At Interop this year, I have the opportunity to speak with a number of key industry players, including Steve Shalita, VP Marketing with NetScout. Shalita visited the TMCnet media booth for an interview captured in this video. NetScout was an interesting interview, simply because this company worked to help put together the necessary network to make Interop possible. Shalita noted they saw it as an opportunity to work with one of the most portable networks in the world. It mirrors what a large scale corporate network would look like.

Visibility can be accomplished on a number of different levels, but the challenges can change according to the network. For instance, how does one enterprise network differ from one that supports multiple branch offices? Shalita addressed this question in the interview.
 
'What is interesting is that when a lot of people think branch office, they think 'well, it must be SMB environments' and really the branches become the extension of the corporate environment. And in many cases the branch is really the customer touchpoint, the revenue generating point. For many years, the branch really has been a kind of best effort kind of deployment…Now the expectation is that the branch really needs to run at the same level of performance and availability as the rest of the corporate network.'
 
The challenge is to get visibility in a way IT can achieve and the company can afford. NetScout developed virtualized versions of technology that sat inside virtual servers in the data center and now integrate with Cisco services router to significantly reduce costs and overcome obstacles to integration.

This approach allows IT to manage service delivery environment consistently and assures quality of service to create a level playing field.
 
As for whether or not a Cisco partnership is Shalita noted it is definitely important from a market share perspective and from an integration perspective. NetScout also partners with other key players as it is critical to be able to integrate into different and multi-vendor environments.
 
How does that play into the cloud? According to Shalita, virtualization is really a manifestation of the cloud within the enterprise environment. Over time the IT environment will change dramatically and cloud services will be used in this environment. The big challenge is maintaining service levels as you progress to multiple environments. 

For more on NetScout and what the future holds for this innovative company, check out the video in full.

By Susan J. Campbell.