With an aptitude for data science and a vision for the future of data integration, Chloe Maraina is a Business Intelligence expert passionate about creating compelling visual stories by analyzing big data. We sat down with her to discuss the expanding gaps in network visibility as enterprises embrace more distributed infrastructure and navigate shrinking certificate lifespans. Our conversation touches on the practical challenges of monitoring new wireless standards like Wi-Fi 7, the high-stakes decision between private 5G and Wi-Fi in critical environments, the pervasive risk of certificate-related outages, and how to turn the discovery of “shadow IT” into a strategic advantage.
Many enterprises struggle with network visibility at remote wireless sites. How does analyzing packet-level data directly at the edge help teams understand application performance, and what specific metrics should they track when evaluating a move to Wi-Fi 7?
That’s a critical architectural challenge. The last thing you want is for your monitoring solution to consume the very WAN bandwidth you’re trying to protect. By placing sensors at the remote site to perform real-time deep packet inspection locally, you gain a massive advantage. All that rich, packet-level data is analyzed right where it’s generated. This means you get detailed application-level performance metrics and protocol analysis for everything from Wi-Fi 5 up to the new Wi-Fi 7 standard, without backhauling terabytes of traffic. When evaluating Wi-Fi 7, it’s not enough to just look at signal strength. Teams need to track performance on a per-application basis to validate if the new standard truly delivers the expected improvements over, say, Wi-Fi 6 in their specific physical locations. This is how you move from hoping for a better experience to proving it with data before committing to a full rollout.
Organizations like hospitals are evaluating private 5G against Wi-Fi 7, considering factors like signal propagation. Can you walk me through how a team could use deep packet inspection during a pilot to compare user experience and decide which technology better supports their critical applications?
That’s a perfect example of where this gets really interesting. In a hospital, you’re dealing with RF-shielded patient rooms and other physical barriers that make reliable coverage a life-or-death matter. A pilot program using deep packet inspection is essential for making an informed decision. You’d deploy both private 5G and Wi-Fi 7 in a controlled section of the facility. The key is to stop talking about the technology and start talking about the experience. The sensors would capture how critical hospital applications—EHR systems, imaging software, communication tools—are actually performing for the doctors and nurses. It’s all about looking at the user experience. You’d be able to see, with hard data, which applications perform better on which network, in which specific rooms, and under what conditions. This allows the IT team to make a decision based not on a vendor’s spec sheet, but on how the technology directly impacts the employees and the critical services they provide.
With certificate validity periods shrinking, many organizations struggle to track all their SSL/TLS certificates, especially those deployed outside of normal change management. What is the process for discovering these “hidden” certificates, and how does that visibility help turn potential outages into planned maintenance?
This is a huge, often invisible, source of risk. The industry is moving toward 200-day validity periods, and a recent study showed that over half of organizations—51% to be exact—can’t accurately inventory all their certificates. The process for finding them involves continuous, automated discovery directly from network traffic. Deep packet inspection identifies every SSL/TLS certificate in use, regardless of whether it’s documented in a change management database or running on a non-standard port. It sees everything. Once discovered, the system tracks each certificate’s status, flagging any that are nearing their expiration date. This fundamentally changes the operational posture. Instead of a critical API call suddenly failing and causing a cascading outage because a forgotten certificate expired, the team gets an alert weeks in advance. That sudden, catastrophic failure is transformed into a routine, planned maintenance window.
Shadow IT is often viewed only as a risk, yet it can also be an opportunity. How can discovering unapproved devices and applications through deep packet inspection provide strategic value? Please share an example of how this visibility has helped an organization improve its operations or security posture.
It’s all about shifting your perspective. For years, we’ve been conditioned to see shadow IT as purely a threat. And while the risk is real, the discovery process itself is an incredible opportunity to learn what your business actually needs to function. When deep packet inspection discovers an unapproved application being used by a whole department, the first question shouldn’t just be “How do we block this?” It should be “What business problem is this tool solving that our official solutions are not?” For instance, a marketing team might be using an unsanctioned cloud storage service to share large creative files with an external agency because the corporate-approved method is too slow and cumbersome. Discovering this allows IT to either properly secure and sanction the new tool or find an official solution that meets the team’s needs. That visibility turns IT from a blocker into a strategic partner, improving both security and productivity.
What is your forecast for network observability?
My forecast is that network observability will become inextricably linked with preventative operations. The days of reactive troubleshooting as the primary function of network teams are numbered. The complexity of distributed infrastructure, the speed of cloud adoption, and the constant pressure from security threats mean that we can no longer afford to wait for things to break. The future is about using comprehensive, packet-level data to see problems before they impact users. This means proactively managing certificate lifecycles, validating new technologies like Wi-Fi 7 before deployment, and understanding the “why” behind shadow IT. The tools and the data are finally catching up to this vision, allowing teams to shift from firefighting to architecting resilient, high-performing, and secure networks.
