* Apparent Networks boosts remote performance management capabilities and enhances free cloud monitoring service
Data loss, latency, jitter — sending your applications out across the public network can be fraught with peril. While this has always been the case, some of today’s most popular applications — performance-sensitive services such as VoIP, videoconferencing and desktop virtualization — are especially vulnerable to network problems.
The more information you have about what’s going on out there, the better.
FAQ: Desktop virtualization
As Jim Melvin, CEO of Apparent Networks, says, “If you want to roll out performance-sensitive applications to your remote offices, where the end users live and work, you really have to think about how the network is going to perform. If you don’t understand performance management from service delivery to service consumption, you’re going to have problems with the applications in your environment.”
Of course, Apparent Networks, which bills itself as a remote performance management company, says it has the tools to provide just such an understanding. For example, its PathView Cloud service provides continual assessment of network performance from remote office through the data center, across the Internet and into a provider’s cloud, Melvin says.
Using micro clients plugged in at remote offices and gathering network data, Apparent Networks delivers key performance metrics such as total available capacity from any endpoint to any other endpoint as well as utilized bandwidth. “We know how big the road is and how many cars on it, and can tell you about things like loss, latency, jitter and roundtrip time — all critical parameters you need to know to make sure your applications work the way you need them to,” he adds.
Apparent Networks recently struck a technology alliance with N-able Technologies, which provides remote monitoring and management software, to provide visibility into IT assets and the network in a common dashboard. PathView Cloud will integrate with N-able’s N-central 7.1 platform, which lets users consolidate IT asset information from a wide range of devices, so users can identify where network problems are arising and dive into those for resolution. The integrated dashboard should be available in January 2011, Melvin says.
In addition, Apparent Networks has upgraded Cloud Performance Center (CPC), a free cloud monitoring service to help IT organizations make more informed decisions before outsourcing their applications and infrastructure, the company says. CPC, which uses the PathView remote performance management technology, provides minute-by-minute performance metrics as well as historical data for more than a dozen leading cloud service providers, including Amazon, Google, GoGrid, Joyent, RackSpace, RightScale and Salesforce, from the perspective of 10 major U.S. cities.
Besides allowing real-time visibility and historical views of network performance, the CPC provides reports and advisories on performance issues that can affect an enterprise’s LAN, WAN and cloud-based applications, the company says. CPC is available here.
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