Products and Solutions - · PDF file4 NetScout Products and Solutions Reference Guide 5. ... Assurance Solution • nGenius Performance Manager for Flows & nGenius Analytics for Flows

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Products and Solutions Reference Guide

ENTERPRISE SoluTIoNS

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In today’s dynamic business environment, the modern IP network has emerged as a critical success factor. The Information Technology (IT) organization is under increasing pressure to orchestrate the seamless and reliable delivery of services to meet increasing user expectations. Today’s IT organizations must provide more services and greater business value with fewer resources and lower operating budgets than ever before. Yet operational costs can consume as much as 70 percent of the average IT budget.

Today’s IT mission is focused on reducing the cost of IT while increasing IT performance, improving operational efficiencies and delivering the highest quality and availability of IT services possible. Because of the lack of unified and consistent visibility into network and application performance with dynamic correlation to services, the business and user experience is no longer acceptable. This coupled with the ever changing technology landscape and the continued increasing complexity of IT infrastructure drives the need for more a more automated and unified approach to managing service delivery. IT management must reduce the cost of service delivery, address increasing complexity, scale globally and adapt to emerging technologies such as cloud services, virtualization and unified communication services.

Table of Contents

Unified Service Delivery Management 4

nGenius Service Assurance Solution 8

nGenius Performance Manager 10

nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager 12

Sniffer Analysis 14

nGenius Analytics for Flows 20

nGenius Intelligent Data Sources 22

Third-Party Integration 36

Global Support and Services 39

2 3N e t S c o u t P r o d u c t s a n d S o l u t i o n s R e f e r e n c e G u i d e

Support for IT InitiativesThe value of NetScout nGenius® and Sniffer® technologies enable IT organizations to dramatically improve service quality while evolving their service management model from a reactive approach that responds to complaints, to a more proactive model that delivers a high performance, always-on services. This enables organizations to assure service delivery consistently from data center to the desktop and over the WAN to the branch office, while freeing up scarce IT resources to spend time on more strategic initiatives. Some of the more common IT initiatives include:

• Data Center & Virtualization–View service delivery across virtual and physical environments for a comprehensive, unified view of application and network performance; the correlation of physical and virtual services in the data center enables IT organizations to optimize data center infrastructure investments, protect against service degradations, and simplify the operation of complex, multi-tier application environments

• Unified Communications–Delivers the ability to view voice, data and video services side by side in order to understand the interrelationships of all services that traverse the network infrastructure

• Branch Office & WAN–Brings extended visibility into the performance of applications and networks at and between locations, unified into an end-to-end solution that promotes collaborative problem-solving and planning

• Enterprise Mobility–Provides service assurance across the infrastructure and applications supporting wireless service delivery, and rapid-response network troubleshooting with integration into Cisco® wireless networks

• Process Improvement & ITIL–Delivers real-time and historical information that provides the necessary insight to restore service, manage capacity, and understand the users’ quality of experience–as well as streamline your workflow in support of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) process improvements

• Service Assurance & Troubleshooting–Provides real-time enterprise-wide views, backed up by high-definition, actionable information on all network traffic, including individual applications, segments, and end users, to rapidly isolate network issues, restore service quickly, and minimize business impact

Unified Service Delivery ManagementLeveraging the Unified Service Delivery Management framework from NetScout® Systems, Inc. can help your organization construct a dynamic, scalable and sustainable approach to service delivery management that will enable better alignment of IT with business objectives and improve service quality and reliability. A unified view of the service delivery environment--extending from the data center, to the network, to the users--empowers the IT organizations to manage services, networks and users in unison, reducing the underlying complexity and achieving a unified business and service perspective of converged global networks. NetScout solutions can help IT organizations address business and technology challenges due to the explosion of data volume and transactions, the proliferation of smart devices and the emergence of new technologies such as unified communications, application virtualization, SOA, cloud services and data center consolidation. NetScout can help your organization create a unified and flexible service delivery management architecture that will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your IT organization and help to:

• Assure business service continuity

• Achieve optimal user experience

• Optimize service delivery performance

• Better leverage existing infrastructure

• Simplify managing service delivery

• Reduce complexity

• Lower the overall total cost of IT operations

Leveraging advanced packet flow technologies, NetScout solutions give you greater visibility for effective monitoring, analyzing and assuring the end-to-end performance of applications and services for enterprise, government and service providers. This visibility delivers better business value, enhances the user experience, gains more from existing technology investments, and simplifies the management of IP service delivery. The Unified Service Delivery Management framework from NetScout brings rapid return on investment while dramatically enhancing organizational agility, allowing the IT organization to:

• Optimize the service delivery environment, better leverage existing investments, and roll out new services with confidence

• Protect network and application performance, and assure the quality of user experience

• Simplify operations, improve workflow, consolidate tools, improve efficiency and collaboration and lower the overall cost of IT operations


NetScout Network and Application Performance Product Families

NetScout is the market leader in Unified Service Delivery Management solutions focused on assuring service delivery for the world’s most demanding and complex service delivery environments. With a rich, sustained history of 25 years of technology innovation NetScout continues to lead the market and has dramatically changed how IT organizations assure service delivery across modern IP networks. NetScout has remained focused on aligning its product portfolio to meet the needs of the modern IT organization, providing robust tools for the efficient and effective management of dynamic network and application environments. This product portfolio has been architected to help IT organizations improve service availability and reliability with highly scalable, flexible, real time service delivery management capabilities that support a wide range of IT operational teams, including network managers, data center operations, application management, network operations centers, network engineering and IT operations.

In today’s rapidly evolving technology environment, the IT organization is charged with delivering applications and services to users in a predictable, reliable and cost-effective way. Network and application analysis products from NetScout provide deployment-proven, valuable insight into the dynamic nature of data, voice and video running across modern IP networks. These highly sophisticated tools provide both a business and technical perspective of service delivery that allows IT and business management staff to fully understand resource impact and all interdependencies across networks, servers, applications and users to optimize service delivery and protect against service outages.

NetScout has designed three distinct product families that range from portable field service tools, to dedicated hot-spot deep packet analysis and forensics, to end-to-end always-on service assurance with intelligent early warning capabilities. This comprehensive range of dynamic tools all leverage the power of packet-flow knowledge to support both strategic and tactical approaches to managing the performance of applications and networks. Regardless of the design center deployed, NetScout products will enable the IT organization to meet the challenges and demands associated with modern day service delivery.

The nGenius Service Assurance Solution delivers comprehensive, always-on visibility into end-to-end performance of the network, applications, services and users. Leveraging a family of unified software modules and rich packet flow-based metadata, the nGenius solution delivers unprecedented visibility into the end-to-end service delivery environment. Leveraging a robust range of intelligent data sources, the nGenius solution provides unified visibility from virtually any place in the network--extending from the data center infrastructure and virtualized servers to the network core, edge and branch office—delivering highly accurate and flexible visibility into the user’s experience of application and network performance. This highly scalable, always-on network-wide solution provides IT organizations the tools and streamlined workflows needed to significantly improve the quality of services delivered, thereby dramatically reducing the time required to identify and resolve performance problems and make possible a more predictive and preventative approach to managing service delivery.

Intelligent Data Sources:

nGenius InfiniStream, Probes, Virtual Agents

and Collectors

The Sniffer Portable Analyzer product family provides best-in-class portable network and application analysis for plug-and-play, on-demand field deployments. Built on legendary and widely deployed Sniffer technology, the software is deployed on individual laptops for portable analysis and troubleshooting to rapidly isolate issues for wired and wireless networks. NetScout has taken the idea of the portable network analyzer to the next level by adding enterprise-class security and control of user access to sensitive network data.

Field-service portable analysis with security

and control

The Sniffer Analysis software suite provides a direct connection to nGenius InfiniStream appliances for highly optimized forensic analysis and packet data mining to fully exploit the valuable information contained within network packets. The Sniffer Analysis software suite can be deployed on a standalone basis or in concert with the comprehensive nGenius Service Assurance Solution. When deployed in a standalone mode, Sniffer Analysis provides unsurpassed segment-by-segment deep packet analysis and troubleshooting capabilities by leveraging any number of nGenius InfiniStream appliances deployed across the network. The Sniffer Analysis software suite provides a powerful view deep into IP network packets, revealing granular information about network and application interactions and response time and latency metrics.

Segment-specific troubleshooting and analysis with deep packet

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The nGenius Service Assurance Solution is a unified platform that leverages a number of specialized modules and intelligent data sources that consist of:

• nGenius Performance Manager–Analyzes and leverages the meta-data delivered by a comprehensive range of intelligent data sources for integrated network, application and service performance monitoring, response time analysis, troubleshooting, capacity planning and trending, and long-term reporting, enabling end-to-end assurance and visibility of service delivery

• nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager–Used in conjunction with nGenius Performance Manager, nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager delivers service-oriented views and virtual topology maps, providing a high-level view of the health of applications and services, and automatically detecting anomalous changes in network, application and service behavior

• Sniffer Analysis–Enables unrestricted packet mining, forensic analysis and decodes from the nGenius InfiniStream® appliance packet store to speed troubleshooting

• Sniffer MultiSegment Analysis–Combines and correlates trace files from multiple nGenius InfiniStream appliances for multi-segment and multi-tier analysis, comparative session reporting and logical application and service mapping

• nGenius Intelligent Data Sources–nGenius intelligent data sources range from intelligent Deep Packet Capture (iDPC) appliances, to hardware probes, to software-based agents for virtual environments, to NetFlow and sFlow collection devices. These data sources utilize a common framework that enables the disparate metrics collected to be displayed in comprehensive and unified views, with seamless workflows across the fully integrated and unified nGenius Service Assurance Solution

• nGenius Performance Manager for Flows & nGenius Analytics for Flows–Leverages Cisco NetFlow, sFlow, and IP SLA data for analysis and reporting of performance problems, analysis and reporting for application utilization and conversation-level statistics, and MIB II data collected by nGenius Collectors

nGenius Service Assurance Solution

The nGenius Service Assurance Solution is a unified service delivery management platform that provides comprehensive, real-time network, application and service performance intelligence, allowing the IT organization to assure optimized network and application performance and quality of experience. The nGenius Service Assurance Solution provides always-on network and application visibility with a common and consistent view of service-oriented analysis and reporting functions that increases productivity and collaboration across the IT organization with team-oriented workflows. Solution capabilities include:

• Unified aggregate service views with intelligent, automated anomaly detection to understand service-level performance and predict network, application, and service performance degradations in order to minimize or avoid service- impacting degradations

• Network, application and service performance management with unified real-time and historical views, giving critical visibility into today’s most complex service delivery environments

• Packet-level forensic analysis for deep-packet visibility and granular back-in-time historical analysis to resolve the most difficult application and service delivery problems

• Planning and optimization capabilities showing how resources are being consumed and revealing capacity shortfalls to keep service delivery environments running at peak efficiency and performance levels, and to best leverage existing IT technology investments

• Service and policy validation delivers key metrics and insight into the service delivery environment to validate the impact of the implementation of new network optimization and policies for applications and services

The nGenius Service Assurance Solution brings a unified approach to managing service delivery that empowers the IT organization to dramatically improve the overall quality of service for applications and services delivered across the entire organization. Unified insight into the service delivery environment enables greater service reliability and availability with improved network performance and responsiveness. A unified framework for service delivery management helps the organization lower the total cost of IT operations by consolidating operations into a single unified tool set that can be leveraged across the entire organization. This improves IT staff productivity and collaboration, and enables better cross-functional leverage of management tool investments. Consequently, the IT organization gains better insight into the real-time operation of the service delivery environment, reducing the overall total cost of ownership for IT while maximizing network and application investments.

8 9

nGenius Performance Manager

Overview

The nGenius Performance Manager is the cornerstone of the nGenius Service Assurance Solution, providing IT organizations with an unprecedented, unified end-to-end view of service delivery, performance and consumption from the data center to the end user. Highly optimized to support the most complex and demanding network environments, nGenius Performance Manager leverages robust and pervasive packet flow data collected by a comprehensive family of nGenius intelligent data sources. Deployed across the network, these data sources capture and analyze real-time IP traffic flows. In addition, the nGenius Performance Manager can also leverage NetFlow and sFlow data from deployed network devices to gain broader insight from key network aggregation points.

Capabilities

• Unified view of a converged network environment with the ability to view voice, video and data metrics side-by-side in the same easy-to-use workspace

• Application recognition and monitoring of well-known, custom-developed, virtualized, and Web-based applications and services

• Critical application and network performance metrics that identify interrelationships and interdependencies between applications over the network infrastructure

• Response time analysis and latency metrics provide granular understanding of application behavior with early detection of application performance degradation and quality of experience (QoE) issues

• Highly flexible reporting and analysis capabilities including long-term trending and capacity planning with support for on-demand and scheduled reporting

• Unified monitoring of the network, applications and application server infrastructure to include both physical and virtual environments

Uses

• Properly manage application and network performance with a high-definition understanding of service delivery

• Optimize the existing network infrastructure for peak performance, forecast bandwidth growth, recognize capacity shortfalls, validate and optimize new service roll-outs and properly plan for new technology initiatives

• Validate service delivery over QoS classes and ensure that users have access to the networked applications they need to meet their business objectives

• Recognize and address service delivery issues as they emerge to minimize user impact

nGenius Performance Manager real-time and historical views provide high-definition visibility to virtually all applications on the network, including well-known, custom, complex and Web-based services, and applications within virtualized computing environments.

Long-term reporting provides valuable information regarding trends in the service delivery environment and aids in understanding the impact new technology initiatives will have on existing services.

Benefits

• Comprehensive, end-to-end understanding of application and service delivery across the network infrastructure, assuring a high performance service delivery environment

• Optimized and efficient network infrastructure to run at peak efficiency and deliver a consistent high quality end-user experience

• Granular understanding of how users access key business applications and assure users have access to the services needed to meet business objectives

• Real-time recognition of poor service delivery conditions, speeding the identification and diagnosis of service degradation to minimize the impact to users


nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager

Overview

nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager delivers a unified and aggregate view of services and applications providing a powerful, at-a-glance visualization and correlation of network and application health across the service delivery environment. Leveraging a self-learning predictive statistical modeling engine, nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager helps IT organizations assure the availability and performance of business services through automated detection of exceptions and anomalies in service traffic coupled with subsequent diagnostics through nGenius Performance Manager. The nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager combines data from applications, network service enablers, and network elements into an aggregated view of services and delivers a wide range of robust key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide an always-on service-oriented view with actionable early-warning notification of issues as they are emerge.

Capabilities• Provides a unified vantage point for all services across the service delivery

environment with a highly scalable cross-organization view into business service performance and health

• Dynamic automated discovery of services and applications with a real-time service status dashboard provides at-a-glance visualization of the health of the service delivery environment, across multiple applications and services

• Automated anomaly detection offers predictive behavioral analysis that automatically identifies abnormal changes in service performance and provides early warning notification of emerging performance problems

• KPI analysis provides focused metrics on the health of key business services from an end-user perspective

• Service summaries provide application and service-specific charts that supply focused and relevant evidence about the state of the network at the time of the incident

• Service maps graphically illustrate the flow of each application and service across the network by displaying the nGenius intelligent data sources and servers that have seen the application or service

• Anytime, anyplace access to nGenius K2 alerts and summaries from wireless/mobile PCs or handheld devices, enterprise desktops or network operation center (NOC) consoles

Uses • View the health of key business service delivery with at-a-glance service

visualization• Take preemptive action and preventative measures by identifying changes in

behavior before they degrade service delivery • Speed problem resolution with the ability to view focused and relevant evidence

about the state of the network at time of incident• Unified management of service delivery by understanding the flow of each

application and service across the network • Anytime, anyplace access to alerts and summaries from mobile PCs or handheld

devices, desktops or NOCs

Benefits• Assures high availability and quality performance of today’s complex IP business

services • Intelligent early warning capabilities enable the IT organization to become more

predictive with a preventative mode of addressing business-impacting issues • Automated detection of service-impacting issues with streamlined workflows for

seamless detailed diagnostics• Enhanced IT productivity with unified service views to proactively monitor the

status of all related service delivery elements• Maximized service levels and uptime of service delivery environment and end-to-

end service health• Track critical metrics focused on analyzing the errors and responsiveness

degradations that impact business critical services• Improve service delivery by automatically identifying anomalous behavior with

action-oriented alarms that provide powerful early warning of performance degradations to avoid service meltdowns

The nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager at-a-glance dashboard view provides a clear understanding of the health of the services that end users rely on to meet their business objectives.

The nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager service status view delivers an application-specific summary overview containing relevant and focused performance details essential for rapid problem diagnosis, such as response time, key performance indicators or application usage.


Uses

• Track conversation details for root cause analysis

• See and hear how VoIP applications are affected by jitter

• Graphically compare application performance side by side

• Analyze incidents from a forensic perspective to determine how multiple applications or services interrelate

Benefits

• Simplifies troubleshooting of complex application issues using easy to understand charts and graphs

• Provides flexible filtering, allowing a troubleshooter to drill down one path, then seamlessly explore another direction

• Accelerates identification of root cause by quickly mining application and VoIP performance data

Sniffer Analysis Software

Sniffer Analysis enables IT staff to perform highly granular packet analysis, mining, and decode of packets captured and stored by nGenius InfiniStream appliances. Optimized for direct connection to an nGenius InfiniStream appliance, the Sniffer Analysis software suite is used within the nGenius Service Assurance Solution or on a standalone basis to provide unprecedented granular packet forensic analysis that enhances and simplifies troubleshooting. This packet-level analysis quickly pinpoints performance anomalies and isolates root cause so the IT staff can rapidly solve the most challenging and complex application and network performance issues. A number of components of the Sniffer Analysis software suite are included with each nGenius InfiniStream appliance and provide a direct-connect interface to nGenius InfiniStream appliances including:

Base Software

• Sniffer Intelligence (base module)–Back-in-time application-aware analysis software supplies packet-level forensic analysis to simplify troubleshooting, including enterprise application and voice intelligence capabilities

• InfiniStream Console–Direct-connect interface to an nGenius InfiniStream appliance

• Sniffer Focused Intelligence–A packet retrieval and manipulation tool to support in-depth packet searches and focused frame analysis

Specialized Applications

• Sniffer Financial Intelligence–An optional software module that is highly optimized to analyze and troubleshoot financial trading environments

Sniffer Intelligence

Overview

Sniffer Intelligence is application forensic analysis software that provides a back-in-time, graphical view of the conversations traversing the network to speed troubleshooting and analysis. Users can mix and match multi-dimensional views of hundreds of pre-processed statistics to create customized charts that compare data, profile applications or isolated anomalies. The Sniffer Intelligence base module is provided with Sniffer Analysis at no additional cost and is deployed on the user’s desktop. An optional specialized add-on module is available for analysis of financial trading applications.

Capabilities

• Automatic identification of popular packaged applications and next-generation IP-based services

• More than one hundred flow-based statistics and metrics including detailed server and network response times, TCP efficiencies, anomalies, and QoS levels

• Recognition of Voice over IP (VoIP) call detail records

• Patented HyperLock™ multi-dimensional filtering to speed data retrieval and expedite troubleshooting

• Comprehensive yet flexible views of the data

• Industry-leading Sniffer decodes and experts

Sniffer Intelligence provides easy navigation using dynamic metrics and charts.

VoIP conversations are easily graphed to visualize voice impairments. Audio playback is also included.

InfiniStream Console

Overview

The InfiniStream Console provides a direct-connect interface to nGenius InfiniStream appliances. Stored packet data can be directly accessed with unrestricted mining and does not require a secondary server. The InfiniStream Console provides a streamlined view to vital data that is needed when troubleshooting high-priority issues. Although often used in standalone mode, the InfiniStream Console can serve as a complementary user interface with the nGenius Service Assurance Solution, allowing users to drill down to highly granular deep packet analysis from within the unified solution.

Capabilities

• Provides a direct connection to nGenius InfiniStream appliances so users can view and analyze native packet data for unrestricted data mining to perform detailed forensic analysis on network traffic


Sniffer Financial Intelligence

Overview

Sniffer Financial Intelligence is an optional add-on module to Sniffer Intelligence that is specifically designed for financial trading firms and exchanges that transmit trade order flows and use market data feeds. The software provides detailed visibility into messaging protocols to trade orders as well as hundreds of common data feeds critical to automated trading. The software integrates with the base Sniffer Intelligence module.

Capabilities

• Automatically identifies trade applications, such as Financial Information eXchange (FIX) and TradElect, breaking out the details of the individual orders

• Recognizes more than 600 financial market data feeds, including Arcabook, ARCA-FAST, CME-MDP, IBM LLM, TIBCO, NASDAQ UQDF, OPRA FAST, and Russell 1000

• Supplies enhanced time stamping across nGenius InfiniStream appliances using GPS or CDMA options to correct for μsec drift where latency is critical

• Breaks out latencies by transport and the time for the transaction to be turned by the server

• Includes more than one hundred flow-based statistics and metrics including detailed server and network response times, TCP efficiencies, anomalies, and QoS levels

• Leverages the patented HyperLock multi-dimensional filtering to speed data retrieval and expedite troubleshooting

• Includes industry-leading Sniffer decodes and experts

• QuickSelect thumbnail overview of traffic over time

• Merges multiple streams to provide a consolidated view

• Visually shows which packets and statistical time slices are available for retrieval

• Automatically launches Sniffer Intelligence and its decodes for detailed troubleshooting analysis

• Quickly reacts to service delivery issues using a “crash-cart” problem resolution approach

• Provides health statistics on the nGenius InfiniStream appliance

Uses

• The InfiniStream Console software is used to quickly focus, understand, troubleshoot and tune critical applications and networks; it provides unrestricted mining directly on the nGenius InfiniStream appliance when time to resolution is critical

• The granular forensic analysis along with high-level overview of individual or merged traffic streams and a wide array of analysis criteria is vital to assess and resolve service delivery issues or security-related incidents

Benefits

• Simplify troubleshooting of application issues by providing quick and unrestricted packet mining and access to Sniffer Intelligence and the decodes necessary to solve the most complex service-delivery issues, minimizing the impact on the end user

Sniffer Financial Intelligence breaks out order details of individual trades to see exactly how they executed.

The InfiniStream Console provides a QuickSelect view to include traffic over time as well as detailed statistics on the highlighted traffic spike.


Uses

• Helps resolve problems within FIX or TradElect networks

• Reports on client latency/delivery, and compliance

• Tracks which orders closed properly and which were left open

• Determines if certain transaction types run faster than others

• Isolates delays, microbursts, or loss in S,G feeds

This Sniffer MultiSegment Analysis view graphically depicts individual packet flows and their associated conversations (complete with inter-segment delays) across the network. Problems such as bottlenecks and packet loss are easily identified.

Benefits

• Helps simplify and accelerate complex financial trade application troubleshooting by detailing financial data such as order type, status, symbol, and order ID

• Monitors market feeds for signs of packet loss or sequence issues that can negatively impact automated trading

• Exposes latency issues in time-critical financial applications that have the potential to turn profitable trades upside down

• Isolates which trading stations are processing orders faster than others

• Enables accelerated root cause identification by quickly mining trade details to keep overall orders flowing smoothly

Sniffer MultiSegment Analysis

Overview

Sniffer MultiSegment Analysis automates the tedious process of matching packet traces across multiple network segments. It is a post-capture analysis tool that exposes network latencies and application turn times between segments, determining exactly where network delays occur.

Capabilities

• Automates and synchronizes conversation flows across multiple segments

• Provides a structured drill-down approach to solving complex performance problems

• Visually depicts delays and networking anomalies

• Algorithmically correlates front-end Web transactions with SQL-based back-end queries for multi-tiered applications

• Presents transactions from multiple network perspectives or combined together in a multi-tiered view

• Allows drill down from higher-level reporting to the packet details

Uses

• Track and coordinate conversation flows across multiple segments to troubleshoot complex applications

• Monitor the delivery of multi-tier applications from a hop-by-hop perspective

• Determine the effect of chatty applications across a network

• Plan, test, and validate complex or multi-tiered application rollouts


Benefits

• Streamlines the process of troubleshooting complex or multi-tiered applications

• Gives IT staff an understanding of application delivery across segments with graphical views of specific conversations

• Simplifies diagnosis of complex issues for multi-tier and multi-hop applications

• Verifies exactly where performance degradations occur

• Recognizes how front-end processes can trigger complex database queries

Benefits

• The nGenius Analytics for Flows and nGenius Performance Manager for Flows work in unison to recognize and resolve network problems quickly and efficiently and to support capacity planning initiatives

• Combined understanding of how users are accessing the services they need to meet their business goals of application delivery across the network infrastructure, including utilization, application responsiveness and QoS configuration

• Improved service delivery by automatically identifying anomalous behavior with action-oriented alarms that provide powerful early warning of performance degradations, minimizing the impact on the end user

• Visibility that enables proper capacity planning for new technology initiatives and cost justification when upgrades are needed

nGenius Analytics for Flows and nGenius Performance Manager for Flows

Overview

The nGenius Performance Manager for Flows and the nGenius Analytics for Flows products are specifically optimized to leverage Cisco NetFlow or sFlow data from other popular network devices as their primary source of network traffic data. Using flow records from network infrastructure devices collected by nGenius Collector appliances, nGenius Analytics for Flows provides action-oriented alerts that contain evidentiary details and graphical charts used as the starting point to guide diagnosis. From the alert, IT organizations can easily drill down to nGenius Performance Manager for Flows for additional details necessary to resolve problems. The nGenius Performance Manager for Flows analyzes and maps NetFlow and sFlow data and IP SLA results gathered by nGenius Collector appliances into the powerful real-time screens and historical reports necessary for problem resolution and capacity planning activities.

Capabilities

• Gain an accurate view of data contained within NetFlow and sFlow datagrams and results from IP SLA tests

• Advanced alerting that forecasts abnormal or unusual changes in behavior

• Workflow-based drill down from preemptive alerts to the associated Cisco NetFlow or sFlow data

• Application delivery and response time metrics based on NetFlow datagrams and active IP SLA tests

• Quality of service (QoS) configuration and statistical information derived from the Cisco Class-Based QoS MIB (CBQoS), including discard packets, discard bytes and discard BIT rate

Uses

• Leverage thresholdless anomaly detection with automatic detection of changes in data delivered by NetFlow-enabled network infrastructure devices, minimizing the need to consistently update thresholds as networks evolve

• View intelligent early warning alerts that contain evidentiary details and graphical summaries to help identify and resolve service delivery problems quickly

• View application, response time and utilization data for easy enterprise-wide analysis and reporting

• Manage and forecast capacity shortfalls by leveraging the core on-demand and long-term reporting functionality of the nGenius Service Assurance Solution

The nGenius Analytics for Flows alert list provides detailed information about detected anomalies, providing guidance into which issues are the most critical and streamlining the problem resolution process.

nGenius Performance Manager for Flows displays multiple NetFlow/sFlow-enabled devices and ports simultaneously for a fundamental understanding of application performance. IP SLA data tests provide response time information.


nGenius Intelligent Data Sources

Overview

NetScout offers a comprehensive family of intelligent data sources to provide packet flow-based visibility for all applications and services that flow across global networks. NetScout intelligent data sources range from intelligent Deep Packet Capture (iDPC) appliances deployed in strategic, high-bandwidth locations, to real-time hardware and software probes and Cisco NetFlow and sFlow collection devices. All NetScout intelligent data sources leverage the Common Data Model (CDM) architecture. CDM is a NetScout technology innovation that creates a common set of statistics and metrics across multiple data sources that derive traffic intelligence regardless of interface type--IP, ATM, Frame Relay, NetFlow, etc. CDM provides a highly scalable technology foundation that feeds into the nGenius Service Assurance Solution and enables consistent metrics across a broad-range of interfaces and data sources.

NetScout intelligent data sources provide:

• Industry-leading nGenius and Sniffer packet flow technologies

• Non-invasive data collection, with no impact to network, applications or services, provide granular visibility into LAN, WAN and virtualized computing environments

• Comprehensive support for a broad range of network links and interfaces--from WAN-specific links to 10 Gigabit Ethernet links

• Packet storage capacity ranging from 500 GB to 16 TB for back-in-time forensic analysis

• Resilient power and storage options for critical deployment environments

Intelligent data source options for the nGenius Service Assurance Solution include:

• nGenius InfiniStream Appliances–iDPC based appliances strategically positioned across the network collect packet flow statistics and perform continuous packet capture for back-in-time analysis; providing exceptional investment leverage, nGenius InfiniStream appliances can be deployed on a standalone basis using Sniffer Analysis software for in-depth troubleshooting requirements or as part of the always-on nGenius Service Assurance solution to provide intelligent early warning, application response time, real-time analysis with packet-level and drill-down capabilities and historical reporting

• nGenius Probes–Traditional hardware-based intelligent data source that provides deep packet monitoring and analysis of packets as they traverse the network to visualize application performance and behavior for the nGenius Service Assurance solution

• nGenius Virtual Agent–Next generation software-based intelligent data sources that virtualize hardware probe technology for deployment within virtualized computing environments

• nGenius Collector–Hardware appliance that collects Cisco NetFlow-, IP SLA- and S-Flow-based statistical data and integrates with nGenius Performance Manager, nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager, nGenius Performance Manager for Flows, and nGenius Analytics


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nGeniusInfiniStream 6900nGenius Virtual Agent



nGeniusWAN Probe



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nGenius CollectorReceives Cisco NetFlow datafrom infrastructure devices.

Medium Office (50-100 Employees)

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nGeniusInfiniStream 2900nGenius Probe


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Capabilities

• Linux®-based, security-hardened with integrated manageability and per-device access control

• Continuously analyzes, creates robust CDM statistics and captures packets to storage in real-time

• Generates KPI metrics

• Generates real-time XDR records for supported applications and protocols**

• Provides efficient indexing for rapid retrieval and isolation of data

• Flexible, non-intrusive deployment with standard network mirror port or link tap technologies

• Hardware-based time-stamping and synchronization for millisecond granularity to better track packets and flows*

• Hot-swappable drives, redundant power sources, and RAID for locations that require options for added reliability*

• Ships with the Sniffer Analysis software suite, which includes InfiniStream Console, Sniffer Intelligence, Sniffer Focused Intelligence and industry-leading Sniffer decodes and experts

• Supports multiple Ethernet interface connections for copper or fiber and from 10/100/1000 to 10 Gigabit Ethernet*

• Flexible storage options with storage capacity up to 16 TB*

Uses

• The nGenius InfiniStream appliance is deployed at strategic points across the network to deliver critical visibility of high capacity network links

• Collects, analyzes and stores packet flow data for real-time and historical analysis

• Specialized Smart Recording and Data Mining (SRDM) configuration options optimize storage and adhere to policy and compliance requirements such HIPAA and PCI standards

• All collected data and detailed packet information is available to the full complement of the nGenius Service Assurance Solution

• The appliance can be leveraged for standalone deployments with the included Sniffer Analysis software suite

Benefits

• Enables the forensic analysis of historical network traffic eliminating the need to wait for intermittent performance issues to re-occur

• Granular packet analysis capabilities isolate problems quickly

• Provides the industry’s broadest iDPC offering, ensuring proper visibility across the enterprise

• Local, distributed processing scales solution and reduces management traffic impact on the network

• Provides an unmatched combination of intelligent deep packet capture and packet analysis capabilities

nGenius InfiniStream Appliances

Overview

The nGenius InfiniStream appliance delivers highly scalable iDPC capabilities for the long-term storage of network packets for deep packet analysis and forensics. InfiniStream appliances offer multi-core high performance processing capabilities that enable local, distributed analysis of packets to support intelligent capabilities such as voice quality analysis, and the generation of Extended Data Records (xDRs). nGenius InfiniStream appliances are deployed where detailed packet analysis and historical back-in-time analysis is needed. Because the nGenius InfiniStream continually stores packets to disk, it provides the native packet data to go back in time to understand exactly how networked applications interrelate and to troubleshoot problems as they happen. Packet and statistical data from nGenius InfiniStream appliances can be leveraged in a standalone analysis mode or through the nGenius Service Assurance Solution.

nGenius InfiniStream 6900 Series

Best-in-class packet flow iDPC storage technology. Optimized for speed, performance, and resilience, the 6900 Series provides storage capacity up to 16 TB, redundant power and RAID storage, hot-swappable drives and power supplies, and supports high-capacity links up to 10 GbE.

nGenius InfiniStream 2900 Series

The 2900 series is a small footprint iDPC appliance that extends the market-leading InfiniStream technology to space-constrained locations and lower capacity links, such as access layers, wiring closets, and medium-sized branch offices that only require up to 500 GB of packet storage capabilities.

nGenius InfiniStream Appliances in Standalone Mode

Analysis of the nGenius InfiniStream data can run directly on the appliance without the need for centralized software or server hardware. Sniffer Analysis software provides a direct connection and interface to an InfiniStream appliance to access, analyze and perform unrestricted packet mining. Further forensic analysis and troubleshooting is accomplished using Sniffer Intelligence. This combination provides a fast link to data in troubleshooting or crash-cart deployment scenarios. As organizations look to gain more unified visibility, or move to a predictive, proactive model, the InfiniStream appliance can be leveraged by the nGenius Service Assurance Solution. NOTES:

* Support varies by specific model; refer to product data sheet or NetScout for details and specific models supported.

** XDR data record support varies by nGenius module; XDR data will also be leveraged in future product releases.


nGenius Virtual Agent

Overview

The nGenius Virtual Agent is a software-based intelligent data source that extends the visibility of the nGenius Service Assurance Solution deeper into the data center to include virtual computing environments. The nGenius Virtual Agent is a self-contained virtual appliance that is easy to deploy and manage. It is deployed within a virtual server and is contained within a protected and dedicated environment with no impact on other virtual applications. The nGenius Virtual Agent automatically discovers all applications and their interdependencies and monitors all traffic on the host hypervisor, providing visibility for intra-server, inter-server and virtual server to physical server traffic.

Capabilities

• Virtualizes nGenius probe technology to deploy packet flow visibility in virtual servers

• Provides unified views of applications and services across virtual and physical infrastructure

• Identifies and tracks application traffic that exits and enters the virtual server and traverses to physical servers, tracking multi-tier applications end to end

• Provides short-term on-demand packet capture based upon user request or defined triggers

• Identifies application movement to recognize application additions, relocations, and removals from the network perspective

• Virtual TAP (vTAP) mode forwards packet flow traffic from within a virtual machine to an external InfiniStream appliance for intelligent Deep Packet Capture of more granular forensic analysis and application profiling

• Seamlessly deploys into existing NetScout nGenius Service Assurance instances

• Supports VMware® virtual server environments

Uses

• The nGenius Virtual Agent is purpose-built for deployment within a virtual server to monitor multi-tier applications across physical and virtual servers

• Extends end-to-end service assurance, optimization and troubleshooting capabilities to inside virtualized servers

Benefits

• Enables the IT organization to regain a true end-to-end application and services view in context with service delivery environment and user experiences.

• Assures operational consistency with common application performance metrics and a high level of extensibility

• Allows IT organizations to leverage existing service assurance investments, gaining critical visibility into virtual computing environments

nGenius Probes

Overview

The nGenius Probes are highly optimized intelligent data sources that analyze network traffic to deliver key network metrics to the nGenius Service Assurance Solution. The nGenius Probes are ideally suited for deployment at the WAN edge and network edge locations that do not require continuous capture and storage of network packets. The nGenius Probes fully support the nGenius Service Assurance Solution by generating key performance metrics, such as traffic, application and service utilization, conversations, error conditions, resource utilization, response time and many others.

Capabilities

• Analyzes all network traffic in real time and generates metadata statistics for use in the nGenius Service Assurance Solution

• Delivers KPI metrics

• Leverages the NetScout CDM architecture to provide unified metrics that scale across multiple topologies and interfaces

• Automatically recognizes well-known, Web-based, peer-to-peer, and custom applications

• Generates network and application metadata, providing insight into the hosts and traffic conversations such as traffic, application, and service utilizations

• Provides one-minute data-sampling granularity

• Tracks utilization, response times, QoS metrics, and VoIP information

• Provides short-term on-demand packet capture based upon user request or defined triggers

• Wide range of models available to support WAN and Gigabit Ethernet interface connections with support for fiber and copper links

Uses

• Ideal for deployment at the WAN edge and for less critical network links that require snapshot statistics with trending and utilization analysis

• Intended for links that do not require intelligent Deep Packet Capture or high-performance local processing capabilities

Benefits

• Provides a consistent source of data across WAN and LAN interfaces

• Leverages packet flow statistical data to facilitate real-time monitoring and long-term historical analysis with the nGenius Service Assurance Solution

• Provides always-on visibility across the enterprise by monitoring physical links and their corresponding virtual links

• Packaged in a small-footprint (1RU) size to fit into tight-edge deployment rack space


Portable Network Analysis

Sniffer Portable Analyzer Family

The industry’s original Sniffer technology, the Sniffer Portable Analyzer software family provides on-demand plug-and-play network analysis for wired and wireless networks. Ideally suited for rapid response to network and application issues on location in the field, these software-based solutions are built on the industry’s most advanced and widely deployed Sniffer decodes and expert analysis software. Leveraging a common technology foundation, Sniffer Portable Analyzer software is available in a single standalone solution, or in an enterprise-class solution that supports from 10 to hundreds of users with centralized control and reporting of its use on the network.

Sniffer Portable Professional Analyzer

The world’s most widely deployed portable network analyzer, Sniffer Portable Professional is an easy-to-use plug-and-play, single-user analyzer that delivers powerful on-demand troubleshooting capabilities. Sniffer Portable Professional Analyzer delivers best-in-class protocol decodes and integrated packet-level expert analysis of wired and wireless environments, making it ideal for field technicians and problem escalation staff to rapidly identify root cause of performance issues for both network and application traffic on a segment-by-segment basis

Sniffer Global Analyzer

Building on the Sniffer Portable Professional Analyzer technology, Sniffer Global is an enterprise-class solution that adds centralized, policy-based access controls and reporting capabilities that govern and track what a user can see and analyze on the network. In addition, Sniffer Global integrates with the Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Service Engine for location-based troubleshooting on Cisco wireless network environments.

nGenius Collector

Overview

The nGenius Collector is a high capacity, high-performance data source optimized to collect NetFlow, S-Flow and IP SLA statistics for analysis by the nGenius Service Assurance Solution. NetFlow- and IP SLA-enabled routers and switches provide a cost-effective option to direct NetFlow datagrams and IP SLA test results to the nGenius Collector. Collecting and delivering NetFlow and IP SLA data allows the nGenius Service Assurance Solution to analyze and display this information in common formats and reports along with data from other nGenius intelligent data sources.

Capabilities

• The NetScout CDM architecture provides a universal format that scales across multiple topologies and interfaces, including NetFlow, S-Flow and IP SLA

• Collects NetFlow and S-Flow metrics for many network switches and routers, providing insight into the hosts and traffic conversations

• Measures network performance and availability between IP SLA-enabled devices and end points such as application servers

• Recognizes well-known and custom application port/server associations

• Provides five-minute data-sampling granularity

• Tracks utilization, response times, QoS metrics, and VoIP information

Uses

• A low-cost data option that leverages widely available traffic metrics from many existing switches and routers; typically leveraged at remote locations where more granular hardware-based data sources, like probes and deep packet capture appliances, may be cost-prohibitive

• Near real-time network-based traffic analysis

• The nGenius Collector is often placed near clusters of NetFlow or S-Flow-enabled network devices to minimize the impact of additional traffic on the network

Business Benefits

• Utilizes standard NetFlow, S-Flow and IP SLA technology, providing a low-cost option to monitor secondary traffic paths

• Facilitates near-time monitoring to optimize network traffic and performance

• Small-footprint (1RU) appliance saves valuable rack space in space-constrained environments


FeaturesSniffer Portable

Professional AnalyzerSniffer

Global Analyzer

licensing Single user 10-user or unlimited Enterprise

Intuitive, easy-to-use dashboards p p

Supports wired (Ethernet 10/100/1000) and wireless (802.11 a/b/g/n) network links

p p

Decodes 500+ protocols p p

Rich expert modes and alarms p p

Robust filters and event triggers p p

Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n + 802.11e/h decodes p p

Wireless encryption monitoring p p

Automatic detection of known and rogue Wi-Fi devices p p

Wireless expert p

Functionality access control, per-user/per-role p

Centralized authentication for tool access p

Online and offline tool activity tracking and reporting p

Integration with Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine p

Centralized license, upgrade and patch management p

Benefits

• Faster time-to-knowledge for network and application problems, dramatically accelerating problem resolution, helping restore peak performance and assuring service delivery sooner

• Network engineers can monitor both network and application statistics from a single tool

• Analysis of wired and wireless network links and wireless control infrastructure reduces the need for multiple point tools to troubleshoot wired and wireless networks

• Software-based solution deploys on most laptop devices, reducing specialized field technician equipment

Sniffer Portable Professional Analyzer

The Sniffer Portable Professional Analyzer is a single-user portable network and application analyzer that provides a high-level view of network traffic and application performance using its dashboard view and drill-downs into deep packet analysis. The dashboard displays important data about the network and creates statistical measurements about network traffic, providing an accurate picture of network activity in real time. Network managers can easily drill down from the dashboard to view individual hosts and protocols. The capture function collects and stores the actual packets from the network. During capture, expert analysis is performed on packets and results are displayed in an easy-to-read, real time view.

Capabilities

• On-demand monitoring of network and application statistics for 10/100/1000 Ethernet and wireless 802.11 a/b/g/n network segments

• Dashboard views with deep drill-down to rich packet-level analysis

• On-demand and post-capture decode of more than 500 protocols, including popular VoIP, financial, mobile, and wireless 802.11a/b/g/n + 802.11e/h protocols

• Rich expert analysis to quickly identify errors during packet-level examination

• Robust filters and alarms to quickly identify and isolate network problems

• Wi-Fi device list inventories of all 802.11a, 11b, 11g and 11n devices operating in the wireless environment

• Encryption monitoring plus rogue access point and rogue client detection to identify potential wireless security issues

Uses

• Rapidly identify network and application performance issues over wired and wireless networks

• Deploy and troubleshoot networks, applications or services--in production and prior to roll-out

• Manage and validate infrastructure changes on-demand

• Analyze and validate security threats on wired and wireless network links as well as the wireless control infrastructure

• Ideal for troubleshooting in branch offices, remote sites or temporary locations where permanently installed monitoring equipment may not be deployed

• Rapidly deployed in the field to allow real-time analysis and troubleshooting of service interruptions, performance degradations, or application issues

Sniffer Portable Professional provides on-demand and post-capture decode of more than 500 protocols, including popular VoIP, wireless, financial and mobile protocols.

Rich expert modes assist users in quickly identifying errors during packet-level analysis for a wide range of protocol decodes.


Benefits

• Faster time-to-knowledge for network and application problems, dramatically accelerating problem resolution, helping restore peak performance and assuring service delivery sooner

• Integrated access control and reporting prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data contained in packet payloads

• Provides secure visibility into wired and wireless network traffic to identify performance issues and simplify troubleshooting

• Eliminates the need for multiple tools to manage wired and wireless networks

• Accelerates problem resolution in wireless networks through integration with the Cisco MSE, displaying the physical location of wireless devices in context with relevant wireless performances metrics

• Simplifies administration and reduces the cost of managing large-scale deployments with centralized license and version upgrade management

Sniffer Global Analyzer

Sniffer Global Analyzer extends enterprise-class functionality to the Sniffer Portable Analyzer technology. Unlike other portable protocol analyzers, which give users full, uncontrolled access to network traffic traversing the wire, Sniffer Global Analyzer offers a unique, centralized, policy-based access control system that governs how and what a user can access on the network using the software-based client application. An administrative server controls user access to network data and analyzer functions, monitors activity within the tool, and provides usage reports--plugging a commonly overlooked and dangerous gap in security at many organizations. Sniffer Global is available in a 10-user and unlimited-user license version, for deployment flexibility across distributed and global organizations.

Capabilities

• Leverages all capabilities found in the Sniffer Portable Professional Analyzer software

• Centralized usage controls on a per-user/per-role basis to limit who can access sensitive data using the client application

• Policy-based user authentication to avoid compromising network or application security

• Online and offline user activity tracking and reporting for better auditing

• Integration with the Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Service Engine (MSE) to display physical location of wireless devices in context with relevant wireless performances metrics

• Centralized license, upgrade and patch management to assure consistency and transparency across multiple IT audiences and geographies

Uses

• Rapidly identifies network and application performance issues over wired and wireless networks

• Troubleshoots new technologies, applications, services or infrastructure changes—in production and prior to roll-out

• Enforces adherence to corporate policies with centralized usage controls that limit who can access sensitive data

• Protects the integrity and security of corporate information with centralized user authentication

• Audits user activity both online and offline

• Analyzes and validates security threats on wired and wireless network links as well as the wireless control infrastructure

• Quickly identifies the location of wireless devices creating or experiencing performance issues by leveraging the map and location services in the Cisco MSE and correlating it with rich device and network information to highlight changing locations of wireless devices in real-time

Sniffer Global Server provides activity logs to monitor both administrative activities on the server and Sniffer Global application usage.

A profile is a set of permissions for controlling the use of the Sniffer Global application. Permissions can be set on a wide range of activities, including offline usage, real-time monitoring and capture, and packet slice sizes.


Hewlett-Packard

NetScout is a Platinum Business Partner in the HP® Enterprise Management Alliance Program, and provides integration between the nGenius Service Assurance Solution with the following HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) Software solutions:

• HP OpenView Network Node Manager (HP NNMi)

• HP Business Availability Center

• HP Operations Manager

Together the integrated solutions provide true single-pane-of-glass troubleshooting to speed problem identification and resolution, such as:

• Forward nGenius intelligent data source and server-based alarms to HP dashboards for consolidated viewing of fault and performance views and faster, simpler problem diagnosis

• Intelligent, action-oriented nGenius solution alerts contain descriptive information that facilitates escalation of incidents

• Context-sensitive launch of the nGenius solution from the HP management environment streamlines and focuses the troubleshooting process

Integration with HP NNMi provides the following additional features:

• Display nGenius solution devices on the NNM L2 and L3 network maps with NetScout giving a complete view of the network environment

• Launch NNM Layer 2 (physical) and Layer 3 (topology) neighbor views for performance incidents and to easily see the location of trouble spots

• Launch NNM path view to see performance incidents that clarify the relationships between the physical infrastructure and application performance for faster problem identification

IBM

NetScout is an IBM® PartnerWorld member, and has been awarded “Ready for IBM Tivoli Software” validation status to nGenius Performance Manager and nGenius K2 for its integration with:

• IBM Tivoli® NetView®

• IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console® (TEC)

• IBM Tivoli Netcool®/OMINbus

The integration between NetScout and IBM platforms provides users with expanded reach of their Event Management Systems (EMS) by combining integrated fault management and service delivery assurance into a single integrated console view with a seamless troubleshooting workflow. The benefits of the integrated solution include:

• Generate and forward network and application performance alarms upstream to consolidate alerts within the IBM consoles

• Enable quick drill down to alarm details to accelerate problem resolution with rapid root cause analysis

• Lower total cost of ownership by easing tool clutter and enhancing overall visibility

• Promote proactive service delivery management to maximize system uptime and profitability

Third-Party Enterprise Management Systems IntegrationNetScout collaborates with best-in-class technology partners to provide integrated solutions and extend the value of the nGenius Service Assurance Solution for application and network performance management across the organization.

By leveraging packet flow data, KPIs and other sources of performance information derived from the nGenius Service Assurance Solution, combined solutions enhance an organization’s ability to optimize, simplify and protect the service delivery environment and consequently, the business.

Cisco Systems

NetScout is a member of the Cisco Developer Network Program for Mobility and the first management vendor to integrate with the Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine (MSE). Sniffer Global Analyzer leverages contextual location services within the Cisco MSE to simplify and improve management of wireless networks. Benefits to customers include:

• Mapping of the physical location of wireless devices in context with relevant network and application performance metrics

• Dramatically faster identification and resolution of network and service performance issues in wireless environments

• Optimized performance of the service delivery environment with an improved quality of experience for users

EMC® Ionix™ Control Center (formerly SMARTS®)

NetScout is an EMC Velocity2 partner and provides integration between the nGenius Service Assurance Solution and the following EMC products:

• EMC Ionix Service Assurance Manager

• EMC Ionix IP Availability Manager

• EMC Ionix Discovery Manager

Integration between the nGenius solution and EMC Ionix products provides users with complementary visibility into the packet flow data within the service delivery environment and a bi-directional workflow between the nGenius solution and EMC Ionix. Integration between the nGenius solution and EMC Ionix accelerates problem resolution by leveraging the following functionality:

• Forwarding of nGenius data source and server-based alarms to deliver the packet flow data that is critical in managing today’s most complex service delivery environments

• A centralized view of network and application performance events consolidated within the same console for real-time event notification

• Intelligent, action-oriented nGenius solution alerts that aid in the diagnosis of service-impacting problems

• Context-sensitive drill down into nGenius K2 and nGenius Performance Manager to accelerate problem resolution

HP SoftwareCertified Application

Ready for

software


NetScout Global Support and Services

NetScout offers a full range of technical support, consulting and training services to help customers maximize their investment in the NetScout solutions.

MasterCare

MasterCare™ is the NetScout industry-leading global support service. With four global technical support centers, NetScout is dedicated to providing a rich variety of award-winning services that support the business objectives of our customers, lower their total cost of ownership, and maximize the value of their investment in NetScout technology.

MasterCare Highlights

Having access to the right resources at the right time is invaluable when assistance is needed. That’s why the MasterCare Support program provides:

• 24x7 access to award-winning technical support staff

• One-hour priority response on technical support calls (after business hours by phone only)

• Access to software and firmware updates for covered products

• Advanced replacement or onsite repair of most hardware

• Access to technical self-help on the MasterCare Portal

• Up-to-date knowledge transfer and best practices via the Online Learning Center

• Free subscriptions to the MasterCare newsletter

• Discounts to the annual NetScout Engage user conferences

For those customers who need even more advanced support options, the NetScout support organization offers Technical Account Manager, Onsite Engineer and Remote Site Engineer programs as described below:

• Technical Account Manager (TAM)–The TAM is a regional NetScout engineer assigned to a specific customer account to shepherd incident-driven product issues or other concerns on the organization’s behalf; the TAM is able to help resolve issues faster and more effectively, resulting in a better return on investment and a lower total cost of ownership

• Remote Site Engineer (RSE)–An RSE is a NetScout support engineer who spends 20 hours per week dedicated to monitoring and managing the customer’s NetScout environment remotely from a NetScout location; in addition to acting as the customer’s primary point of contact into the NetScout support organization, the RSE provides remote assistance with day-to-day, backend administration of the customer’s NetScout environment

• Onsite Engineer (OSE)–For the most mission-critical environments, NetScout offers the OSE, a full-time Level-3 engineer hired and trained by NetScout, but who resides at the customer location to offload the planning, deployment and day-to-day maintenance of the customer’s NetScout environment, freeing the network operations team to take advantage of NetScout solutions to troubleshoot problems or tackle other strategic activities

Riverbed

The combined NetScout and Riverbed® solution provides a market-leading product set for application acceleration and network and application performance analysis. This partnership helps enterprises optimize performance by allowing them to accelerate their applications over WANs without any loss of visibility into application performance.

The added visibility that NetScout brings to the Riverbed optimized environments enables organizations to:

• Identify WAN segments, branch offices, and applications in need of acceleration and optimization

• Troubleshoot and tune the Riverbed implementation to maximize its impact and ensure the success of the deployment

• Verify and quantify the benefits of the Riverbed deployment and justify the investment

• Perform ongoing performance analysis on accelerated and optimized networks and applications


Industry Services

• Financial Services Network Assessment–Baseline, document and provide recommendations on the overall health of trading environments to help identify delays in market data delivery and execution

• Market Feed Operations Review–Proactively monitor the scheduled and published changes in market feed standards and implement all necessary changes to assure real-time, packet-level visibility into the performance of the nGenius Service Assurance Solution

Sniffer University

Sniffer University provides a wide variety of comprehensive training programs designed to educate network professionals on NetScout technologies in order to effectively analyze, troubleshoot, and mitigate performance issues. Sniffer University utilizes a variety of educational approaches, allowing students to chose the option that best meets their needs and individual learning style, including:

• Face-to-face classroom instruction–Instructor-led training classes at NetScout or onsite at customer locations

• Subscription-based training programs–Long-term or company-wide training plans to maximize the benefits of NetScout solutions

• On-demand training–Self-paced tutorials of the most popular Sniffer University courses and technical documentation

• Community peer training–NetScout users contribute best practice advice in the online NetScout User Forum (NUF)

• Online learning portals–Customized microsites created on a per-organization basis so students can access training information remotely regardless of their location, and can gain valuable instruction through self-paced training courses, related documentation and online interaction with Sniffer University instructors

Sniffer University Courses

Sniffer University offers intensive two, three, or five-day classes on how to more effectively use and solve problems with the NetScout Service Assurance Solution and specific products. Detailed technology courses on everything from TCP/IP, to Windows® troubleshooting, to IPv6 technology are also available. The curriculum is 50 percent lecture, 50 percent labs for a “learn by doing, try it now” experience that facilitates the rapid transfer of knowledge so that students gain skills they can use the first day back on the job. These courses are designed and led by highly experienced instructors who have trained more than 100,000 students since 1990.

Consulting Services

Many of today’s network management and support organizations are operating with increased workloads and limited staffing, leaving fewer resources available for deploying new services or solutions, or for taking a more proactive approach to service assurance.

Many leading global enterprises, tier-one service providers, and government agencies around the world have turned to NetScout to optimize, protect, and simplify their network infrastructure, applications, and services. Having selected the world-class nGenius Service Assurance Solution for unified management of service delivery, the next step in the value chain is to begin using it efficiently. NetScout Consulting Services provides a robust set of services to help customers get up and running effectively and expeditiously, and to accelerate ROI.

The NetScout Consulting Services team offers a broad portfolio of deployment, specialized and industry-focused consulting services, including:

Deployment Services

• nGenius Implementation–Focuses on installing and configuring the nGenius Service Assurance Solution to optimize and accelerate the customer’s ability to quickly resolve service delivery issues

• Knowledge Transfer–Employs mentoring and hands-on learning within an organization’s network environment to increase IT staff proficiency with NetScout solutions and technologies

• nGenius K2 Quick Start–Provides deployment assistance so network management staff can quickly start reaping the benefits of the nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager services-aware dashboard and early warning system

Specialized Services

• nGenius K2 Optimization–Defines, tunes and configures an organization’s most critical business services and applications in order to provide maximum value from nGenius K2 Service Delivery Manager

• Health Check–A quarterly review of the nGenius solution environment to assure that changing business objectives and performance management needs are being optimally met

• Virtualization Services–Three distinct services designed to facilitate the successful adoption and management of virtualized environments within the nGenius Service Assurance Solution

• DoD Certification and Accreditation–Provides review, remediation and documentation support to help implement STIG certifications within government networks in a timely manner

• Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) Compliance–Assists government agencies with meeting two key requirements of the TIC initiative: capturing and storing seven days of packet data for easy, post-incident analysis, and archiving 30 days of captured data for longer term analysis


NetScout User Forum (NUF)A customer-driven user group, NetScout User Forum is dedicated to providing the NetScout user community with a network of peers for collaboration and information sharing. The group’s mission is to “share practical experience, promote technical understanding, and provide expert insight into deploying NetScout products for maximum business value.”

Membership is open to all NetScout customers and entitles users to:

• Join the online blog and forum discussions

• Participate in private podcasts, webinars and other special events

• Share tips and ask technical questions on the message board

• Gain exclusive access to product news, downloadable files, and much more

• Provide product feedback and ideas to the product development process

Visit www.netscoutuserforum.com for details on how to join the NUF community.

Engage User Summit

The Engage User Summit brings together NetScout customers from around the globe for advanced learning, networking, and sharing of ideas. The conference features presentations from NetScout executives and customers, individualized training labs, roundtable and panel discussions, demonstrations of new products, and interactive discussions on future product direction.

Multi Certification Programs

Sniffer University offers a range of certification programs that enable students to build their level of expertise with the nGenius Service Assurance Solution and use that expertise to help their organization meet operational and business goals. There are three levels of certification:

• nGenius Certified Professional (nCP)–Designates broad understanding in the use of nGenius Performance Manager to monitor and troubleshoot network and application performance

• nGenius Certified Expert (nCE)–Indicates advanced knowledge of the Internet Protocol (IP) suite, network troubleshooting and how to optimize application performance

• nGenius Certified Master (nCM)–Demonstrates an advanced understanding of network and application troubleshooting techniques, networking technology and application principles, and the use of NetScout software and instrumentation


About NetScout SystemsNetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) is the market leader in Unified Service Delivery Management enabling comprehensive core-to-access network and application assurance. For 25 years, NetScout has delivered breakthrough packet-flow technology that provides trusted and comprehensive real-time network and application performance intelligence for unified assurance of the network, applications and users. These solutions allow enterprise organizations to predict, preempt and resolve network and service delivery problems while facilitating the optimization and capacity planning of the network infrastructure. NetScout nGenius and Sniffer solutions are deployed at more than 20,000 of the world’s largest enterprises, government agencies, and service providers, on more than 740,000 network segments to assure the network, applications, and service delivery to their users and customers.

For More InformationFor more information please visit www.netscout.com or contact NetScout sales at 800-309-4804 or +1 978-614-4000

Corporate Headquarters

310 Littleton Road Westford, MA 01886-4105 Phone: 978-614-4000 Toll Free: 888-999-5946 www.netscout.com

European Headquarters

NetScout Systems (UK) Ltd. 100 Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HP United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)20 7321 5660

Asia/Pacific Headquarters

Room 105, 17F/B, No. 167 TunHwa N. Road Taipei, Taiwan Phone: +886 2 2717 1999 www.netscout.cn

Copyright © 2010 NetScout Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. NetScout, Sniffer, nGenius and InfiniStream are registered trademarks, and HyperLock , the NetScout logo and MasterCare are trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States or other countries. This document is not a representation of functional specifications. Refer to product data sheets or documentation for actual details. NetScout Systems, Inc. reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to make changes at any time to its technical information, specifications, service and support programs.

EMC and SMARTS are registered trademarks and Ionix is a trademark of EMC Corporation. IBM, NetView, Tivoli, Tivoli Enterprise Console and Netcool are registered trademarks and OMNIbus is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Cisco is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. VMware is a registered trademark of VMware Inc. Riverbed is a registered trademark of Riverbed Technology. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other registered or nonregistered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Documents

Products and Solutions - · PDF file4 NetScout Products and Solutions Reference Guide 5. ... Assurance Solution • nGenius Performance Manager for Flows & nGenius Analytics for Flows