NetScout merges network, app performance managers

Howard Solomon

11 years ago

Another maker of IT solutions is bringing a number of separate products under one roof to make it easier for administrators to manage data centres.

NetScout Systems said Tuesday it has combined network and application performance analysis software into a single platform called the nGeniusOne, which it says will shorten the time need to solve network and app problems.

Most organizations using the company’s nGenius Service Assurance software with the Service Delivery Manager, Performance Manager and Enterprise Intelligence analysis modules are entitled to upgrade to the new suite.

However, to get the benefit of the new suite, they will have to be using NetScout’s InfiniStream packet capture appliances, from which nGeniusOne pulls traffic data for analysis.

“What we’ve done is built a new architecture which is a unified performance management platform that brings together the important elements of application performance management and network performance management to more effectively address the needs around service delivery,” said Steve Shalita, NetScout’s vice-president of marketing.

Usually application teams and network teams work separately, he said, using different tools to look at the elements that make up delivery of applications across networks.

The problem, he said, is that the network team may think there isn’t a problem because they see packets are flowing, and the application team sees no server problems. But there could be a problem with an application delivery controller or network authentication that impairs performance.

nGeniusOne lets staff look end-to-end at how a service is transported, Shalita said.

“It represents a really streamlined and effective architecture that leverages the metrics we’re able to generate from observing network traffic,” Shalita said, “and provide that view from the top down.”

Data is displayed in one pane so network and application can pinpoint where performance issues are, rate them and then focus on solving problems. “It promotes collaboration,” Shalita said, by letting staff understand all the interdependences that make a service work.

In effect, NetScout is abandoning its model of selling separate network and application analysis capabilities in what it called modules. New functions will be added to the platform and not sold as separate additions.

While the modules were integrated and shared a dataset of information pulled from the InfiniStream appliances, Shalita said making use of the data involved multiple steps. nGenius one collapses the layers.

Users can drill down into the data as deep as they want. However, Shalita said nGeniusOne doesn’t merely fold in the existing software abilities. Added are new capabilities in application measurement, new service attachments and blend them with network metrics that NetScout didn’t do before.

Not all modules at the moment are gone. The Trading Intelligence application for analyzing high speed financial trading environments remains separate, although many of its capabilities are included in nGenius One. Forensic Intelligence that reconstructs user sessions for security remains separate.