Network World — In a move to broaden its offerings for the growing network intelligence and diagnostics market, telecom equipment manufacturer Net Optics recently announced the acquisition of network analytics software provider nMetric.

Net Optics acquired nMetric through its purchase of sister company Triplelayer, an Australian distributor. And although Net Optics CEO Bob Shaw sees Triplelayer's positive standing in the Australian, New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets as an advantage to Net Optics' growth, the network monitoring tools are what he believes will have the largest impact for customers.

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Shaw cited customers' rising security and bandwidth concerns as main reasons for the acquisition. He says enterprise customers had grown concerned about threats lurking on network access points that were going unused.

"Where we saw a gap is in many cases there were customers that would have the Net Optics product and they wouldn't have enough budget to have it plugged into every location where they had one of our access products -- and yet they were concerned that they needed to have a health check and visibility to check all of those areas they weren't plugged into," Shaw says.

Both bandwidth and security topped the concerns of Net Optics customers, according to Shaw, and with recent trends driving more end users to high-bandwidth and high-risk behavior, this trend appears set for growth.

"You can have this product sitting in line, it's in the network, and what we've seen in many cases is they're using it in remote branch sites," Shaw says. "So what will happen is they'll say, 'We're starting to see a spike in traffic, what's going on?' And they'll be able to drill down and you can actually see the bandwidth that's being used for Google, YouTube and Facebook. And you can drill down another level and see who the users are."

Shaw says the ability to identify which users are putting pressure on the network is becoming highly valued, for both compliance and protection against insider threats.

"One of the things that we've seen as a need is, 'How are you able to anticipate issues before they occur?' And, 'How are you able to deal with them quickly when they do?'" Shaw says. "Most folks would say the opportunity to build an absolutely flawless and secure network is nirvana. What you need to do is build a network that gives you visibility and allows you to proactively respond and anticipate challenges before they occur -- and heaven forbid they do, how can you take action quickly?"

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