Alcatel-Lucent’s ‘Application Assurance’ solution provides visibility into which applications are using up the most resources on enterprise networks at any given time as well as how these applications are performing; critical information that can be used to enhance business operations.
Enterprises focus on getting maximum efficiency and performance from their virtual private networks (VPNs), which are provided by communications service providers such as Belgacom to complement the capabilities of the enterprises’ own dedicated networks. Applications that run too slowly or do not perform with sufficient quality can negatively impact both business operations and customer relationships.
To date, the ability to ensure the performance of applications has been limited, and this problem is particularly acute with cloud-based services. Belgacom’s deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Assurance solution will help give enterprises the confidence that the applications they rely on – from both their own dedicated network and the cloud - are operating at optimum efficiency. For instance, if the Application Assurance solution shows that network performance is affected negatively by employees accessing non-business-related services during business hours, then access to those applications can be limited or restricted to non-critical times and the performance of the enterprise’s VPN will be improved.
Tom Wuyts, director WAN, internet and security, enterprise business unit at Belgacom said: “With the Alcatel-Lucent Application Assurance solution, our enterprise customers will have clear insight into how much bandwidth various applications are using. This is a key element of our Smart Networking initiative, which is geared toward bringing greater intelligence to our networks for the benefit of our customers. On the whole, enterprises are very concerned about the performance of applications they access from the cloud; this new solution will help eliminate those concerns, and put enterprises in a better position to take advantage of the cost and flexibility benefits that the cloud has to offer. As importantly, our customers can take advantage of the service quickly and cost effectively, because there is no need for on-site equipment.”