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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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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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Will It Work in the WAN? (by Terry McNicholas)

Author Profile - Terry McNicholas is the President of iTrinegy Inc. (formerly Itheon Networks). Terry joined iTrinegy in 2006, established and built their North America operations, based out of Reno, NV. He is responsible for the iTrinegy Sales, Support, Services and Product Development activities in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions. Prior to iTrinegy, Terry served as VP of Operations and VP of Professional Services with Eagle Creek Software Services, the leading CRM Implementation Services organization in the USA, where he was responsible for more than 200 CRM implementation engagements and the day-to-day management of over 150 consultants. Before Eagle Creek, he was with Majesco Inc, serving as VP of Services and Chief Operating Officer, where he established Majesco as one of the major CRM Implementation Services and Offshore Outsourcing Service providers in the USA, leading a team of more than 300 consultants in onsite and offshore consulting engagements.

Introduction

With a trend towards server consolidation, increased remote working and greater reliance on wireless technology, more applications are expected to work over Wide Area Networks (WANs), Wireless LANs, GPRS, 3G or Satellite networks.

The problem is that a lot of software performance testing is still frequently only conducted over the fast & reliable Local Area Networks (LAN) of the test lab. Satisfactory application performance in these conditions is no guarantee of acceptable performance in non-LAN networks.

iTrinegy @ Interop Vegas 2008

Vendor Profile - iTrinegy develops sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, network performance technology to help organizations address networked application performance issues, de-risk application roll-outs and optimize network utilization. iTrinegy focuses on two core areas: 1) Application Response Time Monitoring and Network Traffic Analysis and 2) WAN/Network Emulation. iTrinegy Limited is a privately owned company registered in England and Wales . They also operate in the Americas through iTrinegy Inc. In addition, iTrinegy sells its technology through independent partners and resellers.

Terry McNicholas is the President of iTrinegy.

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City of Oslo on Compuware

Customer Profile - The City of Oslo is the largest employer in Norway. Thousands depend on the city to provide services, such as welfare, social security, healthcare and childcare. Outages in the applications that run the city’s services are extremely visible and often have life-or-death importance. The city takes a proactive approach to service management, aligning with its service providers to ensure the highest level of service. Vantage has become the framework of choice for guarantying service levels with the city mandating its use by service provider. Because both parties have the same frame of reference for the health and performance of the applications, they are working together to solve business problems, not debating over disparate metrics.

Vendor Profile - Compuware Corporation maximizes the value IT brings to the business by helping CIOs more effectively manage the business of IT. Compuware solutions accelerate the development, improve the quality and enhance the performance of critical business systems while enabling CIOs to align and govern the entire IT portfolio, increasing efficiency, cost control and employee productivity throughout the IT organization. Founded in 1973, Compuware serves the world's leading IT organizations, including more than 90 percent of the Fortune 100 companies. Compuware's 2006 sales was $1.2 billion.

Customer: Asmund Vikeness, City of Oslo

Situation: Deliver on service level agreements with end users.

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What Will They TAX Next? (by Scott Turkow)

Author Profile - Scott Turkow has 8 years of experience in the Enterprise Software space, primarily in Operations and Sales Ops roles. Scott is the Senior Operations Manager at Integrien Corporation, the leading intelligent systems management company that enables the predictable operation of mission critical applications. Prior to Integrien, Scott was with the Resource Management Software Group of EMC, which focused on the development and sale of automated network management products. A tri-athlete in training, Scott tries to be outdoors when he’s unshackled from his computer.

What Will They TAX Next?

Is “The Man” sticking it to you again this year? More often then not, when it comes to taxes, we stick it to ourselves. Which reminds me, do I still have time to itemize the building of a fallout shelter as a preventive medicine deduction?

For years, many organizations have been over-investing in IT assets and then wondering where the biggest chunk of the budget goes? I’m an IT tax professional (Suze Orman has nothing on me), so here’s a free tax tip that falls into the “overlooked deduction” department – it’s the “labor tax”, silly. And not necessarily in terms of headcount, but the manual effort tied to tasks that can, and should, be automated.

IDC says Management and Administrative costs will grow by 10% a year through 2010[1]. The largest component (30%) of overall IT spend is labor. Of this, the vast majority (77%) is just keeping the lights on (system & network management, HW & SW support and maintenance). And just to be clear, human costs for “running technology” will continue to increase as a percentage of overall costs unless you take a new approach. But unlike your relationship with the IRS, you have a choice. You can opt to pay much less of your “lights on” taxes. The key to this particular reduction is automation - the only long term answer to reducing management costs.

So why automation?

NetQoS @ Sharkfest 2008

Vendor Profile - NetQoS software and services help service providers, government agencies, and large enterprises – including half of the Fortune 100 – improve the delivery of applications over wide area networks by enabling them to monitor application service levels, troubleshoot problems quickly, and plan for change. Representative NetQoS customers include Chevron, Lockheed Martin, American Express, Hilton Hotels, Siemens, Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, NASA, and Barclays Global Investors. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NetQoS has R&D centers in Austin and Raleigh, N.C., and regional sales offices in London and Singapore.

Joel Trammell is the CEO and Co-Founder of NetQoS which co-sponsors Sharkfest 2008. Since co-founding NetQoS in 1999, Mr. Trammell – a 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner – has led the company to become one of the fastest growing in the U.S., with a rapidly growing list of more than 700 blue-chip customers and sustained profitability. In 2005, the Austin Business Journal recognized him as its Private Company Executive of the Year. Joel began his career as an Officer and Instructor/Division Director at the U.S. Navy’s prestigious Naval Nuclear Power School, instructing more than 400 naval officers in thermal sciences and nuclear reactor plant systems. He was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal and the designation of Master Training Specialist before moving on to build products and solutions that would empower clients to solve their long-standing information technology problems.

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Troubleshooting Hogs Bandwidth (by Steve Brown)

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.

Stephen Brown is the Product Marketing Manager for Network Instruments with nearly a decade of experience in network management and security. Steve is also the head geek in charge of their company blog, Network Observations. Steve likes to "get his geek on" anything network security related, VoIP stuff, and anything music and biking related (the kind that requires push power).

Between January and February 2008, we have communicated with 592 network engineers, IT directors, and CIOs scattered around North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America. In addition to being geographically diverse, the population was also evenly distributed among different sized networks. This study was a follow-up of a similar exercise we performed a year ago and the goal is to gauge the changing attitudes and concerns of network professionals, to calculate the average time spent by an IT staff troubleshooting network problems, and to determine adoption rates of new technologies and topologies.

As a leading provider of innovative network analysis solutions, helping organizations and enterprises – including 70 of the Global Fortune 100 companies, it is obvious why Network Instruments would want to know what networking experts think. But we have learned that most of all, technologists also want to hear from other technologists. As Mike Barlow, coauthor of the book “Partnering With the CIO”, has said, “[CIOs] want to listen to other CIOs, not the VP of marketing … they want to hear from someone who's had the same experiences they have.”

What we have learned from this global survey is that despite the many new tools for monitoring and optimizing application performance, almost 75 percent of network professionals continue to cite “identifying the source of a problem” as their primary troubleshooting concern, marking a 25 percent increase from 2007. Performance problems are also on the rise with over two-thirds of respondents spending at least 25 days per year determining the cause of these issues.

Our research indicates that network professionals faced the following challenges:

• Continued lack of troubleshooting information: 31 percent cited this as their major network concern
  
• Ensuring application delivery: 25 percent felt this was the greatest network challenge
  
• Application performance headaches: Over one-third cited bandwidth consumption issues as the chief offender, while 32 percent selected application latency and delay issues as the second most common
  
• Problems investigating intermittent errors: 32 percent felt their organization needed to improve its ability to troubleshoot sporadic performance errors
  
• Security and compliance problems: These issues continue to be a headache for three-quarters of respondents