OPNET Technologies Delivers IP-Service Design and Optimization Solution for Internet, Application Service Providers
Software Helps Reduce Application Response Times by Graphically Identifying Sources of Delay and Predicting Application Performance over Proposed Network DesignsWASHINGTON, DC -- May 1, 2000 -- OPNET Technologies, Inc., a developer of intelligent network management software, today announced the availability of the Application Characterization Environment (ACE) for IT DecisionGuru 7.0. Paired with IT DecisionGuru, ACE provides application service providers (ASPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) with a virtual proving ground for end-to-end infrastructure design and optimization, with visual auto-analysis of the factors affecting end-user service levels.
With IT DecisionGuru, network planners and operations staff can evaluate the performance of existing infrastructures, predict the impact of proposed modifications, and validate new service proposals before committing to a plan of action. IT DecisionGuru data provides ASPs and ISPs with an understanding of key operational parameters, such as network capacity, the interaction of multiple communications protocols, and the actual reliability of "failure-resistant" infrastructures. ACE extends this core capability by enabling service providers to visualize application packet flows in order to understand the root causes of slow response times. If the analyses uncover possible performance issues, ACE proposes remedies automatically.
"Businesses and consumers alike expect their application, Internet and hosting services to be as reliable as the public telephone system," said Marc Cohen, Chairman and CEO of OPNET Technologies. "IT DecisionGuru helps ASPs and ISPs meet stringent service-level demands by predicting future performance. Service providers now have the means to conduct proactive planning in an orderly fashion, weighing the price/performance tradeoffs of alternative solutions and validating those solutions under a wide variety of possible conditions."
Software That Understands Networks
ACE enables service providers to determine how individual applications are likely to perform under a wide range of loading conditions. ACE acquires a "fingerprint" of an application by importing traces from network analyzers. ACE graphically breaks down the response time into delays resulting from protocol effects, link throughput, network latency, processing at each tier (e.g., client, Web server, database server) and inefficient application code. ACE, used in conjunction with ITDG, can then simulate the performance of that application when deployed over any infrastructure, and forecast end-to-end service performance. This detailed understanding of application performance accelerates problem isolation and simplifies the task of designing or re-designing the network infrastructure. ACE can be used repeatedly on the resulting packet traces from simulations to gain further insight into how the application would perform on the proposed network.
AppDoctor™, a key feature of ACE, analyzes packet traces and provides an immediate diagnosis of poor application performance. Based on the diagnosis, AppDoctor provides a number of remedies that can be easily explored via simulation.
"IP services are growing in importance among many service providers," said Cohen. "AppDoctor offers an advanced capability to help service providers streamline and optimize their offerings by isolating specific, difficult-to-diagnose, application-performance problems. This can reduce time to resolution considerably, minimizing disruptions of service and helping service providers build more cost-effective delivery systems."
New Models Strengthen QoS, Application Traffic Simulations
IT DecisionGuru 7.0 includes additions to the OPNET Model Library intended to assist service providers in delivering consistent QoS levels. One such example is the ability to build models of specific user types and groups of users. An ASP, for example, could create an accounting-user model or an HR-user model to simulate the type and quantity of network traffic generated by that user community. The result is a realistic usage scenario with which to evaluate the performance of new or modified service proposals.
The library has also been expanded with new models for IP quality-of-service specifications CAR, CQ, RED and WRED. In addition to the new QoS models, wireless LAN and virtual LAN models have been added to help service providers model and simulate business-critical networks that extend beyond traditional, wired LAN implementations.
About OPNET Technologies, Inc.
The OPNET family of intelligent network management software enables our customers to optimize the performance and maximize the availability of communications networks and networked applications. The OPNET product suite combines predictive simulations and a comprehensive understanding of networking technologies to enable network professionals to more effectively design and deploy networks, diagnose network and application performance problems, and predict the impact of proposed network modifications.
The flagship products are: OPNET IT DecisionGuru, enabling service providers and enterprises to more effectively design and deploy networks and to predict the performance of their networks and applications; OPNET Modeler, enabling network equipment manufacturers to accelerate the design and development of network equipment and communication protocols; and OPNET Netbiz, accelerating the sales process for service providers and network equipment manufacturers by automating network design and proposal generation.
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Note to editors: The word OPNET is spelled with all upper-case letters.
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OPNET Technologies, Inc.
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