Issues And Answers

Current Analysis Inc. and the Tolly Group have a service for companies that like to address the question, "What if ... ?"

They've jointly launched CurrentReality, an "issues-based" product testing service. Every month the companies will identify a specific technical issue affecting enterprise networks and test the ability of vendors' products to address the issue.

For example, this month the companies looked at how networking equipment handled "bandwidth starvation," which can result when equipment prioritizes one application and doesn't leave enough network resources available for other apps to continue performing at acceptable levels. "We found that Hewlett-Packard [switches were] the worst of the lot," says Current Analysis senior VP Richard Alires. "Their ProCurve switches could starve out a lot of applications. If users don't have this kind of information, they may have serious problems on their network."

Upcoming issues-based tests will include policy-based networking, service-level management, and directory-enabled networking. In addition to the results of tests performed by the Tolly Group, subscribers will be able to access Current Analysis' Web-based product reports, providing them with a wide range of product performance and comparison information.

The CurrentReality service is available immediately.