Nectar Services Announces Update to its Converged Management Platform
November 14, 2011
By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor
Nectar (News - Alert) Services Corp., a major player in advanced IP converged network monitoring and management software, has updated its Converged Management Platform (CMP), which gives network operators deep visibility into converged IP networks.
Officials with Nectar Services said that major Version 4.0 enhancements include a new Vendor Knowledge Module (VKM) for Avaya (News - Alert) Nortel CS 1000 and Avaya Nortel Call Pilot, incorporating autodiscovery of Nortel installations, real-time performance monitoring and quality management.
"The Avaya Nortel (News - Alert) CS 1000 VKM features continuous auto discovery enabling major productivity advantages for operators of large, complex voice and data networks using Avaya Nortel systems," said Joe Fuccillo, CTO, in a statement.
Fuccillo said that automating the creation of comprehensive asset inventories and respective monitoring yields significant savings of time and labor.
He said that CMP dynamically creates an end-to-end topographical visualization of voice assets, showing network operators real-time status of devices and their dependencies.
"This is the single-pane-of-glass view NOCs have been waiting for," said Fuccillo.
Company officials pointed out that the release simplifies the complexity of maintaining the thousands of servers, routers, gateways, boards, systems and subsystems making up a converged Avaya Nortel network.
The software interfaces with Avaya Nortel voice assets at a highly functional command line level.
“Our firmware-level APIs enable CMP to not only determine whether specific systems or subsystems are connected to the network; it provides granular, real-time performance monitoring and reporting of every asset in the converged network including capacity utilization and trends,” said Fuccillo.
The ability to manage data at the command line level also lets Nectar CMP centralize inventory on the exact versions of software and firmware installed. Operators can clearly identify the clients that need upgrades and those that don't, since they can compare versions and refer to critical notes. The Software Release Management (SRM) Module that's part of the new release of Nectar CMP performs this essential task automatically.
"Nectar CMP maps dependencies in real-time, and alerts network operators of specific systems or devices impacted by a manufacturer software or firmware change. " Fuccillo continues. "This greatly simplifies the change management process for converged network operators."
Anil Sharma is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Carrie Schmelkin