Business Visibility? software, today announced that Northwestern University
(Evanston, IL) is the first organization to use Fidelia NetVigil? to
monitor its campus-wide WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) network. Northwestern is
using NetVigil to monitor over 150 wireless access points that provide
connectivity for users in university common areas. NetVigil provides
integrated fault and performance monitoring of applications, networks,
servers/systems and user-defined data sources.
Wireless access is becoming an important component of many organizations?
networking and business strategies,? said David Woodall, president and CEO
of Fidelia. ?The result is that wireless switches are becoming a growing
part of their core infrastructures. IT managers need tools, such as
NetVigil, that allow them to monitor these devices as part of an integrated
fault and performance monitoring approach. We?re pleased that Fidelia is
able to add value to Northwestern University?s initial NetVigil investment
by monitoring their WiFi equipment.
NetVigil monitors standard performance metrics for wireless access points,
such as bandwidth utilization, traffic rate, errors, and collisions on
network ports. Also, NetVigil can monitor wireless-specific metrics, such
as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) enabling, errors related to invalid WEP
keys and SSIDs (service set identifiers), transmission power levels, and
wireless antenna status. Monitoring can be extended easily to include
signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, number of associated nodes,
authentication failure rate, and others.
Northwestern University is using NetVigil to monitor performance and
utilization of its distributed wireless access points. In addition to
providing event notification, NetVigil assists the IT department with
capacity planning for its wireless infrastructure. The university initially
installed NetVigil to monitor switching (layer 2) and routing (layer 3)
functions on its 25 Cisco 6509 switches and to collect information on
approximately 2,000 network servers and other devices that comprise its
campus infrastructure.
The wireless network augments our existing wired infrastructure. It?s
installed in locations that aren?t conducive to wired ports,? said Chris
Fabri, network engineer at Northwestern University. ?Using NetVigil allows
us to easily monitor under and over utilization so we can make sure we
place WiFi equipment where it?s needed most, for example, at the Kellogg
School of Management where students work collaboratively on a lot of
projects.
Fidelia recently announced NetVigil v3.5 with innovations that include the
ability to build nested containers and the flexibility to quickly drill
down through the service hierarchy to view the real-time status of the
underlying infrastructure. Wireless managers can employ this functionality
to group wireless tests in a manner relevant to their view of the service
delivery, allowing them to easily determine when wireless services are
affected and where problems occur.
One of the things that appealed to us was NetVigil?s ability to group
devices into containers so that individual departments can have visibility
into how their portion of the network is performing,? said Dave Carr,
director, IT-Telecommunications and Network Services, Northwestern
University. ?NetVigil?s ability to scale and its flexibility have allowed
us to extend our existing NetVigil implementation to monitor our wireless
access points. This reduces our total cost of ownership and makes
management of the overall network easier.
META Group research indicates that wireless and mobile transactions account
for nearly 20% of business-to-business transaction volume and 25% of
business-to-consumer traffic. According to the research firm, 75% of Global
2000 firms will test wireless LANs by the end of this year and 90% will go
into production deployment by 2005/06. ?As mobile and remote computing
becomes more prevalent through 2004, IT organizations will have to find
ways to manage and support new wireless infrastructures while minimizing
the costs of doing so,? said Michele Hudnall, senior research analyst, META
Group, Inc.
NetVigil is affordably priced for mid-tier enterprises, but scalable enough
for Fortune 500 organizations. Licenses for NetVigil start at $40,000, with
an average price of approximately $80,000. To date, Fidelia has filed for
four patents on the NetVigil intellectual property.NetVigil runs under
Solaris, Linux and Windows.
About Fidelia® Technology, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Fidelia Technology, Inc. is a privately held,
venture-funded software company. Fidelia’s flagship NetVigil solution,
officially launched in summer 2002, is a breakthrough IT infrastructure
monitoring application that provides real-time visibility into the
performance of the overall business.Customers benefiting from NetVigil’s
business containers include Sony Online Entertainment, Spirit Airlines,
eBenX and Yale University.At the 2003 New Jersey Technology Council Venture
Capital Fair, Fidelia was awarded the top prize as the company most capable
of fulfilling extraordinary potential in a promising marketplace.
Fidelia is headquartered at 300 Alexander Park, Suite 205, Princeton, NJ
08543; Tel: 609-452-2225. Fax: 609-452-2662.The NetVigil demo and software
download are located at www.fidelia.com. Send information requests to
info@fidelia.com.
Fidelia, the Fidelia logo, and Fidelia NetVigil are trademarks of Fidelia
Technology. Other trademarks and brands in this document are the properties
of their respective owners.
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