FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Survey Highlights Growing Demand for Proactive Network Management Tools

Network Administrators demand more integrated network management tools to cope with increasing complexity of enterprise networks

London, UK — 3 July 2006, 62 per cent of enterprise networking professionals believe the lack of information about problems and their causes is the most common problem on their network according to a recent UK survey sponsored by Network Instruments®, a leading provider of innovative analysis solutions for in-depth network intelligence and continuous availability.  The survey, which questioned 150 enterprise networking professionals, also found that over half (55 per cent) are concerned about having insufficient tools to perform adequate application monitoring.

Enterprise networks have undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years.  Today’s network architectures are becoming increasingly complex as they expand to incorporate a vast range of technologies including Ethernet, Gigabit, Wireless, WAN, and Fibre Channel to support an array of new applications and processes from customer relationship management and procurement to VoIP and enterprise resource planning.

Despite organisations’ increasing reliance on the network, the survey highlights that companies are failing to equip their network staff with the adequate tools to effectively manage the network.  65 per cent of networking professionals stated that a lack of time or resources to implement a long-term monitoring strategy was their biggest concern.  As a result, 63 per cent said they had concerns about the network being blamed first for any technical problems. These statistics also help to explain why 65 per cent of respondents to Network Instruments’ survey admitted to concerns about the increasing complexity of their company’s network and 69 per cent felt uneasy about the increasing volume of traffic.

In recent years, IT directors have come under increasing pressure to cut back IT expenditure and get a better return on existing investments.  Adequate investment in network monitoring tools has too often been a casualty of these budget efficiencies.  However, analysts warn that organisations who fail to adequately monitor their network do so at considerable risk.

“The IT network is the backbone of any modern organisation.  Utilising the correct network management tools is vital for optimising the efficiency of the network and maximising the return on any investments made in networking technology,” says Tony Lock, Research Director EMEA.

With its latest version of its network management suite, Observer®, Network Instruments has sought to address the challenges of both business managers and networking professionals by expanding the functionality to enabling network managers to do ‘more with less.’ 

As well as carrying out comprehensive network analysisofEthernet, Gigabit, Wireless and WAN traffic, Observer now includes; enhanced expert real-time VoIP analysis, support for Avaya and Mitel systems; extended application analysis with support for all Citrix applications; comprehensive visibility into storage area networks (SANs) that reside on the Fibre Channel; as well as the integration of NetFlow and sFlow data collection and analysis. These new features provide network administrators with greater points of visibility for managing and resolving network issues at no additional cost.

“At Network Instruments we are continually looking at ways to make networking professionals more effective in their jobs. With our latest version of Observer 11 we have considerably enhanced functionality, adding VoIP, sFlow, NetFlow, Citrix and Fibre Channel monitoring capabilities but kept the price the same. Moreover, our distributed network analysis architecture enables organisations to integrate comprehensive network monitoring across heterogeneous networks through a single interface” says Ian Cummins, European sales director for Network Instruments. “By focussing on helping network managers achieve ‘more with less’ not only are we making the IT manager more effective but the IT director is also happy as he or she is able to demonstrate better return on investment in the network infrastructure.”

Expert Observer, is priced at £2,895. For real-time distributed analysis, a diverse selection of software probes and hardware appliances can connect to Expert Observer and also includes support for all new product features. For more information visit www.networkinstruments.com.

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About Network Instruments
Network Instruments provides in-depth network intelligence and continuous network availability through innovative analysis solutions. Enterprise network professionals depend on Network Instruments’ Observer product line for unparalleled network visibility to efficiently solve network problems and manage deployments. By combining a powerful management console with high-performance analysis appliances, Observer simplifies problem resolution and optimizes network and application performance. The company continues to lead the industry in ROI with its advanced Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture, which successfully integrates comprehensive analysis functionality across heterogeneous networks through a single monitoring interface. Network Instruments is headquartered in Minneapolis with sales offices worldwide and distributors in over 50 countries. For more information about the company, products, technology, NI-DNA, becoming a partner, and NI University please visit www.networkinstruments.co.uk.

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