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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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EATEL on Xangati

"The Xangati solution was very quick and easy to install. I can'€™t stop saying how intuitive the interface is, and how easy it is to jump in there and move around and look at things, and be productive without a significant amount of training. I think that's a great achievement for a product, especially considering the complexity of the subject matter."

-- Harris Miller, Manager of Engineering, EATEL

Customer Profile - EATEL is a privately owned communications company headquartered in Ascension Parish. Founded in 1935, the company provides services to residents in Ascension and Livingston parishes and is the only company in South Louisiana to offer phone, Internet and TV services over an all-fiber communications network. EATEL provides a broad array of digital programming, including 34 high-definition channels and hundreds of on-demand titles.

Vendor Profile - Xangati provides a rapid problem identification (RPI) system which IT organizations leverage when first responding to end-user, application and network performance and availability issues. Xangati RPI enables its users to swiftly and effectively track down root cause. Enterprises, government organizations and service providers alike use Xangati to accelerate problem identification efforts by at least twenty percent—which directly results in major productivity gains for the technical teams and their end-users.

Xangati Rapid Problem Identification Helps EATEL Deliver First-Class Service and Support to their customers!

The Challenges

• Grow market share and reduce costs in competitive IP services market
  
• Accelerate troubleshooting to maintain reputation for market-leading reliability and customer service
  
• Minimize the risks posed by malware and spam

The Results

• Reduced time spent on customer support calls by 25%
  
• Accelerated diagnosis of network and application problems for subscribers
  
• Reduced customer service costs by eliminating the need for truck rolls to diagnose customer problems
  
• Assisted training of customer support staff
  
• Accelerated security attack analysis, reducing response time from hours to minutes, and enabling network engineers to block attacks and protect servers
  
• Provided product managers with new visibility into customer trends and application usage

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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Xangati @ Sharkfest 2008

Vendor Profile - Xangati provides a rapid problem identification (RPI) system which IT organizations leverage when first responding to end-user, application and network performance and availability issues. Xangati RPI enables its users to swiftly and effectively track down root cause. Enterprises, government organizations and service providers alike use Xangati to accelerate problem identification efforts by at least twenty percent—which directly results in major productivity gains for the technical teams and their end-users.

David Messina is the VP of Product Management and Marketing for Xangati. David is a seasoned executive with fifteen years of experience in the marketing and selling of enterprise, consumer and service provider networking equipment on a global level. Prior to Xangati, David held product marketing and marketing communications executive positions for CoSine Communications and Bay Networks (acquired by Nortel Networks). David holds a BS in Economics from The Wharton School, UPENN.

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Monitoring for Compliance and Troubleshooting (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).

Goal: To obtain complete network visibility across the organization for the purpose of complying with government regulations and ensuring smooth delivery of business-critical applications. This will be achieved through an integrated solution that provides high-level reporting and historical root-cause analysis.

Global Monitoring Requirements

The primary tasks of troubleshooting and compliance investigations are: 1) identifying a problem or violation, and 2) drilling down on the issue to determine what happened and why. The job of problem identification has been complicated by increased traffic and applications running on the network.

Investigations are often like finding a needle in a haystack. The aforementioned added traffic only increases the haystack’s size. And, monitoring large amounts of traffic over multiple locations means the organization has to search multiple haystacks. Once the problem location is identified, network professionals need to investigate at a granular level within a specific haystack to identify the needle. For compliance this means identifying all details around the violation, and in the case of troubleshooting being able to review specific performance metrics and run packet-level analysis.

But given limited budgets and resources, how does a company easily identify problems occurring on a global network, while retaining the ability to drill down to investigate the cause for both compliance and troubleshooting?

Rockwell Automation on NetQoS

“NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer has satisfied our criteria for a manageable tool that our existing staff can use to gain central visibility into our global network traffic and quickly troubleshoot issues.”

-- P.J. Goodwin, Infrastructure Manager, Rockwell Automation

Customer Profile - Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK) is a leading global provider of industrial automation power, control and information solutions that help manufacturers achieve a competitive advantage in their businesses. The company brings together leading global brands in industrial automation that includes Allen-Bradley controls and services, and Rockwell Software factory management software. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., the company employs about 20,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.

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.

Background:

Greenville, S.C.-based Rockwell Automation Power Systems (RAPS) encompasses two divisions. The company’s Mechanical Power Transmission unit makes products such as mounted bearings, gear reducers, mechanical drives, couplings, bushings, clutches, and motor brakes, primarily under the Dodge brand name. Its Electrical unit makes industrial motors and standard AC and DC drives under the Reliance Electric brand, as well as providing repair and maintenance, plant maintenance, training, and consulting services. RAPS is a business segment of Rockwell Automation.

Rockwell Challenges:

» Controlling recurring costs
» Delivering quality network services
» Lack of staffing resources
» Lack of central visibility into the network
» Network blamed for all slowdowns
» Lengthy, inefficient troubleshooting process

Rockwell Results with NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer™:

» 100% visibility into WAN traffic
» Improved troubleshooting to solve performance problems faster
» Improved capacity planning for more informed infrastructure investments
» Improved security through greater network visibility
» Cost-effective solution
» Ease of administration/manageability for a small staff

Network Management “Cockpit” from PacketTrap (by Tim O’Neill)

Editor Profile - Tim O’Neill is an independent technology consultant. He has over 30 years experience working in the WAN, Analog, ISDN, ATM and LAN test market. Tim has worked with companies like Navtel, Network General, Ganymede and ClearSight Networks and is now helping companies get lab recognition and technology verification. Tim is also the Chief Contributing Editor for LoveMyTool.com, a website designed to help network managers gain access to valuable information and real solution stories from other customers. Tim is a patent holding, published and degreed engineer, who has seen this technology grow from Teletype (current loop) data analysis to today’s 10 Gigabit LAN’s focused on business applications with heavy compliance demands. Tim can be reached at oldcommguy (at) bellsouth (dot) net.

New and Very cool interface for open source tools has arrived!

Adding more ease of management for today’s technologist!

PacketTrap’s first product launch is the PtDashboard. This is part of their new network management solution called PT360, which sets a new standard for network management vendors and open source usage. It is a free download currently.

The PacketTrap Team recognizes the value of open source tools and that today’s managers need easy-to-use consolidated views and that is what PacketTrap is beginning to bring to the industry. There are two versions available, one is free (within the last 2 weeks they have had over 2,000 downloads) and the other is PacketTrap Professional PT360 which will soon be available for purchase.

When the Professional version is ready for launch in Q1 2008 it will build on the features of the free pt360 Tool Suite and includes Cisco configuration, network mapping, syslog functionality, open source integration and more network management tools. It will also include a dynamic Cisco Netflow analyzer, more robust credential storing management, greater ability to save and combine flow results between tools, much deeper network discovery (with network mapping), syslog server capabilities and more open source integration like Wireshark and more.

Both versions' GUI display is like a Cockpit of an airplane – Very Cool, and easy to read and understand – Lots of info!

Their goals are for users to download and use their product then give them feedback as to what is great and what they need to add in the future to address today’s and the future market needs. So download their product and let them know ... finally a company that really wants the industries help to build a very valuable network management tool.

The current PT360 toolsuite includes trace route, TFTP server, DNS audit, SNMP scan, WMI Scan, Port Scan and many other capabilities. In the following, I want to focus on two features that I think really stand out.

Education Management Corporation on NetQoS

“The performance of our critical applications has improved without question. We used to get daily performance complaint calls. Now we are getting comments about how good the performance is.”

-- Martin Kowalewski, Senior Network Analyst, EDMC

Customer Profile - Education Management Corporation (EDMC) is among the largest providers of private post-secondary education in North America, based on student enrollment and revenue, with with 96,000 students as of Fall 2007 at 81 locations in 26 states and two Canadian provinces. EDMC's education institutions offer a broad range of academic programs in the media arts, design, fashion, culinary arts, behavioral sciences, health sciences, education, information technology and business, culminating in the award of associate's through doctoral degrees. EDMC has provided career-focused education for over 40 years and is the parent company of Argosy University, The Art Institutes, Brown Mackie College and South University.

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.

EDMC Challenges:
» Troubleshooting poor application performance with few tools to determine or verify cause
» Reducing non-critical Web traffic
» Migrating to MPLS with few tools to do capacity planning, gain visibility into traffic or verify performance
» Validating SLAs with its carrier

EDMC Results Using NetQoS:
» Improving application performance
» Achieving bandwidth cost savings of 20 to 30%
» Troubleshooting issues faster and more efficiently
» Identifying opportunity to save $15,000 per month via network consolidation
» Verifying Service Level Agreements and VoIP deployments with MPLS migrations

UnumProvident on NetQoS

“These are two of the best tools I've ever seen, SuperAgent and ReporterAnalyzer. NetQoS obviously put a lot of thought, planning, implementation, and engineering into these products, resulting in well-written, enterprise-class solutions.”

-- Dan Collyer, Manager of Network Services, UnumProvident

Customer Profile - UnumProvident is the largest provider of group and individual income protection insurance in the United States and United Kingdom. Through its subsidiaries, UnumProvident insures more than 25 million people and provided $6.0 billion in total benefits to customers in 2005. With primary offices in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Portland, Maine, the company employs approximately 11,300 people worldwide.

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.

Challenge:

Why Is Network Traffic Increasing and What Impact Is It Having?

UnumProvident delivers applications globally over its wide area network (WAN) to employees located at three major campuses (with server farms in each), two large field offices and 36 smaller field offices. The company was experiencing a growth in network traffic, but did not have adequate network analysis tools to discover why this was happening or how application performance was being impacted. The network group used basic IP accounting, but could not gain much insight into what was consuming network resources.

In addition, UnumProvident needed a way to quickly isolate problems to the server, network or application. As Dan Collyer, UnumProvident's Manager of Network Services, said, “We spent way too much time determining the cause of problems. We needed a tool that would provide answers faster.”