Ipanema Guarantees Cloud App Performance

Paris-based Ipanema Technologies is guaranteeing application performance in the cloud with the latest release of its ANS (Autonomic Networking System). In addition to native service-level agreement enforcement for popular SaaS applications such as Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, IBM LotusLive and Salesforce.com, ANS 7.0 features enhancements to Scalable Application-Level Service Architecture (SALSA), the ANS multitenant management platform. Enhancements include central application performance dashboards (with an iPhone/iPad version) that are able to monitor the performance of SaaS applications.

The company has also announced the ip|engine 20, which it calls the first appliance designed for unification of high-speed hybrid Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Internet networks at branch locations. It assesses in real time the available bandwidth and performance of each path and provides dynamic failover of application flows according to their application SLAs when deployed across hybrid Internet plus MPLS networks.

Because many business-critical and recreational applications are delivered over HTTP(S), port-level quality of service isn’t adequate to guarantee appropriate performance, says Joe Skorupa, research VP, data center transformation, Gartner. "You really need two things--fine-grain visibility [per application signatures for hundreds of applications] combined with a policy-driven dynamic QoS engine that scales to hundreds or thousands of nodes. With SaaS applications, you add the complexity of not being able to place appliances at all traffic sources, so single-ended solutions are required that enable multi-point-to-point control."

Skorupa adds, "Ipanema does an excellent job delivering on all of these requirements and goes far beyond traditional approaches and is a leader among alternative solutions."

With more than 1,000 customers and 100,000 sites using its offerings to control and optimize their global networks--including public, private and hybrid clouds--Ipanema unifies performance across hybrid networks and dynamically adapts to whatever is happening in the traffic, as well as guarantees constant control of critical applications. The company says it takes the extra step of using the measurements the system takes to determine how to manage each application flow, combining visibility with control and WAN optimization.

The new release of ANS is part of Ipanema's Cloud-Ready Networks vision to extend end-to-end application SLA enforcement to all cloud-based applications. The company says virtual appliances will bring ANS to hosted environments, and branch office appliances will become as easy to deploy as cable modems. Due out at the end of the year, the nano|engine--a small-form-factor, high-bandwidth, plug-and-play device--will automatically control the performance of the combination of cloud, in-house and peer-to-peer applications in branch offices, and allow service providers to extend services to small and midsize enterprises.

Ipanema also plans to release in the third quarter the virtual|engine, a software image it calls the first virtual appliance to integrate QoS and control, application visibility, WAN optimization, and dynamic WAN selection.

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