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A Traffic Cop For Complex Networks

DomainMeter 7000 speeds remote monitoring
By Jill Gambon
Issue date: March 25, 1996

A little-known silicon val-ley company called Technically Elite is introducing a remote monitoring tool for large, complex networks in an effort to cash in on the exponential growth in enterprise networks and network traffic.

The DomainMeter 7000, slated to be introduced on March 25, will help network administrators monitor large, dispersed networks by splitting them into smaller g roups that can be administered from a single workstation. This is accomplished by installing the units throughout the network to collect data and send only results, recommendations, and reports to the network administrator, which speeds the monitoring process.

Analysts and early users have praised DomainMeter 7000. "The product is technically elegant and produces great results," says tester Joe Valha, a network services manager for Technology Service Solutions (TSS) in Raleigh, N.C. TSS is a joint venture between IBM and Kodak that provides third-party network maintenance and support services.

"I'm impressed with their technology," says Michael Howard, president of Infonetics Research Inc., a consulting firm in San Jose, Calif. "It's different from other RMON [remote monitoring] technology I've seen."

Company CEO David Norman is no stranger to high-tech startups-he's the founder of computer retailer BusinessLand Inc., market researcher Dataquest Inc., a nd Creative Strategies, an IT consulting firm. "People are flying blind when it comes to network traffic," says Norman. "But this [product] is like a traffic cop. It monitors in real-time what's going on with the network."

The DomainMeter 7000 includes an SNMP data-polling engine, expert system for diagnosing problems, and a data repository in a single unit. It also will automatically create reports on the World Wide Web, so managers will be able to access the information from any workstation with a Web browser.

The DomainMeter, which runs on Windows and Unix platforms, is priced at $6,995.

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