With the end user dependence on complex network applications and architecture makes it more important then ever that network managers understand what, how, and when traffic is traversing the network. Network monitoring is the increasingly powerful connected set of tools used in controlling, maintaining, and optimizing networks.  A network management system #NMS is a set of tools that allow a network operator to supervise the individual components of a network. Network management system...

Now capable of storing 96 TB of network and application traffic for analysis in a single 5U chassis, the GigaStor Expandable scales to over a petabyte and beyond with additional units. It is the highest-capacity retrospective network analysis solution on the market today. Other popular GigaStor models offering enhanced storage capacity include the GigaStor Portable and GigaStor 10 Gb Wire Speed. The self-contained mobile troubleshooting system GigaStor Portable now stores 4 TB and 8 TB of date. ...

The Network Visibility Operating System (NVOS) v4.2 release is now available for download to current Net Tool Optimizer® (NTO) customers at the Ixia Customer Portal. Partners can find the MIBS files and user guide on Ixia Partner Portal product section. This new software update supports the following NTO models: NTO 5288, NTO 5293, and ControlTower (NTO 5260, 5263 and 5268.) What is New Advanced Feature Module (AFM16) enhancements New FabricPath stripping feature Expanded de-duplication con...

Every year, I survey a couple hundred IT professionals on a variety of topics, including what their organization wants to improve on over the next year. It is not at all surprising that the task that is typically at the top of the list is rapidly identifying the root cause of degraded application performance. What is somewhat surprising however is that for the last several years, managing VoIP has been very close to the top of the list. Although VoIP has been deployed heavily over the last few y...

Now capable of storing 96 TB of network and application traffic for analysis in a single chassis, the GigaStor Expandable scales to over a petabyte and beyond with additional units. It is the highest-capacity retrospective network analysis solution on the market today.* To further put the size of a petabyte into perspective - if the average smartphone camera photo is 3MB in size and the average printed photo is 8.5 inches wide, then the assembled petabyte of photos placed side by side would be o...

Security is a top concern for anyone running a network today. The recent Heartbleed bug and other high-profile hacks have shined a new light on the fact that security strategies in the enterprise must constantly evolve to meet the challenges of new and ever-changing attacks. In the spring of 2014 news of the Heartbleed bug hit the wire sending the tech world scrambling to patch the now notorious OpenSSL vulnerability that allowed individuals to steal private information like certificate keys, pa...

Hosted Unified Communications is a mission critical application for most businesses. Few can continue to operate effectively if all communications are down. Therefore, it is extremely important that the selected service provider follow certain best practices that ensure the availability of the service. There are many best practices that a hosted service provider should follow, but these are my Top 5: 1. Reliable Network and Software Infrastructure A good way to deliver the availability character...

When tracking user experience in Unified Communications (UC) applications, like VoIP and videoconferencing, the accuracy of analysis hinges upon your ability to capture, integrate, and analyze multiple data streams that make up a call session including: Control management setup of the conversation Audio and video streams traversing between the callers Protocols used for managing the transfer of audio and video The primary challenge is that network teams lack visibility into call traffic as it tr...

Today's networks are growing in both size and complexity, presenting new challenges for IT and network administrators. More mobile devices are now connecting to more data from more sources—and much of that is due to virtualization. IT challenges are further complicated by increasingly high customer expectations for always onaccess and immediate application response. This complexity creates network “blind spots” where latent errors germinate, and pre-attack activity lurks. Blind spots are commonl...

The principles of managing VoIP performance The use of VoIP in the corporate world is growing rapidly, driven by a combination of increasingly mature technology and a desire to reduce costs. A single network infrastructure should enable organizations to reduce capital expenditure and create a more homogeneous environment that is easier to maintain, monitor and manage. However, using the network to transport voice as well as data naturally reduces the amount of traffic it can support. Moving to V...

A premium insurance financing company based in the United States decided to upgrade their interactive voice response (IVR) platforms in call centers located in Philadelphia, PA, and Irvine, CA. Their project team leader was given responsibility for ensuring all new and existing contact center components worked together at go-live. The team leader knew the only way to accomplish this was to test each system’s ability to handle real telephone calls that “behaved” just like real callers. The compan...

What is a Tap? Test Access Ports or Taps are primarily used to optimize ITs ability to easily and passively monitor a network link. They are normally placed between any two network devices, including switches, routers, and firewalls to provide network and security personnel a connection for monitoring devices. Protocol analyzers, RMON probes and intrusion detection and prevention systems can now be easily connected to and removed from the network when needed. By using a Tap, you also eliminate t...

According to the IDC, nearly 5 million 10 Gb ports were shipped in the third quarter of 2013, surpassing the number of Gigabit switches for the first time since the technology was introduced in 2001. That's a lot of upgrades, but with Big Data analysis, VoIP, video, and other bandwidth-intensive applications gobbling up more and more network resources, it's no surprise. The real challenge for many network teams today is managing performance monitoring expectations in the new 10 Gb environment, a...

Multi-tiered applications are no longer the exception but the rule. In the past, assessing application performance meant monitoring response time and health on a single server hosting one application. Now, with the applications increasingly becoming virtualized, utilizing multiple protocols, and operating over multiple servers, the approach to tracking overall application performance needs a reboot. So how do you effectively track the health and conversations involved in a service comprised of m...

Anyone who uses a phone has experienced IVR by now. It's the "Interactive Voice Response" system that many companies have implemented to handle incoming customer calls. I've found it's been helpful and efficient most of the time, but IVR seems to be the subject of jokes and scorn by many. Why all the animosity? IVR gets a bad rap and I know why: bad design and implementation. Let's look at some common problems and solutions. Having to press 1 for this and press 2 for that seems to really irritat...

When it comes to points of network visibility, common knowledge dictates that more is always better. And, when we’re talking about troubleshooting and identifying the point of delay, increased visibility is important. But multiple points of visibility can also lead to duplicate packets. There are times when duplicate packets help in troubleshooting, but they can also lead to incorrect analysis and forecasting. It’s critical for successful network management to understand when duplicate packets c...

Unified communications is on the move. The unified communications (UC) segment is forecast to grow from $22.8 billion in 2011 to $61.9 billion by 2018, according to Transparency Market Research. UC is viewed by businesses of all sizes as a way to cut costs and improve both productivity and collaboration. It cuts costs by using the latest Internet technologies instead of more costly solutions such as traditional corporate video conferencing solutions, and it boosts productivity by reducing the nu...

Between data centres, clouds and physical servers, enterprises are seeing rapidly growing complex networks. With this ever-expanding infrastructure comes the issue of visibility as data slips into blind spots when the network grows, which can be a stumbling point for businesses. Roark Pollock, Ixia VP of Marketing, Network Visibility Solutions, spoke to CBR about how Ixia is battling the blind spots with its new Visibility Architecture solution. Visibility Architecture is being launched to 'help...

My new report is live for Forrester clients - Predictions For 2014: Technology Monitoring. Normally I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to predictions, especially in regards to technology, because while they are interesting to read they can cause confusion and unnecessary deliberation for a buyer/strategist if they are not in context. So my aim for this report was to provide some concrete advice for I&O professionals in 2014 in regards to their technology monitoring (user experience, appli...

Contact center and communications solutions offer companies a significant opportunity to control costs and improve customer satisfaction if implemented and maintained appropriately. If the solutions are not implemented and maintained properly, the opportunities become risks and eventually customers are negatively impacted. With StressTest™ performance and load testing, you can validate the performance of your end-to-end contact center and communications solutions to assure the best possible expe...