Swisscom Optimizes WANs

BERN, Switzerland -- From today Swisscom is offering corporate customers a new service for optimising their in-house data networks (VPN/WAN). By using Application Performance Management (APM) the data traffic of the corporate network is made transparent. This enables customers to measure the performance of applications, prioritise them accordingly, assign them the exact bandwidth required and monitor everything continuously. This way, IT managers can improve the cost efficiency and the availability of the company's data network even more.

The data network is the life blood of a company. Virtually all applications - from database queries and Voice over IP to the entire e-mail and Internet traffic - are being used by employees with increasing intensity. But as network usage steadily grows, the response times of certain applications become considerably longer. Up to now the answer has been to increase bandwidths on the data lines accordingly. The result has been a rise in the monthly costs for data lines, often without any noticeable reduction in the response times of the applications. The reasons for this are hard to identify as it is not possible to represent the data traffic transparently enough. The new APM solution package puts an end to this problem. It consists of three modules. Using the first module, the customer lets Swisscom analyse the data traffic on its corporate network. Measuring and monitoring devices for this purpose are placed at strategic points in the network so that the performance of all applications can be visualised in real time.

On the basis of these findings, the second module is used to optimise the available network resources for each location. The individual connections are correctly dimensioned according to an exact calculation of the bandwidth actually required. This enables the customer to establish internal quality agreements for business-critical applications, for example.

The third module, which monitors the traffic behaviour of the applications, enables the customer to guarantee compliance with these agreements. To ensure this, Swisscom supports the customer round the clock with continuous data network monitoring.

APM is available as a supplement to the Swisscom LAN-Interconnect Service. Customers opting for this solution will have the expenses incurred for the first module (network analysis) reimbursed. The prices for the network optimisation and monitoring modules are calculated individually based on the specific needs of a company and the size of the corporate network. Customers purchase APM as a service at a fixed monthly price and do not need to invest in a costly infrastructure themselves.Swisscom AG