App performance from an end user's perspective

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NETWORK PRODUCT TEST RESULTS
10/11/05

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In this issue:

* Clear Choice Test: PremiTech's Performance Guard
* Links related to Network Product Test Results
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus:

App performance from an end user's perspective

By Barry Nance

While most network monitoring tools have spent years inexorably
working their way up the protocol stack, a newcomer -
PremiTech's Performance Guard - starts at the top and stays
there. PremiTech says Performance Guard monitors client machines
at the application layer to collect useful statistics regarding
user experiences.

We recently tested Performance Guard Version 4.0 (see "How we
did it" <http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev8517> ) and it
proved to be less a tool you occasionally reach for to solve a
specific problem and more a measuring stick that continuously
gathers and tracks client performance data, including
application response times. We even found a use for Performance
Guard that its designers perhaps didn't foresee.

View from the top

Performance Guard consists of a server component, agents you
deploy on each client and a customer-supplied copy of either
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or the Oracle relational database. The
server component, which includes its own Web server, gathers
performance data from the agents and stores the result in the
relational database. The server component runs on Windows Server
2000 or 2003, while the agents run only on Windows XP, 98, ME
and client versions of Windows NT, 2000 and 2003. Performance
Guard scales quite well, with a single-server component easily
able to manage up to a few hundred clients.

Like any good asset inventory tool, Performance Guard reveals
such client details as computer name, processor type and speed,
type of network interface, installed RAM and hard disk size. It
goes much further, however, to measure overall CPU and memory
utilization, I/O statistics, the names and owners of running
processes, CPU and memory utilization by process, as well as I/O
reads and writes by process.

To read the test of Performance Guard in its entirety, please
see: <http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev7604>

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine has serious bug
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev8518>
2. How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev7607>
3. IETF effort promises fewer net failures
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev8519>
4. Nortel's uphill battle
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev8082>
5. You won't find this book on Oprah's list
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev8520>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact:

Nance runs Network Testing Labs and is the author of
Introduction to Networking, 4th Edition and Client/Server LAN
Programming. He can be reached at barryn@erols.com

_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Nokia
Empower Your Mobile Enterprise

Nokia believes that business mobility will fundamentally change
the way work gets done-and for the better. To allow the entire
organization to get the most from this paradigm shift in
productivity, Nokia Enterprise Solutions focuses on delivering
increased efficiency through enhanced mobility. Learn more by
downloading this white paper today!
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=117280
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Clear Choice Tests archive:
http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/index.html
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

IT PROS SHARE THEIR TALES OF MAKING ITIL WORK

Running an enterprise network is challenging. IT organizational
change can be even more so if managers don't balance efforts
proportionally across people, process and technology.
Implementing best practices frameworks such as Information
Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) can help, but they
introduce their own set of challenges. Click here for more:

<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/092205-itil.html>
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