As the networking landscape gets more complex through the addition of remote computing, WiFi, cloud computing and virtualization, it is becoming more of a challenge to determine who is using what services and how much aggregate bandwidth they are consuming. Moreover as the need for ever-more bandwidth shows no sign of slowing, companies need to ensure they have an adequate way of charging departments for their bandwidth usage.
One company looking to fill the void is eTelemetry whose self-described goal is to extract real-time business information from network activity. I recently sat down with Ermis Sfakiyanudis CEO & President and Jennifer Silate - Marketing Manager of the company to learn about their products.
To get started I should introduce Metron to you - it is a 1-2U (depending on model) rack-mounted device which monitors and manages bandwidth usage, time spent surfing and chatting by department. Other nifty features include the ability to track computers powered on during off-hours and the ever-important alerts you need to be sent when an employee uses Remote Desktop (if they aren't supposed to of course) or if they exceed their time or bandwidth allotment, etc.
In my conversation I learned the company now has the ability to track virtualization on the desktop allowing network managers to monitor the bandwidth use and websites visited by virtual instances on devices/computers on the network.
The company has technology which maps IP addresses to users meaning their products can help you get a better indication of who is doing what with networking resources. As you might imagine this technology can be important in helping companies track who is using what cloud computing services as well. Another logical area for the company to play in is E911 where the company's Locate911 product helps companies figure out where VoIP callers on the IP network are.
It is obvious that as networks get more complex, the ability to track usage across virtual sessions will only increase. Moreover, we can't expect E911 on enterprise VoIP networks to become less important. To that end, the company seems like it is solving some important networking problems which will only become more important over time.
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