Quest PacketTrap News

ScriptLogic Provides Help for Network Management

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

According to Nick Calvalancia, vice president for Windows Management for ScriptLogic, the PacketTrap products are now part of the ScriptLogic suite of offerings. The new release of the Perspective network management tools features tight integration with ScriptLogic’s Help Desk Authority offering. Calvalancia says that gap between the help desk and the people that manage the networks is usually the cause of any number of recurring problems. The integration between Perspective and Help Desk Authority is designed to make it easy for network managers to not only kick off a help desk ticket, but also gain some historical data on a variety of problems to help identify larger issues. The new version of Perspective, which is also available free for 21 days, is available now.

Quest Software Joins ASCII Group's Solution Alliance Network

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

"We are proud to have this dynamic group of professionals join the Solution Alliance Network. Quest Software's PacketTrapMSP solution allows managed service providers to set up the tool in minutes and automatically discovers system resources and metrics of their customers. In addition, the MSP Acceleration Program is a great benefit to members who are moving from break-fix to managed services by providing a full plan to build, price, market and sell managed services," said Alan D. Weinberger, Founder, Chairman and CEO of ASCII.

The proliferation of cloud assets, network traffic problems and implementation of new technologies is driving demand for comprehensive network management solutions.

Steve Goodman, VP and General Manager of Network Management for Quest Software said, "We believe our PacketTrapMSP solutions (www.PacketTrap.com/Product) and our MSP Acceleration Program (www.PacketTrap.com/Partners) are the right mix to help MSPs increase their recurring revenue streams and show true value to their customer base." About The ASCII Group, Inc. (ASCII) The ASCII Group, Inc., headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, was established in 1984, with additional offices in Canada, India, and the UK. ASCII is the largest paying community of independent computer resellers in the world with more than 2,000 members and system wide end-user sales of approximately $10.5 billion. ASCII provides technology tools, products and services to assist independent information technology resellers increase profits, reduce costs, and grow their respective businesses. The Company can be reached at (800) 394-2724, or at www.ascii.com.

About Quest Software Now more than ever, organizations need to work smart and improve efficiency. Quest Software creates and supports smart systems management products helping our customers solve everyday IT challenges faster and easier. Visit www.quest.com for more information.

Quest Software is a registered trademark of Quest Software in the United States and certain other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Using technology tools to make life more manageable

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It would be nice if it featured a clock and alarm, could show some photos, perhaps play an audio book and the radio, allow me to read and type a few notes, surf the internet, read some news feeds, check email and a few other things on a screen I can actually read text from without crossing my eyes twice over.

So, given all the above, I got pretty excited when I first clapped eyes on the Toshiba JournE. I've been playing around with this multimedia tablet for a few days now and am already finding ways of working it into my routine. The device has a 7in touch screen with a resolution of 800x480 and runs on the Windows CE 6.0 operating system. Like I have with the Palm Pre, I will keep you updated with life on the move with the JournE.

Following on from my recent experiences with Spiceworks, I thought I would see what had been happening with PacketTrap, the network monitoring and management tool, and discovered that the PacketTrap pt360 Tool Suite Pro is available for free. PacketTrap utilises a dashboard approach with plug-in configurable widgets allowing monitoring and management of a wide array of network infrastructure from Cisco configuration, through deep network discovery, to WMI Scans and application monitoring for services such as Exchange, SQL and Active Directory.

I have talked before about finding simple ways of presenting network monitoring without all the complexity of a laptop or desktop computer, and with these two technologies perhaps some combination of multimedia tablet and dashboard based network monitoring solution might offer a fine way of keeping an eye on the day-to-day activity of the network infrastructure.

IP SLA - Hidden gem for proactive management?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

At EMA, we spend a lot of time talking about how to shift gears into a more proactive, preventative approach to manage the IT infrastructure. Whether you are looking at the lower layers of the stack and device health or up the stack at how well applications and services are being delivered

MSPs ID Lack of Network Visibility as Top Problem

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Users hitting YouTube, Pandora and other high-bandwidth sites can bring mission-critical network traffic down to a crawl. A new survey shows that MSPs identified lack of visibility into network traffic as their No. 1 pain

Cloud services may be cheaper, but MSPs have much to weigh before going up

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Managed services providers (MSPs) are no strangers to running IT services remotely for their customers, but moving their own assets to the cloud and delivering their services from there will test MSPs' ability to keep all the balls in the air

PacketTrap's Remote Monitoring Keeps Networks At Top Speed

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Bottlenecks on a network can be just as time consuming as bottlenecks on the highway. That's why PacketTrap Networks has created an offering that allows solution providers to manage customer networks

PacketTrap Intros Traffic Analysis Solution for MSPs

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

PacketTrap’s Perspective solution takes a new approach to network management by offering granular traffic analysis for MSPs and their midmarket and SMB customers. Managed services providers (MSPs) usually thrive in times of economic downturn, as customers look for desktop and server management solutions that can help cut costs, increase efficiency and ease data center management and monitoring burdens. But as these services become more commoditized, there’s less value for customers in these solutions

PacketTrap Networks Provides Network Monitoring Software for Midsize Companies

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

PacketTrap sells directly to customers, but it also aims at value-added resellers that are transforming into service providers. "VARs have moved from reselling equipment into more service offerings, where they manage a customer's infrastructure from their own location," says Goodman. The company is tapping into this market with PacketTrap MSP, which lets VARs offer network monitoring to small businesses that want to outsource IT functions to a partner. MSP is available as on-premises software or software as a service. How It Works PacketTrap's pt360 Tool Suite performs basic diagnostic functions such as port scans and lets engineers troubleshoot network issues

PacketTrap Networks Bolsters Channel Partner Community

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

PacketTrap Networks says it has doubled the number of partners registered for its' partner program and has almost an equal number of agreements pending since launching it last December. And with the launch of its PerspectiveMSP solution, the company expects more VARs to join its ranks. The PacketTrap Partner Program (PPP) is directed at value-added resellers, IT consultants, system integrators and network administrators that service business with up to 5,000 end points.

More Network Tools for Professionals

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In some cases, you may be connected to the Intranet - meaning you need a set of tools to help you troubleshoot problems, or see a problem before you know it exists. PacketTrap’s pt360 allows you to flow results between tools, save network settings and favorites. The powerful, yet easy to use pt360 helps you tame your network

Network Management for the Masses

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The old saying that "you can only manage what you can measure" happens to be true, so what can you see inside your network that allows you to manage it properly? If you can't see much, you'll be glad to know network management tools are reinventing themselves constantly. Let's take a look at three options, one traditional (PacketTrap) and two (Paglo and ManageEngine) using the software-as-a-service model

PacketTrap Helps Old Devices Find Their Voices

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In these days of slashed budgets and layoffs, it’s important to find ways to do more with less. Enter ptFlow by PacketTrap Networks Inc. of San Francisco, which offers a means of discovering data about application performance on the network from old devices that otherwise would be unable to retrieve such information. “Every network, no matter what the size of the business, has network devices that can’t talk back,” said Matt Bolton, vice president of products at PacketTrap. “As a result, network administrators have a really hard time identifying bandwidth hogs or applications that are causing problems.”

Bringing Flow to New Places

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

At EMA, we’ve been pushing application awareness as the path to service-savvy enlightenment for network engineering and operations professionals. And yet, one of the big challenges is finding application activity details from the less well-outfitted corners of your domain. That might have just gotten a little easier. Last week, PacketTrap announced ptFlow, and what it represents is a means to get application-aware visibility in places where there are no xFlow-capable (i.e. NetFlow, sFlow, JFlow) devices. The idea is pretty straightforward – they created a software module to look at a stream of packets, pick out the relevant details, and construct and publish flow records

Perspective Goes with the Flow

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The network monitoring suite adds the ability to capture Flow-type data from any device that supports port mirroring. When Cisco Systems created the NetFlow protocol for gathering IP traffic data on its IOS-based routers and switches, it opened the doors for a number of other manufacturers to create similar systems. So many, in fact, that NetFlow has become an interational standared called Internet Protocol Flow Information eXport (IPFIX)

Management vendors think 'Cisco' with upgrades, integration

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

PacketTrap makes every router Cisco-like; NetQoS integrates SuperAgent with Cisco tools. Like it or not, Cisco gear resides in most networks and IT management vendors in-the-know realize if they equip their software with Cisco-smart features, then customers can't ignore them. Take PacketTrap. The start-up made available this week its Perspective 3.0, which now includes a feature dubbed ptFlow. This feature is a packet capture and filtering engine that allows network managers to gather traffic information from "non-Flow" support devices, meaning devices that don't support Cisco's NetFlow, sFlow (used by HP ProCurve) or J-Flow (the Juniper flavor). To take advantage of the ptFlow feature, devices must have port replication or port mirroring capabilities

PacketTrap's Perspective Solution Integrates with Open Source Apps

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

PacketTrap Networks, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, was founded in 2007 in order to ease the pains associated with network management, and reduce the new burdens being placed on IT infrastructures, such as VoIP, SaaS (Software as a Service) and virtualization applications

Find Out How PacketTrap Perspective Fills Your Network Management Needs – Now With VMware Support

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

There are a lot of network management systems out there but not a lot of them make network management easy for the network manager. I have worked with PacketTrap since the days of their free pt360 network troubleshooting tools and I have always seen their goal of making network management "easy" evident in their network management products. Since that introduction of their free tool, PacketTrap has come a long way and now offers a comprehensive network monitoring and management system called Perspective

Will IT Management Go SaaS?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Forrester Research forecasts SaaS will take a modest bite out of the IT management market. The big surprise is the high level of interest from medium-sized and large enterprises. One of the busiest areas of startup activity we see at InformationWeek is in IT management. Companies such as Spiceworks, PacketTrap, and Zenoss are making waves with low cost products that provide a respectable set of functions without a lot of deployment pain. Check out our lab review of these products here

Network management software vendors offer virtualization management

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As server virtualization becomes more prevalent in data centers of all sizes, network management software vendors are trying to help network professionals gain visibility and control over the technology

PacketTrap: It Manages Networks AND Disaster Recovery

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It's always great news to find out that something you bought actually works the way it is supposed to work. It's even better news to find that it delivers more value than you ever thought possible. The following use-case story is about PacketTrap, a provider of network management software and services, including applications for performance management and response-time analysis. The 3-year-old company's products provide IT administrators, system admins, and network engineers diagnostic, discovery, inventory, and monitoring tools to manage their applications, servers, and network infrastructure. PacketTrap has offices in Silicon Valley and Calcutta, India

Ten IT Management Start-ups to Watch

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Company: PacketTrap Networks Founded: May 2007 Headquarters: San Francisco Focus: The Perspective platform can be used to monitor network performance, manage faults and report on device availability data. It's targeted at organizations with between 100 and 5,000 employees. (Compare Network Monitoring and Management products.)

PacketTrap Networks' Perspective Software Now Includes Virtualization Monitoring

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

PacketTrap Networks is set to announce that its network troubleshooting and remediation solution, Perspective, now includes virtualization monitoring. The free virtualization module helps IT managers identify virtual machines and other resources throughout their life cycles. It is integrated into Perspective’s dashboard, which Richard Ptak from Ptak & Associates (www.ptaknoelassociates.com) calls a “powerful and intuitive interface that makes the task of getting information much easier.”

How Can PacketTrap Perspective Help you Manage your Cisco Network?

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In David’s latest article, he explains how the new network management platform, PacketTrap Perspective, can help you better manage your Cisco network. Topics include: What is the PacketTrap Perspective? How is Perspective different? How can Perspective help Cisco network Admins?

Infrastructure Management Startups Bring Big-Company Capabilities to SMBs

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

If you're like many small and midsize businesses, your budget for network monitoring tools is somewhere between small and nonexistent. And even if you could afford the tools offered by network management's "Big Four"--BMC Software, CA, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM Tivoli--their features would probably be overkill. Some network management startups have entered the market with products that fill the small-budget void by bringing big-company capabilities at a price that's 10 cents on the dollar or less than those of those high-end platforms. Here we look at offerings from PacketTrap, Spiceworks, and Zenoss, all founded in 2006 or later. Each targets a network management niche, aiming at specific pain points common to SMBs