Wheelings & Dealings: Partners Can Interlink to Spirent

Interlink Communications Systems’ partners can now also carry network testing tools from Spirent Communications. The Spirent gear is made available to Interlink’s U.S.-based VARs, Systems Integrators and Solution Providers.

“We selected Interlink as our US distribution partner for Axon because of their commitment to their Solution Provider community and their high-touch, collaborative approach to helping them solve customer network challenges,” said Lisa Anderson, Director of Global Sales and Channel Development at Spirent. “Axon will give Interlink Solution Providers the opportunity to offer customers tangible control over network performance and enhance the overall customer experience.”

Why is this important? The Spirent test gear can be used by the IT customers themselves, or service providers can use it to monitor, troubleshoot and optimize the networks they manage.

Interlink is a specialty distributor of IT products and services. New partner Spirent has been in the network test game for years (it was, in fact, founded in 1936), and competes with companies such as the recently acquired Network Instruments.

The Spirent test line today goes from measuring individual devices all the way to the very core of the network. It can also keep tabs on content delivery and network applications.

“We are a leader in testing network equipment which utilizes Ethernet at ever-increasing scale, including switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, data center fabrics and intrusion detection/prevention,” the company said. “Spirent is a leading provider of solutions that test the performance and user experience of 4G/LTE and 3G mobile devices in the lab and on live networks. Spirent is also the worldwide leader in testing positioning technologies such as GPS in mobile devices and other receivers used in an ever-increasing range of applications.”

For service providers, Spirent can test all network layers, tracking Wi-Fi offload, access, Mobile Packet Core performance and cloud infrastructure.

Rival Network Instruments Sold for $200 Million

Spirent rival Network Instruments was recent acquired by JDSU for $200 million. JDSU doesn’t just get a product line, but a loyal customer base, much of which have dealt with Network Instruments for close to two decades. This base of clients is similar to that of Spirent, also a network test vet.

Network Instrument’s flagship tool is Observer, which handles application performance management, as well as trending and stream reconstruction. The tool is often teamed with the company’s GigaStor.

Observer has stuck true to its guns, even while the distributed architecture network analyzer gained features, especially in the areas of multi-user and multi-topology monitoring.