SCIENCE

NetScout Systems has announced the nGenius Integrated Agent for HP, further extending unified service delivery management capabilities out to the network edge. A virtualized implementation of the company's widely deployed nGenius Probe technology, the nGenius Integrated Agent seamlessly extends high-definition packet-flow monitoring and analysis capabilities into networking equipment to provide valuable insight into user experience, service delivery performance and identify security threats closer to the point-of-user service consumption. The nGenius Integrated Agent for HP deployed within an HP E8200 and E5400 series switch eliminates the need for dedicated, standalone network monitoring hardware -- reducing operational costs associated with deploying instrumentation in edge environments. The greater visibility at the network edge and in remote offices enabled by the combined NetScout and HP solution helps organizations obtain more value from their existing technology investments, improve user experience, and simplify the management of IP service delivery broadening the IT organization's visibility into end-to-end service delivery.

Additionally, NetScout is announcing that it has joined the HP AllianceONE program. The nGenius solution now integrates with HP Networking, HP Software Business Technology Optimization (BTO) solutions and the ArcSight ETRM platform.

In the modern enterprise, service levels must be delivered consistently to all users. Today's IT mission is focused on delivering applications and services to users in a predictable and reliable manner to deliver the highest quality and availability of Information Technology (IT) services possible. IT organizations are under pressure to reduce cost and at the same time deliver consistent service levels while addressing the increasing complexity, scaling globally and adapting to emerging technologies such as cloud services, virtualization and unified communication services. Unified and consistent visibility into network and application performance with the correlation of services to the business and user experience has become a hot topic. The increasing complexity of IT services and infrastructure drives the need for a more automated and unified approach to managing service delivery. The IT organization needs end-to-end unified visibility to assure service delivery for all applications and users that is consistent with the rest of the network end-to-end across the enterprise to enable a better view into actual user experience.

The nGenius Integrated Agent for HP is a self-contained virtualized probe that is integrated and deployed on an HP AllianceONE Advanced Services zl Module, which provides an open architecture for best-in-class partner integration. The combination is then deployed within an HP E8200 and E5400 switch series chassis to create an intelligent instrumentation point for the nGenius Service Assurance Solution. The nGenius Integrated Agent for HP monitors and analyzes network traffic flowing across the chassis backplane to reveal real-time application and service performance metrics such as traffic, application and service utilization, conversations, error conditions, resource utilization, and response times. Leveraging the intelligent local and remote traffic mirroring and advanced packet control capabilities of the HP networking switch, IT staff has a high degree of flexibility to select specific traffic or classes of traffic to be monitored, enabling highly targeted granular visibility.

All data is collected, analyzed and stored locally on the HP AllianceONE Advanced Services zl Module and is then leveraged and reported on by the nGenius Service Assurance Solution consoles, including the nGenius Service Delivery Manager and nGenius Performance Manager. The HP AllianceONE Advanced Services zl Module provides distributed processing capabilities using its own local processor, hard disk, network interfaces, and memory, which operate independently of the host HP switch processing resources. The dedicated module ensures that there is no performance impact to switching platform or other integrated services while enabling continuous high performance Deep Packet Analysis for the nGenius Integrated Agent. The HP AllianceONE Advanced Services zl Module technology eliminates the need for separate monitoring hardware, lowering the overall total cost of operations by reducing management complexities, freeing up valuable rack space, simplifying asset administration and reducing power consumption at the network edge.

Part of a Unified Solution

The nGenius Service Assurance Solution enables a comprehensive approach to managing the delivery of services that empowers the IT organization to dramatically improve the overall quality of service for applications and services consumed across the entire organization. The nGenius Integrated Agent feeds high-definition user, application and network performance information into the nGenius Service Assurance Solution to understand resource impact and all interdependencies across networks, servers, applications and users. Leveraging a wide range of intelligent data sources, the nGenius Solution provides unified visibility from virtually any place in the network -- extending from the data center infrastructure and virtualized servers to the network core, edge and branch office -- to deliver a highly accurate view into the user's experience and service performance. This highly scalable, always-on network-wide solution provides IT organizations with a unified toolset and streamlined workflows needed to significantly improve the quality of services delivered, and dramatically reduce the time required to identify and resolve performance problems by enabling a more predictive and preventative approach to managing service delivery.

This new integrated offering with HP networking platforms is complemented by existing nGenius solution integration with HP Network Node Manager i-series (NNMi) and HP Business Availability Center (BAC) to address service delivery management in an even more unified way. This integration enables a plug-and-play linkage between HP networking hardware and HP software Business Technology Optimization (BTO) management solutions to deliver granular performance metrics gleaned from HP networking platforms back into HP's Enterprise Management solutions. The result is a unified approach not available from other networking vendors to now provide a rich picture of application and service level performance from the application, system, end-user and network perspective.

"Assuring the user experience has become of paramount importance in today's high performance enterprise environments. NetScout continues to drive technology innovation and leverage best practice network design architectures to enable pervasive visibility across the enterprise to more effectively assure the end-to-end performance of applications and services," said Steven Shalita, vice president, marketing at NetScout. "With today's announcement, we are demonstrating our commitment to extend nGenius technology into more network equipment to enable more visibility in more places with the integration into HP AllianceONE Advanced Services zl Module and HP E switch series platforms. Truly understanding the user experience requires getting as close to the user as possible to gain visibility into critical performance metrics such as application response times. This improves the IT organizations' ability to identify and resolve complex service delivery problems when and where they occur, which enables the IT organization to more efficiently optimize service delivery, predict and prevent performance issues and speed problem resolution in context with the overall service delivery environment."

"Customers want to simplify their networking infrastructure without losing visibility or control of the activity in their environment," said Mike Banic, vice president, marketing, HP Networking. "The open architecture of the HP Networking Branch Office Solution delivers a Converged Infrastructure that enables the integration of NetScout nGenius Agent for delivering visibility at the network edge, speeding issue identification and improving the responsiveness of infrastructures."

Availability

The nGenius Integrated Agent software is a self-contained application that is deployed on an HP AllianceONE Advanced Services zl Module, inserted into an HP E8200 and E5400 switch series platform. The nGenius Integrated Agent software has completed the HP AllianceONE Integrated Certification Program and general availability of the software is planned for October 2010. Please contact NetScout or a NetScout authorized reseller for more information.