In a new video, Peter Sevcik draws on findings from NetForecast's landmark APM best practices benchmarking study of more than 600 enterprises to show how APM best practices deliver performance excellence--and he identifies critical application performance management tool features required to support those best practices. Peter also explains how recent IT infrastructure and application delivery improvements change how application performance must be managed, and describes new APM approaches that address those chan Read more
There was an ominous juxtaposition of two articles about controlling Internet use in the June 17th issue of the Wall Street Journal. One article described how the Iranian government is using deep packet inspection to spy on and limit its citizens' Internet use--and the other described how the UK is about to mandate the use of deep packet inspection to identify and crack down on piracy. We see the two news items as variants on a theme, and we see a lesson to be learned. Read more
The WAN optimization market is growing and changing, and we are investigating how. Tell us your WAN optimization needs and preferences, and we will enter your name in drawings for one $200 and four $50 Amazon gift certificates. See the survey results in upcoming blogs. Click here to take the survey. Your opinion matters! In fact, your responses can influence the direction of future products and services.
We attended this year's spring Interop show and found it sleepy--and quite frankly a bit dull. Attendance was down, which is understandable in this economy. However, the big disappointment with Interop this year and in recent years is that it has lost its mojo. But we have a proposal to wake Interop from its doldrums next year--make interoperability testing for application delivery system (i.e. WAN optimization) vendors a centerpiece of the show.
Here's the problem. A user behind a Riverbed Steelhead can't communicate with a server behind a Cisco WAAS. This is nuts! The Application Delivery System (ADS--aka WAN optimization) market is mature enough to fix this. The time has come to standardize how ADS technology works so enterprises can build multivendor solutions. We have done this with every other network technology. Why should ADS technology be different?
For the last three blogs in this series we have described the videoconferencing service offerings on the market today in generic terms. This week we provide a specific carrier-by-carrier overview of what room-based and immersive videoconferencing service the carriers we interviewed for this series--AT&T, BT Global Services, Masergy, NTT Communications, Orange Business Services, Tata Communications, Telstra, and Verizon Business--are offering.
Last week our esteemed colleague from Nemertes Research Johna Till Johnson wrote that the Internet is in deep peril because: "IP itself is nearing end-of-life, with no ready alternative." To prevent what she describes as a looming crisis, Johna champions a radical new Internet architecture. Just as the sky did not fall on Chicken Little, the Internet sky is not about to fall on us.
Read more
It was only a matter of time before system integrators codified a set of application performance optimization services (joining the network service providers we have already profiled--see below). We've been eager to see who among the systems integrators would be first--and the winner is EDS (an HP company). Although other system integrators such as IBM Global Services provide custom solutions, to our knowledge EDS leads the pack in formalizing its application performance service offerings.
As the dreaded word "pandemic" tops this week's headlines about the swine flu virus spreading around the globe, many businesses are dusting off emergency plans for employees to work from home and schools are poised to send students home. If this turns out to be a full-fledged pandemic, not only will people fall ill, the Internet will too. Businesses think that "continuity" will be achieved with collaboration and online workflow procedures, while schools think that "education" will proceed via Edline assignments and online homework delivery. Read more
The last two postings in our Guide to Videoconferencing Services series described the types of videoconferencing services available from carriers. This week we introduce the vendors upon whose products these services are built. Polycom, Tandberg, and RADVISION are the three most well established traditional room-based video conferencing vendors. More recently LifeSize joined the group with products focused exclusively on high definition (HD) room-based conferencing. Cisco and HP are market newcomers, having both introduced telepresence systems a mere two years ago.
Last week we gave you a snapshot of the videoconferencing service types on the market today, including top-of-the-line immersive videoconferencing, the next step down--room-based videoconferencing, and finally the poor man's alternative--desktop videoconferencing. This week we describe the types of videoconferencing services carriers currently have in their quivers. Read more
"Once the economy begins to recover, videoconferencing will see meteoric growth," BT's Videoconferencing Unit general manager Jeff Prestel told us in a recent interview. In the mean time growth is respectable, experience quality is improving, systems are easier to use, and high-end "immersive" solutions are creating a lot of buzz--although not making major inroads just yet. Collaborating with our colleague John Bartlett, we learned this and more during recent interviews with eight carriers to create this four-part "Guide to Videoconferencing Services". Read more
If you plan to combine multiple T1s or E1s to construct a higher bandwidth logical link, you should know that combining links can lead to out-of-order packets that can hurt voice and video stream quality. There are several ways to fix this problem, and the right solution depends on your situation. Read more
To know how your website is really performing you need to put it through ALL, not just some of its paces. There are two primary website testing approaches: one uses a slimmed down subset of browser functionality packaged into a ‘website tester', and the other uses a fully functioning browser. Read more
Good VoIP quality requires measuring your user's experience. Why? Because we're talking about talking, not e-mail. A VoIP application's job is to recreate a real event-a conversation between live people who expect a good quality experience. Voice-related traffic needs to be delivered quickly and consistently to achieve a smooth and natural conversation.
First let's distinguish between quality of experience (QoE) and quality of service (QoS). QoS deals with how well the network delivers packets. Read more
Our recent blog "Engineers Not Scientists Will Rescue the Economy" roused strong reaction among some Network World readers and within a mailing list of ex-BBN employees who played a major role in making the Internet possible. Some faulted us for pitting engineering against science, which was not our intent. We wanted to point out that given proper resources and encouragement, engineers can jump-start the economy now--while scientists are better positioned to lay groundwork for breakthroughs that will help the economy in the future. Read more
There are four key steps to deploying QoS for VoIP, and if you don't follow them all, your VoIP implementation will not live up to its full potential. There's a lot more to implementing QoS than just switching on a router feature--so take the time to plan and design the right QoS deployment for your situation. Here are the four steps we have put together along with our colleague John Bartlett.
Step 1: Classify Your Voice Traffic Read more
Data networking folks tend to think of voice/data convergence as simply commingling one more application with others on the data network. So what's the big deal? Together with our colleague John Bartlett who specializes in troubleshooting VoIP and video quality issues, we think it is a big deal. VoIP is a different critter from data--and the sooner you understand and prepare for convergence, the better off you and your VoIP users will be.
One reason you should prepare well for convergence is to meet your users' expectations. Read more
To kick start the U.S. economy we need more engineering chutzpah. This week Washington is unveiling a fix for the banking industry along with a stimulus package to resuscitate the moribund economy. These are necessary temporary boosts--but for the long haul the economy needs new sources of sustainable growth. Alternative energy and green cars top the list of promising foundation stones for long-term domestic economic growth. Our new president is urging us turn our sights to science. Read more
Advertisement: |
The Leader in Network Knowledge
