Introduction

In today's media landscape, the management and distribution of content is an integral part of any organization's success. However, with the increasing complexity of media networks and the constant demand for content, traditional network management systems may no longer suffice. This is where open network management systems come into play.

When it comes to choosing a network management system (NMS) for your organization, one of the biggest fears or risks that customers face is that the system they buy today will become obsolete or technologically irrelevant in a short period of time; especially considering that an enterprise or small commercial grade platform might cost 10 - 15% of an overall project. These customers know that in the long run these types of management systems will save their organization enough time and/or revenue to make such a purchase an absolute requirement, but they still want those investments to last the entire technological cycle and ideally even grow into the next. Having an NMS that keeps up with the changing landscape for ten or more years is the goal, and the “openness” of Kybio is how you can get there.

In this article, openness in network management systems refers to the use of “open” standards that allow for greater flexibility, interoperability, customization, and scalability. It provides media organizations with a powerful toolset that can help them optimize their networks, and integrate with existing systems and technologies, and avoid vendor lock-in. 

 
 

#01

Support for “Open” Protocols

You could also call this being protocol agnostic. The NMS needs to support ANY legal type of IP communication, SNMP, REST API’s, telnet, ssh, etc. Even in cases where there might be legacy non-IP-capable equipment, there must be a way that a gateway device can be used in between to support the IP to serial or IP to GPIO communication. This openness will allow customers to be able to monitor any device using any communication protocol long into the future.  

The question then shifts from “What protocols does my NMS support” to “Does this equipment / virtual device / software service support ANY kind of remote communication?”

What about custom or propriety protocols? Not a problem as long as there is documentation and or case examples to study and test with.  

What about security concerns? From our perspective, we recommend that all communication be as secure as the end devices or systems will allow. We always have and will continue to support the most up-to-date security protocols in all of our drivers. 

 
 

#02

Support for “Open” On-Premise Hardware

This means Kybio can run on almost anything. Underneath the hood so to speak, Kybio runs as a containerized docker application. This not only has significant security advantages but it also lends itself to making its underlying deployment hardware (the server it runs on) a commodity decision. Any commercial server will do. And because Kybio runs inside docker it means that in effect it can run on any OS, though we always recommend an LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu/Debian; this takes the risk of buying the wrong kind of server out of the equation. Kybio doesn’t require any particular manufacturer. In fact, what we have seen in the field is that Kybio typically outlasts the hardware it is running on. Moving it to an affordable server is then an easy, straightforward process with little to no interruption to a customer’s operation.

Another key benefit is the ability to integrate with existing systems and technologies. By using an open NMS, media organizations can avoid vendor lock-in and ensure that their networks can adapt to changing business requirements over time. This allows them to leverage the latest technologies and features without having to completely overhaul their entire infrastructure.

Kybio is pure software. Run it on any hardware you want as long as it has enough horsepower to provide the performance and experience you want. Of course, we have documentation for those specifications available upon request. 

 

Please complete the form to receive the full solution brief!