In any managed IT infrastructure one of the key elements is the network. We are used to network management tools that focus on the creation of a model of the physical devices and connections. WildPackets uses the network traffic.
WildPackets has been around for 13 years and specialises in the gathering and analysis of packet data. The data can be organised into the context of applications or business services or it can be used simply for event handling.
This event handling comes from numerous products that track Ethernet, Gigabit, WAN and wireless networks as well as RMON capture and analysis.
In the business scenario, applications can be baselined and metered from the end-user perspective. The newly announced Omni3 platform takes data from the Omni3 engines and uses this to offer parameters for real-time monitoring.
The combination of data from multiple network elements creates a single management view that provides a real-time view of key services with drill-down into the packets themselves for problem diagnosis.
Omni3 uses a distributed architecture that helps with reliability and scalability. Data can be analysed in real-time and offline for different service management approaches. In fact, flexibility is a major selling point.
WildPackets has gone to considerable effort to ensure that its solution is able to interoperate with other management technologies. It offers APIs that allow it be interfaced with enterprise management solutions or to use other network management tools. In this way, existing IT investments are protected, helping WildPackets to make a sale based on ROI.
This is helped further by the fact that the initial investment in a WildPackets is considerably lower than competitive products and the services requirement appears to be very small. In most cases, it will take only a single mission critical event to be avoided to get a return on investment. Even where no such event occurs, the Omni3 platform provides opportunities for network optimisation that will provide ROI through greater efficiency.
It seems, however, that many WildPackets customers use the products to increase network security. WildPackets is able to report the existence of unauthorised wireless access points, identify poorly configured devices and show up other security vulnerabilities.
Ultimately, this seems to be an interesting and flexible approach to network analysis and monitoring. It can be adapted easily and there is the promise of Fast ROI. Should be worth a look.
