From agents to appliances: Capturing the client experience, Part 2

Network/Systems Management This newsletter is sponsored by SolarWinds The Shortcut Guide to Network Management for the Mid-Market This guide outlines real-world technologies and processes to implement centralized management of your network infrastructure. Using the OSI FCAPS model as a framework, this eBook explains the critical components of fault, performance, configuration and security management, as well as network troubleshooting and diagnostics. Network World's Network/Systems Management Newsletter, 08/15/07 From agents to appliances: Capturing the client experience, Part 2 By Denise Dubie Appliance-based end-user experience monitoring is a market set to grow, according to Forrester Research. The research firm recently put out a paper detailing why these appliances seem to be winning over enterprise IT buyers. For one, they are easy to install and maintain, and require little configuration. The second driver could also be considered a potential weakness; the appliances don't require any software be installed on client machines, which lessens the administrations headache for IT, but also reduces the amount of actual end-user data collected. "Passive end-user experience monitoring solutions seem to have gained favor with many business and IT organizations," the report reads. Yet it points out that there is a divide between desktop-based and application-based products. The appliances have the no-agent appeal, but the desktop offers more data. "In terms of IT operations, some clients will be attracted by the desktop information available from a desktop-based agent, while others will be more interested in the ease of operating that appliance-based products provide." New Executive Guide Network World has recently published an executive guide entitled "Virtualization Meets Reality". Find out the 8 key challenges of virtualizing your data center. Download it now! Regardless of the type, Forrester expects to see the market for end-user experience monitoring to grow steadily in the next few years, driven mostly by the appliance-based solutions from larger vendors, the report says. Forrester estimates that more than 30,000 enterprise companies have more than 100 servers in house today. Forty-percent of those servers, or 12,000 -- could be targets for this type of technology set to take off in 2007. Based on four perspectives -- business marketing, global application performance debugging, Web-based application performance, and J2EE and .Net application performance management -- Forrester expects some of today's vendors to continue to lead their respective markets. According to Forrester, Tealeaf Technology leads in business marketing, and Coradiant ranks first for monitoring and debugging the performance of Web applications, followed by an European company called Moniforce. Then HP is taking the lead with an end-user experience monitoring tool that complements its application management suite - CA, Compuware and Quest Software are on HP's heels in this area. And then NetQoS joins Compuware in leading with offerings of performance analysis tools for IP-based applications. Enterprise IT buyers will have to pick their tools wisely, based on their reporting capabilities and how well they relate to the company's needs, Forrester concludes. "All these products compete very closely with each other -- to the extent that the major differentiator resides in how well their reporting capabilities suit the target audience," the report reads. "The reporting criteria [in Forrester's evaluation] are used to show the reporting differences between products aimed at the business market, rather than the IT operations market."   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers the technologies, products and services that address network, systems, application and IT service management for Network World. E-mail Denise. This newsletter is sponsored by SolarWinds The Shortcut Guide to Network Management for the Mid-Market This guide outlines real-world technologies and processes to implement centralized management of your network infrastructure. Using the OSI FCAPS model as a framework, this eBook explains the critical components of fault, performance, configuration and security management, as well as network troubleshooting and diagnostics. ARCHIVE Archive of the Network/Systems Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007