VoIP

NetIQ Debuts VoIP Diagnostic Suite

Next-generation communication technologies can provide businesses a competitive advantage—when they work. Deploying and maintaining voice and video applications can be daunting—Vivinet helps get the kinks out of the systems.

by ISP-Planet Staff [November 18, 2002]

NetIQ Corp., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of systems management and Web analytics solutions, recently introduced its Vivinet family of products. Formerly known as the NetIQ VoIP Management Solution, the Vivinet family of products has been upgraded to now cure Voice over IP (VoIP) call quality ailments.

NetIQ's VoIP management products have been helping customers ensure the integrity of their integrated voice and data networks since 2001. Its newest suite includes NetIQ's Vivinet Diagnostics technology, a program that enables customers to easily pinpoint and diagnose call quality problems in a VoIP environment, as well as updated versions of the Vivinet Assessor and Vivinet Manager. The Vivinet suite consists of:

• Vivinet Diagnostics: Quickly pinpoints call quality problems in VoIP networks and easily explains why you are experiencing reduced call quality. The software reduces the time needed to resolve voice quality issues and lessens the skills required for VoIP troubleshooting, in both pre- and post-deployment environments.
• The Vivinet Assessor 2.0: Determines if your network can handle VoIP. Evaluates and reports on the network's ability to support VoIP's unique network requirements. Understanding potential problems before they become evident is an essential factor in a successful implementation. Vivinet Assessor enables you to make knowledgeable choices about how to proceed with your VoIP investment and deployment. Vivinet Assessor also predicts call quality, builds a network inventory, highlights limitations of current network devices to help improves planning with predictive modeling.
• Vivinet Manager 2.1: Capable of monitoring the entire VoIP environment from one console. The latest version offers greatly expanded support for IP telephony, call centers, video and unified messaging. Vivinet Manager is currently capable of handling over 100,000 phones.

VoIP deployments are often stalled because of time spent working to identify call quality issues. By analyzing all network devices along the path of a VoIP phone call, service providers can use NetIQ's new Vivinet Diagnostics to troubleshoot in both pre-deployment and post-deployment environments—reducing the time needed to resolve voice quality issues.

Resolving VoIP call quality issues should be done prior to deploying new systems. But the support systems to troubleshoot pre-deployment problems lag behind new technologies such as VoIP services. David Neil, Gartner vice president and research director, said pre-implementation assessment and planning is crucial to ensure that the IP network infrastructure is capable of supporting mission-critical voice services.

"Many service providers do not perform this activity prior to implementing VoIP and IP telephony. The results can be disastrous, leading to a poor-quality voice system that can cost the enterprise lost business and revenue," Neil said.

Neil added that the list of currently available products that can help enterprises through the process of pre-implementation and operational management of VoIP is limited.

"Ensuring seamless use of voice on IP networks involves more than packet quality," Neil said, "companies need to diagnose the performance of the network from a data perspective as well."

Pricing and availability
Vivinet Assessor, available now, is sold in one-month assessment licenses for $4,500 or perpetual licenses for $12,000. Vivinet Diagnostics, now in beta, is scheduled for general availability by the end of November and is priced at $8,000. Vivinet Manager 2.1 is available now and is priced from $10,000 for a typical pilot VoIP deployment. NetIQ products are sold directly and through a network of authorized NetIQ partners and resellers.

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