Network Instruments has announced the newest edition of the Observer Performance Management Platform. With redesigned, easy-to-use interfaces and workflows, expanded web user visibility, increased transactional intelligence, and enhanced integration with third-party tools and applications, Observer Platform 17 offers the network team a comprehensive, intuitive approach.

What’s New

Several components of the Observer Platform have changed significantly with this release. Observer Reporting Server (ORS) is now Observer Apex and Network Instruments Management Server (NIMS) is now Observer Management Server (OMS). Both are fully integrated within the Observer Platform and provide key capabilities for a comprehensive performance management solution.

“The Observer Platform 17 release uniquely positions the Platform for the future of IT and the network manager’s evolving role as the key troubleshooter and enabler of technology adoption throughout the enterprise,” says Charles Thompson, CTO. A major focus of the new features was to bring enhanced ease-of-use to this powerful performance management toolset.

Top 3 Features

With Observer Analyzer, Observer GigaStor, Apex, OMS, Observer Matrix, Observer Probes, Observer Infrastructure, and Observer nTAPs, the Observer Platform is a fully integrated solution offering the following new features for this release.

Intuitive User Interface

The newly designed, intuitive user interface (UI) of the Observer Platform’s Apex and OMS components takes ease-of-use to the next level. Both Apex and OMS feature a user-friendly, interface with the same drag-and-drop, right click, and scrolling capabilities you’d expect from any web-based application. The result is a lower learning curve, and the ability to quickly react to network issues. The modern HTML5 UI offers visual representations of the data you seek in a number of different formats. With Apex, use pre-built dashboards and reports, or create your own with metrics that matter most to your organization. Share data with other business units in a format that is digestible and easy to understand.

Enhanced Web Service Analytics

When it comes to how effectively your web-based apps and services are running, the customer is always right. For complete service assurance, you need the fine-grained, end-user operating parameters that the Observer Platform can provide. From client device response time to browser type, and even operating system (OS), get granular views into actual systems and applications. Observer Analyzer’s HTTP traffic metrics include details on browser type and OS, as well as the ability to correlate this information with response times, errors, and more.

Third-Party Integration

A RESTful API allows Apex to provide the easy sharing and management of performance data with complementary IT initiatives like event management or service orchestration to bring all of your performance management tools together. With OMS, this functionality allows for the central authentication, authorization, and auditing of the Observer Platform.

Better Results

The new Observer Platform features allow network professionals a more productive tool to stay on top of key IT trends and challenges while:

• Proactively pinpointing performance problems and optimizing services
• Integrating monitoring into the deployment of IT initiatives, including cloud, service orchestration, and security
• Easily managing access and sharing performance data with IT teams and business units
• Quickly assessing and optimizing user experience with web services

“Utilizing the newest features in the Observer Platform, network teams are well prepared for their constantly changing role by achieving quicker root-cause analysis, understanding applications in-depth, and more easily sharing performance data with non-network teams,” says Thompson.

The Observer Platform is a full-service IT solution for optimizing application and network performance management. Each part of the system fits precisely together with all other components, increasing capabilities, power, and speed. 

Thanks to Network Instruments for the article.