Packeteer, which makes devices and software for managing bandwidth, has released version 5.2 of its operating system PacketWise.
The latest release will run on any of Packeteer’s dedicated PacketShaper hardware ranging through the 1500, 2500, 4500, 6500 to the recently released 8500, which is aimed at service providers.
Packeteer Australasian manager Bob Jones says most New Zealand sites fall within the 1500 to 4500 range. He believes the most attractive feature of the new operating system for corporate users will be a plug-in that automatically downloads the latest releases of Packeteer’s application discovery software.
“When you put one of our devices on a network it has an understanding of traffic to level 7, the application level. If it sees SAP, Oracle or Citrix on a network it will tell you that it sees this traffic and start gathering statistical information. It can even see games or applications such as Napster or Nutella.
“The new feature works in the same way as virus protection software. No longer will customers have to wait for us to put out a new release of software in order to get the latest applications that we can discover.”
PacketWise allows users to allocate bandwidth to different applications. Jones says while voice-over-IP and videoconferencing are often used as examples of the type of application that benefits from this approach, it’s generally “boring old applications” like access to the mainframe, ERP or even email that drive customers to use Packeteer products.
Jones says Packeteer has more than 30 sites in New Zealand including Fisher & Paykel, Fletcher, Christchurch environmental engineering firm Montgomery Watson, Fonterra and Shell.
Packeteer products are distributed by ExpressData and Lan Systems.