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Network Computing's Distributed Testing Labs

by Art Wittmann

At Network Computing, we test products in the real world. Instead of building a museum of virtual networking, the products we review in our pages are tested in real corporate and university environments. Our readers don't have the luxury of making networks work in a vacuum; neither do we. We have four primary lab sites: University of Wisconsin at Madison, Syracuse University, a major oil company in Houston and San Mateo, Calif. Each lab site has its own mission, and the labs are interconnected by a nationwide frame relay network that also connects to the network where we produce our magazine in Manhasset, N.Y.

Distributed in the Real World

Our Wisconsin lab in Madison is my home. On the School of Engineering's campuswide network we test everything that has to do with Unix, NetWare, network infrastructure and high-speed networking. Right now, we're neck-deep into evaluations of ATM, FDDI, NetWare v4.1, hierarchical storage management, routers and switching hubs. Bruce Boardman heads up testing in Syracuse. We have our own testing facility, and we can access the university's large internetwork as well. Our Syracuse lab specializes in testing SNA-based products, network m anagement products, remote access hardware and software, modems, TCP/IP stacks and WAN products. While these university sites provide the diversity of large internetworks, we have a corporate lab site as well. Bruce Robertson is situated at a major oil company that is aggressively using client/server applications to rightsize. Bruce works with his Houston lab partners to evaluate middleware and operating systems, including Windows NT. Our San Mateo lab serves as Network Computing's bench testing facility, where we can test products in a controlled environment. Here we review servers, disk arrays, UPSes, stackable hubs, Windows NT platforms and more. Nearly all testing in San Mateo requires a large number of stations, servers or human effort. The lab hosts the gamut of OS and hardware platforms.

Well Connected and Growing

With the addition of a full-blown frame-relay network, our labs are better connected than ever. And we're hard at work, gaining more lab space and nearly doubling the number of lab test machines. We are also exploring adding lab sites.