* Why enterprise IT managers should approach managing networked applications with a set of integrated tools
Application performance and network availability are tied too tightly together to be managed separately. Or so says a recent report commissioned by Network Physics.
In a recent white paper, prepared for Network Physics by the analyst group Enterprise Management Associates, EMA details why enterprise IT managers need to approach managing networked applications with a set of integrated tools. EMA polled 100 enterprise and service provider IT managers and found that 53% believe an integrated product would best help them manage networked applications.
“There are no less than 12 functional areas in which toolsets are deployed for monitoring and managing networked application delivery,” EMA says. “Addressing these requirements, primarily through isolated, niche solutions will create additional overhead. … Only an integrated systems approach that can touch on many of these requirements with common and consistent data can enable real collaboration and effective decision making.”
The report evaluates Network Physics’ technology and says it is capable of capturing application flow data, which is critical to understanding how applications use network resources to deliver on their services. Also, according to the report’s findings, “Network Physics’ customers cite ROI and ‘superior visualization’ as key values. While troubleshooting application response time issues is the top feature used today, business reporting for both executive and cross-organizational dialog is rapidly gaining in popularity.”
Network Physics uses a combination of software and appliances to track application traffic and detect if problems lie in the network, server or application layer. A central appliance called the NP-Director sits in a data center and provides a global view of a network. This view is based on data collected from up to 20 distributed NP-2000s, Network Physics’ distributed boxes. Both types of appliance run operating system software dubbed NetSensory that facilitates communication among them.
The NP-2000s are 1U devices that plug in to a network via a switch port and passively watch all the traffic at key aggregation points. The boxes can auto-discover paths for each application flow in a network, determining performance metrics such as packet loss, throughput, network latency and server response times.
IT managers can use the information to troubleshoot problems locally, but because the boxes also forward information back to NP-Director, central data center managers can determine whether a problem, such as increased WAN latency, is widespread.
