Robust network simulation technology has gone from being a "nice to have" to a "must have" as IT organizations roll out more and more increasingly complex distributed applications onto their enterprise networks. These concise, focused articles will provide you with practical information on how a virtual enterprise environment will enable you to achieve your service level objectives and significantly benefit your business.

Four Mistakes to Avoid During a Data Center or Server Move/Consolidation
 

Server consolidation and data center moves can deliver significant benefits – including cost savings, enhanced business continuity, optimized service management, and improved regulatory compliance. But the impact of this physical displacement should not be underestimated. If you don't adequately understand and address the issues that arise when you put more physical distance between users and servers, you can set yourself up for serious pain and potential failure. Read the Article

Business Needs vs. Network Performance: Critical Challenges Facing Network Managers
 

Business users don’t care how tough it is to deliver increasingly complex applications over an increasingly complex network. They expect services to be as reliable as electricity. This article explains how network managers can meet business challenges by pinpointing potential performance issues early in the development lifecycle, validating new or modified applications and infrastructure before they are deployed in production, and embracing service level assurance best practices. Read the Article

From Bandwidth Management to Bandwidth Governance
 

IT can no longer depend on "supply-side" bandwidth management alone. Demand – driven by more applications, more data and greater use – is just growing too fast. This article explains how best practices bandwidth governance actually begins well before an application is even deployed on the network. Read the Article

The Advantages of Empirical Network Modeling Over Mathematical Modeling
 

Many IT organizations rely on tools that use mathematical calculations to model the production network environment. But purely mathematical modeling is prone to error. Learn about the advantages of adopting an empirical approach that leverages input from the production network environment and live applications to drive testing scenarios. Read the Article

Avoiding VoIP Surprises with Network Emulation
 

VoIP roll-outs are often full of surprises. But with network emulation, you can accurately determine in advance how well VoIP will perform on your network, and exactly what modifications you have to make to ensure call quality. Find out how to ensure the success of your VoIP implementation with emulation technology. Read the Article

Bring Network Reality Into Development
 

When developers don’t take the production environment into account, the result is often poor application performance and reliability. This article explains how the inclusion of network realities in the development process reduces costs, accelerates time-to-benefit, improves service quality and ensures that the needs of the business are more consistently met. Read the Article

Complexity Without Risk: Why the Staging Lab is a Must-Have
 

The interaction between a drug and the complex biology of a human being is too complex to be predicted on the drawing board alone. That’s why pharmaceutical companies test new drugs with control groups. Learn how IT can take similar approach to eliminate the delays, cost over-runs and aggravation associated with the rollout of applications onto today’s complex networks. Read the Article

Eliminating the Risk of Delivering Network-Ready Applications
 

Distributed applications that look good on the developer's bench often under-perform in the production environment. These snafus delay time-to-benefit, force costly eleventh-hour coding and infrastructure changes, and undermine IT's credibility. Discover a smarter approach: pro-actively modeling the behavior of applications on the network while they’re still in development. Read the Article

Ensuring the Success of 2.5G and 3G Service Delivery
 

To ensure the success of their 2.5G and 3G services, mobile providers must ensure their reliability over complex, idiosyncratic mobile networks. That’s why it’s absolutely critical for mobile providers to validate the performance of these services before they roll them out to customers. Click here to see how they can fulfill this essential market requirement. Read the Article