Solutions
Network Monitoring & Visibility Hardware
The monitoring platform is your choice. What we supply is the visibility layer it needs to see anything — mirror-capable switching, the optics on the tap path, collector hosts and the storage your retention window actually demands.
- Scope
- The hardware layer beneath a monitoring platform
- What we quote
- Switching, optics, collector hosts, NICs, retention storage
- Boundary
- We do not operate monitoring and we run no NOC
A monitoring platform can only see what the network hands it
Monitoring projects usually start at the wrong end. A platform gets chosen, dashboards get designed, and then somebody discovers the access switches at three sites cannot mirror a port, the collector is a repurposed desktop with a single gigabit interface, and the retention policy the security team wrote assumes twelve times the storage that was actually bought. None of those are software problems. Uniqcli supplies the layer underneath: switching that can mirror or feed a tap, the optics and media conversion on that path, collector hosts sized for the flow rate, the interfaces that get traffic into them, and storage sized honestly against the retention window. Which platform reads that data — and who watches it — stays entirely with you.
Where a visibility design usually runs out of hardware
The first constraint is the mirror itself. Port mirroring is a managed-switch feature, and the number of simultaneous sessions, whether they survive at line rate, and whether the switch can mirror a VLAN rather than a port all vary by model — which is why the visibility design has to be checked against the switch generation actually deployed, not against the datasheet of the one being replaced next year.
The second is the path between the mirror and the collector. A ten-gigabit mirror feeding a one-gigabit collector interface silently drops what it cannot carry, and the drop is invisible in the very tool meant to find problems. Optics, media conversion and interface capacity are the unglamorous part of a monitoring build and the one most often under-specified.
The third is retention. Flow records compress well and packet capture does not, and the difference between thirty days of NetFlow and thirty days of full capture is orders of magnitude. Sizing that honestly — against the actual rate, not a rounded guess — is the difference between a retention policy and an aspiration.
The four pieces a visibility layer is built from
Every line here is hardware. The platform that reads it is a separate decision. Naming a manufacturer describes the market, not a Uniqcli partnership or endorsement.
Mirror-capable managed switching
Allied Telesis and Netgear carry deep managed switching lines with port mirroring and SPAN capability across access and aggregation roles, and Ubiquiti covers the smaller-site end. Specification starts with how many mirror sessions the design needs concurrently and whether they have to survive at full line rate — the two questions that decide the model.
Optics and media on the tap path
Transceivers and media converters are what keep a mirror from becoming a bottleneck between an aggregation switch and a collector that lives somewhere else in the rack — or somewhere else in the building. Quoted against the exact platform and reach the path needs rather than a generic part.
Collector hosts and capture interfaces
Lenovo servers and workstations cover the collector role, and the interface card is as important as the host: capture and flow analysis are I/O problems long before they are CPU problems. Sized against the flow rate the design expects, with the NIC chosen for the capture path rather than inherited from a standard build.
Retention storage
Nexsan storage arrays carry a deep priced line for the retention end of a monitoring build, where the requirement is sustained write throughput and predictable capacity growth rather than peak IOPS. We size against your stated retention window and tell you plainly what the number means in capacity terms.
What this page deliberately does not offer
We do not sell monitoring or observability platforms from the catalog — those lines are simply not ones we hold, and we would rather say that than imply a shelf that does not exist. Where a platform is genuinely in scope for a project, we take it as a sourcing request through authorized US distribution and tell you plainly if it cannot be sourced.
We also do not operate monitoring. There is no Uniqcli network operations center, no alert queue we watch, and no dashboard we log into on your behalf. The platform, the thresholds, the escalation path and the people who answer at three in the morning are yours or your MSP's. The program stays yours to run — the policy, the schedule, the decisions and the records. What a supplier puts behind it is the hardware, the licensing and the integration work that puts either into service.
Visibility hardware questions
Do you supply the monitoring platform itself?
Not from the catalog — monitoring and observability platforms are not lines we hold. Where one is in scope we treat it as a sourcing request through authorized US distribution and say plainly if it cannot be sourced. The hardware underneath it is what we quote as a matter of course.
Will you tell us what to monitor?
We will tell you what a given switch generation can mirror, what an interface can carry without dropping, and what a retention window costs in capacity. What to alert on, and who responds, is an operations decision inside your organization. We supply and integrate the hardware; we do not run the practice.
Can you stage and configure the collectors before they ship?
Yes — imaging, firmware baseline and configuration staging are standard parts of our integration lane, run against the build sheet and image you provide. Units arrive configured with an asset record rather than as boxes to be cataloged on site.
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Send the visibility design and we will spec the layer under it
Site count, expected flow rate and retention window are enough to start. We come back with switching, optics, collector and storage as one bill of materials.