Is the Private Cloud Right for You?

You may have noticed our recent poll on cloud use in 2011, which found that almost 2/3 of all organizations are planning some kind of cloud investment this year. Nearly 30% said they would be investing in the private cloud specifically. If you happen to fall in with this percentage, then you’re in luck. The Ipswitch Network Management Division has been hard at work, documenting the steps and best practices for implementing and managing a private cloud. But sometimes the decision to move to the cloud isn’t easy.

Before committing to an investment such as this, it is important to know what makes it advantageous. A private cloud offers:

• Improved hardware optimization
• Reduced support costs with self-service management
• Reduced capital expenditures
• Reduced time to deploy applications and services

You may also want to consider potential drawbacks and what might not make a private cloud the right option for you. It is usually an efficient and cost-effective way of utilizing IT resources when the following conditions are met:

• The cloud provider has standardized hardware
• The cloud provider has standardized OS and application stacks
• Sufficient networking infrastructure is in place to support cloud computing
• Management tools, such as server and network monitoring, are in place
• The distribution of jobs lends themselves to distributed computing platforms

If you do decide the private cloud is a good fit for your network, there are still more steps that need to be taken before implementations. To determine your current state of readiness for the cloud you must first assess your existing infrastructure, resource utilization levels, policies and procedures governing IT operations, and reporting and cost allocation procedures.

Ready to begin the migration to a private cloud? Read our white paper on deploying and managing private cloud.

Also, check out this article in the Enterprise Networking Planet on some tips on deploying your private cloud.

You may have thought you had taken all the right steps in planning the bandwidth requirements for your business. You even went the extra mile and set up Quality of Service (QoS) for high-priority traffic. Still you are faced with complaints that claim site access and critical order uploads are too slow. What is going on with the network utilization?

What you are missing is a way to gain visibility into the flow of traffic coming in and out of your network. A network flow is technically defined as a “unidirectional sequence of packets” all sharing the following values:

• Source IP address
• Destination IP address
• Source port
• Destination port
• IP
• Ingress interface
• IP type of service

By utilizing automated classification of network traffic flows by type and protocol, you can begin to build a picture of bandwidth utilization without painstakingly reviewing individual network packets. Broad support for vendor network flow records such as NetFlow, JFlow, and SFlow records from Cisco, Juniper, and HP provide you with visibility into real-time usage as well as historical network trends.

Consider layering flow classification with identification of top talkers and top listeners to narrow in on who is over-subscribing the use of the network. Top talkers represent the outbound—devices sending the most data over the network. Top listeners inbound—source hosts that are receiving the most data. By analyzing top type reports, you can build detailed top conversation views of which endpoints are taking up the most network bandwidth.

Many times, top type reports will also provide a wealth of information into unauthorized applications, spyware, and non-business-related Internet usage. For example, in the Top Conversations report below, high bandwidth utilization is observed between the iTunes site and an accounting PC.

With this information in hand, you can begin to address the performance issues by updating your Web filtering tool or enabling additional blocked categories to minimize the use of bandwidth for non-business traffic.

Real-time flow visibility allows you to determine the mystery behind bandwidth utilization. Continued review of traffic flow data across your network at regular intervals in conjunction with well-planned threshold alerts will help you quickly detect traffic anomalies, which are often a sign of computer virus outbreaks or malicious software.

Although we are all familiar with budget cuts, this might ring close to home for the UK public sector, where on October 20 the government announced an intense review of public sector spending. However, given the less than ideal state of the international economy, working effectively within budget constraints is no less prevalent worldwide. Our Channel Manager, Steve Demianyk, provides some tips for the IT department under fire.

Tip #1 Make the most of the infrastructure you already own

Document port-to-port connectivity, ideally, with an inexpensive layer 2/3 discovery, mapping, and inventory tool. With a complete inventory in place, troubleshooting, auditing, and repurposing unused resources becomes easier.

Tip #2 Need more hardware? Consider moving to an internal cloud!

Ipswitch hasn’t purchased a single piece of hardware in the three years since we’ve moved to the internal cloud. Your first step in virtualization is to decide which serves to move to the cloud. Usually, supplementary servers like DNS, domain controllers, DHCP, and file and print servers are good places to start because they don’t take full advantage of the hardware on which they exist. Web servers, mail servers and small databases are also good candidates.

More complex servers can be virtualized, but this must be planned out carefully. Before virtualizing any server you should run a trending analysis and performance monitoring. You will want to measure processor use, memory use, storage, network traffic volume and disk I/O. An overloaded server should not be moved to the cloud in any case.

Tip #3 Look for ways to troubleshoot and resolve issues faster

Industries studies show that 80% of IT time and resources are spent on finding the problem, and only 20% is for fixing the issues. If you are running more than one network management solution you will have to manually examine multiple reports and interfaces to correlate information across various types of metrics. This can substantially lengthen mean time to resolution (MTTR), making the job much more difficult and time consuming. Look for an infrastructure management solution that will let you discover, map, monitor and manage the network devices, servers, applications, virtual resources, port-to-port connectivity, configuration settings and network traffic from a single console.

Tip #4 Ensure 24×7 health, availability and optimal performance of infrastructure and applications

Performance monitoring should be a routine task. This seemingly unimportant activity can minimize risks and increase the likelihood that network issues and bottlenecks are found early on. A network management solution with an all-inclusive console will make this job easier and more efficient.

Tip #5 Look for cost-effective solutions

They do exist. If you currently use one of the big four solutions you might want to reconsider your solution for the upcoming year. You can still have a solid IT management solution for a reasonable price, but you may have to sacrifice the bells and whistles. One might naturally look towards open source solutions, but configuration can be a nightmare and the risks are high: vulnerability, scalability, liability, lack of tech support.

As the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy puts it, “Don’t panic” (in the face of budget cuts). Just weigh your options and find ways to do more with less.

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Thanks to Chris Hampton of Realtime Publishers we have a few tips to make your life as a network admin easier.

Through automation and other efficient methods of network management you can make yourself the ultimate resource for network status and configuration knowledge, while at the same time alleviating your stress points.

One way to help yourself is to utilize tools that save time. Why waste time with manual network topology documentation when ARP Cache Discovery and Link Layer Discovery Protocols can do that for you? They query your devices’ Management Information Database files and collect extensive info to assist in building a network outline that is up-to-date in near real-time.

Another important ability is staying in control. Know your network: what devices are on your network and where they are located. You should know device interdependencies and how they are affected by changes to the network. In order to do this it is a good idea to track all changes. Collecting up-to-date status information with powerful scheduled discovery checks will allow you to do this. A network management solution that offers device configuration management from a central location would be a great asset to you in this situation.

With such a tool you can also enhance your ability to keep the network available by pinpointing issues quickly and reducing downtime. Pinpointing becomes easier when you have a network management solution that automatically generates network maps and map views and can export these maps to documentation tools like Microsoft Visio. Easily-retrievable maps provide you with insight into a network’s overall design.

Once you have these abilities at your fingertips, daily network administration tasks are a cakewalk. Plus, you’ve succeeded in making yourself the ultimate resource.

Would you pay eight times the price of an apple for the same apple or even a less appetizing apple? My guess is absolutely not. Maybe you’ve seen the apples-to-apples comparison on our website. If not, check it out. Needless to say, WhatsUp Gold delivers more for your money than the competition. Cough, cough, Solarwinds.

Whether it’s our device-based pricing system, array of plug-ins, or comprehensive and easy-to-use interface, WhatsUp Gold offers a superior value. Our apples-to-apples comparison of WhatsUp Gold vs. SolarWinds Orion pretty much sums it up.

WhatsUp Gold offers:

• Out of the box support for custom and non-custom MIBS
• Mobile Access
• Real-time alerts on Bandwidth Usage Violations
• Blackout alerting & reporting capabilities
• Simple and fair price per device – no overuse hidden costs
• Complete and Modular Security Log Management
• Conversion of raw traffic into standard NetFlow records
• Application Performance Monitoring (Standard)
• Integrated true layer 2 discovery

Solarwinds does not. A more extensive comparison is available in our Whitepaper.

The fact that the capabilities of WhatsUp Gold and Orion are comparable, with a few differences, comes as no surprise given the ever-changing and evolving nature of technology in general. What you may not know is that, punch for punch, WhatsUp Gold comes out on top when you consider the overall cost of ownership. Solarwinds users pay higher acquisition and annual maintenance costs hands down when looking at comparable configurations.

For instance, an infrastructure with 200 network devices (> 2000 network interfaces managed) and 300 servers (>2000 separate monitors) to monitor would require two Orion Enterprise licenses, NPM ($20,975) and APM ($19,995), for a total of $40,970. A configuration with the same device and server count would only require the 500 device license of WhatsUp Gold Premium for $5,195. How do you like them apples?

The name of the tournament speaks a lot to just how huge the World Cup is in the scheme of worldwide sporting events. The hype and anticipation around the tournament has been steadily growing since the groups were selected back in December. It has received coverage everywhere from local newspapers to espn.com. Videos and commercials have gone viral in a matter of hours as they are played over and over again on Youtube. And now here we are,  less than 24 hours away from kick-off.

It’s no surprise that a tournament of this magnitude, that only comes around every four years, were to receive so much hype. Here at Ipswitch, though, we were more concerned with the effect the World Cup was going to have on the performance of networks in regards to companies’ bandwidth consumption jumping as tournament games are streamed live during work hours.

It was our hunch that companies could expect a spike in their bandwidth usage do to live streaming of World Cup games, specifically in Europe and other countries with competing teams. We tested our theory with the creation of our Network Traffic Calculator, and after weeks of collecting data from uses of the calculator, we are happy to report that our expectations are right in line with those of network managers. We collected over 1000 responses through the calculator, and some of our key findings were as follows:

• Bandwidth use is expected to increase by 38.85% in participating World Cup Nations to 86.89% during matches
• In Europe the figure is expected to double, from 40.25% current average bandwidth use, to 78.67% during key match times
• In the UK, despite the culture for some businesses to close during England matches, bandwidth use is still expected to increase by 30.79% to 71.85% of total capacity.
• In host nation South Africa, IT Managers are bracing themselves for network bandwidth to be completely maxed out to 100% from a base average of 58% during a typical working day.
• Despite not being typically thought of as a football watching nation, the US is somewhat surprisingly expecting bandwidth use to rise to over 80% during some key matches

Check out the Network Traffic calculator for yourself and see what kind of spike in bandwidth usage your network can expect as the World Cup commences.

Network Managers, as you know, don’t typically have a lot of down time on a day-to-day basis.

It seems there’s always some network or user issue popping up (and in most cases it’s more than one issue at a time) so you find yourself running around trying to keep the network running and the users happy.

Monitoring and maintaining your network traffic and bandwidth utilization used to be an overlooked aspect of your job, deemed less important. But the rapid evolution of technology has changed the makeup of networks everywhere and has forced network managers to include Flow analysis and monitoring in their network management strategies.

Not only will including this in your strategy allow you to maintain control and ensure of the peak performance of your network’s bandwidth, it will also ensure your network is not at risk of viruses, malware attacks or any other malicious behavior.

A proper Flow monitoring tool delivers peace of mind, allowing you to have confidence that your network is secure and your bandwidth is not being consumed with such capabilities as:

• Support for Popular Flow Formats: The ability to monitor NetFlow, sFlow and JFlow, with support for switches and routers from vendors such as Cisco, Extreme, Juniper, HP and more
• Visibility into Network Bandwidth Utilization:Complete, real-time visibility into QoS and exactly how your network bandwidth is being used to ensure optimal network performance
• Comprehensive Reporting:Collection of NetFlow, sFlow and JFlow records and conversion into useful reports which track real-time usage as well as historical trends
• Threshold Based Alerting: Receiving alerts in real-time when configured thresholds are exceeded allow you to proactively troubleshoot and resolve performance bottlenecks and eliminate malicious behavior

WhatsUp Gold Flow Monitor is a network traffic analysis solution that offers all of these benefits, allowing you to focus on other business-critical projects while giving you the peace of mind that your network is constantly performing at its peak. Don’t just take my word for it, though. Here is Claudio Robles, one of our WhatsUp Gold experts, offering more insight into the benefits of Flow Monitor.

Ipswitch, Inc. hasn’t forgotten its humble beginnings. In fact, we’re proud of our past.

Roger Greene founded Ipswitch, Inc. in 1991.  We started off small, but thanks to his vision and business savvy and the support of our customers, it’s been nearly twenty years and we’re still private and profitable!

Starting a small business takes moxie. As passionate people ourselves we appreciate that trait in anyone.

It’s for that reason we’re proud to announce that Ipswitch Network Management will donate $1 for every download of its WhatsUp Gold software to Accion USA through May 31^st. 2010.

Accion USA, a leader in U.S. microfinance, provides affordable small business loans to microentrepreneurs.

If you’ve been putting off giving WhatsUp Gold a try, Stop and download today. Not only will you make your life easier, you’ll be making the life of a small business owner somewhere in the U.S. easier too!

Software should make your life simpler.

That’s been the mantra of our WhatsUp Gold developers from year one, nearly 20 years ago.Today, this dilegence and commitment to our customers was vindicated by NetworkManagementSoftware scribe, Aaron Leskiw.

Leskiw conducted an in-depth review of WhatsUp Gold Premium, focusing on the usability and simplicity of the product in relation to the robust feature set that it delivers.

Leskiw’s bottom line on the review of WhatsUp Gold Premium Edition was: “The big question is: Does WhatsUp Gold deliver on its promise of making your job easier? Yes it does – and very well! All of the features tested performed superbly and the software was simple to install.

Share in our success (afterall, it’s with your feedback that we’ve successfully developed our user-friendly IT Managemetn solution!) and check out the full review here: http://www.networkmanagementsoftware.com/whatsup-gold-premium-review

Check out the full review here: http://www.networkmanagementsoftware.com/whatsup-gold-premium-review

A recent review of WhatsUp Gold Premium Edition from Aaron Leskiw on networkmanagementsoftware.com poses the question: Does network management have to be complicated?

Obviously, we think it should be just the opposite, and build our network management solutions with the goal of making the life of a network administrator that much easier. Leskiw conducted a pretty in-depth review of WhatsUp Gold Premium, focusing on the usability and simplicity of the product in relation to the robust feature set that it delivers.

The bottom line on the review of WhatsUp Gold Premium Edition? Well Leskiw had this to say: “The big question is: Does WhatsUp Gold deliver on its promise of making your job easier? Yes it does – and very well! All of the features tested performed superbly and the software was simple to install.

Check out the full review here: http://www.networkmanagementsoftware.com/whatsup-gold-premium-review

As President of Ipswitch Inc.’s Network Management division I have had the opportunity to speak with many of our customers about their experience using WhatsUp Gold.

Now, because WhatsUp Gold can be deployed and utilized in a variety of ways, each new story I hear varies from the last. But I have noticed a few common themes over the years. One such theme sounds like this:

“The phones stopped ringing as soon as it was deployed on the network.”

In fact, a few weeks ago I had a new customer call up our sales team and rave about the silence he and his team have enjoyed since they implemented WhatsUp Gold on their network. No more phone calls about the network being slow, that this server is down, that the Internet isn’t connecting, etc.

Because of the powerful systems and performance monitoring WhatsUp Gold delivers, these guys are finally the first to know when something is wrong on their network. They can now fix an issue before it affects their users.

This latest customer interaction reminded me of our history with job-search-giant, CareerBuilder. As a longtime user of WhatsUp Gold solutions, our product has literally grown along with CareerBuilder’s company.

In its early stages in 2003, at a point when the job search site was just one-fifth the size of the market leader, they brought in WhatsGold to solve their basic monitoring needs. As they’ve grown and matured, becoming the nation’s largest online job site, WhatsUp Gold has stayed a step ahead to continue to provide them the tool-set and functionality they need to manage a network that now includes close to 1300 devices.

Despite the evolution of technology and the increasing complexity of networks and managing solutions, we know that with most of our customers it is still the little things that make such a big difference. Mark Fouraker, Technologist at CareerBuilder, touches on just that in a favorite quote of mine from this customer story:

“My favorite story about WhatsUp Gold is when I was in an important meeting and was getting silent alerts on my pager about an impending issue on our network. I was sneaking out at breaks to troubleshoot and address the matter, eventually resolving it. The bottom line is that no one outside of a few people in operations had any idea there was even an issue at all. It’s just a beautiful product.”

A story like this is really powerful, in my opinion, because it shows how technology can evolve and customer needs can change, forcing us to continually adapt and innovate our product to meet those changing needs. It also shows that business relationships can certainly last as long as it remains mutually beneficial, with a bit of give and take from both sides.