IT News - Cap Gemini listens in to offer network control

We all know how much fun can be derived from surfing the Net, e-mailing friends and downloading our favourite film star for personal use, but this and other non-critical activity on network applications is clogging up corporate bandwidth. And so far it has been impossible to monitor.

But watch out sneaky surfers because IT services and consultancy firm, Cap Gemini, is on the regulation warpath, claiming an industry first in being able to offer customers a “business level” understanding of the way networked applications are being utilised within their enterprises.

The firm has set up a service, called the Network Application Audit Service, through which it will offer customers a “health check” of their client/server networks, in a bid to help them understand and manage them more efficiently in future.

Using a network applications management tool called EcoNet, from Compuware, to discover, measure and track client/server “conversations” across a company’s networks, Cap Gemini says firms will be able to see what causes congestion in their networked computing environments.

Andy Mulholland, Cap Gemini’s network director, said most firms faced a “Bermuda Triangle” when it came to managing their client/server networks.

He said the three sides of the triangle were made up of the applications, the network and the business side. “A clear understanding of the centre of the triangle, the way these three sides interconnect, has never been possible before.”

The company appears to be putting its money where its mouth is, as Cap Gemini has been using the system at its South Bank head office in London for the past four months. It claims to have discovered a wealth of information about how it was using, or mis-using, its network. “We have been able to identify that 25 per cent of our bandwidth was being consumed by non-critical applications,” said Mulholland.