* Streamcore combines monitoring and provisioning tools to optimize application delivery
It stands to reason that IT managers who can get more detailed information about network and application conditions will be better prepared to boost the performance of those resources. The old adage “knowledge is power” comes to mind.
Along those lines, the new version of Streamcore’s application acceleration platform is designed to provide greater visibility into how networks, systems and applications are performing. StreamSense 5.0, unveiled last week, combines real-time monitoring features with provisioning and configuration tools that let users control the resources dedicated to business applications. StreamSense works with the company’s StreamGroomer traffic-management appliances, which enforce QoS rules.
Under the covers is Streamcore’s Application Behavior-Based Acceleration (ABBA) engine, which accelerates performance-sensitive traffic and prioritizes applications as needed to meet business objectives.
ABBA is designed to adapt to application behavior in real-time according to the amount of traffic, bandwidth requirements and the number of users. Network administrators can assign “weights” to each application according to business needs, and those values are used to determine the priority of the associated data streams, the company says.
Along with the ABBA engine is a feature Streamcore calls “fast packet inspection,” which examines a packet’s IP address and session behavior to provide visibility into application and network traffic.
“One of the things that makes control or optimization of the network really hard is that you’re trying to know everything. You have to recognize and identify all applications, you have to understand how the protocols are working for each of these applications, and you have to tune your own optimization or control device in order to take into account these things,” says Eric Jeux, CEO of Streamcore.
On the performance management front, StreamSense 5.0 provides real-time reporting, troubleshooting tools, and centralized access to configuration information.
“What the ABBA engine does is look at every single session in a network. It reconstructs automatically the string of packets that are in a session, and it looks at the behavior of these packets — the size of the packets and how the packets are coming into the network,” Jeux says. The information is aggregated and analyzed to determine “what does this application, this session, need right now?” he says.
Jim Metzler, principal analyst at Ashton, Metzler & Associates, says enterprises need visibility into and control of networks to effectively deliver critical applications. “By empowering networks with this centralized visibility, companies like Streamcore facilitate collaboration between IT teams and even across business units and branches to ensure utmost productivity and the knowledge to be able to commit IT resources to a network’s most pressing issues,” Metzler says.
Streamcore was founded in Paris, France, in 2003 and, following a recent corporate move, is headquartered in Emeryville, Calif. The company’s development operations remain in France.
