NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT), the industry pacesetter for advanced network and service assurance solutions, has recently announced that a recent customer survey revealed the nGenius® Performance Management System has cut network performance problem diagnosis times by nearly 70 percent. Users reported that problem diagnosis took an average of 9.1 hours with other tools and approaches, and an average of 2.8 hours once the nGenius® System was deployed.

The survey data further revealed that network managers experience a threefold increase in the number of diagnoses possible within the first three hours; 26 percent of all problems were diagnosed in this critical window before the nGenius System was deployed versus 77 percent afterwards. Driving this rapid resolution is NetScout’s “KPI to Flow to Packet” approach, which enables IT operators to see a key performance indicator (KPI), then easily and rapidly drill down to conversation and flow details and then to packet sequences – as far as they need to diagnose the problem. Other solutions force the user to select a time frame first and then iteratively sift through packets analyses—a much more time-consuming, bandwidth-demanding, and error-prone approach.

The Next Challenge: Early Warnings to Prevent Angry End-User Calls
The study, which polled 284 NetScout users and was completed in April, also revealed room for improvement: 75.9 percent of IT managers said a primary source of performance problem information is the irritated end-user who calls the help desk. NetScout is working to reduce this source of network-management pain, with nGenius® Analytics 1.2 (see related announcement: “NetScout Moves the Industry Towards Proactive Network Management With Major Enhancements to its Early-Warning System for Application Performance and VoIP Assurance”). An early warning system, nGenius Analytics 1.2 aims to achieve diagnostic velocity so that performance degradations are identified and corrected before end users are impacted.

Other key findings within the survey include:

• QoS usage is on the rise. Eighty-three percent of the organizations reported that they have either already implemented QoS policies or plan to do so in the next 12 months. More than one third (36.4 percent) said the primary reason to implement QoS was to support VoIP traffic. nGenius Analytics 1.2 specifically addresses VoIP quality metrics by monitoring jitter from passive VoIP monitoring. Another third (31.8 percent) said they made the decision to implement QoS either as part of a WAN services offering or to support VoIP on an MPLS WAN.

• Twenty-three percent of customers have a management by objectives (MBO) directive on Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). A comparison of NetScout customer survey data from January 2006 to March 2007 shows that grew from 6.3 percent, a stunning 272 percent increase in slightly more than a year’s time. The increase in MBO rates shows that more network managers are being asked to formally report on their ability to address performance problems and therefore need reliable reporting functions such as those provided by the nGenius System.

• More than 25 percent of network managers view the relationship between the applications and network groups as “slightly or moderately adversarial” within their organizations. The nGenius System is a collaborative solution for problem identification when various IT groups within an organization meet to discuss performance issues.

“NetScout’s customers are experiencing dramatic improvements in shaving the time spent diagnosing problems, and the advanced Analytics announcement we are making today shows our continued commitment to improving diagnostic velocity,” said Jim Frey, NetScout’s Vice President of Marketing. “As our customers have cited, this advanced automated performance monitoring technology is working, and giving network managers a major head start in preventing or resolving network disruptions, – not to mention assuring VoIP call quality – leading to significantly reduced MTTR.”

About NetScout Systems
NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT) has been the industry pacesetter for advanced network and service assurance solutions for over a decade, and counts the world’s largest enterprises, government agencies, and service providers among its customers. Enterprise and government IT organizations deploy NetScout’s nGenius® Performance Management System to increase service levels to their users by reducing or preventing service disruptions. Service providers depend on NetScout’s proven IP performance management technology and expertise to protect the quality of their customers’ experience with IP-based services. NetScout is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts and has offices worldwide. Further information is available at http://www.netscout.com.

NetScout and the NetScout logo, nGenius, and Quantiva are registered trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. The CDM logo, MasterCare, Progressive Analytics and the MasterCare logo, are trademarks of NetScout Systems, Inc. Other brands, product names and trademarks are property of their respective owners. NetScout reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to make changes at any time in its technical information and specifications, and service and support programs.