Opnet Technologies last week announced it had entered into a partnership with Cisco where the network giant will distribute Opnet management wares along with its gear.

Opnet officials remained vague on the specific products that would be teamed with Cisco gear, saying only that Cisco will distribute a broad range of Opnet software products. Plus, Opnet and the Cisco Network Management Technology Group will collaborate on new network management products.

The two vendors will release more specific details in May or June, but Opnet officials say the company's products offer three technologies that would help Cisco address parts of its intelligent network vision. Opnet products - which range from application-profiling tools to capacity planning to network configuration management wares - would help Cisco address application performance analysis, network planning and network configuration assurance, according to Todd Kaloudis, vice president of marketing for Opnet.

"Opnet and Cisco share the same vision - that the network is not just a dumb pipe that is sold as a commodity. The network can provide intelligence, and Opnet can provide the intelligent monitoring and management," he says.

Opnet says its products would help Cisco customers analyze application vs. network performance, perform change impact analysis and conduct “what if” planning, determine configuration compliance analysis, enforce policies to prevent unauthorized configuration changes, and identify events that could cause a compliance problem and offer remediation options.

To start the technology partnership, Cisco will sell a subset of Opnet applications packaged as advanced analysis “solutions,” Kaloudis says.

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.