NetScout\'s Performance Management Solution.

1. “For us, learning about a quality-of-
service problem from a customer
complaint is unacceptable. With
NetScout, we know it first.”
VP and CIO of
Grange Mutual Insurance
Performance Manager
Performance Manager
Introduction
In today’s enterprise, the reliability and performance of the IT infrastructure directly
impacts business success. Networks carry time-sensitive financial transactions,
lifesaving patient records, and valuable manufacturing orders. Network outages or
application degradations often result in financial loss, delays in treatments, or customer
dissatisfaction. Many Global 1000 manufacturing, banking, insurance, retail, energy,
and healthcare organizations, as well as government agencies and service providers,
have turned to NetScout to help restore network services across their enterprise.
Comprehensive Performance Management using the
KPI-to-Flow-to-Packet Approach
NetScout’s nGenius Performance Management System leverages deep packet
inspection technology to deliver complete visibility into real-time, operational
intelligence that spans high-level key performance indicators (KPIs) and early warning
signs all the way down to the actual packets. Consequently, the nGenius Performance
Management System provides an easy pathway to progressively and contextually drill
down from KPIs such as response time or errors, to application flow data such as
utilization, conversations or top talkers, and then to packet-level details. The value of
this top-down, KPI-to-Flow-to-Packet approach lies in its ability to progressively and
contextually guide the troubleshooting process, reducing the time it takes to identify,
analyze, diagnose and resolve network and application performance problems and
restore essential business services.
The Solution is nGenius. The Result is Performance,
Productivity and Control.
nGenius Performance Manager cuts through network intricacies by providing a
seamless, cohesive view into the many applications and technologies that comprise
your business services. NetScout simplifies your management environment by offering
a highly scalable application designed specifically to cover the key components of
performance management:
• application monitoring
• network monitoring
• capacity planning
The entire IT department can work from the same repository of real-time and historical
information in order to operate more collaboratively, efficiently, and productively than
ever before. From business to technical, traffic engineering to troubleshooting, network
to application, executive summaries to granular details, nGenius Performance Manager
has the breadth, depth, and scalability to serve all your performance management
needs. The end result is an increased quality of the network services delivered to end
users.
Highlights
Proactive detection
Proactively detect application performance
degradations and receive early warning of
problems before they affect end users
Reduce MTTR
Top-down, KPI-Flow-Packet workflow
streamlines troubleshooting to resolve
problems faster and more efficiently
Increase IT productivity
At-a-glance status of application services
health speeds diagnosis of the where,
what & why of a problem
Enhance collaboration
Improves collaboration by unifying all
essential performance management
functionalities in a single product
Improve business productivity
Keeps critical business processes running
at peak efficiency to reduce business risk
• application profiling & response time analysis
• network convergence
• troubleshooting

2. nGenius provides high-level and granular information on network traffic. Navigate from key performance
indicators (KPIs) to application flow-based metrics down into packet details seamlessly and contextually.
Application Monitoring
Justifying network decisions
in business terms
Because networked applications are
the foundation of today’s business,
any network decisions you make have
significant implications for the entire
organization and must be justified to
senior managers and executives in a way
they understand. Therefore, you need
visibility into the many different application
types running on your network, including
well-known, custom, Web-based, complex
(e.g., SAP/R3, Citrix), and next-generation
communication applications (e.g., VoIP,
video, instant messaging, peer-to-peer).
nGenius Performance Manager provides
the broadest application visibility available
today by identifying how applications are
being used, who is using them, and how
they impact total network performance.
With the nGenius Solution you can
immediately discover activity associated
with new applications, unauthorized
peer-to-peer use, or potentially harmful
viruses. More importantly, when creating
policies or building a case for budget
increases, you can easily produce reports
demonstrating application usage that
provide the quantifiable proof needed to
gain executive support.
“Without a doubt, NetScout provides
the most complete picture for
diagnosing networked application
performance.”
Sr. Manager of
Network Operations, US Airways
Network Monitoring
Addressing complex,
global infrastructures
Gaining visibility across many disparate
technologies can be overwhelming. To
see all the infrastructure, connections,
segments, circuits, etc., you need a
comprehensive solution that recognizes
information regardless of data source, time
frame, geography, or underlying network
technology – one that doesn’t require
multiple performance management
applications.
nGenius Performance Manager gives
you an accurate view of how applications
flow through the infrastructure, mirroring
physical and logical network architecture
in order to deliver information that reflects
your organization. The nGenius Solution,
based on CDM Architecture, was designed
for extensibility. It monitors traditional
topologies (Ethernet, Frame Relay, ATM),
their virtual segments (VLANs, DLCIs,
PVCs), and also addresses greater com-
plexity, such as load-balanced configura-
tions, redundant segments, and 10G,
QoS, MPLS, VPNs and other encrypted
services. Where nGenius Performance
Manager provides options for monitoring
network traffic in the core, distribution and
access areas, you can effectively track
and manage network services around the
globe, wherever it is needed.
“The nGenius System gives us the
visibility we need to serve our user base
and keep mission-critical business
functions running at high efficiency.”
Senior network engineer, CN
Capacity Planning
Proactively combating
network congestion
Many factors affect the growth of
network traffic including new initiatives,
new application implementations, and
even use of recreational applications like
streaming radio. With the persistent use
of bandwidth-hungry applications comes
the increased probability of network
congestion, creating a significant risk to
business processes. Even a short delay
can result in negative consequences. For
example, a delay in trades at a brokerage
firm may result in a loss of millions of
dollars, or at a hospital the slow delivery of
an MRI record can delay patient treatment.
With nGenius Performance Manager you
can analyze growth trends, usage patterns
and threshold violations in order to make
informed decisions about increasing band-
width, rescheduling activities, reallocating
traffic, or even creating usage policies. In
addition to baselines and forecasts that
show you when and where bandwidth will
run out, nGenius Performance Manager
goes beyond basic utilization to identify
which applications consume bandwidth. In
short, the nGenius Solution provides the
validation for capacity planning decisions.
“We know that users will always find
a way to consume all the bandwidth
that’s available, but with the nGenius
Solution we can keep an eye on what’s
happening and make sure critical
applications are functioning properly.”
Director of network and infrastructure,
a New England College

3. Reduce the effort necessary to interpret pertinent information. Quickly diagnose problems by displaying
any application, metric,segment or data source side-by-side and easily turn the Workspace into an
on-demand report to annotate and share with colleagues or management.
Streamlined Troubleshooting
Restoring service quickly,
effectively
When the network is plagued by
degradations, it is essential to learn about
any issues before users start calling the
help desk, and re-establish service as
quickly as possible so that operations are
not affected. By monitoring and alerting
on key performance indicators such as
responsiveness, packet loss or errors, the
nGenius Solution provides early indication
of problems, allowing IT to get a jumpstart
on troubleshooting. NetScout’s KPI-to-
Flow-to-Packet approach provides an
easy pathway to contextually drill down to
the required level of information needed to
restore service.
nGenius Performance Manager allows you
to create Workspaces where you can view
the exact metrics, applications, locations,
users, and time frames to solve problems.
These Workspaces speed troubleshooting
by providing single-screen access to
network-wide views and intuitive drill
downs to rich, high-definition information.
With minimal effort, you can move from
a proactive alarm to a real-time view of
all contributing applications, users, and
conversations, or go directly into sub-
second details and packet analysis.
“NetScout’s nGenius AFMon has
dramatically sped up our troubleshoot-
ing process. Troubleshooting that used
to take 20 minutes to do now takes only
two minutes.”
Senior Network Monitoring
Tools Engineer, Johnson Controls
Application Profiling &
Response Time Analysis
Understanding the end users’
experience
Every organization needs to understand
the behavior of critical services and
applications in order to detect and remedy
developing issues so they don’t become
productivity- or revenue-impacting
problems. Application response time,
volume and patterns of distribution all
need to be examined in order to keep
operations running smoothly.
nGenius Performance Manager presents
concrete evidence on the successful
delivery of each critical application and its
impact on the infrastructure, helping you
quickly address issues impacting service
delivery. By evaluating application behavior
in context with other network activity,
you gain insight on when, where and why
application response degrades, or can
quantify the impact of each application on
the network and on one another in order
to optimize the flow of applications and
services on your global network.
“SAP is the backbone of PolyOne, al-
lowing us to take, make, ship, and bill
orders, and if we miss any one of these
steps because our network is down
or congested, that is a direct, nega-
tive impact on our business. NetScout
helps us ensure the efficient delivery of
business services 24 hours a day.”
Enterprise Network Manager,
PolyOne
Network Convergence
Assessing the impact of real-
time converged applications
Existing IP networks were built for delay-
tolerant applications. But when coexisting
on a shared data network, real-time voice
becomes subject to the highs and lows
of a constantly changing environment.
You need intelligence to manage latency-
sensitive VoIP or video in concert with
the other application services and the
networks they travel over.
nGenius Performance Manager monitors
and reports on voice, video and data
applications in converged environments,
placing them in context with one another.
It tracks VoIP-related protocols, (e.g., RTP,
SIP, MGCP) and call quality metrics (e.g.,
jitter, packet loss, MOS) and displays
them along side key data applications,
helping you to optimize voice quality
while simultaneously protecting against
application degradations. With the breadth
of functionality in nGenius you can achieve
optimized performance of both data
applications and voice services.
“We have VoIP, PACs and EMRs. We
have medical devices, streaming
video and new users coming on to
the network, plus we have substantial
growth in our wireless usage. NetScout
allows us to see what traffic is coming
across.”
Network Manager,
Denver Health

4. Example metrics Questions answered
KPI Application response
time, errors, packet loss,
VoIP quality
“How fast is each application
running?”
“Is that response time acceptable?”
“Are there any errors for that
application or network area?”
“What is the success rate?”
“Is voice quality acceptable?”
Flow Conversations, utilization,
top talkers, volume, worst
performing, etc.
“What are the worst performing
links? Applications? Servers?”
“Who is using the application?”
“How does this new application roll
out affect bandwidth?
Packet Bounce charts, packet
decodes, call trace, etc.
“What was the conversation
exchange for SAP on the WAN last
Tuesday?”
“Why does the Web experience
problems only intermittently?
“How do I troubleshoot multi-tier
applications?”
nGenius Performance Manager
Comprehensive Performance Management
nGenius Performance Manager is a highly-scalable network and application
performance management solution designed to help you minimize service disruptions
due to performance problems on complex, global networks. It provides the early
warnings and in-depth visibility you urgently need to evaluate and troubleshoot
network and application performance issues and ultimately reduce MTTR.
The real-time and historical reporting opens a window into how the business,
government agency, or service provider subscriber uses the network and reveals
the interrelationship of the many applications and end users across the network.
Functionality within nGenius Performance Manager is applicable to multiple areas
within an IT organization, allowing you to rapidly troubleshoot performance problems,
proactively manage network capacity, and easily monitor network services and
application performance in real time.
About NetScout Systems
NetScout Systems provides advanced
network and application service
assurance solutions that deliver
complete visibility into real-time, packet/
flow-based operational intelligence.
IT operators at the world’s largest
enterprises, government agencies,
and service providers use the Sniffer
and nGenius solutions to troubleshoot
service degradations faster and more
efficiently in order to reduce MTTR.
Our world-renowned Sniffer and
nGenius solutions include:
n Intelligent Data Sources for high
capacity, deep-packet recording
and monitoring
n Analysis Software for real-time
and historical network and
application performance
management, troubleshooting,
capacity planning, and reporting
n Advanced Intelligence for early
detection and in-depth analysis of
complex or specialized application
services
n Comprehensive, global support,
consulting and training services
Corporate Headquarters
310 Littleton Road
Westford, MA 01886-4105
Phone: 978-614-4000
Toll Free: 888-999-5946
www.netscout.com
European Headquarters
NetScout Systems (UK) Ltd.
100 Pall Mall
London SW1Y 5HP
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)20 7321 5660
Asia/Pacific Headquarters
Room 105, 17F/B, No. 167
TunHwa N. Road
Taipei, Taiwan
Phone: +886 2 2717 1999
www.netscout.cn
©2008 NetScout Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
NetScout, the NetScout logo, Network General, the
Network General logo, nGenius, Sniffer, InfiniStream,
Business Container, Business Forensics, NetVigil and
Quantiva are trademarks or registered 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.
PM0908_01revB
2008-09-22