Network Instruments Integrates Fibre Channel Analysis Into Observer
New line of hardware appliances monitors and provides network intelligence on storage area networks
April 24, 2006 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Network Instruments®, a leading provider of innovative analysis solutions for in-depth network intelligence and continuous availability, announced today integrated support for Fibre Channel analysis with a new line of hardware monitoring appliances. These new systems allow network administrators to obtain comprehensive visibility into storage area networks (SANs) that reside on Fibre Channel links.
“As more organizations implement SANs for their vital storage requirements, the demand for Fibre Channel analysis increases,” said Roman Oliynyk, CEO and co-founder of Network Instruments. “By adding Fibre Channel to the existing distributed network analysis architecture, Observer can now monitor your SAN environment as easily as Ethernet or WAN. No other analysis vendor on the market integrates network analysis as completely.”
With Network Instruments’ Fibre Channel systems, network administrators can easily watch for session delays, view Fibre Channel-specific statistics and errors, set alarms to proactively notify on potential problems, and obtain Expert help on link issues. For guaranteed capture performance, Network Instruments has engineered a specific Fibre Channel capture card utilizing the company’s own Gen2™ technology.
“The Gen2 platform enables the fastest real-time Expert processing and the largest capture buffer available in the industry,” said Oliynyk. “Now we’ve expanded our Gen2 card to support Fibre Channel. We’ve also added Fibre Channel support to our GigaStor™ appliance. The same GigaStor advantages -- historical data analysis, up to 8 TB of storage, real-time Expert processing at the probe -- are now applicable for Fibre Channel.”
Observer’s Fibre Channel analysis includes over 30 real-time statistics, Fibre Channel-specific protocol decodes, long-term trending and reporting, application analysis, over 20 Fibre Channel specific Expert items, and the ability to drill-down to isolate specific conversations or transaction delays.
Network Instruments offers a variety of Fibre Channel hardware appliances. The first is a rack-mountable system specifically designed for wire-speed, full-duplex analysis. The new GigaStor-FC is ideal for enterprise administrators that require historical Fibre Channel analysis and massive data collection. Finally, a new Fibre Channel field service solution operates as a combined console and probe for analysis portability. Every system reports back to Expert Observer or Observer Suite consoles located anywhere on the network for distributed visibility and real-time analysis.
The new line of Fibre Channel analysis systems is available immediately. Pricing for the rack-mountable hardware probe appliance begins at $11,995. The high-capacity GigaStor-FC begins at $19,995 and the field service system starts at $17,995. All prices are for a one-link configuration with additional options for monitoring up to two Fibre Channel links. To learn more, call (800) 526-7919 or visit http://www.networkinstruments.com.
About Network Instruments
Network Instruments provides in-depth network intelligence and continuous network availability through innovative analysis solutions. Enterprise network professionals depend on Network Instruments’ Observer product line for unparalleled network visibility to efficiently solve network problems and manage deployments. By combining a powerful management console with high-performance analysis appliances, Observer simplifies problem resolution and optimizes network and application performance.