* Evident Software, NetQoS separately address IT costs
Two companies recently unveiled products designed to help IT staff define the cost of IT and track usage across enterprise networks.
Evident Software (formerly Apogee Networks) and NetQoS separately announced tools to show IT managers how users consume network, server and application resources. The products put a dollar amount on the cost of the services to internal business units or groups.
Evident last week introduced Evident Enterprise 5, which now includes visualization tools intended to provide a portal for business, finance and IT executives to view IT utilization. This Analyzer application provides users with about 25 templates to generate reports. A second new application, called Analyzer Pro, provides in-depth analysis based on the data in the reports (IT managers can drill down on geographic locations, for example) to plan for future IT capacity and operations expenses based on usage. The company also added a relational database-driven historical trending tool as well as Linux platform support in this release.
“Customers can bring the product in and use it in an assessment capacity to get recommendations on how they could improve their data center – for example, which servers could be consolidated,” says Helen Donnelly, vice president of marketing and product management. Ballpark pricing for an average deployment of the software is up to $350,000.
The software resides on Microsoft Windows or Sun Solaris servers and collects application flows, or conversation data, from a variety of network probes, devices, servers and end users. Evident uses a distributed model and recommends users install its software on servers across networks and in data centers. A centralized server collects the data from distributed servers and acts as an administration console for IT managers.
The software also uses customers’ NetFlow-enabled devices and remote monitoring probes. Customers can install probes themselves. Evident’s software collects data from proxy, Exchange, Lotus and other server gateways that export unique data feeds. The software uses the cost metrics IT staff have assigned to specific network services and resources. It compares usage and calculates the cost based on those measurements.
Separately, NetQoS this week plans to add an appliance to its product suite. NetQoS Allocate monitors Cisco routers using NetFlow to determine usage and build chargeback reports.
IT managers can specify groups of users by IP address, geographic location or business unit. The software would then report on usage based on the groups. Allocate can assign higher costs for more expensive resources, and track all network, application and server usage based on traffic flows.
“We find customers need to understand how resources are being used before they can assign a value to them,” says Steve Fulton, NetQoS product manager for Allocate. “The software helps them determine cost accounting and capacity planning, and enables them to report out on performance as related to costs.”
Allocate software sits on a server near a NetFlow-enabled router and collects NetFlow data. It looks at the volume of traffic by application and by user, and also notes what network resources those applications and users are tapping most. The software uses Crystal reports to provide templates on reporting IT usage related to cost, Fulton says.
NetQoS uses a data collector that sits near core network routers, a data interpreter that is connected to a hub router and server reporting software. The collectors passively monitor NetFlow traffic, compress the data and send it to the interpreter, which analyzes the information. The interpreter then sends the data to the server, from which network administrators access traffic and application data via a Web browser.
Available now, Allocate pricing starts at $50,000 for existing customers. When purchased along with other NetQoS products by new customers, the price could scale up to $120,000.
