Monday November 1, 9:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Lucent Technologies
Lucent Releases VitalSuite 7.0, the Industry's First Complete IT Performance Management Solution
Unique 'Enterprise Performance' Portal Provides Unprecedented Visibility Into Network and Application Performance
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU - news) today announced the release of VitalSuite(TM) 7.0, the first performance management software solution to help IT professionals improve business operations by monitoring, managing and troubleshooting their entire communications infrastructure as a single system. With VitalSuite 7.0, IT professionals can, for the first time, observe, understand and influence how network and application performance are supporting critical business processes, raising both the visibility and strategic value of the IT organization.
As IT grows in importance for supporting day-to-day business operations, CIOs are held accountable for improving the quality of services they deliver throughout the organization, either through internal resources or through the use of outside service providers. The growing interdependencies between network, application and business performance, however, have created highly complex environments that are tremendously difficult to manage, particularly where outside providers are used.
VitalSuite 7.0 and its newest component, VitalNet(TM) (the latest version of the successful EnterprisePRO solution), reduces this complexity and simplifies management by integrating network, application and business performance views into a single, personalized portal that shows how all three components are collaborating to support business operations. By providing a comprehensive view into how the overall enterprise is performing, VitalSuite 7.0 enables all levels of an organization -- from business executives to network managers -- to improve service level quality, identify potential problems, and better support critical business operations.
``As network, application and business performance grow more interrelated, IT professionals are seeking a new way to view and manage the enterprise that allows them to align network and application behavior with the business processes they are designed to support,' said Theo Forbath, Director of Northeast Consulting. ``VitalSuite 7.0 is the application CIOs have been waiting for -- the first solution that ties all the critical components together, drastically simplifying network performance management and delivering a powerful strategic business advantage.'
The First IT Performance Management Portal
The cornerstone of the VitalSuite 7.0 solution is My Vital, a customizable, personalized enterprise information portal that displays any combination of network, application and business performance data selected by the user. Similar to common portals that provide personalized stock, business and other types of information, VitalSuite 7.0 users can select specific performance data from the three primary VitalSuite components -- VitalNet, VitalHelp(TM) and VitalAnalysis(TM) -- and merge it all into a single, personalized display that provides a detailed window into enterprise performance.
The My Vital feature allows users to create displays that address their specific concerns and track what's most important to them. CIOs, for example, want high-level summaries of business application performance, while operations managers need highly detailed reports that measure the performance of specific network devices. Through their My Vital display, these disparate audiences can monitor and characterize any combination of network, application and user performance they prefer, at virtually any level, to provide just the information they want, when they want it.
Open, Scalable Architecture
VitalSuite 7.0 is based on an open, extensible architecture that supports a wide range of multivendor SNMP devices and off-the-shelf enterprise business applications. A powerful MIBworks framework extends VitalSuite capabilities to standard SNMP devices through the use of common MIBs, while a unique AppWorks feature provides support for custom TCP-IP-based applications.
A collaborative server architecture also enables VitalSuite 7.0 to gather performance data from multiple servers and present the results through a single interface, delivering a scalable solution that supports the largest enterprises while providing seamless integration between the network and application components. In addition to the high-level summary that My Vital offers, VitalSuite also provides additional performance details through color-coded ``heat charts' that report at a glance how network devices, networked applications, network paths and other critical parts of the enterprise are performing.
From the heat charts, users can produce increasingly detailed reports that provide even more granular information regarding the problems affecting a specific device or application. Users can generate reports that provide information related to their specific area of responsibility at whatever technical level they desire, delivering a flexible solution that meets the needs of the entire IT organization.
Validating IT's Business Importance
VitalSuite 7.0 is the first solution to address IT's new status within the corporate hierarchy. As businesses grow more dependent on technology to support their business operations, the performance of the IT infrastructure is of paramount importance. VitalSuite 7.0 allows IT professionals to monitor and manage this performance as it relates to ongoing business processes, increasing their contribution to the bottom line.
``As an enterprise network carrier that delivers single-source business communications solutions, the network is absolutely critical to running our business,' said John R. Evans, chairman and CEO of Convergent Communications. ``We need a unified solution that enables us to monitor the performance of the entire enterprise -- network, applications and business processes -- in order to understand and improve the quality of services we are delivering to our internal users as well as our customers. VitalSuite 7.0 does that, allowing us to manage and report on everything from high-level business transactions to individual devices, all from an easy to use, single interface.'
VitalSuite 7.0 also delivers a highly flexible solution that provides information tailored specifically to the individual.
``With so many people involved in maintaining the enterprise, we need a solution that allows individuals to extract only the data that is required for them to do their jobs,' said John Herrera, Senior Director of Global Networks and Operations at EMC Corp. ``VitalSuite provides that data, without a lot of distracting and unnecessary details.'
Evaluating Service Provider Performance
While the corporate enterprise constitutes the core customer base for VitalSuite, service providers are also looking to the software to monitor and measure the quality of services they deliver to their users.
``Many traditional carriers are expanding their operations by exploring new opportunities such as Internet service provider and application service provider,' said Jim Goetz, general manager of VitalSoft, a division of Lucent NetCare. ``However, many CIOs are reluctant to outsource these critical operations without some visibility into the provider's performance. VitalSuite 7.0 provides that visibility, enabling customers to determine whether service level agreements are being met and providing ISPs and ASPs with critical insight into how to improve those services.'
About VitalSuite 7.0
While the true power of VitalSuite 7.0 is the ability to integrate network, application and business performance data into a single view, the product family is composed of three distinct components -- VitalNet, VitalAnalysis and VitalHelp -- that individually offer both historical and real-time analysis of enterprise performance.
VitalNet: The VitalNet component allows users to monitor, analyze and predict the behavior of their enterprise LAN/WAN infrastructure to quickly identify and resolve performance problems, intelligently plan future growth, and efficiently allocate and optimize network resources. VitalNet provides for the reporting needs of the organization with out of the box and customizable reports that roll up all network aspects of the IT infrastructure.
VitalAnalysis: The VitalAnalysis component provides an historical overview of application performance as experienced by end users, enabling IT to monitor and verify service levels as well as identify trends that may lead to future problems. By aggregating performance data collected by VitalAgent software on user desktops, VitalAnalysis provides unprecedented insight into how applications are supporting critical business processes.
VitalHelp: The VitalHelp component provides the help desk with real-time troubleshooting capabilities by immediately reporting events and other failures detected by VitalAgent software on the desktop. Details such as the location of the problem, as well as probable causes and recommended solutions, enable the help desk to detect, isolate and resolve problems before users are aware they exist.
Pricing & Availability
VitalSuite 7.0, including VitalNet 7.0, VitalAnalysis 7.0 and VitalHelp 7.0, is available and shipping now. Pricing for the full product family begins at $44,000. |
