Riverbed Updates APM Suite for Multi-Tier Applications

Riverbed Technology has released OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5, an APM suite to help enterprises evaluate and maintain the performance of complex, multi-tier applications. In addition, it now works with popular integrated development environments such as Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse. Riverbed acquired OPNET and its technology late last year.

OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5 lets operations teams drill down from the transaction trace to the affected code so the exact transaction responsible for the poor user experience can be identified and shared with developers. It uses lightweight JavaScript to monitor the end-user experience of Web-based applications, including cloud-based applications, and records and indexes all transaction traces through its Transaction Trace Warehouse. This also allows developers and QA staff to debug new releases by understanding where code is being used and who is using it in a production environment.

Available now, OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5 also takes advantage of other Riverbed technologies such as Stingray Traffic Manager to gather information on end user experiences.

Big Switch Debuts Thin Switch for SDN

Big Switch Networks has introduced Switch Light, open source software that can be deployed as a virtual switch for server hypervisors and in merchant silicon-based hardware switches. The company said the thin switch will help enterprises avoid vendor lock-in and reduce CAPEX and OPEX. It will initially be available for a range of merchant silicon-based physical switches, such as Switch Light for Broadcom, and virtual switches – Switch Light for Linux, for example. It will be ported to other devices in the future.

Switch Light extends Big Switch's Open SDN Suite and is based on the open source Indigo Project, a sub-project within Project Floodlight. Switch Light will be available for free, and the company offers technical support and a range of services to commercial users when Switch Light is deployed with other offerings of the Big Switch Open SDN Suite, including Big Network Controller, Big Virtual Switch or Big Tap.

Switch Light will have a limited beta release in June and be generally available in the second half of 2013.

Silver Peak Accelerates Offsite Replication

Silver Peak Systems unveiled software aimed at storage professionals to accelerate offsite data replication workloads. The downloadable Silver Peak VRX-2, VRX-4 and VRX-8 products are part of the company's Velocity offering. They are designed to overcome WAN bandwidth, distance and quality challenges by replicating more data over longer distances more quickly.

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The software can be deployed into any replication environment and runs on all standard hypervisors, including VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and KVM. VRX-2 offers replication capacity of up to 60 GB/hr for $2,764/year; VRX-4 has a replication capacity of up to 300 GB/hr for $8,297 per year; and, VRX-8 has a replication capacity of up to 1.5 TB/hr for $38,731 per year.

Sendmail Offers Path to Cloud-Based Email

Sendmail is looking to help enterprises make a smooth transition to cloud-based email with a suite of services and applications that address security, compliance and risk during and after the migration, starting with its Cloud Messaging Architecture Review. This combination of tools and services delivered by Sendmail consultants evaluates an enterprise's current messaging infrastructure and plans the migration to cloud-based email.

Enterprises can then move to Sendmail's private cloud products and services for email based on its Sentrion Email Integration Platform. Sendmail's cloud offering can be custom-configured to include policies for highly regulated enterprises and can be used in conjunction with Sentrion Cloud Applications, such as email archiving, email continuity with automatic service failover and Microsoft Outlook integration, and email security.

Sendmail's Sentrion Application Store has also been updated to offer apps from Sendmail and its partners that work with the Sentrion Email Integration Platform and Sentrion Cloud Applications.