You can use this information to tune the application's performance, plan routine maintenance or resolve critical component failures. The enhanced Sniffer has three notable components. Distributed Sniffer monitors network traffic, directly measures actual response times of e-commerce transactions and sends alerts based on both failed transactions and performance thresholds being exceeded. Event Orchestrator processes alarms by escalating them to the responsible department or individual via trouble tickets. And Network Informant provides standard reports on LAN and WAN utilization, including service provider performance.
Agents residing on managed devices collect and report response times to a central manager.
Ganymede also offers a network performance monitoring tool called Pegasus, which provides Web-based reports on response times, throughput and availability. Pegasus automatically tracks performance to build an exceptions profile, which triggers alerts when the baselines are violated. Choosing the right tool set will depend on your company's IT goals, existing infrastructure, skills and organizational issues. Ptak is vice president of systems and application management at Hurwitz Group, a Framingham, Mass., analysis firm specializing in strategic business applications. Feedback Tell us your thoughts on this article or the issues raised in it.