With IT applications now integral to business processes, small and medium companies can no longer tolerate performance bottlenecks or system downtime. To help firms pinpoint problem spots, Netoptics announced an integrated network and application monitoring appliance.The company's appTap solution is designed to help companies detect and resolve problems in real-time. The product analyzes network traffic and application activity and monitors Voice Over IP (VoIP) calls, so businesses can pinpointing performance issues, such as jitter, underperforming applications, or insufficient network With the product, corporations can capture historic network performance data and identify changes in usage; monitor Web-based applications and view the network resources they use; and view network use over time and determine future capacity needs.

The product comes in three configurations. A Network Monitoring version, whose pricing starts at $3,000, captures network performance data, such as NetFlow and non-NetFlow records for use by third party analysis tools. Application Monitoring, whose pricing has not been set, breaks down network use by layer, protocol and application. Session Monitoring, whose pricing also has not been established, troubleshoots VoIP calls.

In business since 1996, Netoptics has more than 7,000 customers, with a traditional emphasis on larger companies: service providers, government organizations, and Fortune 100 companies. Historically, network and application monitoring has been too expensive and too time consuming for most small and medium businesses to implement. That outlook has been changing recently with the delivery of lower priced, easier to use products. Netoptics is making a play for that market segment with its new product, and time will tell how successful the company's initiative may be.