Envisioning network performance with NetPredict

The number of products addressing network performance with some level of application sensitivity is well over 50 and growing.

These include RMON- and RMON2-based products, broad performance management tools from major brand names, protocol analyzers, e-business focused products, and capacity and optimization software. Some are point products. Some are end-to-end. Some more targeted at the applications developer. Some at the network manager seeking absolution from problems incurred from poorly designed applications. Some are targeted at predeployment testing for new applications, such as voice over IP. Some address IP-based application transport in context with non-IP transports such as ATM and frame relay.

To quote the King of Siam in "The King and I" - "Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."

A couple of the most interesting and little-known products come from an innovative company called NetPredict. Its NetPredictor and NetCallibrator, bundled together on a laptop, are distinctive in a number of ways.

One of them is price. While I usually reserve price information politely for the end of this column - NetPredict's bundled cost at $15,000 is worth mentioning up front, as it is well below the norm.

NetPredictor - and particularly, NetCallibrator - are unabashedly targeted at the network engineer, providing valuable data for troubleshooting and performance optimization. In other words, the analytics are not all done for you, but require some training and head scratching. It's actually refreshing to hear a vendor make no bones about that. Yet even so, NetPredict has delivered an impressive level of user satisfaction that at times borders on the religious.

NetPredict opens the door to a distinctive way of envisioning network performance. NetPredictor and NetCallibrator isolate points of latency throughout a network when there is a problem with the end user experience for a particular application, diagnose the problem pretty much from the top down, and then determine an action plan with quantifiable financial tradeoffs for optimization.

Rather than focusing on points of failure or standard assessments of bandwidth consumption or buffer utilization, NetPredict looks at a multiplicity of factors, all of which can affect delay - such as queuing, packet loss, application chatter and interdependencies across servers, routers, WAN links, and so forth. Its rich reports, graphs and analyses can lead to decisions affecting number of users, server placement, application design, application prioritization, client configuration and a whole slew of other variables.

NetPredictor provides an overview of functions, ranging from path discovery, predictions of the impact on performance of topological changes to a network, assessment of quality of service by time of day, and so forth.

NetCallibrator enables in-depth assessment, down to the packet level, plotting for payload, RTT, packet arrival time, and so forth.

Together, these products have been used to assess readiness, troubleshoot and optimize networks for voice over IP, Oracle and other databases, distance learning, enterprise resource planning applications and Citrix issues - just to mention a few.

The NetPredict suite (on a laptop PC) can be placed pretty much anywhere between an application server and the client (currently it does not yet support applications distributed across multiple servers). There is no need for additional intelligent agents. It is used pretty much serially, when and where there are problems, and so is effectively a complement to products monitoring and managing networked infrastructure on an ongoing basis.

NetPredict would like to see its products adopted as a standard part of network and IT operations across most large enterprises and service providers. As the product evolves towards improved presentation and functionality, this seems like a plausible goal.

NetPredict

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Dennis Drogseth is a director with Enterprise Management Associates, a leading analyst and market research firm based in Boulder, Colorado, focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Dennis has extensive experience in network management platforms and products and is researching trends in management software and changing IT roles internationally. His 18-plus years of experience in high-tech includes positions at IBM and Cabletron. He has been quoted in the press and is a speaker at industry events. He can be reached via e-mail.

Audrey Rasmussen is a research director with Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colorado, a leading analyst and market research firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Audrey has more than 20 years of experience working with distributed systems, applications and networks. Her current focus at EMA is e-business, SMB/SME and MSPs. She can be reached via e-mail.

Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colorado, is a leading analyst and market research firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management software and services.