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LAN MANAGEMENT: LAN monitoring; desktop, server, mobile-device management; remote-control tools

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 March 2004, 06:00 CST

Winning company: Opnet Technologies

Winning product: IT Guru, Version 9.0

In the constant battle between developers and network managers regarding who's to blame when something goes wrong with an application, a tool that measures application performance from the network's perspective is a great weapon. That's just what you get with Opnet Technologies' IT Guru, a sophisticated network analysis and network performance software package (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 9824).

With the software, you can view network and application performance side by side in a graphical format that eases the pinpointing of performance issues and delays. The software's AppDoctor module offers a spreadsheet-style diagnostic and statistics presentation that helps determine whether delays are in the application or the network. AppDoctor analyzes different parameters, including average packet size, retransmissions and errors. Advanced features let you add variables that can help predict the effects of network changes. These include changing the bandwidth, latency, link optimization, packet loss, payload size and TCP window size. We love software that lets you create "whatif" scenarios, especially helpful in determining the affect of multimedia applications on the network.

"We found ourselves addicted to the more advanced features," writes Jeffrey Fritz, the Lab Alliance member who tested this software. "A network technician could find the product very useful in evaluating the effects of new applications and network changes without harming the production network."

While the product as tested was expensive ($40,000 to $100,000 based on modules and customized models purchased), the value to a company with thousands of dollars in revenue per minute would find this package priceless.

Product UPDATE

In August 2003, Opnet released Version 10.0 of its suite of products, including IT Guru. New features include enhancements to troubleshoot performance of Citrix decodes, multitier transaction correlation and the ability to rapidly predict the affect of large- scale application deployments, the company says. The new product also includes simulations for large wireless network models, and enhancements for troubleshooting and validating device configurations.

Watch this space: Network monitoring as it applies to how you keep track of the activity on your network is a constantly changing term. We will be keeping an eye out for interesting network configuration management packages to test, those that aim to do the same thing for network devices that patch management has done for operating systems. We also plan to test desktop and client management packages, with a focus on how these packages keep systems up to date.

Finalist:

Oculan Oculan 250

We liked this appliance for providing "plug and play" network monitoring to small and midsize companies that want a comprehensive network-monitoring system without the hassle of installing a separate monitoring server and software.

The appliance offers excellent device discovery, useful monitoring features, timely notifications of network events, helpful reports and a responsive user interface. In addition, the Oculan 250 can identify vulnerabilities, watch for intrusions and monitor Windows server performance factors (DocFinder: 9825).

Novell ZENworks for Desktops

In desktop management, this product - coupled with ZENworks for Handholds - deserves a nod as a complete set of tools for managing desktop configurations, The software uses a policybased approach to let administrators configure every aspect of a user's desktop, For applications that are managed through Novell's Application Launcher, you even can control how the application runs - whether locally or through a terminal services session, The software also includes a workstation-imaging feature that takes a snapshot of a user's hard drive at specific times, so you can completely restore the hard drive over the network (DocFinder: 9826).

XcelleNet Afaria, LANDesk Software LANDesk Management Suite, Mobile, Automation Mobile Lifecycle Management Suite

We pulled those three products onto our finalist list because each excelled in a specific area of our desktop configuration tests. Afaria offers an outstanding software distribution capability and supports a comprehensive array of mobile devices, Because the LANDesk Management Suite repackages Afaria as part of its suite, it got high marks in the same areas, LANDesk also gets kudos for features that ease software deployment in very large networks such as its integration with popular disk-imaging products like Symantec's Ghost. Mobile Automation's product does an outstanding job of identifying software inventory on mobile devices and offers some innovative help desk features (DocFinder: 9826).

Copyright Network World Inc. Feb 23, 2004

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