Free Service Analyzes Packet Traffic Offline

Being demonstrated at Interop today, the Network TimeOut service is a Web-based implementation of packet analyzer software that ExtraHop Networks developed as part of its Application Delivery Assurance system.

ExtraHop Networks CEO Jesse Rothstein says he see little value in charging customers for analyzing packets offline in an age when there are a variety of open source tools that do the same thing. But ExtraHop Networks does see value in saving potential customers the hassle of having to deploy such software by making its own packet analyzer technology available as a free service that introduces potential customers to the larger potential of the company’s application management platform.

As application management continues to spiral out of control thanks to the advent of virtualization and the proliferation of latency-sensitive application, Rothstein says what most IT organizations really need is real-time visibility into application performance at the Layer 7 level. That capability is a crucial requirement that companies will find worth paying for, he said, in contrast to off-line packet analyzers that have essentially becomes free tools.

In addition to providing the free service, ExtraHop Networks also plans to organize a mutually supportive online capability around the Web service.