Fluke rolls application performance and network monitoring into 1 box

Fluke Networks is announcing an appliance called Visual TruView at Cisco Live today that combines network and application performance management into a single rack-mounted unit.

According to the company, known best for its network testing gear, the aim with TruView is to eliminate the need for network engineers to coordinate troubleshooting and monitoring across a wide array of different systems all at the same time.

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"Traditionally, IT organizations are very siloed. There's a network team, there's an application team, there's a servers team, there's a security team, a Windows team and on, and on, and on," Daryle DeBalski, Fluke Networks vice president and general manager, told Network World.

However, he notes, "usually when there's a problem it lands on the network guy."

TruView's main dashboard allows that hardworking network guy or gal to slice and dice a wide array of data types in order to get to the root of a problem more quickly.

"Imagine if somebody tried to convince you that carrying around a GPS and a camera and a phone was as good as carrying a smartphone," DeBalski says.

Fluke also boasts that the hardware packs more than 2.5 times as much computing horsepower than any competitor, and that the system can be set up in around 15 minutes, thanks to automated identification and configuration of network components.

The entry-level version of the device -- the TruView 2200 -- starts at $25,000. That buys a 1U system that can stream to disc at 2Gbps, and store 2TB of data. Prices can range up to $100,000 for top-end models.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

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