Two crucial elements businesses need at all times is visibility and efficiency. Luckily, a network packet broker offers both of these features at a cost-effective price while simultaneously driving optimization of tools an enterprise already has access to.

This week in the space, it was revealed that as more and more parts of enterprises IT and communications infrastructure become virtualized to lower costs, the need to upgrade existing network management capabilities to achieve more desirable and critical visibility is becoming a priority. It is a challenge for which network packet brokers (NPB) are being recognized as an important solution when architecting networks to be future ready. They help provide better visibility when enhancing network management capabilities so that it be proactive as well as reactive.

According to a recent posting on Virtualization Review, “IT organizations would love to have complete visibility into their networks and applications so that they can quickly identify where the problem is occurring and resolve them, preferably before they impact the business. Unfortunately, with traditional network management solutions, IT may only become aware of an issue once a user calls the help desk, and by the time they identify its source and set about fixing it, user frustration is often running high.”

Hence, in order to overcome network obstacles that can quickly slow down connectivity for all employees proactive network management is increasingly being leveraged. Based upon application-aware performance management (NPM), this next generation solution seamlessly integrates analytics in order to see exactly what is performing well and more important what isn’t which enables firms to much more rapidly pinpoint performance issues within the business before they wreak havoc on overall operations.

In other news, GL Communications (News - Alert), a provider of test, monitoring, and analysis equipment for TDM, wireless, IP and VoIP networks, has just debuted its MC-MLPPP Analyzer and Emulator software.

Boasting the functionality needed to test and analyze HDLC-based PPP protocol in synchronous environments, it features a single instance of the analyzer that supports reassembly and decoding of multiple MLPPP bundles at one time as well as can capture and decode both PPP routed protocols, PPP bridged protocols, MLPPP, and MC-MLPPP streams of data.

And as the week came to a close like they all do eventually, Cisco (News - Alert) released version 7.4 of its Cisco Unified Wireless Network (CUWN) software. The revamped offering encompasses a much higher level of security, performance and quality and powers an unparalleled level visibility into every action taking place within a Wi-Fi network.

In addition, CUWN 7.4 provides real-time location analytics and offers increased performance of the 802.11n standard to ensure each and every mobile user experience is at the highest level possible.

Be sure to check back next week to see the latest and greatest in network packet broker news!

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.