by Joel Trammell

Microsoft released Windows Vista (along with the new Office suite and Exchange server) to business customers today.

From a networking perspective, there have been several changes in the networking stack in the move from Windows XP to Windows Vista. We’re doing a fair amount of work, because we understand what Microsoft says they did, and we’re doing a fair amount of work to find out if that’s the way things actually work in reality. There’s testing that needs to be done, once network engineers understand the new Vista network stack, changes in the way that network engineers need to think.

For a networking person, I think Vista’s a pretty big deal, whereas some of the other Windows upgrades, maybe from a pure networking perspective, weren’t. You’re going to see some changes because of it. We'll have some details about how networking is different in Vista on this blog soon.

Joel Trammell is the CEO of NetQoS.

by Ed Tittel

The ISO/OSI Network Management Reference Model is usually rendered as FCAPS: Fault management, Configuration management, Accounting management, Performance management and Security management.

This model fails to give full weight to the impact of performance. Performance drives perception, which means that, from a user's standpoint, the source of poor performance doesn't matter as much as the fact that performance is, in fact, poor. According to Denise Dubie at Network World, network managers and engineers are being increasingly tasked to prioritize performance and user experience:

"Distributed IP networks and complex real-time applications have forced a change. Now network managers need to be in the know from the start about application performance, helping developers understand what will work on a network, spotting poorly performing applications before users feel the effects and delivering LAN-like performance over the wide area to remote and branch offices."

In other words, it's not just about monitoring devices anymore. It's about delivering services, at a reasonable cost, in a reasonable amount of time, where users are increasingly asked to decide what's reasonable, time-wise. (For more, see Network World's "User experience is key".)

Continue reading "Nobody's Fault: Taking the "F" Out of FCAPS" »

by Ed Tittel

Everybody knows the benefits of migrating to MPLS: better reliability, increased performance, and lower costs. (A primer podcast is available here [MP3], via Hill Associates, and we've developed our own whitepaper on the subject.) The downside is low visibility and access into the MPLS cloud. How can you be certain your carrier is delivering consistent levels of performance when traditional measurement techniques such as trace-route and ping offer no help, and probes are costly and difficult to maintain?

Try utilizing the flow statistics that are captured by almost all current routers. The most common format for flow statistics is Cisco IOS® NetFlow technology. While originally developed as an advanced packet-switching technology, it has become the de facto standard in flow-based data collection, not only for Cisco devices but throughout much of the networking industry.

Continue reading "Routers Hold the Key to MPLS Network Performance Measurement" »

by Cathy Fulton

For any technical mistake, there’s usually a technical solution. Losing time while a problem persists is embarrassing, but you can recover from such delays. Much bigger problems occur when you try to change the workflow of the people who use the software. That’s when IT projects become difficult.

It’s extraordinarily difficult to get people to change the way they’ve been doing things. If you deploy an expensive piece of software in the expectation that people will automatically change the way that they normally do their jobs as a consequence of the switchover, you will greatly reduce your chances of success.

Continue reading "Perspectives on What's Missing in the Field of Network Management" »

by Carol Schiraldi

I’m not a gamer myself, but the recent launch of the PS3 and Wii consoles (podcast from Gamingbits available here) makes this a good time to discuss game programming and the idea of performance in the enterprise.

Austin is a big center for video game development – NCSoft, Midway Studios-Austin and Retro Studios are all located here – and I know many game programmers. I think that game programmers are some of the best programmers out there, and a lot of performance enhancements are coming from gaming.

If you code for gaming, there’s a different mindset. Emphasis on performance is included (and essential) by design.

Continue reading "Performance-Driven: Why enterprise developers (generally) use Java and game programmers (generally) use C++" »

by Cathy Fulton

Monitoring business transactions over the network has never been more critical to operational efficiency. Yet, there’s much confusion over methodology.

The implementation choices consist of different deployment strategies (client-site or server-site, agent or appliance) and distinct monitoring technologies (active or passive). Each of these options has individual strengths and weaknesses. This series of articles discusses industry best practices for effectively monitoring business transactions in a global environment.

This article is part 2 of 2. Click here to read part 1.

Part 2 of 2: Monitoring Technologies

Another important - and frequently contentious - decision for selecting a business transaction monitoring solution is whether to use active or passive technology. An active monitor emulates a client by periodically generating synthetic transactions according to some user-defined script. In contrast, a passive monitor measures the transactions of real clients in all their variability. Which is better? Well, it all depends on what you want to measure.

Continue reading "Best Practices for Monitoring Business Transactions, part 2 of 2" »

by Cathy Fulton

Monitoring business transactions over the network has never been more critical to operational efficiency. Yet, there’s much confusion over methodology.

The implementation choices consist of different deployment strategies (client-site or server-site, agent or appliance) and distinct monitoring technologies (active or passive). Each of these options has individual strengths and weaknesses. This series of articles discusses industry best practices for effectively monitoring business transactions in a global environment.

Part 1 of 2: Deployment Strategies

One of the most important decisions is the deployment strategy for the business monitoring solution. Should monitors be deployed at the client sites or should they be deployed at the data centers? Should software agents or hardware appliances be used? While this may seem like a minor matter, it has the most serious ramifications from both an immediate “headache” and long-term recurring cost standpoint.

Continue reading "Best Practices for Monitoring Business Transactions, part 1 of 2" »

NetQoS VP Steve Harriman is attending the Gartner Enterprise Networking Summit this week in Las Vegas. It's the first time for the event since the industry downturn in 2001 and NetQoS is exhibiting there because we feel that the role of Networking has been elevated in importance to the point at which it warrants an executive focused event. And, Gartner events are always very educational and well-attended. It's the right place to be.

In addition to Dr. Malone's keynote and NetQoS's Solution Provider Session, I also went to a talk by Thomas Shelman on the second day of the Summit. Shelman is CIO of Northrop Grumman Corporation, the second largest defense contractor in the world. As you might imagine, he runs a very large IT organization. Seven CIOs from different business units report to him.

He said his greatest challenge and most rewarding experience, although devastating too, was leading the organization to restore computing and networking infrastructure and services after Katrina pounded two key Northrop Grumman facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The two NG data centers in La. and Miss. were fully configured for redundancy with hot fail-over between systems in both locations. To ensure both data centers would not be affected by “traditional” disasters, such as local power failures, flooding, accidents, etc., they were located 150 miles apart. Unfortunately, the destruction of Katrina was more than 150 miles wide and took both data centers out. (Northrop Grumman put out a press release describing the devastation they encountered.)

Continue reading "Notes on the Gartner Summit in Las Vegas, Part 3" »

By Steve Harriman

NetQoS VP Steve Harriman is attending the Gartner Enterprise Networking Summit this week in Las Vegas. It's the first time for the event since the industry downturn in 2001 and NetQoS is exhibiting there because we feel that the role of Networking has been elevated in importance to the point at which it warrants an executive focused event. And, Gartner events are always very educational and well-attended. It's the right place to be.

The speaker for the second day’s keynote speech was Dr. Thomas Malone, Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management.

I noticed that a surprisingly large number of hands went up when he asked attendees if they had corporate blogs and if their organizations allowed individuals to have their own.

He discussed organization models and how organizations are becoming more distributed, both physically and in how they operate – more distributed decision making. Successful organizations have found the way to fully leverage the intelligence and creativity their employees have.

Employees who are empowered to use their capabilities to the fullest have more fun and are more productive. The networking tie-in here is that the network is the enabler of organizational empowerment.

Continue reading "Notes on the Gartner Summit in Las Vegas, Part 2" »

By Steve Harriman

NetQoS VP Steve Harriman is attending the Gartner Enterprise Networking Summit this week in Las Vegas. It's the first time for the event since the industry downturn in 2001 and NetQoS is exhibiting there because we feel that the role of Networking has been elevated in importance to the point at which it warrants an executive focused event. And, Gartner events are always very educational and well-attended. It's the right place to be.

It is worth noting that one of the key themes of the first day is that Network professionals should move beyond the plumbing and be part of the solution to the application delivery problem. The idea that network professionals need to look at response time and focus on end-to-end performance is a message NetQoS has been trying to spread. Here are a few details from the first day keynote to put this into context:

Continue reading "Notes on the Gartner Summit in Las Vegas, Part 1" »