NetQoS tracks performance

AUSTIN, TEXAS - NetQoS last week bulked up its management appliance to help large-business users more easily pinpoint the source of application performance problems.

Key to NetQoS's SuperAgent 2.0, which sits in front of a switch and passively collects network, server and application response time data, is the ability to aggregate data from multiple superagents and let users view that data via a Web interface.

In the past users had to cull that information from individual SuperAgent hardware devices and correlate it to gain a big-picture look at their environment. Now users can log on to any workstation and access customized reports about the response times delivered of their networks' Web servers, application servers and even external ISP networks.

NetQoS made all data from its existing devices accessible via a Web browser. Also new is external data integration that lets users output data via XML.

"SuperAgent will monitor traffic in your network, but the nice thing is it will also tell you about the traffic coming into your network," says Peter Jarvis, IT director at NC Soft, an Austin, Texas, subsidiary of a Korean online gaming company.

Jarvis says SuperAgent lets him tell any of the 5,000 unique game subscribers per day if performance problems lie within the user's internal networks or an external ISP.

"In the network, everyone likes to point fingers, and the nice thing is NetQoS lets you accurately notify the proper people and get problems resolved quickly, "Jarvis says

Jarvis got those results by trying a new feature of SuperAgent 2.0 that lets users define internal and external IP addresses for SuperAgent to monitor.

Other new features include the capability to let users define thresholds specific to their networks. NetQoS added quality-of-service reports that give feedback based on rate per user, number of users and data loss rate.

Also new to SuperAgent is the option to set up and install a network of performance-analysis devices.

While users always had the choice to install more than one SuperAgent box, Version 2.0 lets users deploy multiple boxes and view the data collected by each box in one central location. With the multiunit SuperAgent deployment, users install smaller boxes, or data collectors, around their network.

Those boxes would feed back into a central management console that can be accessed by the same Web interface as the stand-alone unit.

SuperAgent competes with similar hardware performance management devices from companies such as Niksun and Adlex. And NetQoS boasts customers such as Chevron Texaco and Marriott Host.

Available now, SuperAgent 2.0 costs $28,500. Purchasing SuperAgent in a multiunit configuration consists of a management console and distributed data collectors. Pricing for the management console starts at $45,000, with data collectors costing $9,500.

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