Napatech today released the first version of the recently announced Napatech Software Suiteincluding features that make development of multi-port, multi-application network appliances faster and easier.

The Napatech Software Suite release includes functionality for merging data from ports on multiple Napatech network adapters into a single stream for analysis. In addition, data sharing features allow this single stream of data to be accessed simultaneously by multiple applications. The combination of these features allows high port density, high-speed network appliances to be developed supporting more than one application.

“Network appliances are typically confined to one application, be it network monitoring, intrusion detection or protocol analysis”, said Erik Norup, President Napatech Inc. “Yet, these network appliances often need to access the same data at the same location. With data sharing, it is possible to have these three applications running on a single server sharing access to a single data stream allowing a more efficient and cost-effective solution.”

The Napatech Software Suite provides plug-and-play support for Napatech’s full range of intelligent network adapters. This allows data from multiple 1 GbE and 10 GbE ports to be merged into a single data stream for analysis. This allows a variety of appliance port configurations to be supported without the need to change a single line of code.

The data sharing features provided by the Napatech Software Suite allow multiple physical appliances to be consolidated onto a single physical server. This in turn negates the need for extra devices for load balancing, which further improves the consolidation business case.

“Napatech Software Suite provides our OEM customers with a solution for consolidation that can help to increase the value of their appliance products”, added Norup. “Consolidation based on virtualization is also possible, but applications running on virtual machines are completely isolated. With Napatech Software Suite data sharing features it is possible for applications to interact and cooperate allowing more advanced appliance solutions to be delivered.”

For more information visit Napatech at the Interop Tokyo conference from the 8^th to the 10^th of June at booth (#4Y04) or contact Napatech atwww.napatech.com.

For more information on consolidating multiple appliances using data sharing see Napatech’s whitepaper “Consolidating Multiple Network Appliances” .