Network Monitoring, When The Network's The Internet
Let's face it: Over the past decade, a number of powerful applications and appliances have hit the solution provider channel that allow for constant network performance monitoring. Even a free application, Wireshark, is a powerful piece of software that can trace whether a network is performing up to snuff or whether there is a big problem brewing.
But what happens when an enterprise's infrastructure is the "as-a- service" variety, connected to the physical enterprise by cables connected from Heaven-knows-where to Heaven-knows-where-else? Network latency can be a significant problem for applications like CRM, where even quick blips or delays can lead to big drops in customer retention or customer satisfaction.
Enter Keynote Systems, the San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of Internet performance-monitoring tools that keep tabs on performance inside networks, across networks and across very-far-flung networks.
As an entry point, we continue to recommend Keynote's free Internet Health Report at Internetpulse.net. Here, with Keynote's worldwide network of test nodes that includes more than PCs and servers in more than 240 places (including 160 metro locations), the company's current carrier performance metrics impact just about all locations in the U.S.
Providers and carriers in Keynote's measurements include NTT, AT&T, Verizon, Cogent, Level3, Qwest, Savvis, SBC, Sprint and XO. Latency, response time and packet loss may be measured connection by connection (for example, Cogent-to-Savvis), across all geographies or by specific metropolitan area.
For example, by clicking into Keynote's grid, it's possible to find up-to-the-minute measures of performance between, say, at the NTT and Level3 connection in San Diego. (Last week, during a random check, this connection weighed in with a latency of 92 milliseconds of response time -- less-than-optimal performance.)
Last August, when DDoS attacks were hammering Twitter.com, Keynote's Internet Health Report showed as much as 50 percent packet loss on NTT's system in San Diego, a number that could potentially grind Web application traffic through that point to a halt. Keynote was reporting that number, on its free Internet Health Report, before many services provided alerts and before the news media had even picked up on it. Alert VARs or administrators could then take appropriate measures to reroute that application traffic, if possible, to limit any potential business issues.
Keynote also provides a number of enterprise-level, proprietary solutions that measure Web application performance across far-flung networks, including Keynote Web Performance Monitoring, and self- and managed services for Web Load Testing. The services are graphical and dashboard-based, and all provide realtime statistics on network performance.
Performance monitoring is a best practice, whether the network is on-premise or hosted or virtual. Many cloud service companies provide their own service-performance data as part of the standard service-level agreement (SLA) because if uptime or performance requirements are not met, "make-goods" often come into play.
But even apart from make-goods, VARs and system managers will find latency, packet loss and network performance will mean efforts at rerouting traffic or providing alternative measures for sound application performance will be called for.
The bottom line: Keynote's baseline test network, and the performance of its free tool over the past two years, is reliable and often ahead of the others when pinpointing potential pitfalls in connectivity and performance throughout the broader network. It's a solid, entry-level approach to monitoring the "cloud" part of cloud computing, with an understanding that higher-end, proprietary enterprise solutions continue to develop -- by vendors including Keynote.
COMMUNITY: Connect with the CRN Test Center at community.crn.com.