[November 18, 2009] Apparent Networks Launches Cloud Performance Center Tweet WELLESLEY HILLS, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- Apparent Networks (News - Alert), a leading provider of network fault and performance management solutions, today announced the debut of its new Cloud Performance Center. A free online service, the Cloud Performance Center (CPC) offers performance data on leading cloud services providers such as Amazon, Google (News - Alert) and GoGrid to help companies make more informed decisions before outsourcing their applications and infrastructure. Available immediately at www.apparentnetworks.com/CPC, the CPC also provides reports and advisories on performance issues that can affect customers' LAN, WAN and cloud-based infrastructures. "Based on the visibility that our technology provides across the entire network path, Apparent Networks is in a unique position to deliver actionable intelligence that will help develop an informed cloud computing strategy," said Jim Melvin, president and CMO of Apparent Networks. "Our Cloud Performance Center provides visitors with the crucial information they need to achieve maximum performance and success in their cloud initiatives." The Cloud Performance Center provides real-time and historical data to help inform IT teams of network performance issues that could impact effective delivery of cloud services. Visitors gain critical, real-time perspective on the network path performance including metrics such as bandwidth, jitter and latency between the cloud providers and major cities throughout North America, as well as research into topical issues that impact users' abilities to interact with the Internet and cloud service providers. This data is crucial for understanding the potential performance of a given service or application in actual deployment scenarios. "Effective application service delivery across the Internet is an essential part of successful cloud computing," said Peter Christy, principal analyst at the Internet Research Group. "By providing network performance data for cloud services, as well as advisories on technologies and issues that could impact the effectiveness of applications, services like Apparent Networks' Cloud Performance Center are essential tools for IT teams responsible for cloud applications." The CPC delivers the following free informational services: Cloud Provider Scorecard The CPC portal provides real-time, region-by-region service delivery performance scores for cloud providers. Visitors can view an interactive map of the North American market and select locations that are relevant to their businesses. Based on their selection, the CPC provides a detailed Cloud Provider Scorecard for the major cloud service providers in those geographies. Service providers are ranked on an aggregate or overall performance score, as well as on a lengthy list of specific performance metrics, such as jitter, available bandwidth and packet loss. Users can also customize the performance metrics to suit their particular application or service needs. Armed with this unbiased performance data, companies can select the best provider or set of providers in the locations that matter most to them. Cloud and Internet Performance Reports and Advisories Apparent Networks will regularly produce and distribute cloud and Internet performance reports, as well as ad hoc performance advisories. These reports and advisories detail performance issues that are adversely affecting cloud-based service delivery, WAN performance, and even LAN issues. Reports also detail the bright spots of the cloud and Internet performance picture. The reports provide organization with detailed information about the best paths to take and the ones to avoid with their cloud and networking initiatives. Available immediately, the first Performance Advisory details how Symantec (News - Alert) Endpoint Protection 11v5 can severely impact network performance, consuming up to 70 percent of the bandwidth of a 1 GBit network interface card. Apparent Networks' discovery of this issue follows extensive research based on customer installations of the company's PathView Cloud service, which measures the performance of complete network paths from source to destination. Apparent Networks has offered all of its test data to Symantec and is working with the company on this issue. CPC Data Collection and Methodology To gather and interpret general cloud and Internet performance data, Apparent Networks has widely deployed PathView Cloud, the company's next-generation network management tool. With PathView Cloud's components installed at many key network locations throughout the U.S. and Canada, Apparent Networks has gained a powerful, broad-based, path-centric view of the status of major traffic patterns, issues, and problems with cloud and Internet performance. Apparent Networks augments this information with aggregated performance data from millions of network path tests conducted by PathView users. About Apparent Networks Apparent Networks is the only IT performance management provider that delivers the end-to-end service insight required for today's cloud applications. By experiencing network performance without affecting it, the company's patented path solutions assess network readiness, monitor service levels, and diagnose problems otherwise hidden from sight. Leading companies rely on Apparent Networks to assure application delivery and expand their service portfolios with confidence. For more information, visit www.apparentnetworks.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]