NetQoS Integrates with Cisco WAAS to Deliver End-to-End Application Response Time Reporting for WAN Optimization

July 25, 2007; 05:29 AM
NetQoS® Inc. is working with Cisco® to develop a management interface for accurate end-to-end application response time measurement for WAN optimization. Integrated in Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) devices, the software will allow IT organizations to accurately validate the results of WAN optimization deployments.

"This is a significant advancement in the WAN optimization space, because accurate response time data is essential to ensuring WAN optimization deployments are fully optimizing application performance for the end user, and no other WAN optimization solution offers this," said Dr. Cathy Fulton, NetQoS CTO. "Current WAN optimization technologies obscure application response times through locally acknowledged TCP sessions, making it difficult to quantify the real benefits of a WAN optimization deployment. NetQoS and Cisco have developed a truly end-to-end solution where application performance statistics are captured and reported from the end user to the data center."

The integrated software on Cisco WAAS devices will export TCP header information before optimization occurs to NetQoS SuperAgent, the end-to-end performance monitoring module of the NetQoS Performance Center product suite. Using Cisco WAAS with NetQoS SuperAgent will help enable joint customers to quantify Cisco WAAS response time improvements accurately with before and after analysis and provide consistent and improved application delivery to end users.

To measure Cisco WAAS traffic flow improvements, Cisco and NetQoS will also market NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer™, the traffic analysis module of the NetQoS Performance Center that reports on enterprise wide Cisco IOS® NetFlow statistics. Cisco WAAS provides compliance with network-based NetFlow collection and export, and does not impede the ability to see traffic composition before and after WAN optimization is applied.

"Cisco WAAS integrates transparently within customers' networks, and the management interface we have developed with NetQoS extends that transparency to performance reporting data, giving our customers accurate insight into how to best leverage our technology to maximize application performance and remote user productivity," said Dr. Issy Ben-Shaul, CTO of the Application Delivery Business Unit, Cisco.

Using NetQoS Performance Center modules with Cisco WAAS will help enable IT organizations to validate the results of WAN optimization deployments and:

• Identify and prioritize the network segments and applications that will benefit from a WAN optimization deployment
• Obtain before and after measurements for pilot testing of optimization
• Determine the impact optimization has on application performance and data volume across WAN segments and in the data center
• Troubleshoot problems after rolling out optimization
• Calculate the ROI of WAN optimization deployments

SRA International, Inc. is a leading provider of technology and strategic consulting services and solutions - including systems design, development and integration; and outsourcing and managed services - to clients in national security, civil government, and health care and public health.

"As a Cisco WAAS customer with 45 sites deployed, we are looking forward to the new application performance management integration features in this new software release," said Frank Kist, Acting CIO, SRA International, Inc. "The management interface from Cisco and NetQoS will allow us to accurately measure end-to-end application response time and WAN utilization. With this additional analysis, we can report precisely the performance, productivity and ROI benefits delivered by Cisco WAAS."

In addition to technology integration, NetQoS and Cisco will engage in joint marketing, sales, and support activities, helping customers to understand how to calculate WAN optimization improvements accurately.

The integrated response time solution will be available in the next release of Cisco WAAS, scheduled for the third quarter of 2007. NetFlow reporting is available today, with no changes required to Cisco WAAS or NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer. There will be no additional charge for the integrated NetQoS SuperAgent software that operates on the Cisco WAAS Wide Area Application Engine (WAE) and Wide Area Application Engine Network Module (NME-WAE) devices. Pricing for NetQoS SuperAgent starts at $40,000 and NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer starts at $25,000. The NetQoS Performance Center is available to customers at no additional cost with the purchase of one of NetQoS' product modules.
   
"Prudent IT managers will not deploy WAN optimization products without first identifying the best candidates for optimization based on traffic composition, latency, and bandwidth utilization, and establishing an end-to-end application performance baseline so that the improvement from optimization can be quantified accurately," said George Hamilton, director of enterprise infrastructure at Yankee Group. "And if quantifying performance improvements is a concern, then this joint NetQoS/Cisco solution should be at the top of any IT manager's list of solutions to evaluate."

"Ultimately, it all comes down to having visibility into what's on your network before and after WAN optimization device deployment," said Dr. Fulton. "Organizations need visibility into the amount of congestion on each link, what applications are running over the link, and end-user response times to quantify 'normal' latency in the application, server, and network components. Only then can organizations make informed decisions about which WAN optimization technologies to deploy and understand how those technologies are working. This joint solution with the NetQoS Performance Center product modules provides an integrated, overall view of response time and traffic flow data necessary to plan for and fully leverage Cisco WAAS improvements."

For more information about Cisco WAAS solutions go to www.cisco.com/go/waas

For more information about the NetQoS Performance Center or its NetQoS SuperAgent or NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer product modules, visit http://www.netqos.com/solutions/NPC

About the NetQoS Performance Center
The NetQoS Performance Center product suite provides global visibility, via a single Web-based management console, into the key metrics necessary to quantify network performance across an organization: end-to-end performance (NetQoS SuperAgent), traffic analysis (NetQoS ReporterAnalyzer), and device performance (NetQoS NetVoyant®). The NetQoS Performance Center provides a top-down view of all applications--data, video, and voice--for the entire network infrastructure. IT professionals can also drill down into this data with customizable, role-specific views in order to:

• Measure end user response times
• Provide consistent application service delivery
• Understand how infrastructure changes affect network and application performance
• Isolate performance problems to the application, server, or network
• Identify the applications and users consuming bandwidth, and when
• Avoid unnecessary WAN costs
• Manage the convergence of voice, video and data
• Identify virus or denial of service attacks

NetQoS, SuperAgent, and NetVoyant are registered trademarks and ReporterAnalyzer is a trademark of NetQoS Inc. All other trade names, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.