EMA Analyst Jim Frey Highlights Complementary Nature of ExtraHop Networks (L7) and NetScout Systems (L2–L4) Application Monitoring Solutions
SEATTLE, WA – December 14, 2011 – ExtraHop Networks, a leading provider of network-based application performance management (APM) solutions, today released a new white paper by analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) titled “Multi-Layer Performance Management: Co-Deploying ExtraHop Networks and NetScout Systems Solutions.” Written by EMA Managing Research Director and former NetScout Vice President of Marketing Jim Frey, the white paper discusses the importance of real-time application visibility in addition to deep-dive forensic analysis. The white paper documents the experiences of three enterprise IT organizations that have deployed solutions from both ExtraHop Networks, a fast-growing network-based APM provider, and NetScout Systems, the largest industry provider of packet-based performance monitoring solutions.
A majority of Fortune 500 enterprise IT organizations already rely on NetScout Systems to monitor network performance from L2 to L4 and perform forensic investigation. NetScout products, however, offer limited real-time application-level (L7) visibility, which is a critical capability needed to identify small problems and take immediate action before they become disastrous. ExtraHop Networks fills this gap in NetScout’s offerings by providing real-time analysis of application transactions across the network, web, database, and storage tiers. The result is a top-down, real-time view of application performance that helps IT teams keep business operations running smoothly. This new white paper draws its conclusions from common customer testimonials, including a high-tech manufacturer, a financial clearinghouse, and a large investment services firm.
“While NetScout products are predominantly used by network teams for deep-packet collection and analysis, the ExtraHop system, with its applications focus, is readily accessible by a broader audience and serves as a primary interface for IT operations—particularly for monitoring real-time application performance and triaging and troubleshooting issues,” said Frey. “As a result, many IT teams are finding great value in having both of these systems deployed in parallel. As modern IT environments continue to get more complex, such complementary offerings will only become more and more critical to Network and Application teams.”
“Our Monitoring group is something of a nexus. They need to see as much detail as possible across the infrastructure, organized around our critical web apps. Often they end up bringing the network and application developers together when an issue comes up. The ExtraHop system provides us with live dashboards that we use to figure out activity baselines so we can recognize when operational indicators are outside of the norm,” said one common ExtraHop and NetScout customer from a large investment-services firm. “The NetScout system plays a different role. It is our go-to platform when we need to do deep analysis, particularly if we’re trying to look back in time.”
“NetScout Systems offers what are arguably the networking industry’s best-known packet-based performance monitoring solutions. However, real-time visibility across distributed architectures and various layers of technology has become a priority for monitoring that can only be accomplished by analyzing transactions as they occur,” said Jesse Rothstein, ExtraHop co-founder and CEO. “For many IT organizations, the combination of NetScout and ExtraHop solutions has proven to be a powerful tool for accomplishing real-time performance monitoring, including providing the details needed to resolve issues quickly, regardless of where they occur in the application environment.”
To view the complete white paper as well as examples of how real IT organizations are deploying the ExtraHop Application Delivery Assurance solution in parallel with products from NetScout Systems, download the white paper: “Multi-Layer Performance Management: Co-Deploying ExtraHop Networks and NetScout Systems Solutions.”