MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) gets our Best Value award, having a sum total price tag of a big fat nada, zip, zero (under GNU). It is a hunter, gatherer and grapher, spewing SNMP performance statistics into HTML, and it has spawned an active Internet community, which adds lots of value.
This is the definitive network toolbox. It has a ton of utilities, ranging from simple, variable ping monitors and subnet calculators to more sophisticated performance monitors and address-management functions. What appeals to us most about SolarWinds is that, though it is definitely a bunch of separate, immediately usable utilities, there is structure tying the tools together. That is, even though the tools operate in separate windows, they are integrated in that they provide context launches of other tools. Selecting an IP address in the IP Address Management utility allows for a telnet, trace route, ping and browse of the selected address.
SolarWinds is available in multiple versions, from the Standard Edition to the Engineers Edition. Each step up adds more tools, with more functionality. The downside of the Engineers Edition is an annoying duplication of function. The toolbar with icons for launching applications is configurable, so we created groups of icons for the applications we wanted. For our money, we recommend the Engineers Edition, just because it has all the tools you could want.
SolarWinds offers several performance tools, from a simple availability monitor, WatchIT, which sits on the edge of the desktop reporting via color changes and WAV files dropped packets and response failures, to the Network Performance utility, a full-blown historical performance collection engine with a Microsoft Access database.
Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer for Juniper Networks, explains how the advanced technology is transforming operations.
Contact center leaders from 8x8, Awaken Intelligence, and 360insight discuss the importance of agent experience.
AI may force enterprises to rewire parts of their data centers so they are fully optimized to run such workloads. The question is do you use Ethernet or InfiniBand?
