Learn the concepts and technologies behind effectively managing application performance, so you can identify and correct issues before they affect your business. Application Performance Monitoring Technologies There are a number of different types of tools on the market that report on application performance. They can be roughly categorized by the mechanisms the tool uses to measure performance: Synthetic transaction systems generate test transactions from one or more clients (or pseudo-clients)...

Network security visibility is a hot topic here at RSA. Doug Hurd, technology alliances, Sourcefire (a Cisco company), spoke to our audience about how the company is improving customer security through extensibility and collaboration. Its Open Security Framework drives integration, resulting in faster time to resolution, smarter and faster policy management, and overall better security. Ixia’s Net Optics Bypass Switch and xBalancer are part of this Sourcefire open framework. With the Sourcefire ...

A guide to PoE and why it's a smart choice for clocks and other small devices You may already know all about Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology. You may be well-versed in the low power consumption, cost-effectiveness, and ease of installation for the hundreds of modern devices that utilize the technology, such as VoIP phones, webcams and other devices including Inova's OnTime digital clocks, analog clocks, and OnTrack X Series digital displays. But for those not familiar with PoE (read "P-O-E,...

Many people believe they are best served by real people, not by voice robots. That’s the rationale behind GetHuman.com. But the economics and utility of self-service as an alternative to live agent interactions are so compelling that self-service solutions are here to stay. Providing multiple touchpoints is a huge technology investment. Technology is great, but you can’t just diligently manage the implementation process and then assume all is well with the customer service experience. Because no...

What does your network have in common with a cloud service provider? At first glance, you would probably say not much. But remove the word cloud, and you have an over-taxed network team spending several hours troubleshooting complex database, Citrix, VoIP, and Internet performance problems over a highly-distributed network. Too many problems and applications and too little time to manage them are challenges that will sound familiar to any network professional. Additionally, because it’s a cloud ...

A few years ago the only cloud game in town was the public cloud, but today private and hybrid clouds are also true contenders. In fact, private cloud implementations address a prevalent set of challenges and issues that public clouds cannot and can help speed up and smooth the way of cloud adoption. Here are five core tenets you should assess when weighing private cloud against public cloud options: 1. Ease of Use. IT’s responsibilities lie not just in the implementation of technology, but in i...

It has been clear for quite some time that the network has become the lifeblood of nearly all enterprises. This is not just true for obvious network-centric enterprises such as retail sites or content distributors, but also for enterprises that utilize distributed applications such as SAP, Oracle, or any number of other network-centric applications. Over the past few years, a number of new enterprise technologies have emerged that are critically reliant on network performance, but where this rel...

Observer® Reporting Server (ORS) serves as the center of the Network Instruments® performance management platform, and combines flow technologies, captured packets, and expert analysis to provide an overall view of network health. Obtain integrated views of application, network, and infrastructure performance critical to ensure that business processes function smoothly and IT supports organizational goals. Highlights: Manage performance across the enterprise Obtain aggregated views of network, a...

Unified Communications (UC) is the integration of real-time and non-real time communication to provide instant and on-demand services to customers. During the last few years, UC has seen enormous growth due to the increasing use of UC by businesses around the world. A report by Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) shows that UC is likely to grow at an annual rate of 32.7 percent per year through 2017 in North America alone. It is being used for many applications such as hosted services, voice cal...

Modern enterprise applications are engineered for agility and are heavily virtualized for frequent deployment over scalable IT infrastructure environments. The benefits of virtualized public\private cloud environments include flexibility, efficiency, and agile business enablement. Multiple factors such as varying workload requirements, or ‘just-in‐time’ provisioning require an accurate and scalable muti-functional management suite to mitigate the risk of compromising the environment. Infosim’s S...

While you may not be that familiar with Software Defined Networking (SDN), it may be the next “big thing.” As with other popular technologies like cloud and big data, there is no clear consensus on the exact definition of SDN. Also like these technologies, SDN initiatives are likely to be pushed by IT folks outside the network team, and can greatly affect network visibility. While an SDN future may seem a few light years away, given the clout of vendors and users pushing these technologies, incl...

While UC enhances business processes, it can overwhelm networks when application performance isn’t closely monitored. Any performance delay will be immediately noticeable to the user. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Organizations are always looking for ways to cut expenses. This is particularly true in the current economic climate. Unified communications (UC) represent an appealing alternative to traditional communication processes due to the potential savings once they are implemented. As more companies ...

Network infrastructure is evolving at an unprecedented rate and, with mixed vendor environments the norm rather than the exception, management of those systems has become a labour intensive exercise. Unlike fault and performance management, Network Change and Configuration Management (NCCM) has no common harmonised management method or protocols; Even the first level engineering teams have to be proficient in numerous different configuration languages and interfaces for the simplest of tasks. In...

As IT environments become more complex, so does application performance management. IT professionals need tools that are up for the new challenge. "Applications are becoming increasingly difficult to troubleshoot, and [it's becoming more difficult to] understand how users are interacting with them," said Jonah Kowall, research vice president of IT operations management at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. "Because applications are so diverse, there are a lot of different approaches and solution...

In managing network performance, user experience takes priority. Being proactive in managing performance means not only tracking the network and application, but obtaining an in-depth view of the underlying infrastructure health. There are two primary ways to obtain this information: agent or agentless. Selecting the best method for your team requires understanding the options and selecting the solution that integrates well with your existing resources. This IT Brief will: Define agent and agent...

The Coming Wave of IP-based Live Videoconferencing The future of all telecommunications is undoubtedly IP-based. Voice over IP (VoIP) is now considered mainstream within enterprise organizations, and a growing number are embracing the next phase of this evolutionary track by deploying IP-based live video communications. IP videoconferencing has strong appeal – it can effectively deliver ever-important direct and interactive human communications that typically occur only during face-to-face meeti...

In today’s connected world of smartphones, social media, text messaging, and Web browsing, customers have never been more vocal – and ears have never been more willing to listen. Contact centers thus may feel lost in the sea of new digital customer touchpoints and interaction avenues. Staying ahead of these trends is critical to successful customer service, and technology plays a large part in catering to these evolving needs. There are several solutions out there for businesses to leverage, eac...

It’s that time of year again – when we all look back as well as forward, regret the things we haven’t done, then promise to make them right once more. Instead of doing the typical forecast and prognostications that most analysts pump out this time of year, I prefer to take a different tact – to simply raise attention regarding the things we know we should do in network management but really haven’t got around to doing yet. Based on the research that I’ve done in the past year as well is that I p...

Employees' new mobile devices could cause the age-old security versus productivity debate to resurface Christmas is fast approaching. Now, and after the office is back to normal after the first of the year, employees are going to return with several shiny new gadgets, along with the expectation that they'll "just work" in the corporate environment. Security will be a distant afterthought, because it's still viewed as a process that hinders productivity. The back and forth between security helpin...

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