NetScout believes more data is better

For IT managers, the saying “less is more” doesn't always apply - especially when it comes to collecting data across multiple infrastructure and network components.

Yet depending on the year, network management vendors have steered their products to either show all log data or filter out unnecessary events, or report on high-level network and application performance while keeping the deep-dive statistics in the background.

The current trend is to do both: collect and be able to report an all data, but provide a layered product that lets IT managers decide for themselves what level of detail they'd like to see.

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For IT managers, the saying “less is more” doesn't always apply - especially when it comes to collecting data across multiple infrastructure and network components.

Yet depending on the year, network management vendors have steered their products to either show all log data or filter out unnecessary events, or report on high-level network and application performance while keeping the deep-dive statistics in the background.

The current trend is to do both: collect and be able to report an all data, but provide a layered product that lets IT managers decide for themselves what level of detail they'd like to see.

Take NetScout, for example. The network management vendor provides software and appliance probes to collect data on multiple network components, including NetFlow data from Cisco routers, performance data on VPN tunnels and WAN hub and link data. This week the company will announce plans to provide more “high-definition” statistics in its nGenuis Performance Manager Version 3.0. NetScout upgraded its flagship software and probes to provide IT managers with automated performance management analytics as well as access to more granular, or high-definition, data across converged networks.

Dubbed high-definition performance management (HDPM), the software can gather statistics at a deeper level and provide more specific information on, say, the URLs being visited via the Web or the specific application content related to Citrix traffic.

"[NetScout's] long-term goal is to hook up with broader automated network and systems management tools like IBM's On Demand or HP's Adaptive Enterprise, to take advantage of our expertise on network side to provide a powerful set of intelligent metrics," says Jim Frey, vice president of marketing for NetScout.

The company says nGenuis Performance Manager 3.0, with HDPM enabled, can display application and network performance metrics with "granularity as fine as one-minute (averages) with corresponding one-second peak values." It also provides insight into all applications and host (server and end-user) conversations on an enterprise network. 

To enable this deeper collection of data, NetScout did two things. The company redesigned how probes pre-process data and how its products transfer data across networks. The company says it enables the server software and hardware probes to collect and analyze more data in real time without an added burden to the network.

Available immediately, the upgrade to nGenius Performance Manager 3.0 is free of charge for current NetScout customers. For new customers, the list price is $50,000. 

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