NetQos launches new response-time analyzer

Computerworld - NetQos Inc. this week launched SuperAgent v4, a tool for analyzing response time in applications running across large networks.
Earlier versions of SuperAgent could pinpoint response delays to the network, an application or a server, but the new version takes the discovery process further by offering information about CPU and memory usage as well as server and router processes to help identify the root cause of a problem, NetQos officials said.
One benefit is that SuperAgent v4 can function in a central office through a port on a switch, and no agents need to be deployed on servers or clients to watch user transactions, said Michael Turner, executive vice president at NetQos in Austin.
Pat Miller, director of telecommunication services at William Scotsman Inc. in Baltimore, is an early adopter of SuperAgent v4. She has been using the product for two months and has already seen savings in support times for network managers. SuperAgent has also created savings in the time end users need to access and use applications, Miller said.
The company, which has 1,000 employees, leases and sells mobile office space and has a frame-relay network that reaches 85 locations in the U.S. Its servers and network nodes are now being monitored from Baltimore with SuperAgent v4.
"The new version gives us more proactive monitoring, since I don't want to have to dig for information to find a problem," Miller said. It's also important to have SuperAgent v4 in one location, because the branch locations have no dedicated IT staff, she added.
"Most of the time in the past, users have pointed to the network as the problem behind end-user problems," she said. But this tool has helped establish that network problems aren't the biggest issue when compared with application and server errors.
SuperAgent v4 is intelligent enough to monitor packet loss in a server that's congested, indicating when the packet loss is increasing at a rate that affects systems but isn't noticeable by end users, Miller said.
SuperAgent v4 is shipping now and starts at $34,500.