Gomez adds correlation

Internet performance management involves more than just tracking response times on the Internet backbone – at least that’s what Gomez says. The company that tracks how well Web sites perform says there are several elements to ensuring high quality, and Gomez’s newest service offerings will incorporate them all.

Gomez Performance Network (GPN) 5.0 is a suite of subscription services designed to monitor Web site performance from inside a corporate firewall, on a backbone and on the last mile to end-user desktops. The services are based on Gomez’s Internet measurement network that uses agent technology to monitor Web site performance. Agents can also be placed behind corporate firewalls and closer to end-user desktops, or in the last mile of services provided.

Gomez provides Web site performance benchmarks, much like its competitor Keynote, but says its soon-to-be-released suite of services focuses more on real-time reporting and historical trend analysis.

Also in its next release, due sometime this quarter, Gomez will add the ability to correlate performance metrics across three separate areas: behind the firewall, on the backbone and in the last mile. In the past, customers using one or more of Gomez’s services couldn’t correlate collected data from different areas on one screen.

With the release of GPN 5.0, services will automatically correlate those metrics to help network managers determine the performance of their Web site and to more quickly pinpoint potential problems. Rather than manually searching through backbone, last-mile and corporate stats, network managers will get a single screen from which they can see how well their Web site performs from the back-end infrastructure through to the front-end application.

“Our services can provide visibility both into real-time performance issues as well as systematic problems that can only be spotted over time,” says Alexander Stein, Gomez CEO and president. “GPN alerts to small and large problems.”

And now, he says, the company can provide quicker correlation as well as add business context to the technical errors. With customers such as DoubleClick, eBay, Office Depot and J.Crew, Stein says GPN must provide customers with data relevant to how Internet performance will affect their bottom line. He says Gomez can pinpoint a problem on the customer net as well as with the ISPs providing Internet access.

GPN 5.0 utilizes the company’s Universal Transaction Agent (UTA), which Gomez says emulates browser/Web site interaction to capture and report single and multi-step, transactional Web page performance information. The agents reside on Gomez’s network, to which customers connect via a VPN. Depending on the amount of services purchased, customers can also have agents installed within their firewalls and located closer to end-user desktops. The company says it offers a non-intrusive, lightweight agent to report on the performance in the last mile.

Gomez says GPN 5.0, in beta tests now, will be available this quarter, and new customers can get started with the services for about $30,000 to $50,000.