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Comprehensive Network Performance Management (by Chuck Loebach & Fred Bennett)

Vendor Profile - ZettaView Systems manufactures performance management systems that provide a superior troubleshooting and capacity planning experience for network administrators. Originally developed in Europe, the ZettaView system has long been an innovator and leader in monitoring and performance management. Consisting of a 24x7 real-time Network Manager, Alarm Manager, Historical Report Generator, Protocol Analyzer and Report Scheduler, ZettaView is a full-service monitoring and performance management for any network configuration.

Chuck Loebach is the International sales representative for ZettaView Systems. Since earning his engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Chuck has obtained a wide variety of experience in enterprise networking. As a sales and marketing professional, he has helped many IT departments attain their goals of increased efficiency and reduced slowdowns.

Fred Bennett is the CEO of Zettaview Systems. Fred has founded two successful network test equipment sales organizations. During the course of his 15+ years in the IT Test and Measurement industry, Fred has worked with networking environments ranging from large multinational corporations to single-site small businesses.

Overcoming Performance Issues and Other Obstacles in the Enterprise Environment

Overview

For the past 30 years information technology has steadily been increasing in importance in the corporate setting. Now the smallest network slowdown has repercussions felt company wide. Recent studies have shown that most financial and business transactions are conducted electronically. People depend upon efficient connections for vital revenue streams. Time, and now bytes, are money. And this trend shows no sign of slowing.

As a result of business’ increasing dependence on IT resources, diligent monitoring and maintenance of these resources are now instrumental in maintaining a successful enterprise. All successful companies require networks free from performance issues to continue and increase their sales channels. Many monitoring and performance management products have been introduced in recent years to meet the demanding needs of today’s network professionals. Ranging from simple post-analysis protocol analyzers to full 24x7 real-time systems with comprehensive reporting and full stream-to-disk packet capture capabilities, these solutions have sought to alleviate the performance issues that have plagued IT managers since the first corporate networking environment was created decades ago.

ZettaView @ Interop Vegas 2008

Vendor Profile - ZettaView Systems manufactures performance management systems that provide a superior troubleshooting and capacity planning experience for network administrators. Originally developed in Europe, the ZettaView system has long been an innovator and leader in monitoring and performance management. Consisting of a 24x7 real-time Network Manager, Alarm Manager, Historical Report Generator, Protocol Analyzer and Report Scheduler, ZettaView is a full-service monitoring and performance management for any network configuration.

Fred Bennett is the CEO of Zettaview Systems.

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Rising Above ... Wireshark University (by Denny K Miu)

Welcome to another episode of “Rising Above … America TECH Heroes” showcasing individuals who choose to “rise above” all that life can throw at them and be successful in spite of all odds and adversities.

I write regularly about entrepreneurship (particularly survival skills needed for “bootstrapping” entrepreneurs) and I enjoy talking about determined and successful entrepreneurs (as we did with Cahaba Data). Today we are featuring Laura Chappell, Founder of Wireshark University.

I met Laura for the first time during the recent Sharkfest Conference. Laura and her colleagues (Betty DuBois and Tony Fortunato) were teaching a series of introductory and advanced courses on network monitoring and troubleshooting (the PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded here). Since then I have learned more about Laura and her company and come to respect her immensely for what she has accomplished and her reputation among her peers.

As I have discussed in the past, entrepreneurship is fundamentally about wealth creation, for ourselves and our family. Entrepreneurship is far from rocket science. As one of my former Board members once told me (who was an early investor of Sun Microsystems and now spend his retirement racing BMW's when he is not on his yacht), “If you could take something that is previously a hassle for someone and turn it into a routine, then you have a business. And if in addition, you could convince your customers that what you have created is so valuable to them that they are willing to pay you more than what it takes for you to deliver your creation, then you have a 'profitable' business.”

Too often, especially in the Silicon Valley, we forget this simple truth and entrepreneurs (especially first-time entrepreneurs) confuse valuation with value-building (with no shortage of misinformation and generalization from VC's and from the popular media). They mistakenly believe that success is about getting investment from investors as opposed to building a sustainable and viable business.

It is nice to see counter examples such as Laura who didn't wait for the cavalry but instead choose to lift themselves by their bootstraps. Laura's success is built entirely on her deep believe that business is about providing values to her customers and her community.

A lot has been written already about Laura Chappell including her bio, a short video showing her entertaining lecture on ways that one can be attacked through cyberspace (everything you want to know but afraid to ask), her famous book on Internet Safety for Kids, her own account on how she started Wireshark University with blessing from Gerald Combs (creator of Wireshark) and finally, and her very popular blog (A bit of humor, a bit of technology - 0x10 bits in all).

Recently, Laura also started her YouTube video series (Bitsplitters) with episodes on many technical issues including Trace Files Time Stamp, etc. Never one afraid to provide entertainment while educating, she recently posted some advises on how **not** to buy gifts for Mother's day. Having been married for twenty plus years, her advise came at a most opportune time for me. Enjoy.

Alstom on OPNET

“I was skeptical at first, but I have to say that the [ACE Live] box definitely ‘does what it says on the tin.’ Its ability to quickly drill down to the cause of performance issues, its amazing ease of use, and the clarity of its presentation of so many useful metrics, have made it our primary tool for application performance management."

-- Chris Reynolds, UK Network Manager, IT Centre UK, ALSTOM

Customer Profile - ALSTOM (formerly GEC-Alsthom) is a large French multinational conglomerate whose businesses are power generation, railway signalling; and manufacturing trains (e.g. the TGV and Eurostar as well as Citadis trams) and the world's largest ships (e.g. Normandie and the Queen Mary 2). In the years 2006/07, Alstom had annual sales of over €14 billion, and employed more than 69,000 people in over 70 countries. Its headquarters are located in Levallois-Perret, near Paris.

Vendor Profile - OPNET Technologies, Inc. offers management software for networks and applications in the United States, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Among others, The company's products include ACE that enables application performance management through advanced analytics. The company serves corporate enterprises, government and defense agencies, network service providers, and network equipment manufacturers through direct sales force, subsidiaries, distributors, original equipment manufacturers, and resellers. OPNET Technologies was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.

ALSTOM Problems

* Inability to quickly troubleshoot performance problems
* No real-time overview of network: who’s talking to whom, what applications.
* Too much time fire-fighting, no time for new business-critical IT projects

ACE Live Solution

* An ACE Live appliance deployed in the main data center
* Monitor performance and utilization for all critical applications and links
* Real-time and historical view of wide range of application and network metrics

ALSTOM Benefits

* Much faster problem localization and resolution across entire network
* Real-time overview of network and application activity for all locations
* Extremely fast time to value, improved communication with non-technical managers
* More time for business-critical IT projects, improved IT support for business strategy

OPNET @ Interop Vegas 2008

Vendor Profile - OPNET Technologies, Inc. offers management software for networks and applications in the United States, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Among others, The company's products include ACE that enables application performance management through advanced analytics. The company serves corporate enterprises, government and defense agencies, network service providers, and network equipment manufacturers through direct sales force, subsidiaries, distributors, original equipment manufacturers, and resellers. OPNET Technologies was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.

Paul Dietz is the AVP of Northwest Regional Enterprise Sales for OPNET Technologies.

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AirTran Airways on Lancope

“[Lancope’s] StealthWatch performed so well during our evaluation that we did not pursue trials with any other NBA products”

-- Michelle Stewart, Manager of Data Security, AirTran Airways

Customer Profile: AirTran Airways, a Fortune 1000 company, offers passengers more than 700 affordable, daily flights to 56 destinations throughout the United States. The airline is the second-largest carrier at its hub, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and one of America's largest low-fare airlines. With more than 8,900 friendly Crew Members and free online booking, AirTran Airways makes travel both pleasant and convenient. The airline flies America's youngest all-Boeing fleet, composed of the fuel-efficient Boeing 737-700 and 717-200 aircraft. AirTran Airways was also the first to install XM Satellite Radio on a commercial aircraft and the only airline with Business Class seating on every flight.

Vendor Profile - Lancope®, Inc. is the provider of the StealthWatch™ System, the most widely used network behavior analysis (NBA) and response solution that unifies behavior-based anomaly detection and network optimization capabilities to protect critical information assets and ensure network performance by preventing costly downtime, repair and loss of reputation. StealthWatch streamlines security and network operations into one process, reduces time and resources, and eliminates the costs and complexity associated with non-integrated point products. Both OPSEC and Common Criteria-certified, StealthWatch received the 2007 Global Excellence Award in NBA and was named Best of Show at Interop 2006. Defending the networks of Global 2000 organizations, academic institutions and government entities, StealthWatch protects hundreds of enterprise customers worldwide, more than all direct competitors combined. Lancope is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

AirTran Airways Uses Lancope’s StealthWatch Network Behavior Analysis System with NetFlow to Help Demonstrate Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance

Editor’s Note: As everyone knows compliance is a necessity in today’s uncertain world of data communications. Along with compliance one must be deeply security conscious to protect their company and customers information, as one serious breach could bankrupt a company financially as well as ruin the companies’ reputation. Lancope, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia is ready with their NetFlow-based StealthWatch solution. The Lancope solution not only can verify compliance but through the use of NetFlow is also a cost effective network monitoring and management tool.

PCI (Payment Card Industry) is not the only compliance we have to consider, there are as many as 14 domestic versions of compliance not including the State, International and Country specific compliance acts. We have individual industry compliance acts also.

So today’s Network Manager must be an expert in Network, Server, Infrastructure, Security, Compliance, Telecommunications, Application, etc. This is not practical and this is where specialized companies – like Lancope – are desperately needed to provide solutions that are deployable, affordable, flexible and technologically sound to help solve today’s complex issues and expandable to help with the next generation of issues.

When you read the case study below, you will see how Lancope’s StealthWatch solution has been proven through successfully helping AirTran Airways.

--OldCommGuy

Lancope @ Interop Vegas 2008

Vendor Profile - Lancope®, Inc. is the provider of the StealthWatch™ System, the most widely used network behavior analysis (NBA) and response solution that unifies behavior-based anomaly detection and network optimization capabilities to protect critical information assets and ensure network performance by preventing costly downtime, repair and loss of reputation. StealthWatch streamlines security and network operations into one process, reduces time and resources, and eliminates the costs and complexity associated with non-integrated point products. Both OPSEC and Common Criteria-certified, StealthWatch received the 2007 Global Excellence Award in NBA and was named Best of Show at Interop 2006. Defending the networks of Global 2000 organizations, academic institutions and government entities, StealthWatch protects hundreds of enterprise customers worldwide, more than all direct competitors combined. Lancope is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jason Anderson is the VP of Engineering for Lancope.

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OSTU - Quickstart Guide for MRTG (by Tony Fortunato)

Instructor Profile - Tony Fortunato is a Senior Network Specialist with experience in design, implementation, and troubleshooting of LAN/WAN/Wireless networks, desktops and servers since 1989. His background in financial networks includes design and implementation of trading floor networks. Tony has taught at local high schools, Colleges/Universities, Networld/Interop and many onsite private classroom settings to thousands of analysts. Tony is an authorized and certified Fluke Networks and Wireshark Instructor. His Pine Mountain Group CNA Level I and II certification demonstrates his vendor neutral approach to network design, support and implementations. Tony has architected, installed and supported various types of Residential Wireless High Speed as well as hundreds of WIFI hotspots. Tony uses a variety of technologies from Powerline, Wireless and wired technologies to find the most cost-efficient and reliable solution for his customers. Tony combines custom programs, open source and commercial software to ensure a simple support infrastructure.

The following presentation can also be viewed on YouTube.

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Note: To view above presentation in full screen mode, click on "View" above which will take you to the Slideshare website, then click on "full" on lower right corner.

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Monitoring and Managing VoIP (by Charles Thompson)

Vendor Profile - Network Instruments provides in-depth network intelligence and continuous network availability through innovative analysis solutions. Enterprise network professionals depend on Network Instruments’ Observer product line for unparalleled network visibility to efficiently solve network problems and manage deployments. By combining a powerful management console with high-performance analysis appliances, Observer simplifies problem resolution and optimizes network and application performance. The company continues to lead the industry in ROI with its advanced Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture, which successfully integrates comprehensive analysis functionality across heterogeneous networks through a single monitoring interface. Network Instruments is headquartered in Minneapolis with sales offices worldwide and distributors in over 50 countries.

Charles Thompson is the Manager of Sales Engineering for Network Instruments.

Overview

As with most new technologies, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) brings new challenges along with the benefits. The main challenge is VoIP’s extreme sensitivity to delay and packet loss compared with other network applications such as web and e-mail services. A basic understanding of VoIP traffic and of the quality metrics provided by VoIP monitoring tools will help you keep your VoIP network running smoothly.

Network Intruments @ Interop Vegas 2008

Vendor Profile - Network Instruments provides in-depth network intelligence and continuous network availability through innovative analysis solutions. Enterprise network professionals depend on Network Instruments’ Observer product line for unparalleled network visibility to efficiently solve network problems and manage deployments. By combining a powerful management console with high-performance analysis appliances, Observer simplifies problem resolution and optimizes network and application performance. The company continues to lead the industry in ROI with its advanced Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture, which successfully integrates comprehensive analysis functionality across heterogeneous networks through a single monitoring interface. Network Instruments is headquartered in Minneapolis with sales offices worldwide and distributors in over 50 countries.

Sam Wang is the Central Region Territory Manager for Network Instruments.

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