Verizon Business Unveils Cloud-Based Application-Monitoring Tools

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - In an economic environment where demands are high and margins often thin, problems with critical business applications can quickly turn profits to losses. With Verizon Business' new Application Assurance service, however, business customers are better able to keep their network-based business processes running smoothly and reliably.

The new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based offering, available in December to Verizon Private IP customers around the world, enables customers to efficiently monitor both application and network traffic.

The service provides an enterprisewide view of how applications such as e-commerce Web sites, voice-over-IP and CRM (customer relationship management) software are performing and how that performance is affecting end-users. As a result, customers can quantify the effect of performance problems.

The new service -- powered by Fluke Networks' Visual Performance Manager -- is the latest addition to the Verizon Private IP Application Aware suite of tools, which are designed to help businesses and government agencies more quickly identify and troubleshoot threats that could hamper application performance. The enhanced visibility into voice and data application performance provided by Application Assurance complements existing Verizon Application Aware tools. These include Asset Assurance for network device fault management; Dynamic Bandwidth for bandwidth monitoring, allocation and reporting; WAN Analysis for overall network reporting; and Provider Edge Statistics for quality of service and packet-delivery analysis.

"Even as demand grows and networks become more complex, IT leaders are expected to maintain application performance," said Blair Crump, group president of worldwide sales with Verizon Business. "Our new Application Assurance service tracks performance throughout the extended enterprise and identifies potential vulnerabilities to help IT managers regain control, safeguard assets, and keep video, voice and data traffic flowing smoothly."Since the new cloud-based capability is offered to Private IP customers via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, it eliminates the need for companies to purchase or maintain network-management software and hardware.

The SaaS delivery model is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises because services can be purchased a la carte. As a result, customers can better control costs while attaining the required levels of security, performance, scalability and reliability. In addition, customers can gain energy-conservation benefits by using IT resources (connectivity, server and storage) on an as-needed basis.

Data and reports collected by the service's platform are provided through the Verizon Enterprise Center customer portal.

"Verizon Business' Application Assurance helped us identify a potential bottleneck on our mobile VSAT disaster recovery network," said Frank Lonegro of CSX Corp., which tested the product earlier this year as part of the company's annual disaster recovery exercise. "Once the issue was resolved, we were able to successfully complete 64 concurrent VoIP calls between our mobile VSAT network and our servers located several states away. Every application is mission critical when you are in the railroad business, which has trains running 24 hours a day; and network monitoring and reporting mechanisms such as Application Assurance are important tools to have to ensure business continuity."

Scott Allen, vice president of marketing for the systems business with Fluke Networks, said, "Verizon recognized its customer's critical need for application performance and network usage visibility across the transport and approached Fluke Networks for an industry-unique combination of product capabilities and a SaaS delivery model. We are excited to work with Verizon to deliver this industry leading service."Application Assurance provides a powerful combination of passive network monitoring -- which allows for real-time tracking of who is using an application, for what purpose, when and where -- and active monitoring, which employs customized software agents to generate synthetic network traffic for measuring network availability and performance. The flexible and cost-effective SaaS delivery model makes it simple to deploy Application Assurance when and where needed. In addition, both short-term and long-term service contracts are available.

"Businesses are leveraging advanced collaboration technologies that integrate voice, video, and data to connect increasingly dispersed extended enterprise ecosystems and improve productivity and efficiency," said Melanie Posey, research director at IDC. "However, today's complex transaction and communications-oriented network environments create management challenges for enterprises that are also focused on refining their business models to keep pace with competitors. Verizon's new Application Assurance offering provides continuous monitoring that identifies potential network threats, delivers in-depth reports, and helps IT managers ensure smooth network traffic flows and maintain control over the network."

Verizon Business' Private IP service, the company's MPLS-based Layer 3 Virtual Private Network available to customers in 121 countries and territories, is an optimal platform for converged services. Private IP service allows for prioritization of applications via six classes of service (CoS), enabling critical applications such as immersive video and e-commerce to receive a higher priority across the organization's network.

Verizon Business is a recognized leader in delivering advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to government agencies and large-business customers around the world. Earlier this year, the company was ranked highest in overall customer satisfaction among large enterprises for both data and voice services by J.D. Power and Associates in its annual study of home-based, small to mid-sized and large-enterprise customers.

In the annual study, J.D. Power and Associates determined that Verizon Business ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Large Enterprise Data and Business Voice Service Providers." Study factors used to measure satisfaction included performance and reliability, sales representatives/account executives, billing, cost of service, customer service and offerings and promotions.J.D. Power and Associates Disclaimer: Verizon Business received the highest numerical score among data and voice service providers in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Services Study - Data Services and Voice ServicesSM. U.S. home-based, small to mid-sized and large-enterprise business customers were surveyed to measure customer satisfaction with providers of telecommunications data services such as cable modem, DSL, T1, T3/DS3, IP-based networks for VPNs, Ethernet services, videoconferencing applications, Web site hosting and managed services, and voice services such as voice-over-IP (VoIP), call center technologies, toll-free services, voice-mail/voice messaging, Centrex services, call forwarding, and local and long distance services. The surveys were conducted in January and April 2009.
About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a global leader in communications and IT solutions. We combine professional expertise with one of the world's most connected IP networks to deliver award-winning communications, IT, information security and network solutions. We securely connect today's extended enterprises of widespread and mobile customers, partners, suppliers and employees - enabling them to increase productivity and efficiency and help preserve the environment. Many of the world's largest businesses and governments - including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions - rely on our professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

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