Ethniks Systems, supplier of Packeteer products in Southern Africa, provides solutions to organisations with bandwidth shortages. PacketShaper is an intelligent bandwidth manager that allocates network bandwidth to business-critical applications, while controlling non-critical applications. This allows network managers to guarantee the performance of critical or interactive traffic, while limiting less urgent traffic.
Kevin Greig, Marketing Director at Ethniks Systems, says, "Unpredictable network performance is bad for business. Mission-critical applications compete with less urgent traffic for limited bandwidth. Large emails and Web browsing swamp critical business application, like Oracle or SAP, traffic. PacketShaper is an application-adaptive bandwidth-management solution that allocates WAN bandwidth to business-critical applications while limiting non-critical, bandwidth-hungry applications. Intelligent bandwidth management is a multi-step process, and PacketShaper offers a rich feature set for each step. It detects and classifies network traffic, analyses traffic behaviour, offers policy-based bandwidth allocation, and provides network reports".
"Some organisations experience `time-out` problems. The solution is simple when PacketShaper is installed. It provides the ability to allocate and prioritise traffic according to the business policy. In some cases, it has been proven that 256K bandwidth can effectively be reduced to 128K or even 64K to fully utilise Packeteer`s bandwidth management functionality," says Riaan Botha, Senior Sales Consultant at Ethniks Systems.
"PacketShaper automatically detects over 150 types of traffic, and you can supply additional criteria to differentiate even more categories. You can categorise traffic by application, service, protocol, port number, URL or wildcard (for Web traffic), host name, precedence bits, and IP or MAC address. It also checks traffic from level 2, of the OSI model, up to level 7 and within level 7," adds Botha.
"Each traffic category maps to a specific bandwidth-allocation policy ensuring that each traffic type receives an appropriate slice. A partition creates a virtual separate pipe for one type of traffic. You specify the size of the reserved link, choose if it can grow, and optionally cap its growth. For example, a partition for SNA would be protected from any bandwidth hungry protocol. Rate policies limit or guarantee bandwidth to each individual flow, keeping greedy traffic in line or protecting latency-sensitive flows. For example, a bandwidth cap for HTTP would keep Web browsers from siphoning others` bandwidth. And a guaranteed rate for audio or video streams would prevent annoying jitter," explains Botha.
Partitions and policies always lend their unused bandwidth. PacketShaper`s TCP Rate Control overcomes TCP`s shortcomings, proactively preventing congestion. PacketShaper eliminates unnecessary packet discards and retransmissions, forcing a smooth, even flow rate that maximises throughput. Whereas queuing technologies affect only outbound traffic, Rate Control optimises inbound and outbound flows.
Network administrators must analyse traffic patterns both before establishing a bandwidth-management strategy and afterwards to measure its success. PacketShaper tracks average and peak traffic levels, calculates the percentage of your bandwidth that is wasted on retransmissions, highlights top users and applications, and measures performance. PacketShaper`s high-level network summary and 16 context-specific reports provide easy access to network trends.
PacketShaper sits at network bottlenecks, usually between the WAN access router and an Ethernet LAN. It integrates smoothly with existing networks and requires no new protocols, no router reconfiguration, no topology changes, and no desktop changes.
It is not a point of network failure. If PacketShaper goes down or is turned off, it acts just like a piece of cable. An easy Web-based interface brings PacketShaper to any desktop with a Web browser. No special steps are needed for PacketShaper to identify your network traffic and measure response times automatically. PacketShaper`s Suggested Policies complement automatic application discovery to provide out-of-the-box policy-based management strategies.
The Packeteer PolicyConsole is an easy-to-use Web browser interface that enables network managers with a password to configure, control, and monitor the PacketShaper from anywhere via a network connection.
Packeteer offers three PacketShaper models to fit a variety of environments. PacketShaper 1000 manages WAN connections for branch offices and remote sites with WAN links up to 384 Kbps on 10 Mbps LANs. PacketShaper 2000 manages T1 WAN links on 10 Mbps LANs. PacketShaper 4000 is the solution for T3 WAN links on 10 or 100 Mbps LANs.
Parastatals and government agencies may contact Riaan Botha from Ethniks Systems at 083 306 5498 for a consultation on any bandwidth headaches.
Share
Ethniks Systems
Ethniks Systems is a group of independent local companies involved in the design, supply, installation and support of the highest quality computer and networking solutions.
The Group is active throughout Southern Africa but has particular focus on the Northern Province and Gauteng. The business unit servicing the Gauteng Province is however developing at an accelerated pace.
The Group is a accredited at the highest level by the leading manufacturers of hardware and software such as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft & Novell. These partnerships with the principal suppliers ensure that we can offer our customers professional advice on the trend setting advancements in Information Technology.
The Company`s focus on employee development has resulted in a group of highly skilled, qualified and motivated people who form a valuable resource to our client base. The Ethniks Systems Group of companies currently has a staff complement of 62 people. The Group prides itself in rendering excellent service levels and is capable of guaranteed backup and support 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.