Packet Island introduces $8k test-and-monitoring equipment for SMEs
Packet Island has released the newer version of its VoIP test/monitoring solution for SMEs. The premise based solution costs $8k and runs over a combination of standard Dell hardware and some proprietary boards. Packet Island has been offering the solution as a SaaS-based option as well. Over 30 MSPs use hosted SaaS offering.
Packet Island will compete with NetIQ, Fluke Networks, and Apparent Networks. These vendors offer a software-only solution that allows service providers to generate VoIP traffic on customer networks for a short period of time to do a predictive test. According to Packet Island, its solution prolongs the period of test time - spanning a full business day or multiple days. The other differentiating factor that the company points out is that while its competing solutions generate test traffic, they are unable to observe the overall traffic (VoIP + Data) flowing through a network.
Apart from the Dell hardware in the solution, the micro-appliances shipped with the server are custom appliances that have been designed for VoIP/video assessment and monitoring. These micro-appliances function as sniffers and double up as VoIP call generators for assessment purposes.
The thrust of the solution is to test VoIP readiness. It does so by measuring the RTP-capacity of the networks using SIP to co-ordinate the tests.
