NetQoS Launches Unified Communications Monitor

NetQoS Inc. has launched version 2.0 of its VoIP Monitor product to reflect expanded capabilities in VoIP and the addition of video monitoring.

The product has been renamed NetQoS Unified Communications Monitor. NetQoS has added support for voice and video quality metrics in a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 environment as well as enhanced diagnostics and reporting for Cisco IP telephony environments to better monitor VoIP performance across the converged network.

Integrated in the NetQoS Performance Center, voice and video quality metrics from Unified Communications Monitor can be seen in context with other network-based performance indicators such as application response times and network traffic analysis statistics. Achieving this contextual view of network performance is critical for resolving the problems that affect users of unified communications (UC) systems, said the company.

“When UC applications encounter performance issues, they don’t just slow down, they become unusable,” said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of enterprise and enabling technologies at Yankee Group Research. “The complexity of presence, voice, and video on your IP network demands that network management tools present a unified view of the performance of these applications.”

“Office Communications Server 2007 adoption is growing because it’s easy to deploy as an extension of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and coexists within a PBX or IP PBX environment while retaining the benefits of each,” said Jim McQuaid, director of product management for NetQoS. “From the perspective of user experience and resource requirements, unified communications applications place greater demands on the network than any other networked applications to date. We’ve added support for Office Communications Server 2007 and enhanced our existing Cisco IP telephony capabilities to help customers better manage these environments for performance.”

NetQoS claims Unified Communications Monitor v2.0 quickly and accurately reports on voice – both narrow band and wideband – and video in a Microsoft unified communications environment. By receiving quality metrics directly from Microsoft’s Quality of Experience (QoE) Monitoring Server, Unified Communications Monitor reports on end-user experience without the need for additional collection devices.

“By extending enterprise monitoring and management to Office Communications Server 2007, NetQoS furthers its breadth and depth of expertise in Microsoft technologies. They help customers proactively manage voice quality and confidently deploy Microsoft unified communications technologies in the enterprise,” said Yancey Smith, director of UC Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “We look forward to exploring how our relationship with NetQoS spurs innovation and drives enterprise-wide adoption of this next generation of business communications.”