WAN analyser helps plan cost cuts and capacity

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 4, 2005

Fluke Networks has launched Reporter Analyser, a WAN analysis product.

Fluke Networks has launched Reporter Analyser, a WAN analysis product.

The new traffic analysis product is claimed to give network managers the information needed for WAN cost reduction, network capacity planning, traffic analysis and troubleshooting said Fluke.

Reporter Analyser is said to be a flexible traffic analysis appliance that allows network managers to understand how application traffic is effecting network performance.

Primarily to be deployed in large and medium enterprises, Reporter Analyser is claimed to be able to quickly monitor WAN and LAN interfaces across the entire enterprise in a scalable, extremely cost-effective manner through the collection and analysis of Cisco IOS Netflow information.

Fluke believes that the new system provides an unprecedented, broad based view of network performance allowing network managers to see what applications are using bandwidth, who is using them and when.

A network manager can view traffic measurements by application, host and conversation, providing the information needed for WAN cost reduction, network capacity planning, traffic analysis and troubleshooting.

Reporter Analyser stores and reports on enterprise-wide Netflow data for one full year.

The ability to store, analyse and provide trends on comprehensive performance data for up to one full year is critical to ensure network managers and architects make the right network decisions for the enterprise, it is claimed.

The product can create customisable traffic analysis groups such as protocol groups, interface groups, subnets group, a specific site-to-site group, type of service groups or other group criteria prior to analysis.

Users can then trend network traffic based upon rate, volume or utilisation on any collection of user defined group or groups across the enterprise network.

Through such visibility, Reporter Analyser is claimed to enable network managers to make informed traffic routing and policy decisions based on comprehensive and precise network traffic data.

The benefits of such visibility include potential savings in bandwidth upgrades on links, improved design and performance of IT expansion projects, improved network troubleshooting capability and improved network security monitoring said Fluke.

The custom reports feature enables groupings by interfaces, protocols and hosts, allowing network managers to view data in ways and at the levels they need.

For example, network managers can create reports based on various traffic measurements with customised time-periods to support workday reporting.

The reports can be automatically run and emailed, saving time and labour costs commented the company.

Fluke also believes that Reporter Analyser improves mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) through continuous interface monitoring, which provides real-time alerts and reporting for every interface on the network.

That is said to speed the response time to potential problems by providing immediate visibility of the source of the problem.

The virus scan wizard identifies anomalous traffic in real time.

When a detected virus or worm penetrates the network, Reporter Analyser reveals how widespread the infection is across the enterprise and which servers have been affected.

For the most difficult troubleshooting tasks, Fluke Networks said that its Optiview WAN Analyser complements Reporter Analyser.

Reporter Analyser's coverage of all interfaces immediately points the network engineer to the problem area, said Fluke and the Optiview WAN Analyser is deployed to the precise problem area for a more detailed look at full seven-layer traffic patterns.