Loran Technologies Inc has launched its Kinnetics 2.0 network management appliance, which it claims can drastically reduce network downtime by locating network problems faster than any other enterprise management platform on the market. Kinnetics is a pre-built web server, including hardware and software, that Loran says offers real-time network management capabilities for heterogeneous networks that can identify problems either before or as they occur. The product is based on Loran’s proprietary technology – a core software engine which John Virden, executive vice president of marketing at Loran, says was adapted specifically for network management purposes. Virden asserts that the product is unique in that it provides a complete port-to-port physical topology network map and inventory of every network device, regardless of manufacturer, as well as detailed management reports on network health and service level agreements, traffic utilization and operating status. It also identifies equipment changes on the network as they occur, to more easily allocate possible causes for sudden problems. Virden says that Kinnetics takes a different approach to fault analysis in that other products look at the specific devices where a problem has occurred first, and try to infer solutions from there. Kinnetics, he says, looks at the whole network first and then pinpoints problem areas. Kinnetics integrates network operations and service management, using the system’s history of traffic and error patterns to predict future behavior. It is billed as an out-of-the-box product that works from the time it’s plugged into the network and without any additional software. The user interface for the product is a standard web browser, which allows for more flexible management from virtually anywhere on the network. The first version of Kinnetics, which came out last year, was only marketed in Canada by Loran’s Canadian parent company, Loran International Technologies Inc. Virden explains that the product simply wasn’t robust enough for a full-scale US launch and insists that the amount and presentation of information in the new version are like night and day. Looking ahead, Virden promises more products built on the core technology behind Kinnetics, including add-ons such as modeling and server analysis tools, which should be announced within the next few months. Loran, now based in Vienna, Virginia and formerly the Canadian unit of Plaintree Systems Inc, was founded in 1992 as a hardware systems integration firm. It has been moving away from that space at a steady pace and Virden says that the launch of Kinnetics 2.0 officially signals the shift from systems integration to network management software. Prices for Kinnetics 2.0, available now, vary from $16,000 to $117,000 depending on the number of devices to managed – including the web server and all of the necessary hardware. The basic price will get you one box that manages between 400 and 6,000 devices.
