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PACKET
DESIGN'S ROUTE EXPLORER NOW AVAILABLE
AS DISTRIBUTED, MULTI-APPLIANCE SOLUTION
Distributed Architecture Ensures Management Data Continuity
Lets Users Tailor Deployments Along Organizational Lines
PALO ALTO, Calif., March 12, 2007 – Packet Design's Route Explorer, the only network management tool able to let users visualize, monitor and analyze an IP network's routing operations, now supports a distributed architecture that ensures the continuous availability of management data and provides more deployment options for dispersed or hierarchical organizations.
Route Explorer, which Packet Design has sold since 2003 as a single-appliance route analytics solution, is now optionally available in a two-tier architecture. The new Distributed Route Explorer is broken out functionally into Route Recorders, which monitor, record and alert on routing events from distinct network regions; and Modeling Engines, which synthesize topology views from the various Route Recorders and provide a centralized user interface for interactive, network-wide analysis and modeling. The new separate appliances work seamlessly with the original Route Explorer and with Packet Design's Traffic Explorer, which integrates traffic-flow information with the routing data.
Because the route-recording function, which listens to protocol "conversations" and logs all routing events, can now be separated from the user analysis function and placed in each local network domain, a link failure that severs the connection between the central Modeling Engine and a given domain will not disrupt the collection of routing data in that domain. Local recording continues and, when connectivity and visibility are restored, the routing history is resynchronized to enable forensic analysis across the entire network. This is valuable to large enterprises and service providers, where contiguous availability of network data is critical to maintaining operations or meeting customer service-level agreements.
Putting Route Analytics Functionality Where Its Needed
Jeff Raice, executive vice president of marketing and business development, said, "Distributed Route Explorer is a response to requests from our customers with the largest, most dispersed organizations to deploy different levels of route analytics functionality exactly where they need it. For example, Route Recorders can be deployed to monitor remote network locations that have no IT personnel, while original integrated Route Explorers can be set up at sites with IT staff to provide local visibility. From company headquarters, a Modeling Engine in the network operations center [NOC] can access all of these units remotely and create a unified global view, allowing IT staff to monitor and analyze the entire network. This combination provides the ultimate flexibility for organizations that operate on a 'follow the sun' model, where the network management function may move to different NOCs around the globe depending on the time of day."
The distributed architecture is also useful in environments where GRE (generic routing encapsulation) tunnels are unavailable or prohibited by company policy, with Route Recorders offering a more secure means of moving routing information across network area boundaries.
How Distributed Route Explorer Works
Route Recorders record all routing activity in individual routing domains such as protocol areas or autonomous systems, both archiving the local data and forwarding it to a central Modeling Engine; domain-specific alerts can be set and generated by the Recorders and sent to a regional NOC. On receiving the data from Route Recorders and integrated Route Explorers, the Modeling Engine synthesizes the various routing topologies into a unified network-wide view, creating reports and alerts on routing activity across multiple areas. The Modeling Engine also provides a central configuration facility for the distributed appliances, as well as central archiving for easy retrieval of network-wide data.
While a typical Distributed Route Explorer configuration consists of one Modeling Engine and multiple Route Recorders, additional Modeling Engines can be deployed to support more users (five users per unit). In addition, organizations with requirements for monitoring redundancy can deploy multiple Route Recorders in a single network area.
Pricing and Availability
Distributed Route Explorer is available immediately. An example configuration, including one Modeling Engine, two Route Recorders and support for one routing protocol (EIGRP, OSPF or IS-IS) and up to 50 routers, is priced at $60,000 (U.S. list). Distributed Route Explorer (and the use of original Route Explorers in a distributed environment) requires Packet Design's latest software release, Route Explorer 5.0.
About Packet Design, Inc.
Packet Design, Inc., pioneered the field of route analytics and is the leading supplier of network appliances that provide routing-layer visibility into IP networks. The company's flagship products are Route Explorer, which creates an accurate layer 3 topology map and analyzes routing events to let network engineers quickly pinpoint and resolve routing and other network problems; and Traffic Explorer, which integrates traffic-flow information with real-time routing data to provide the first end-to-end, "topology-aware" view of network traffic. Packet Design products today help manage networks in global enterprises – including financial, retail and pharmaceutical firms – as well as educational institutions, government agencies, and the world's largest service providers.
Packet Design, Inc., was spun out in March 2003 from Packet Design, LLC, the fourth networking company started by entrepreneurs Judy Estrin and Bill Carrico, who previously founded Bridge Communications, Network Computing Devices and Precept Software. For more information, visit http://www.packetdesign.com.
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