NetScout Removes Barriers to Assuring Service Delivery Across Borderless Networks

NetScout Systems, Inc., today announced the availability of the nGenius® Integrated Agent software, further extending unified service delivery management capabilities into branch offices by leveraging the Cisco® Integrated Services Router (ISR) as an intelligent instrumentation point. As 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 further out to the network edge and branch office. This innovative approach removes the cost and operational obstacles that have traditionally limited the IT organization’s ability to monitor branch office locations. As a result, IT staff can now achieve always-on visibility into the end-to-end performance of applications and services across the entire network to better assure the user experience. This announcement also represents the growth and strengthening of the Cisco-NetScout technology relationship as NetScout joins the Cisco Developer Network for Cisco Integrated Services Routers. The relationship now spans Wireless, Unified Communications and Routing technologies.

As networks become truly borderless, multi-tier service levels are no longer acceptable. The IT organization must deliver consistent performance and always-on access to services and applications to all users regardless of their physical location or the device used. With the increasing adoption of cloud-based services and the consolidation of application and service hosting in datacenters, the IT organization needs a cost effective solution for assuring the delivery of predictable and reliable IP-based services across the entire network. In the past, service assurance efforts have been mostly focused at the datacenter and corporate campus. Cost and space constraints along with limited local IT resources have been barriers preventing the extension of always-on service assurance capabilities out to the branch. Yet with today’s dynamic environment the IT organization needs unified visibility into the branch and remote sites to assure service delivery for all applications and users that is consistent with the rest of the network.

"The dependency on IP-based applications and services continues to grow dramatically. The success of datacenter consolidation and cloud services is predicated on the network's ability to deliver anytime, anywhere, ‘always-on’ connectivity,” said Lucinda Borovick, research vice president, datacenter networks at IDC. "Much focus has been given to managing performance levels in the datacenter and campus. But as network traffic grows it becomes much more difficult to maintain the reliability and quality of service delivery in the branch office. In order to meet expected service levels, IT departments must have consistent visibility and intelligent analytics from the datacenter to the desktop to quickly identify and resolve network and application performance degradations. Pervasive visibility into network and application performance is crucial to achieving business goals and integrating monitoring technologies into existing network equipment is a logical and excellent way to lower operational costs and reduce management complexities that have traditionally hampered these efforts.”

Building on the recently introduced nGenius Virtual Agent technology for virtual servers and private clouds, NetScout has further optimized its virtualized probe technology for integration into third-party network equipment. The first implementation of this integration is with the widely deployed Cisco ISR and Cisco G2 platforms. Leveraging the Cisco Application Extension Platform (AXP), the nGenius Integrated Agent is seamlessly integrated with the Cisco ISR, enabling always-on visibility for all WAN and LAN traffic that passes through the router into and out of the branch. The Cisco ISR hosts the self-contained nGenius Integrated Agent on a dedicated service module, which mitigates any performance impact to the routing engine or other integrated services. Leveraging the powerful services virtualization capabilities of the Cisco ISR reduces cost and complexity by eliminating the need for a stand-alone hardware appliance. Consequently the IT organization can efficiently consolidate branch office equipment to minimize footprint impact, reduce power consumption, and lower operational costs.

Part of a Unified Solution

The nGenius Integrated Agent feeds high-definition application and network performance information into the nGenius Service Assurance Solution, which combines metrics from nGenius hardware and software-based intelligent data sources distributed across the service delivery environment for real-time and historical analysis and reporting. The joint Cisco and NetScout solution simplifies managing today’s borderless enterprise with pervasive and unified end-to-end visibility, from the datacenter to the branch office, to assure business service continuity and user experience. Now IT staff can get real-time operational status with intelligent early warning of emerging performance issues in the branch office. In addition, local visibility simplifies and speeds remote troubleshooting, minimizing need for technician dispatch and dramatically reducing the time and expense of problem resolution. This in turn 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.

"As networks become borderless, and data, voice and video traffic continue to explode, so does the need for assuring service levels regardless of location. Pervasive visibility into service delivery has become an essential requirement for effective IT management,” said Steven Shalita, vice president, marketing at NetScout. "By leveraging the value of the Cisco ISR platform, NetScout and Cisco are removing the barriers to achieving more visibility in more places by cost-effectively extending service management capabilities closer to the user. This enables the IT organization to achieve a truly global perspective of its service delivery environment to simplify the end-to-end management of IP service delivery and bring greater business value. This solution is ideal for highly distributed organizations, such as government, healthcare, retail, finance, energy and manufacturing industries with multiple branch and remote offices and will empower them to cope with current and future service delivery demands from a widening array of applications and services.”

Availability

The nGenius Integrated Agent has been certified through the Cisco IVT program and is available and shipping now. The nGenius Integrated Agent software is delivered pre-configured with the Cisco AXP software and is a self-contained application that can be installed locally on-site or remotely. The nGenius Integrated Agent is supported on Cisco 2800 and 3800 series ISRs and Cisco 2900 and 3900 series ISR G2 platforms and is deployed in conjunction with a Network Module Enhanced (NME) or Services Ready Engine (SRE) service module. Please contact NetScout or a NetScout authorized reseller for more information.

About NetScout Systems, Inc.

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) is the market leader in Unified Service Delivery Management enabling comprehensive end-to-end network and application assurance. For 25 years, NetScout has delivered breakthrough packet-flow technology that provides trusted and comprehensive real-time network and application performance intelligence enabling unified assurance of the network, applications and users. These solutions enable IT staff to predict, preempt and resolve network and service delivery problems while facilitating the optimization and capacity planning of the network infrastructure. NetScout nGenius® and Sniffer® solutions are deployed at more than 20,000 of the world’s largest enterprises, government agencies, and service providers, on over 740,000 network segments to assure the network, applications, and service delivery to their users and customers.

More information about NetScout Systems is available at http://www.netscout.com.

NetScout, nGenius, InfiniStream and Sniffer are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. Cisco is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc.