and it is easy and quick.

The pricing is good and aligns with the market target.

I compared it with ThousandEyes, which seemed suitable due to a Cisco environment.

I would recommend Kentik to others as it is a good and easy solution for clients.

Overall, I would give the solution a rating of nine out of ten.