New Metrics for Release 1.2 of PRIISMS

Network performance analyzer upgrade promises to resolve QoS problems before they impact SLAs.

by Wayne Kawamoto [October 13, 2000]

ION Networks recently announced the availability of Release 1.2 of its PRIISMS Suite. Release 1.2 introduces the company's NetwoRx-PRIISMS Integration (NPI), a series of metrics and action routines that are designed to analyze network performance and take action to resolve performance problems before they become severe and impact QoS and SLA's. The release also includes the latest versions of software for the NetwoRx intelligent device and for PRIISMS Manager.

According to the company, NPI 1.2 reduces the number of network performance problems an enterprise can experience. Ion calculates that for the ISP who must return $1000 to 2000 per hour of outage to each customer — as much as $10 million to 1200 customers in only four hours — ION Networks says that its NPI 1.2 can improve network health and reduce economic loss.

NPI 1.2 runs on ION's NetwoRx distributed intelligent platform and incorporates Active Management Technology (AMT), a method whereby ION is supposed to capture knowledge from network experts and automate their analysis, decision-making and actions.

ION then codifies how network experts analyze data, the decisions they make about the data and analyses, and the resulting actions they take into a series of rules, or a "routine", that ION's devices execute. As a result, ION says that the network expert's ability to identify and solve network problems is implemented across the entire network.

ION claims that NPI 1.2 uses AMT to analyze, not just monitor, network performance, and works at a high speed to make decisions and take actions at remote locations so that costly network resources are not wasted sending information to a central location for processing. As a result, ION's service provider customers should be able to deliver a higher quality of service. And any problems that do occur are resolved more quickly.

Pricing and availability
Release 1.2 is available immediately through ION's sales force.

Customers can purchase NPI 1.2 applications individually or in a bundle. Current NetwoRx and PRIISMS Manager customers can upgrade their software to run NPI 1.2. List price for PRIISMS Manager is $16,700. The NetwoRx intelligent device lists at $7995; RMON boards for T1, E1, and V-series are extra.

The NPI metrics/action routines are priced individually either on a monthly basis or as a one-time perpetual license.

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