Integrated Research Launches PROGNOSIS IP Telephony Assessor

    DENVER, June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Integrated Research (ASX: IRI)
 has launched PROGNOSIS IP Telephony Assessor, enabling organizations to make
 informed decisions about Voice over IP (VoIP) investment before spending money
 on network upgrades or expensive pilot deployments.
     Using the proven technology developed for PROGNOSIS IP Telephony Manager,
 PROGNOSIS IP Telephony Assessor is a software tool that simulates, records and
 analyzes VoIP traffic in real-time and over time. It is used to measure the
 pre- and post-implementation traffic on the network and report on how well the
 network has handled the additional load.
     PROGNOSIS IP Telephony Assessor allows organizations to thoroughly assess
 their network's capability to run VoIP before they commit to deploying an
 investment," said Kailem Anderson, Integrated Research's IP telephony product
 manager. "It evaluates the existing network to see if it can handle voice
 traffic, determines what the call quality would be like and identifies any
 potential problem areas that need to be addressed before a VoIP solution is
 implemented."
     85% of Existing Networks Not Ready for VoIP
     According to Jeffrey Snyder -- Chief Analyst of IP Telephony at Gartner
 Group, 85 percent of existing networks are not ready for IP telephony.
 
     Why Assess?
     "The minimum expectation of a VoIP solution is PBX-equivalent call
 quality.  So for a VoIP deployment to be successful, the supporting
 infrastructure must be able to provide the call quality users are already used
 to.  Users will not be satisfied with delays in dial tone, call dropouts or
 garbled sound.  These are specific voice issues that organizations to date
 have not had to deal within their data networks. By ensuring up front that the
 network has sufficient capability, a VoIP implementation will have a far
 greater chance of acceptance and being deemed a success," Anderson explained.
     Data networks have not been built to withstand common network problems
 such as jitter, delays, packet loss and bandwidth fluctuations.  However,
 voice data is far more susceptible to these errors as voice streaming is
 conducted in real-time.  It is expensive to deploy separate networks for voice
 and data, so assessing the suitability of the existing data network for
 handling voice traffic is the first basic step for setting up almost any VoIP
 solution.
     "Too often, organizations embrace emerging technologies without adequately
 assessing their IT infrastructure's readiness to support them.  It is this
 tendency that creates frustration and expense for companies investing in IP
 telephony if they then find out that their network cannot effectively
 accommodate voice traffic.  IP telephony offers organizations many advantages
 via converged voice and data applications -- but first you need to make sure
 you have adequate infrastructure in place -- and if not, to identify what
 needs to be changed," Anderson added.
 
     Post Implementation Assessment
 PROGNOSIS IP Telephony Assessor is fully integrated with PROGNOSIS IP
 Telephony Manager, allowing users to monitor the health and availability of
 the network as part of their ongoing systems management process.
 
     Key Features
     --  Assesses network readiness for VoIP: simulates actual VoIP traffic and
         records the effect on the network in real time. Identifies specific
         processes, segments and devices in need of modification to
         successfully support VoIP.
 
     --  Real-time problem solving: gathers network performance information in
         real-time, so meaningful data can be extracted almost as soon as
         testing begins.
 
     --  Call quality prediction: collects network metrics in real-time and
         over time to give an accurate view on the call quality that can be
         expected from a VoIP deployment.
 
     --  A fully integrated solution: fully integrated with PROGNOSIS IP
         Telephony Manager.
 
     --  Easy to use and install: provides one-click installation and uses the
         same interface and tools as PROGNOSIS IP Telephony Manager.
 
     Industry analysts and large IP Telephony vendors such as Cisco, Avaya and
 Nortel highly recommend organizations conduct network ready assessment prior
 to implementation. This highlights any problems before they occur and
 maximizes the overall IP Telephony deployment success.
 
     About Integrated Research Ltd
 Since 1988 Integrated Research has been a leading developer of real-time
 systems and application management solutions for high-availability distributed
 computing environments based on the proven PROGNOSIS architecture. The world's
 largest bank, telecommunication company, stock exchange, computer hardware
 manufacture and ISP all rely on Integrated Research solutions -- as do
 customers in over 47 countries. Integrated Research is a publicly listed
 company with offices in the USA, Europe and Australia, and a distribution
 network spanning more than 60 countries. Information about Integrated Research
 and its products is available at http://www.ir.com .
 
 

SOURCE  Integrated Research