* Acquisition positions Radware to add more business intelligence to its network optimization technologies
The effort to more closely align IT operations with business objectives is a campaign being played out on many fronts – including the network arena.
Over the years IT executives and vendors have worked to make the network more application-aware so business-critical transactions receive priority over recreational traffic, for example. Now some players are looking to take things a step further by digging into the significance of those critical transactions and using that information to make the network and associated IT infrastructure more responsive to changing business requirements.
One example is Radware, which last week announced plans to acquire the assets of event-monitoring vendor Covelight Systems in an all-cash transaction worth $16 million.
Covelight Systems’ flagship Inflight product captures transactional data related to business events in real time, including user identity and session information. It combs through the event data, transforms and analyzes it, and feeds it to systems that can digest the business intelligence and trigger immediate responses to threats and opportunities.
Radware, meanwhile, offers its APSolute application delivery suite, which includes front-end gear such as the AppDirector application delivery controller and AppXcel application accelerator with Web compression, SSL offloading and HTTP multiplexing capabilities. (The APSolute suite also includes security devices and access gear.)
Radware says it will marry its APSolute platform with Inflight’s real-time transaction capture, transform and feed functionality to provide “business-smart networking solutions.” The goal is to provide real-time visibility into business events embedded in user session traffic. By making this information immediately actionable – without waiting for batch processing, for example – data centers will be able to better tie their infrastructures to business needs, Radware says.
For example, a company could use Web transaction information to spot an immediate opportunity to make a targeted up-sell pitch to a customer, or halt a transaction that mirrors fraudulent online behavior.
Having the application delivery controller evolve to integrate business event monitoring and understand elements of specific transactions, is a logical progression, according to Mark Fabbi, a vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Businesses will benefit by enabling new capabilities such as transaction assurance, real time business intelligence and fraud detection,” Fabbi said in a statement.
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