Network Diagramming Solutions Provider OPNET Announces New Capabilities for Managing Performance in the Cloud
September 8, 2011
Application and network performance management solutions enabler OPNET Technologies (News 
– Alert) has launched an array of new capabilities for extending application performance management to the cloud.
"The concept generally referred to as cloud computing consists of a number of different approaches to delivering application services to users. These various approaches require different technologies for measuring end user experience. OPNET is taking a multi-pronged approach to end user experience management in order to cover the evolving needs of enterprises that are adopting cloud technology," noted Russ Elsner, OPNET’s director of Application Performance Management Technology…
OPNET made the new launch announcement at OPNETWORK, its annual technology conference which was held in Washington, D.C. from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1.
The network diagramming company introduced a new architecture called Federated Analytics, a highly scalable approach to monitoring application performance by distributing key performance analysis functions to the edge, closer to where data originates.
Federated Analytics is noted as significantly more efficient and consequently, particularly well suited to the cloud, according to company officials. At the technology conference, OPNET demonstrated the Federated Analytics approach applied to multiple aspects of application performance management in public and private clouds, including end-user experience monitoring, deep application component monitoring, transaction following, and application discovery and dependency mapping.
The company also showcased new browser-based end user experience (EUE) management, which is particularly suited to measuring response times for applications served from cloud platforms. Distinct approaches were demonstrated to support mobile end users and software as a service (SAAS)-based enterprise applications.
"OPNET has introduced Federated Analytics specifically to address the needs of cloud computing architectures" Alain Cohen (News – Alert), president and chief technology officer at OPNET said in a press release.
Cohen added that cloud technology is being adopted rapidly for enterprise applications, and increasingly, public cloud components are being introduced to form hybrid application architectures. As application components scale dynamically and also become more distributed, traditional centralized performance management approaches, as believed by Cohen, are not tenable.
“The concept of distributing performance management and analytics goes hand in hand with the highly scalable and flexible characteristics of cloud computing," Cohen added.
In related news, OPNET also announced a new solution for managing the performance of applications that run in a Citrix environment. This new module for OPNET’s AppResponse Xpert solution is noted to offer end-to-end visibility of user transactions that traverse a Citrix server, enabling faster, more accurate diagnosis of application performance problems.