Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

Apparent Network's appCritical 1.0

May 03, 2006

AppCritical automates the network performance assessment process, seeking to make it proactive in real time. Increasingly, networks are supporting complex real-time applications like video and voice; Apparent Networks contends that existing monitoring tools are insufficient to meet the needs of these new applications. Competitors, for instance, can't handle the job over leased WAN links, or fail to gather data along idle paths. Apparent Networks' business is making software solutions that evaluate networks' real-time performance. With appCritical 1.0, Apparent Networks adds automation to its bag of tricks. The solution isn't cheap, but it may be just what's needed on complex networks supporting real-time applications. Apparent Network appCritical 1.0 $100,000 for an average installation www.apparentnetworks.com

Intermittent network problems can take a big toll on real-time applications, such as VoIP and video transmissions. An occasional packet reorder or drop is more likely to be noticed with these applications than with a file transfer, but it's hard to diagnose these sporadic incidents. Catching the problem in the act, and knowing when it started and stopped, its type and specific data path can go a long way toward isolating its cause.

Apparent Network's new software, appCritical 1.0, catches such hiccups by probing a path, ensuring a continuous low level of testing that kicks into high gear when a problem occurs. When an error is detected, appCritical increases the frequency of its probes, gathering more information about the current network status to improve diagnostics. Companies can define and set thresholds for packet loss, delay, jitter, bandwidth and connectivity loss against which appCritical can measure performance.

Related Reading

More Insights