Network Diagramming Channel Feature

National Vision Enlists Help of Internap for Network Performance Management

By Carrie Schmelkin
TMCnet Web Editor

Internap (News - Alert) Network Services Corporation knows a thing or two about network performance management as the provider of intelligent IT infrastructure services was just tapped by National Vision, Inc., (NVI) for its Internap services, including its Content Delivery Network (CDN), powered by its patented, high-performance IP network.

NVI, the fourth largest optical retailer in the U.S., selected Internap for its commitment to network performance. As part of the new relationship, NVI will be able to address challenges presented by increasing IT Infrastructure demands thanks to Internap's flexible platform, according to company officials.

"As an online and 'brick and mortar' retailer, our primary business priority is ensuring that we deliver a superior experience for our customers. And as we continue to grow, working with the right IT Infrastructure provider is critical to helping us achieve this goal," said John Vaught, chief technical officer at National Vision. "Internap provides us with the flexibility to meet our full range of IT Infrastructure needs today and in the future as our requirements evolve. We are confident that Internap will enable us to grow customer satisfaction and increase the efficiency of our internal business operations through its unparalleled network performance, backed by a 100% uptime SLA."

NVI, with more than 700 retail locations, first set its eyes on Internap after it acquired AC Lens, one of the fastest-growing online contact lens providers in the world. The acquisition resulted in NVI needing to consolidate the infrastructure for more than 12 AC Lens ecommerce websites. Moreover, NVI was in search of a world-class facility for its existing infrastructure, which was housed in its own data center.

Its quest led NVI to Internap as the company offers a flexible and comprehensive portfolio and stellar network performance capabilities, officials said. While Internap's colocation provides scalability and redundancy as well as critical anti-DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) protection, it’s global, route-optimized Performance IP(TM) service with TCP acceleration (XIP(TM)) will guarantee quick, seamless website access for NVI customers that are placing and tracking orders online and for employees accessing business-critical applications.  

"Retail organizations like NVI require a high degree of IT Infrastructure flexibility to meet significant fluctuations in demand - from massive traffic spikes to plateau periods, along with a network that is purpose-built to ensure customer satisfaction," said Paul Carmody, senior vice president of product management and business development at Internap. "With one of the most diverse portfolios in the industry - ranging from dedicated hosting and public cloud to private cloud, managed hosting, colocation and a CDN - Internap is uniquely positioned to meet retailers' full range of needs, including unmatched availability and performance guarantees."

In other industry news, OPNET Technologies (News - Alert) has just announced a new Web-based output capability for its NetMapper network diagramming solution, a feature that allows you to generate diagrams no matter what environment you operate. The Web-based output, which is currently selectively available, presents companies with a “more convenient” way of looking at diagrams in the Web as it enhances the capabilities of NetMapper.

NetMapper, OPNET’s flagship network diagramming offering, eliminates the cumbersome effort associated with network diagramming by automatically publishing up-to-date network diagrams containing detailed physical and logical views, including Layer 2/3, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS, VLANs, and BGP. NetMapper creates rich, multi-layered network diagrams in the industry standard Microsoft (News - Alert) Visio format.