InformationWeek

The nGenius Performance Monitor tracks application performance, while the nGenius Traffic Monitor is a historical network-performance database and reporting tool. The nGenius Probe surveys both the enterprise network and the Web site, gathering data on Web traffic, response-time measurements, error rates, and connection requests. The nGenius Server collects data from NetScout's probes and provides a portal interface to the information.

The suite appears to offer the functionality most enterprises are clamoring for as E-business initiatives become more vital. Glenn Osborne, manager of network services for publisher Reed Elsevier plc, began his search for more-robust network and E-business monitoring products in October. "We wanted a product that would let us test application throughput as a client would see it," says Osborne, who had been using generic network sniffers from a vendor he declined to name.

And that's what the nGenius suite has enabled Reed Elsevier to do, says Osborne, who signed up the $5.2 billion London publisher for Netscout's beta program last fall. "We can monitor each event as it travels through our entire network," he says. Osborne also decided to integrate the nGenius Traffic Monitor with Reed Elsevier's hosting company, MCI WorldCom subsidiary UUnet, to monitor Web traffic. One of the benefits of doing this, he says, is that "if we get hit with denial-of-service attacks, this can help us set parameters to deal with those types of problems."

Data collection isn't of much use if it's presented unclearly, Osborne adds, but "our executives like the NetScout tools because they provide them with real-time graphics and reports in language they can quickly digest."