New IT Borderless Enterprise Solution

A new business-critical Software as a Service (SaaS) product, launched today, will allow real-time cloud application monitoring as part of a borderless enterprise strategy developed by Washington-based Fluke Networks. It has been designed to meet the needs of any end-user business that relies on an unobstructed flow of digital information, allowing them to control their complete IT landscape at any time.

The new product, TruView Live will add cloud application monitoring to the company’s already successful suite of products that provide the IT industry with real-time network activity and application performance management solutions.

Fluke Networks is a global provider of network performance monitoring and diagnostics solutions that streamline issue resolution and optimize end-user experience. The company’s philosophy is that in today’s “borderless enterprise,” where the lines between outside application applications and the internal enterprise datacenter infrastructure have blurred, there is a vital need for IT to have full visibility to ensure an optimal end-user experience.

Delivered as a completely scalable, pay-as-you-go service, TruView Live is poised to provide real-time monitoring of applications, platforms and infrastructure, allowing IT teams to gain “end-to-end visibility.” This will enable them to quickly identify and resolve problems and ensure the business gets full value of the cloud services it uses. Available in three service levels, determined by the number of cloud services that need monitoring, the new service will also bridge the gap between datacenters and the cloud.

“As enterprise IT evolves from a service provider to a value provider, IT organizations have a valuable opportunity to demonstrate their worth by focusing on the end-user experience as a key performance indicator,” says Daryle DeBalski, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Business Unit at Fluke Networks. But as cloud-based applications become increasingly popular, the ability for IT to deliver positive end-user experience has become more difficult, and also more expensive.

Traditionally, IT departments have focused on technology, stability and service delivery, with business leaders doing all they can to improve their competitive advantage and win more customers. While this can create tension between business leaders and those in IT, one thing they agree on is that “poor experience has a cost,” says Arif Kareem, Fluke Networks’ president. This might be in the form of lost customer relationships, reduced employee productivity, or in decreased revenue. The key, he says is for the IT team to be accountable for improving user experience.

The Borderless Enterprise Holistic Approach

Fluke Networks has developed its borderless enterprise strategy because it has determined that traditional point-solution tools don’t work. Specifically, the point solution lacks a holistic view that is able to measure end-user experience, and measure it quickly.

The company’s suite of products helps IT leaders identify both user experience and performance issues across a wide range of applications, devices, and locations, for various cloud providers. By monitoring the actual response time that is experienced by end users, the IT team is able to align its objectives with those of the business, and demonstrate its critical benefits and value.

Without a holistic approach, says Fluke Networks, IT lacks the ability to identify and solve problems quickly and also finds it difficult to address performance issues of cloud applications. A recent report by analyst firm Forrester indicates that 79 percent of enterprises have experienced negative customer experiences and 77 percent have been affected by reduced user productivity. The report also states that 31 percent of corporate network performance issues take longer than a month to resolve, with 41 percent of IT respondents reporting difficulty troubleshooting performance issues once these had been highlighted. Additionally, 29 percent said visibility of network performance was poor, and 21 percent had poor visibility of application performance.

Fluke Networks has found that IT issues are greater when businesses are using both on-premise and cloud services. Further, it reports that 82 percent of business enterprises use a hybrid cloud strategy versus 74 percent in 2014. This in itself makes the delivery of positive end-user experience more difficult and more expensive.

The company also states that about 60 percent of availability and performance errors are caused by IT “misconfigurations,” and that the average network costs $7,900 a minute. It is this loss of control and revenue that led to its new approach to measuring network and application performance, and its growing borderless enterprise strategy.

The TruView Live Option

TruView Live requires no specialized knowledge or training to install or use. It will instantly allow IT administrators to:

• Use a single dashboard to monitor total availability and performance of computer networks in real time.
• Receive alerts so they can resolve problems before they escalate to user issues, and set performance thresholds.
• Isolate problems and keep the business running and productive by responding proactively to these problems.
• Accurately report SaaS performance and service level agreements (SLAs) to management when required.

The TruView Live application uses a pulse sensor to work. There are three types of active test sensors, and these may be used alone or in combination with one another. The TruView Pulse, available from Fluke Networks, connects to the network on any Ethernet port. A free, downloadable virtual pulse or a global pulse (hosted in the cloud in several locations) may also be used.
TruView Live has been designed to work independently, as a stand-alone application, or together with the existing Fluke Networks borderless enterprise strategy network and application performance solutions: Visual TruView, OptiView XG, One Touch AT 10G Network Assistant, and AirMagnet.

The company is currently offering businesses and other organizations a free trial of TruView Live. It will be rolling out more product enhancements that will address other borderless enterprise needs later in the year. These will included hosted VOIP, a mobile user experience, and also enhanced security capabilities.

By Penny Swift