Response to RFP: NextPoint

Centralization Corp. is looking for a comprehensive network monitoring and alerting solution. The current network is run be a team of very busy network administrators and troubleshooters. A solution is needed that will help free up some of their personnel resource. One of the primary things that would save a lot of time is an automated system for checking the status of every device on the network and sending alerts via page or email if something isn't working correctly.

However, there are several requirements to be met before such a system can be implemented. The solution must be capable of monitoring both the company's Intranet and Internet servers and devices on a 24-hour basis. The software should be able to continuously monitor the company's routers, switches, firewalls, remote access servers, RADIUS servers, web servers, SMTP/POP3 (email) servers, DNS servers and Microsoft Windows NT server functions. The software's polling interval for each device should be configurable by the administrators, as some devices are critical to the network and should be checked on a very regular basis. Other devices need to be checked much less frequently.

The software should check to make sure each device or resource is functioning correctly, if a device fails, an alert should be sent immediately. At a minimum, the alerts should consist of a page being sent, either in alphanumeric or simple numeric format as well as an email being forwarded to the IT team. A nice feature for future expansion would be the ability to launch a custom application that could restart a service or execute a soft reboot of a device. A detailed log file containing all device failures and alerts is required.

NextPoint Networks Response

1. Executive summary
   
   The NextPoint S3 product suite provides comprehensive monitoring and alerting functions, performance and service level analysis, and performance reporting capabilities for enterprise networks and applications. These capabilities result in significant business benefits such as optimum application and network performance, enhanced return on network investments (ROI), and improved end-user productivity. Only NextPoint offers the breadth of functionality to monitor not just individual devices, but end-to-end network paths and applications.

2. Technical Response
   1. NextPoint S3 software architecture/components.
      NextPoint S3 comprises three components that seamlessly integrate to provide a "management intranet" that ensures breadth of monitoring, scalability, and flexible deployment.
      1. The NextPoint S3 server comprises a suite of software applications that provide NextPoint's performance and service level analysis. The server collects data from SNMP, RMON, RMON2, and NextPoint S3 Agents to provide real-time and long-term insight into network and application performance.

      2. NextPoint S3 agents collect network and application service level measurements (i.e., response time, availability) from the end-user perspective, using innovative Synthetic Transactions(tm) technology. Synthetic Transactions are application scripts developed to test application response time from the NextPoint S3 Agent to a production application server. They exercise the network and application in the same manner as an end-user, providing an accurate, consistent, "round-the-clock" measurement of end-to-end performance. The agents forward measurements to the NextPoint S3 server for analysis.

      3. NextPoint S3 clients (i.e., user interface) are Java applets that are downloaded to platform and location-independent Web browsers. The 100%Web-based clients enable NextPoint users to configure NextPoint S3 or view reports and exceptions from any PC with network connectivity to the NextPoint S3 server.

   2. Status/Availability monitoring. NextPoint S3 auto-discovers and monitors network devices (e.g., switches, routers), servers, network paths, and applications for availability on a round-the-clock, 7x24 hour basis. All availability failures are reported as real-time exceptions which can be distributed via e-mail, alphanumeric pager, or SNMP Trap. NextPoint S3 logs all exceptions in the exceptions log. NextPoint also reports long-term availability patterns as service level reports (see section 1.5).
      1. Devices/interfaces. The NextPoint S3 Server polls individual devices and interfaces throughout the enterprise network for status information. Polling rates are user-defined, and can be easily set on a per-device or logical group basis.

      2. Network paths. The unique Java-based NextPoint S3 Agent, deployed on PC's at end-user sites, monitors the availability of end-to-end network paths from desktop to server. This unique function enables network managers to objectively and accurately assess network service levels from the end-user perspective. The monitoring rate is user-defined.

      3. Applications. The ultimate test of network performance is the availability and performance of business applications to end-users. The NextPoint S3 Agent monitors business applications, intranets, and Web sites across the network and server infrastructure with innovative Synthetic Transactions(tm). The NextPoint S3 Agent supports DNS, DHCP, SMTP/POP3, Web sites, databases, and other transactions. The transaction monitoring rate is user-defined.

      4. NT process availability. NextPoint S3 monitors Windows NT servers to report the availability of application processes. The NextPoint Agent checks Windows NT for application activity and CPU usage.

   3. Alert generation and notification. NextPoint generates exceptions for both performance and service level degradations, in addition to availability failures. The software provides fully automatic, variable thresholds, simplifying a traditionally tedious task. Using NextPoint's historical baselines (see section 2.4) as thresholds, NextPoint identifies and alerts on performance conditions that far exceed "normal" levels calculated for that metric (e.g., utilization or response time at historically high levels). Service Level exceptions are SLM measurements that do not meet SLM thresholds pre-defined by the network manager (e.g., application response time above two seconds). For all exceptions, NextPoint S3 can alert IT staff via e-mail, alphanumeric pager, and/or SNMP Trap (i.e., to an event-correlation tool).

   4. Performance monitoring and analysis. NextPoint provides precise "baselines" of network and application performance. Traffic Signatures(tm) are graphical plots of Average, Peak, and 90th Percentile historical metrics of key performance indicators by time-of-day and day-of-week. The current day's performance metrics are plotted simultaneously with the long-term baselines. Supported metrics include device and link utilization, volume, response time, and RMON statistics such as network errors, broadcasts, and collision rates. All metrics are also forecasted to predict performance levels based on historical trends. In addition, NextPoint supports leading RMON2 vendors to report on network traffic usage on an application, end-user, or logical group basis.

   5. Service level management (SLM).

      NextPoint S3 provides browser-based reports for device, network path, and application service level patterns of response time and availability. Availability metrics include total availability, total downtime, Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), on a daily, weekly, monthly, or custom basis. Logical group capability enables executive-level summaries of service levels by department or organization. Exclusion zone definitions ensure that only prime business hours are included in the service level calculation, excluding weekends and other off-prime hours. NextPoint further predicts future service levels based on historical trends.

   6. Summary.
      More than just device monitoring and alerting, NextPoint S3 provides a true next-generation "management intranet" with 100% Web-architected performance analysis software. Only NextPoint provides long-term analysis of performance and service level patterns, correlated with real-time monitoring to intelligently identify and alert on exceptional conditions. NextPoint's distributed architecture also supports the scale and complexity of today's business-critical enterprise networks.

3. Pricing
   NextPoint S3 pricing starts at $12,000, with additional licenses based on optional management applications, polled network elements and NextPoint S3 Agents. A package comprising the NextPoint S3 Server, Service Level Manager, 100 polled network devices, and 5 NextPoint S3 Agents is priced at $26,500.

Avtech Dartmouth INS Ipswitch Knozall

Loran MediaHouse NextPoint RGE Ripple

RiverSoft (in Word format) Tally Systems Tavve Tessler

RELATED LINKS

The RFP and responses from other vendors

Review and buyer's guide: Network monitoring and alerting
An in-depth look at several apps; database of detailed specs on 46 tools; and a forum on the technology.