Viewgate’s Advisor software predicts the future

Viewgate Networks today introduced Advisor, a new addition to its Inteligo suite of performance-management software solutions that uses artificial intelligence to predict future performance of virtual private networks (VPNs) and suggest the service adjustments that may be needed to avoid violations of service level agreements (SLAs).

Advisor analyzes VPN-usage data collected and stored by other components of the Inteligo platform and reports any network-usage abnormalities it uncovers. Then, Advisor performs statistical forecasting based on this data and other types of pre-stored historical information to uncover performance trends. These trends are then compared to the SLA that exists between the service provider and the customer. Should these trends indicate an impending or future violation of the SLA, Advisor’s artificial-intelligence engine suggests appropriate countermeasures.

In addition, Advisor measures service performance against the SLA in real time and can provide alerts to the service provider and the customer should a violation of the SLA be imminent.

While several solutions on the market provide performance reports and give service providers some indication that they have exceeded certain thresholds within the SLA, Advisor’s advice component is unique, said Liza Henderson, vice president of consulting for Telechoice.

“Advisor is one of the initial steps into artificial intelligence,” she said. “It provides very high-level advice on what’s going on in the network and some initial steps that the service provider needs to do to solve the problem.”

Advisor is hosted by the service provider but is designed so that the enterprise customer can see the same analysis and advice, at the same time--at the service provider’s discretion.

“If both parties see the same thing, then I think the problem can be resolved more quickly and amicably,” Henderson said. “You can get into a finger-pointing thing between the service providers and the end users.”

According to Viewgate, Advisor will be rolled out in phases, with the first phase scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter.