Network Associates readies appliances, analyzer

Network Associates next week plans to unveil products to help enterprise network managers more quickly pinpoint performance issues and guarantee their next-generation networks run smoothly.

Network Associates, perhaps best known for its Sniffer network management technology, is updating its portfolio with appliances designed to capture more packet data and to stop problems on 10 Gigabit Ethernet nets. The InfiniStream appliances combine data capture, high-level and detailed packet-level data visibility, and decodes and analysis of network traffic.

The InfiniStream devices are able to retain all packets at high utilization rates on Gigabit networks and store the data on their 3.2-terabyte hard drives, the company says.

"If [network managers] are able to pinpoint the problem faster by seeing all streams of traffic and having the historical packet data stores, that is ideal," says Catherine Nadeau, a Network Associates product manager. She adds that the company is working to provide its network troubleshooting and analysis capabilities at the edge and now the core of the network for large enterprise customers.

The box also doesn't need to stop capturing packets when network managers mine the data.
 
Available next week, InfiniStream comes in two flavors, the i1610 and the i410. The i1610 is a 4U, two-port Gigabit appliance that boasts up to 3.2 terabytes of storage and costs $75,000. The smaller appliance is a 2U, four-port 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet box that includes 800G bytes of storage and costs $35,000. 

Also new from the company is the Sniffer 10 Gigabit Ethernet Analyzer. This appliance is designed to optimize performance and maximize throughput on high-speed, long-range WAN and metropolitan-area networks and traditional LANs.

The appliance monitors and analyzes 10 Gigabit Ethernet links and performs full-line-rate and full-duplex capture, guaranteeing no frame loss for all valid frames. It also includes advanced triggering and filtering technology, among other features.

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Analyzer appliance costs $150,000 and will also ship next week.