Hi colleagues,
So many enterprise customers are adopting cloud-based SaaS applications for their business these days, and managing the experience around the applications has become crucial more than ever before. In that sense, Cisco’s acquisition of ThousandEyes(2020) is one of the most strategic ones that Cisco has made in history and ThousandEyes has become the most important software in the Cisco Networking business.
Although ThousandEyes is a very straightforward and easy-to-use solution, many customers and partners wonder how, in the world, ThousandEyes monitors the entire Internet and SaaS application performance and helps customers manage their SaaS application experience.
So, I wrote up a short story(5 mins reading) describing how ThousandEyes work behind the scenes based on my best current knowledge. So, let me begin.
The Story of the Agents
The magic of ThousandEyes is the agents that are covertly(?) operating all over the world, so-called Cloud Agents. Even when we're "Awake, Sleeping, Working, or Not working" (well, it’s too long, so let me “ASWN”), these Cloud Agents regularly access various websites and cloud services on the Internet as if we were accessing them, and collect data on their application experiences on behalf of us(just like agents). Since those data are collected from all over the world, the amount is enormous and the accuracy is very high. Makes sense? Cisco has these Cloud Agents in 242 cities in 63 countries around the world, and you can find the information at the https://www.thousandeyes.com/product/cloud-agents. However, you can’t see the names of these agents. It's kept as Top Secret to protect them.
By the way, these agents do not only work in the cloud. Customers can directly hire those agents if they need(just like private agents), and they work inside the on-premises corporate infrastructure, not in the cloud. Just like Cloud Agents, however, these agents also regularly access the SaaS applications on behalf of the users and connect the SaaS services on behalf of the on-premises servers when we’re ASWN!
These agents live primarily in two locations within the corporate infrastructure, one is network switches(like the Catalyst 9000 series) and the other is a virtual machine. The agent on the switch accesses the cloud applications as if it were a real user on the switch. The agent that resides in the virtual machine connects to the cloud services(e.g. AWS Aurora or Azure AI) as if it were one of the servers that are using those services from on-premises. These agents are called Enterprise Agents in the sense that they are not the agents directly hired by Cisco and operate on the Internet, but rather hired privately by enterprise customers.
Thirdly, there's a special agent called an End-Point Agent, which is hired as a form of plug-in in the user's web browser to measure exactly the same application experience as when the customer accesses the cloud app using his/her web browser. Usually, users often say "I got disconnected" or "It's too slow" without providing the actual data about their poor application experience, which makes troubleshooting much harder(You know what I mean). These End-Point Agents measure the experience in great detail, and show you visually). Also, it might be less the case now in the post-COVID era, but the End-Point Agents come in very handy when users access cloud apps in a non-office environment, such as working from home (or working at a cafe/in-car if you work for a company like Cisco where hybrid work is just standard), because the poor Enterprise Agents cannot work from home or work in the Café following the user!
If you've been following me so far, you've probably realized that ThousandEyes isn't just a network monitoring solution. That's why Cisco defines it as a "Digital Experience Monitoring" solution based on big data.
Lastly, the rendezvous where these three Agents gather and report their intelligence is …(hmm, perhaps I shouldn’t reveal this information, but … heehee) is ThousandEyes Portal. It's a single place where you can see all the combined intelligence from all around the globe The address is https://app.thousandeyes.com/login. It’s ID/Password-protected, but don’t worry. The head of secret agents happily decided to make the agent fee and the portal entrance free for 15 days! (Those agents work very hard selling and marketing themselves. They have to make a living just like us after all). And here is the request form for you. https://www.thousandeyes.com/signup/
