Spirent Communications Advances Virtualization ...

SUNNYVALE, California, May 12 /PRNewswire/ --

    - Spirent TestCenter(TM) Virtual is the Industry's First Single 
Application Solution to Benchmark Layer 2-7 Performance Across All Elements 
of a Data Center



    In response to the growing challenges of deploying high-performance
advanced data centers, Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), a leader in
networks, services and devices testing, today introduced Spirent
TestCenter(TM) Virtual, the industry's first solution specifically designed
to holistically validate the performance of all elements of the data center
and cloud computing environments including virtual machines (VM), servers and
storage devices. Spirent will demonstrate Spirent TestCenter Virtual at
Interop 2009 at Booth #1051.



(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090220/SPIRENTLOGO)

    Nominated as a finalist for Best of Interop 2009 Award in the Performance
Optimization category, Spirent TestCenter Virtual is a software solution that
extends the capabilities of the Spirent TestCenter platform to test the
performance of a virtualized data center's elements and physical network
resources. Spirent TestCenter Virtual is the industry's only solution to:


    
    - Conduct line rate layer 2-7 performance testing of virtual and
      physical network resources by emulating VLANs, multicast and FCoE
      traffic along with stateful application protocols
    - Measure key layer 2 performance metrics such as throughput, frame
      loss and latency between virtual and physical network elements
      including network-to-VM, VM-to-network and VM-to-VM
    - Deliver a unified testing architecture that ensures full
      compatibility with any Spirent TestCenter interface including the
      award-winning Spirent Hypermetrics for accurate, high performance
      FPGA hardware generated network traffic





    For data center system vendors delivering the benefits of virtualization
to enterprises and service providers, Spirent TestCenter(TM) Virtual delivers
the power to architect high performance data center systems, mitigate risks
of migration or consolidation of existing IT infrastructure, minimize the
total cost of ownership (TCO) of testing resources and optimize
infrastructure utilization by testing performance in a multitude of
real-world scenarios.



    Leading industry analysts agree that equipment vendors as well as data
centers operators need to take a holistic approach to ensure success in a
today's hypercompetitive and economically challenging business environment.



    "Enterprise demand for virtualization is strong, and equipment vendors
need to make sure that their offerings support virtual and cloud based
application delivery," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst,
enterprise, voice and data, Infonetics Research. "Having a complete set of
virtualization testing tools, such as those found in the Spirent TestCenter
Virtual, which includes network, server, VM and storage testing, is a
necessity in preparing IT infrastructure for today and tomorrow's demanding
data centers environments."



    "System vendors are under significant pressure to deliver best-in-class
solutions while reducing product development costs and test cycle times,"
said Tim Jefferson, general manager, Converged Core Solutions group at
Spirent Communication. "Therefore, there is an increasing demand for holistic
solutions that help to achieve those goals. At the end of the day, network
architects and engineers who rely on Spirent TestCenter Virtual are able to
adopt a unified approach to developing virtualized and cloud-based data
center systems."



    The solution will also be showcased at Spirent Proof of Concept (SPoC)
Labs and Collaboration Centers in Beijing, London and Sunnyvale. For more
information on Spirent TestCenter Virtual (www.spirent.com/go/stcv) and other
Spirent TestCenter solutions visit www.spirent.com/go/stc or follow Spirent
on Twitter at www.twitter.com/spirentcomm



About Spirent Communications plc

For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/news/about_spirent.cfm