Ipanema Launches Management Platform For Cloud-Based, SaaS Apps

WAN optimization specialist Ipanema Technologies is rolling out a new application performance management solution it says is purpose-built for SaaS and cloud-based applications. Ipanema's new Cloud Application Management (CAM) solution is the first from the company to specifically target cloud-based applications.

"Users have more and more cloud-based applications," said Béatrice Piquer Durand, vice president of marketing at Ipanema. "Some applications will still use MPLS [networks], some are in private clouds and some are in public clouds. So you have to be able to manage these hybrid environments, while, at the same time, using all your network resources without investing a lot."

CAM was designed, according to Ipanema, to help enterprises better understand and control the performance and usage of business applications, as those applications flow between public, private and hybrid clouds. CAM is also meant, however, to help network administrators ensure that bandwidth and other network resources are reserved for critical applications and are not being consumed by recreational apps, such as YouTube or Facebook.

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Ipanema's CAM solution offers two different reporting models to help enterprises keep tabs on cloud-based applications as they move throughout their networks. The first model is what Ipanema calls time "evolution reports," or reports that track the technical details of cloud applications, including the usage of those apps at a certain site over a certain period of time.

The second reporting model in CAM leverages "overview reports" to deliver high-level information, such as the average numbers of users accessing each application.

Ipanema launched CAM to address a growing market of enterprise users hosting applications in the cloud. According to a recent survey conducted by Ipanema, 72 percent of organizations regularly use cloud-based applications, especially those for unified communications (UC) and collaboration. The performance of those applications, however, seems to be a pain point, with roughly 28 percent of respondents noting that their UC and collaborations apps particularly suffer.

Vince Arden, founder and CFO of Preferred Communications Systems, a Tinley Park, Ill.-based solution provider and Ipanema partner, said the new Ipanema cloud solution will be a particularly good fit for larger clients, which tend to be ahead of the curve in terms of cloud adoption.

"The clients we see this to be a fit for are our larger customers because, from a cloud standpoint, they are positioning themselves ... to build a foundation to be cloud-ready," Arden said.

Arden stressed that the reporting capabilities inside CAM are especially useful, given the criticality of uptime in cloud environments.

"It sets a very solid foundation that is able to be reported on, and that's very important. The reporting piece is the piece," Arden said. "In our world, with cloud, it's all about uptime"

Ipanema's CAM solution, available now, is based on the company's Dynamic Hybrid Network solution, which optimizes application performance by automatically monitoring and selecting the best possible path for application traffic to flow throughout a network.

PUBLISHED OCT. 23, 2013