A specialist in network monitoring, Net Optics is expanding its reach with what it calls the industry's first purpose-built integrated network and application monitoring tap for branch and remote offices. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., the company has more than 7,000 customers, including 85 of the Fortune 100.
A plug-and-play remote-access solution that can be up and running in minutes, appTap is intended for remote branch sites with up to 100MByte Internet connections. It captures and analyzes network traffic and application activity, and monitors voice over IP (VoIP) calls, enabling users to proactively detect and resolve problems in real time before the problems affect business continuity, competitiveness and revenue.
Net Optics says that it can save customers tens of thousands of dollars a year just for two or three incidents per year. Simply sending a network engineer on site can cost thousands of dollars, and that doesn't take into consideration identifying and resolving the problem, the company says.
There are three levels of monitoring available. The basic level, network monitoring, captures network data, generates and consumes NetFlow records and exports NetFlow records for use by third-party flow analysis tools. Next up is application monitoring, which adds flow monitoring and analysis and report tools that break down network use by layer, protocol and application. At the top end, session monitoring also provides the ability to troubleshoot VoIP calls.
Due out in the second quarter, appTap will include access to all three levels on a trial basis, with customers able to order the higher levels when and as desired. Final pricing is not available, but Net Optics says that the starting price will be about $3,000 and up to a couple of thousand more for the complete set of monitoring capabilities.
