Ipanema, Kemp make network gear more responsive

Ipanema Technologies and Kemp Technologies have designed their respective traffic-management gear for very different environments, but both had the same goal in mind as they prepped new product upgrades: How to make their gear more responsive to fluctuating network and application conditions.

Ipanema makes traffic-management products geared for large enterprises and service providers, while Kemp targets small and midsize companies with its load-balancing appliances.

In the new version of Ipanema’s traffic management system, the vendor added automatic bandwidth tracking capabilities that are designed to secure the performance of applications that are most vulnerable to bandwidth changes, such as voice and video (Compare Application Acceleration and WAN Traffic Optimization products).

The bandwidth tracking features are built into latest version of Ipanema’s software, which runs on its “ip/engines” line of hardware. The technology analyzes traffic patterns to determine available throughput in any direction on a meshed network. After detecting congestion, Ipanema’s optimization technology can alter the balance of traffic flowing in a particular direction to make sure critical apps get the bandwidth they need -- without operator intervention, Ipanema stresses.

To continue reading, register here to become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Ipanema Technologies and Kemp Technologies have designed their respective traffic-management gear for very different environments, but both had the same goal in mind as they prepped new product upgrades: How to make their gear more responsive to fluctuating network and application conditions.

Ipanema makes traffic-management products geared for large enterprises and service providers, while Kemp targets small and midsize companies with its load-balancing appliances.

In the new version of Ipanema’s traffic management system, the vendor added automatic bandwidth tracking capabilities that are designed to secure the performance of applications that are most vulnerable to bandwidth changes, such as voice and video (Compare Application Acceleration and WAN Traffic Optimization products).

The bandwidth tracking features are built into latest version of Ipanema’s software, which runs on its “ip/engines” line of hardware. The technology analyzes traffic patterns to determine available throughput in any direction on a meshed network. After detecting congestion, Ipanema’s optimization technology can alter the balance of traffic flowing in a particular direction to make sure critical apps get the bandwidth they need -- without operator intervention, Ipanema stresses.

“The system will automatically adapt to the bandwidth available to maintain the best performances for all business critical applications,” said Houda Chabir Robert, Ipanema’s vice president for North America, in a statement.

For its part, Kemp added support for Microsoft Windows Terminal Services to its lineup of LoadMaster appliances. With Terminal Services support, LoadMaster users can maintain persistence as well as perform resource monitoring for Window servers running multiple services. The LoadMaster resource monitoring feature provides data on memory and CPU usage, for example, so companies can be more efficient about distributing loads among servers.

To help maintain a persistent connection, Kemp integrated its appliances with Microsoft’s Session Directory to provide a more reliable re-connect when a server is disconnected. (Kemp also has its own persistence capabilities for reconnecting client sessions that doesn’t require Microsoft’s Session Directory Service to be installed.)

“Up to now you could have purchased a Kemp LoadMaster for Terminal Services, and we’d load balance it, but we’d only have been able to track users based on their IP address. The problem with that -- and the problem with most load balancers and Terminal Services -- is that’s not good enough,” said Kemp CTO John Braunhut in a video outlining the new LoadMaster features.

“If you’ve got a VPN and a WAN link, all the users at a remote site look like they’re coming from one address, so you’re not getting load balancing, you’re getting everybody from a large branch office, or a large division, just all glommed on to one server. That’s not what we’re aiming for. People want to use their resources effectively, they want to level the load. The only way to do that is by true Layer 7 load balancing, and that’s what we’re doing for Terminal Services.”