App performance from an end user's perspective

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NETWORK PRODUCT TEST RESULTS
09/27/05

Dear security.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Clear Choice Test of Performance Guard Version 4.0
* Links related to Network Product Test Results
* Featured reader resource
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This newsletter is sponsored by Sybase
Data Explosion

It sounds so simple: if you collect enough business information,
you'll glean valuable insights that can drive both revenue
growth and competitive advantage. Along the way, however,
companies are discovering that managing the explosive growth of
online data can prove a formidable challenge. Here's how to
assess your data management style, and maximize your
opportunities to turn online data into business opportunity.
Click here for more on taming the data explosion.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115849
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Network World New Data Center
Spotlight on Advanced IP

Piecing Together the Next Generation IT Architecture. This 5th
installment in a 6 part series takes a look at at On-demand
services, automated management, and management technologies.
PLUS, see how two IT Execs are plotting their way to an all
IP-world. This NDC issue has it all, click here to read now,
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115644
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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/nlprodrev7603> ) 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.

Performance Guard's client-based agents noted each client's
server response time, along with the traffic densities and any
network errors it experienced. Performance Guard also measured
and categorized Web transaction activity (that is, HTTP-based
application services) in our tests, based on transaction
characteristics we specified at the Performance Guard Server.

Performance Guard comes with a handy Internet Explorer helper
object that computes precise Web access response times and
tracks the URLs that a client accesses. We could even configure
each Performance Guard agent to use Internet Control Messaging
Protocol echo requests/replies to ping specific servers and
devices on the network. These pings provided client-oriented
data that revealed client-to-device or client-to-server network
access times. Impressively, Performance Guard collects
performance statistics for Citrix Metaframe Server-based
applications, including per-session data and server
responsiveness.

To read more about this test, please go to:
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev7604>

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev6962>
2. Ransomware: How big is your risk?
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev7704>
3. How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev7607>
4. Mass. finalizes plans to phase out Office
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev7705>
5. The rise of the IT architect
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlprodrev7243>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact:

Barry 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 mailto:barryn@erols.com.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Sybase
Data Explosion

It sounds so simple: if you collect enough business information,
you'll glean valuable insights that can drive both revenue
growth and competitive advantage. Along the way, however,
companies are discovering that managing the explosive growth of
online data can prove a formidable challenge. Here's how to
assess your data management style, and maximize your
opportunities to turn online data into business opportunity.
Click here for more on taming the data explosion.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115848
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

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

The Trend Micro Threat Map

The Trend Micro Threat Map dynamically displays real-time data
to show worldwide trends in virus and content security threats
as they happen. Collected from actual computer infections, the
Threat Map can be used to help determine appropriate security
policies, based on the prevalence of threats that can adversely
affect your business.

<http://www.networkworld.com/go/trendmicro/trend_frr>
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