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Up to the test: Chris Odell guides fluke networks in delivering network analysis tools - Cover Story

Communications News, May, 2002 by Ray Peckham

The diverse mix of protocols and applications that have converged onto switched IP networks make the challenge of configuring, optimizing and troubleshooting an enterprise network an increasingly daunting task. By providing easy-to-use tools to locate problems quickly and help assure quality of service, Fluke Networks and its president, Chris Odell, are helping network administrators rise to the challenge.

Until May of 2000, Fluke Networks existed as a division of Everett, WA-based Fluke Corp. Now, the networking division is a stand-alone entity, delivering test tools that increase productivity and allow lesser-skilled technicians to more easily troubleshoot networks. The company has built an expansive line of hand-held testing tools to do just that, both through innovative internal research and through an aggressive acquisition strategy.

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According to Odell, in an economy where increased productivity and the shortage of personnel are key concerns, ease-of-use is on the minds of managers everywhere. "Organizations are being forced to get more out of their current investment," he says. "The days are gone where, without much question, you deploy new technologies or continue to increase bandwidth. You are really forced to tune and optimize your network.

"In that organizational environment, where you have less people than you had before, you have to make people more effective. You need to be able to rely on people with less experience or skill level. That is where our solutions play well, allowing an engineer to drive down responsibility of the more simple network issues."

Those solutions include: the OneTouch series of network assistants and the NetTool connectivity tester for frontline network troubleshooting; the DSP CableAnalyzer and the OMNIScanner series of copper-plus-fiber, cable-certification tools; a line of standalone fiber test, inspection and certification tools for the premise; and MicroTools, a new line of verification solutions targeting voice, data and video installations.

Beyond hand-held testers and analyzers, Fluke Networks also offers OptiView, a system that integrates a scalable line of portable and distributed software and hardware network analyzers for 10/100/Gigabit Ethernet networks into a solution that consolidates remote network data into a central database. It allows traffic to be analyzed throughout switched networks and gives technicians the ability to see topography and traffic details remotely. According to Odell, this product, in particular, saw substantial growth in 2001.

SWITCHED NETWORK CHALLENGES

Odell says the introduction of switches into corporate networks made significant improvements in network capacity and reliability, but created problems in troubleshooting by less-skilled employees.

"I don't think network engineers really had a clue how things were going to change when they deployed switches," says Odell. "It was a great idea--segment the network, no single piece was going to cause an overall failure--but from day one it reduced their visibility of what was going on dramatically. Our solutions open up that visibility."

This was the case for Michael Kerrick, senior network engineer for Expedia.com, an online travel service, when he was setting up a virtual private network at a remote office. "We had problems with network traffic not getting through. We used a traditional protocol analyzer as our troubleshooting tool, and it worked fairly well. But this tool has the major disadvantage that it only analyzes traffic on the box on which it is installed. So, it has to be installed on every server, requiring a reboot, which is out of the question in a production e-commerce shop."

Using Fluke Networks' OptiView product, Kerrick was able to see the network without interrupting traffic. "The integrated analyzer provides a standalone solution that doesn't have to be installed anywhere, and can view traffic throughout the network from a single location using its built-in RMON (remote monitoring) and SNMP (signaling network management protocol) probes. It also automatically configures itself, including selecting an appropriate IP address and subnet mask, which allows me to have a `virtual presence' anywhere on the network.

"OptiView has dramatically improved the speed at which we can troubleshoot networking problems, because it combines all of the most important tools in a single instrument," he says. "For example, not long ago, a user complained that it took 16 hours to transfer a very large file over the network. The network analyzer that I used in the past would have uncovered this problem, but it would have taken a while. Instead, I connected the integrated analyzer and let it go through its auto-discovery process. I had the problem diagnosed and solved in less than one hour."

Similar time savings also make a difference for Bill Wester, corporate systems engineering manager for Extreme Networks. Extreme uses Fluke Networks' tools for identifying and fixing networking problems at customers' facilities. Customer problems related to connecting through one of Extreme's boxes are often tied with configuration issues on their networks. As a result, the majority of systems engineers' time is spent checking the configuration of client machines, servers, switches, routers and cable connectivity.

Technology Industry

Up to the test: Chris Odell guides fluke networks in delivering network analysis tools - Cover Story

Communications News, May, 2002 by Ray Peckham

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