Start-up manages IP/net performance

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - Network testing and diagnostics software from start-up Jaalam Technologies will give customers a real-time view of IP network performance and can help pinpoint the source of problems.

Jaalam, founded in July 2000, last week released the first version of AppareNet, its flagship performance management software. Jaalam, meaning network of friends in Hindi, says its software can pinpoint performance problems, showing customers where bottlenecks or failures have occurred and what - network, application or outside service provider - is to blame. The software can determine how much bandwidth is being used by applications, if routers are misconfigured and how quickly or slowly network devices respond, among other things, the company says.

"It's more valuable than any other sniffer or protocol analyzer I've used," says John Proffitt, lead network engineer at Providence Medical Alaska in Anchorage. "It takes us less time to diagnose either real or imagined network problems, and we can choose where to spend our time and efforts on improving network performance."

Proffitt started testing AppareNet in October 2001 to test the healthcare provider's connectivity with an Internet-based application service provider (ASP). The ASP had told Proffitt the poor service he was receiving from the ASP was due to Providence's Internet connection and its location in Alaska, "so far away from the lower 48 states."

Using AppareNet, Proffitt learned the ASP had a problem on its network that was adversely affecting the service. With AppareNet, Proffitt proved to the ASP, and Providence's upper management, that his internal network and Internet connectivity was not the cause of the problem and ended the relationship with the vendor.

AppareNet software on a laptop or workstation works by sending groups of packets over network lines to servers, routers, switches, the Internet and external service providers. The condition in which the packets return helps the software determine what happened to them on their round-trip across users' network lines. Using algorithms, the software reads the packets and determines how routers and switches are configured, the bandwidth used on network lines and if applications are too chatty.

AppareNet reports on the networks and devices it encounters across the network, the company says. That means if a service provider router is delivering only 64K bit/sec on a 128K bit/sec line, AppareNet will report that, and users can contact their providers to guarantee their service.

Giga Information Group analyst Jean-Pierre Garbani says AppareNet works to actively transform how networks use IP and optimize network performance in the short term.

"It performs a type of very active modeling and monitoring of the IP network. In ways, it's like real-time capacity planning," Garbani says. "It can also look at the type of service you're getting, and that's very significant to enterprise users."

"What's exciting is that we can see networks that we don't own or don't run. Rarely will a service provider let you snoop around its network or validate its technical choices," Proffitt says.

Reactive software

This first version of the software works as a "reactive" tool, the company says, meaning users would deploy it to determine why performance is lacking on parts of their IP network. Proffitt says the reactive part of the product is one thing he'd like to see improved in AppareNet, and Jaalam says a "proactive" or always-on, version of the software will be made available sometime this year.

AppareNet competes with the protocol analyzer aspects of Sniffer tools from Network Associates and performance management software from companies such as Concord Communications.

Available now, AppareNet comes in two flavors: enterprise and solo.

The solo version is the software installed on a laptop or workstation, and pricing begins between $25,000 to $30,000. The enterprise version is a hardware appliance equipped with the software, and it costs $100,000.