Monitor and Verify MPLS Service Levels with the NetQoS Performance Center

In a recent survey of 285 IT professionals by Network World magazine, 48 percent of respondents indicated that MPLS deployments would have either some impact or significant impact on their company's IT budgets and infrastructures over the next year.

While MPLS can provide advantages over a traditional hub-and-spoke network in terms of cost, performance, and support for advanced QoS policies, it creates its own set of challenges. One of the most important things you can do to mitigate the risks of your MPLS migration is to put performance first when it comes to managing your network.

The NetQoS Performance Center enables you to put performance first by providing an integrated view of end-to-end performance, traffic analysis, and device performance data to deliver unprecedented visibility across your network infrastructure and your MPLS environment. See the NetQoS Performance Center in action in these use case scenarios.

Performance-first Approach to MPLS Migration and Monitoring

With the visibility that NetQoS Performance Center provides, you can monitor the performance of your network infrastructure both before and after deploying MPLS to gauge the impact of the change. The two phases of this approach include a pre-deployment assessment to baseline performance and validation of the impact to the network from the MPLS deployment. Specifically, the phases include:

Phase 1: Pre-Deployment Baselining

Measure network latency for locations that will be affected by the move to MPLS
Baseline the performance of business-critical applications
Configure automatic alerts so you know when performance degrades from normal
Identify ALL applications consuming the bandwidth, who is using them, and when
Monitor router, switch and interface performance for devices that will be impacted by the move to MPLS

In the second phase of MPLS deployment, the core of your network infrastructure is now using MPLS, so traffic will be routed to the edge sites. Keep the edges in mind as you enter Phase 2.

Phase 2: MPLS Deployment Impact

Ensure that network latency has either improved or remained the same after the move to MPLS
Validate the impact of MPLS on business-critical applications
Configure automatic alerts so you know when performance deteriorates from baselines
Determine the root cause of any performance degradations
Identify ALL applications consuming bandwidth on the edge sites, who is using them, and when
Ensure that the QoS policies provided by your carrier are having the desired effect
Monitor router and interface performance for the edge sites after the move to MPLS

The NetQoS Performance Center

With the NetQoS Performance Center, you can make more informed decisions based on precise usage data from your network infrastructure. You can improve staff efficiency and collaboration by using a single tool to resolve performance issues rapidly. And you can mitigate risks and validate the impact of planned changes such as VoIP deployments, MPLS migrations, QoS policy implementations, and application rollouts.

The NetQoS Performance Center scales to the largest networks and provides the real-time and historical data you need to improve the performance of applications delivered over wide area networks. Rather than simply focusing on infrastructure availability, the NetQoS Performance Center takes a “performance-first” approach and approaches your network from the perspective of end-users.

Request an evaluation of the NetQoS Performance Center today.