Blue Coat Launches Cloud-Based Assessment Service

Blue Coat Systems announced the ‘Blue Coat Assessment Service’, a new cloud-based reporting and analytical service that enables Blue Coat channel partners to easily and remotely conduct an extensive analysis of an enterprise network using a Blue Coat PacketShaper appliance.

The Blue Coat value-added resellers (VARs) and consultants can deploy a PacketShaper appliance in the network of a customer or prospective customer in 30 minutes or less and then, at the conclusion of a data collection period, typically seven days, use the cloud service to perform the analysis of the network traffic.

The assessment from PacketShaper appliances can reveal surprising details about how a company’s Wide Area Network (WAN) and Internet connections are used.

Root causes of poor application performance:

• Bandwidth consumed by recreational or non-business applications and the performance impact on business-critical applications
• Causes of peak or ‘bursty’ bandwidth consumption and its effects on other traffic
• Amount of bulk application traffic that would benefit from WAN optimisation
• Use and prevalence of social media applications
• Network traffic and utilisation patterns

“The new Blue Coat Assessment Service brings application delivery network assessments within easy reach of enterprises and organisations and opens up a revealing level of detail where there had previously been a severe lack of knowledge,” said Steve House, Senior Director, Visibility Solutions, Blue Coat Systems.

“By offering the Blue Coat Assessment Service to prospective customers, VARs and consultants can quickly deliver a valuable report and reinforce their role as their customers’ trusted networking experts.”