Submitted by Eileen Haggerty, NetScout Director of Product Marketing

A recent report released in the January 26, 2009 Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that in Texas hospitals where electronic information technology has been implemented, patients seem to have fewer complications and lower death rates.

Advances in information technologies for healthcare include electronic medical records (EMR) systems, picture archiving and communications (PACs) systems, and clinical order entry systems.  The value reported in this study certainly seems to indicate that when patient information is entered upon admission to a healthcare facility and when doctors update their notes electronically, treatment is more complete and accurate.  Mistakes, often associated with incomplete information, are avoided.  And in addition to providing better care to the patients, costs are often lower as well.

Adoption of health information technologies has been slow, but is on the rise.  Recent studies suggest that in facilities with 50 or more physicians, adoption rates of at least Basic or Full EMR systems are as high as 50%. This is likely to grow in the coming months and years if the Obama/Biden healthcare reforms are put in place.  The plan defines their goals in investment in patient electronic records as follows:

As EMR and health information technologies continues to expand, hospitals and health network organizations each have yet another reason to protect the delivery of critical patient care services across their network.  NetScout Systems offers the nGenius and Sniffer solutions to provide predictive analysis that delivers early warnings of network and application degradations with real-time and historical trends and reports for assuring prompt and efficient services delivery assurance.  Please feel free to investigate our solutions to optimize delivery of EMR services in your healthcare network.

Submitted by Brian Robertson, NetScout Product Marketing Manager

NetScout is very proud to offer our congratulations to our partner Riverbed…

Riverbed Technology announced on January 14th, 2009, that InfoWorld has named Riverbed Steelhead(R) appliances running RiOS(R) 5.0 as the winner of the best WAN Accelerator of 2009 award. InfoWorld has named Riverbed(R) the leader in WAN acceleration for five years in a row, beginning in 2005 when it first created the category and recognized Riverbed for its innovation and early leadership in the WAN optimization market.

See their press release here.

NetScout strives to develop alliance partnerships with industry leaders in order to provide our users the highest level of visibility into their network environment and the Riverbed partnership is no exception.

As our readers probably know, WAN optimization and application acceleration comes with an inherited challenge when we talk about visibility. The technology used to increase performance on the WAN link also inhibits the ability to view the traffic with application and network monitoring solutions. That is why NetScout has teamed up with Riverbed Technology.

Over the last year NetScout and Riverbed have worked together to provide complementary solutions that allow our combined customers to optimize their WAN links using Riverbed’s industry- leading technology, and at the same time, maintain the visibility they are accustomed to with the nGenius Performance Management System. The combination of NetScout and Riverbed not only helps to optimize performance, but also provides comprehensive visibility into the networks and applications running on those optimized links.

To find out more about the NetScout and Riverbed partnership click here. 

Submitted by Eileen Haggerty, NetScout Director of Product Marketing

We have periodically in the Performance Zone Blog talked about some of the dramatic changes the Modern IP Network has had in the way ordinary people do things in new ways – most recently, the way the Obama Presidential Campaign leveraged smart devices, Web 2.0 social networking, and the Internet in his path to the Presidency.

Yesterday morning, I caught yet another example how times change – and how modern network technology is evolving to provide better, safer, and more cost effective services

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It was announced yesterday morning that Medicare is going to “incent” doctors to retire their paper prescription pads and submit e-prescriptions for their patients’ drug therapy directly to the pharmacy that will fill them.  Medicare will give physicians an extra two to three percent bonus pay in 2009 and 2010 if they switch to emailing prescriptions.

E-prescriptions have tremendous value:

• Accuracy – notoriously bad handwriting is often blamed for mistakes in both filling prescriptions and the corresponding instructions on how to use them.
• Safety – removes problems associated with lost or stolen paper prescriptions.
• Cost efficiencies – when the doctor pulls up the information to order the prescription, lower cost, generic alternatives are offered to save the patient money.

While adoption has been low so far with only ten percent of doctors using e-prescriptions, the trend is on an upswing.  According to e-prescription network provider SureScripts – RxHub, the number of physicians writing e-prescriptions is expected to double to 70,000 this year over 2007.

I am always curious to understand the barriers to entry for new, and more effective manners to do business over the Modern IP Network – and in this case, cost plays some part, with individual doctor’s needing to spend $3,000 each to participate in electronic prescription programs.  It is hoped that the Medicare incentive can help offset that burden.  Additionally, as the Drug Enforcement Administration adapts the rules surrounding e-prescriptions for narcotic painkillers and other controlled substances, even more doctors are likely to leverage these Modern IP Network advancements.

As the adoption of this technology continues to expand, hospitals, health network organizations, and life sciences companies each have yet another reason to protect the delivery of e-prescriptions services across their network.  NetScout Systems offers the nGenius and Sniffer solutions to help provide the kind of predictive early warnings with real-time and historical trends and reports for assuring prompt and efficient services delivery.

Submitted by Heidi Gabrielson, NetScout Product Marketing Manager

On Thursday, December 11th, NetScout Systems will host an exclusive training session for the Federal Community at the Gaylord National Hotel in National Harbor, Maryland.

Executives, managers and technicians will have their choice of sessions that include a mix of

• Hands-on labs lead by Sniffer University trainers and NetScout Federal System Engineers that review how to use the latest nGenius Performance Manager or nGenius InfiniStream features, a Lab Guide and one-on-one Q&A with NetScout experts;
• Lecture-based tutorials that detail how to leverage their agency’s investment in NetScout solutions for maximum operational efficiency;
• An in-depth look at future product plans and company direction by Michael Szabados, Chief Operating Officer, and Russ Currie, Director of Product Management, to enable executives to start planning for the future now.  

There will also be plenty of time for attendees to network and share tips with their colleagues from other agencies on how they address the unique needs of government networks, like encryption and IP V6, to what they are doing to increase IT productivity, improve cross-functional collaboration or substantially reduce in mean time to restore business services to their constituents. 

For more information, contact your account manager or click the links below.

To register for the half-day Manager or full-day Technical track, use this link.

To register for the Executive luncheon track, use this link.

We look forward to having you join us. If you can’t attend, leave us a note with any questions, thoughts or suggestions you might have. 

Submitted by Heidi Gabrielson, NetScout Product Marketing Manager

NetScout Systems will be exhibiting at HP Software Universe 2008 at the Austria Center Vienna in Vienna from December 9 through December 11.  Stop by our booth (OE/17) to learn more about how NetScout’s nGenius Performance Manager and nGenius K2 solutions integrate with various HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) products to achieve rapid resolution of network and application performance issues.

NetScout’s Sniffer and nGenius solutions provide the most comprehensive network performance management solution in the industry, facilitating:

• End-through-end network monitoring and troubleshooting for rapid problem diagnosis and resolution
• Application–aware performance management and response time analysis for business service assurance
• Automated anomaly detection and at-a-glance dashboard views for early warning of brewing problems
• Continuous packet capture and decode for in-depth retrospective analysis and streamlined data mining
• Advanced Sniffer Intelligence for comprehensive analysis of VoIP, Mobile, Financial and other critical applications
• Extensive and flexible ad hoc and historical reporting for easy communication and collaboration of information

Specifically, NetScout provides integrations with

• HP Network Node Manager and NNM i-series.Brings together network fault, topology and application performance data to help network operators to solve complex problems without having to advance to higher levels of support.
• HP Business Availability Center. Provides granular visibility into application performance from the network vantage point for rapid problem resolution.
• HP Operations Manager for consolidated event management.

Make sure to stop by the booth (OE/17)and mention that you read about us on the Performance Zone Blog. And, don’t forget to sign up for our drawing for a Garmin GPS.

Also, let us know in the comments what topics and products you hope to explore during your visit to HP Universe.  HP always puts on a great event.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Submitted by Eileen Haggerty, NetScout Director of Product marketing

Thanksgiving is over, and now the mad dash to the Christmas season is upon us – made all that much more frantic this year by the shorter 27 days between the two holidays, versus 33 last year, and because of the tighter economic times we are faced with this year.  So while avoiding the actual crowds in the stores this past weekend, I did do a little web surfing and discovered some interesting shopping facts.

Black Friday has come and gone and early survey results from the National Retail Federation (NRF) are reporting that it was a good day, better than expected, in fact. The stats tell the story best:

• 73.6 million stores and website shoppers on Friday (looking for those door busters no doubt!)
• 172 million shoppers overall for the long weekend compared to 147 million last year
• Per-shopper spending up 7.2 percent - $372.57 this weekend compared to $347.55 last year
• 34 percent did their shopping over the Internet

So the results thus far are promising for the holiday season.  And here we are – Cyber Monday, a phrase coined in 2005 by Shop.org because retailers reported seeing incremental additional e-commerce traffic to their sites on the Monday following Thanksgiving.  The day is marked by online sales, deeper discounts, and free shipping offers by over 83 percent of participating retailers this year, according to NRF.  And traffic this year is expected to be high today as well.

Of note, the projection by Shop.org’s survey is that nearly 56% of employees in offices with Internet access will use their corporate network to shop online – representing almost 73 million people.  Perhaps more interesting is the demographic breakdown -  70 percent employees in the 18 to 34 age range reported that they will likely shop over the Internet today and believe it or not, men are 60 percent more likely to shop online today from the office than women at around 51 percent.

How should employers feel about this?  Hard to say – as with most situations, this is a double edged sword – you are happy that your employees don’t go out and take an unexpected long lunch to do some shopping at the mall.  Certainly 10 or 15 minutes of search, point, click, checkout online is much less disruptive.  But, depending on your network, the additional load could in fact be disruptive, impacting some of the organizations’ business applications using the same Internet access.

For more information check out information regarding business vs. recreational use in the network.

We’re curious – are you shopping online today?  From your office?  How much time would you say it saves you from going to the mall?  Let us know -- 

Submitted by Brian Robertson, NetScout Product Marketing Manager

Does this scenario sound familiar? You have decided that you need more visibility into your network and the applications running over it. You waded through endless meetings about requirements, vendor bakeoffs, red tape and a number of other hurdles in order to reach a decision. You got a maintenance window and you installed the system… you turned the system up…now what?

This is the point where training needs to happen. Now, I know that training takes you away from your job and there is a cost associated with it. However, I have seen many cases where network monitoring systems are rolled out and they are underutilized. This may be because you haven’t been able to dedicate time to learning more than just the basics on your own, or you have forgotten all the wonderful things you saw it could do during the proof of concept. Whatever the reason, it is nice to know that it’s not too late and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

I recently had a conversation with NetScout’s  Sniffer University certification lead, John Swierk, who explained that his team has rolled out a number of new traditional and e-learning initiatives designed to help our customers maximize their ability to use the nGenius Performance Management System with minimal effort and without leaving the office!.

You heard right…these new e-learning initiatives help our users learn about nGenius Solutions from the comforts of their own homes or offices.  Examples of these e-learning courses include:

• Product demonstrations that are brief, but targeted, examples of how to use specific, well-defined features and functions of a wide range of NetScout products.
• Self-paced learning modules that are delivered in 60-90 minutes for a more in-depth explanation of the nGenius or Sniffer solution.

Check out NetScout's Learning 360 within the home page of the nGenius Performance Manager console under the help side bar item.

NetScout also offers multiple levels of certification (great for padding the resume) including:

• nGenius Certified Professional ensures a basic understanding   of how to monitor and troubleshoot network and application performance. Over 1500 network professionals have achieved this certification to date.
• nGenius Certified Expert provides our NetScout users with advanced knowledge of the Internet Protocol (IP) suite, network troubleshooting and optimizing application performance.
• nGenius Certified Master, available in 2009, will provide an extensive knowledge of application troubleshooting, network technology and application principles as well as provide an intricate knowledge of NetScout products and software.

Click here to learn more about all services offered by Sniffer University:

Now that you and your organization have invested significant time, effort and money on your performance management system, isn’t it time you learned how it can SAVE you time and money. Maximize your investment. Shorten your time to ROI. Do yourself a favor and check out Sniffer University.

Does your organization require you to have continued education in using tools and systems on your network? Do you feel that training is valuable? We would like to hear from you.

Submitted by Eileen Haggerty, NetScout's Director of Product Marketing

With Pre-Orders for Google G1 Phone beyond a million when it went on sale in the United States on October 22nd , anticipation is high for Verizon’s release of the new BlackBerry Storm this Friday November 21st, Verizon and T-Mobile subscribers and soon to be new customers will have a plethora of new services at their fingertips.

The major competition in this space, the iPhone through ATT, had high volume first weekend purchases in excess of 1 Million when it was launched in July.  The G1 services offered through this HTC devopled device, running the Android operating platform, include Google Maps, You Tube videos, and of course email access.  Although, each device does have unique special services all to themselves, for now.

Are you standing in line Friday outside Verizon stores for a new BlackBerry Storm phones?  Do you have an iPhone or a G1 phone?  Will one of these tempting devices be on the holiday list at your house this year?  Will handheld devices be able to replace or supplement desktop devices or are we still a long way from that?  What do you think about all these new devices?

Submitted by Mike Valladao, NetScout Product Marketing Manager

October saw a record low in the  Consumer Confidence Index™.  According to Director Lynn Franco, “The impact of the financial crisis over the last several weeks has clearly taken a toll on consumers' confidence”.

However, there are always segments of the population that see the glass in a positive light.  Networking is one such segment.  Antidotal evidence shows that consumers’ network confidence is at an all-time high.  Networks are more robust than ever and consumers place great faith in them.  While, just a few years ago people often blamed the network, today the corporate network is seen as an area of stability.

So we are happy to report that networks and networking expertise will continue to be valued resources, even in questionable markets.  No matter the industry, networks are there to drive the business.  They are vital components that not only deliver critical services, but also have a direct affect on the overall credibility of the company.  Networks have come a long way.   They have evolved from simply being supporting players to actually running the business.   As long as the networks are up and working, business is being delivered.

Like the economy, we need to make sure policies and indicators are in place to keep things running smoothly within our networks.   Obviously, NetScout Systems is in the business to provide you with tools to assist in this effort, but there is more to the story. 

Network confidence varies from company to company.  As a network professional, you are in a position to help manage performance of the services to end users which in turn helps create confidence in the network.  If your customers (or consumers) have high confidence, it will make your lives easier and reflect positively both on your department as well as your direct staff.  

So, when you take a moment to look at it through your customer’s eyes consider:  Do they have confidence in the network?  Are they pleased with the services delivered?  Keep in mind that like the economy, there is an emotional aspect to confidence.  Is there anything you could do to boost or promote their confidence?

The following list of tips can help:

• First, internally market what is going well.  If uptime is good, publish the results to your key users.  Post ad-hoc reports to an internal web site and make sure it is linked from other strategic sites within your company.
• Act like a service organization.  Since that is essentially what IT is, adopting Best Practices lets your customers know you are there to assist them and the business.  Not only does your phone support need to be friendly and supportive, but your entire staff needs to understand the end user is your customer and you are there to help them do their job.  If they have any reason to avoid dealing with IT, then the company loses.  Promote positive customer interaction from the top down.
• Gain a proactive advantage.  Leverage Key Performance Indicators, so you know about issues before they turn into problems for your users.  Provide anomaly reports to support your claims.  If you tell your customers you know about the problem and you are working on it, instead of saying; “When did this issue start” you enforce confidence in the IT department. If you show you are going above and beyond to help them do their jobs, it goes a long way toward building relationships.
• Finally, when issues do arise, systematically address the problem and share how you corrected it.  Top-down approaches to troubleshooting work, so share your methods with your customers.  Sometimes it is also beneficial to name drop and say a Sniffer trace file was able to definitively answer a question or prove a point.  Let them know you have products that continually capture packets and flows 24 hours a day.  When your organization understands you have exposure to areas of the business they do not, it only increases your value.  A little information goes a long way toward creating confidence.

So how would you characterize the network confidence within your organization? What are you doing to boost your consumer’s network confidence?

We at NetScout would love to hear from you.   If you have ideas on this or other topics, please feel free to share them. 
If you are interested in how NetScout products may be able to assist you, check out our website at: http://www.netscout.com/products/default.asp?cpid=blog