Tier-1 Service Providers, Vendors Deploy Mu Dynamics for Testing Application-Aware Networks

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Mu Dynamics, Inc. (www.mudynamics.com), the leader in validating and testing application-aware networks, today announced the only testing solution on the market capable of immediately and accurately recreating applications to determine how they affect networks.  This real-time solution boasts thousands of downloadable, ready-to-run, application-specific tests on Mu TestCloud, a rapidly growing online collaborative community for the sharing of test assets.  Tier-1 service providers and leading network equipment manufacturers like Juniper Networks are using Mu's unique solution to quickly test new application policies that govern security, scalability and functionality.  With Mu, they are able to do this with more speed, flexibility and accuracy than ever before.  For more information on this new solution, including Mu's TestCloud, click here.

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"Mu's solution enables us to test the network for scalability and security using real applications," said Rob Cameron, Product Line Engineering Manager, Juniper Networks.  "We can recreate applications to determine how they affect the network before we roll out our solutions to customers."

"In developing the industry's next-generation firewall, our technology's value proposition is inherently tied to being able to identify and control applications and security threats, both of which evolve at breakneck speed," said NirZuk, Founder and CTO of Palo Alto Networks.  "Ensuring that our platform keeps up with this evolution is critical to our ability to compete successfully.  Mu's solution for app-aware testing gives us the means to do so, quickly and accurately."

Mu is providing a much-needed bridge for testing today's application-aware networks for security, application usage and network load," said Jack Walsh, IPS and anti-spam program manager, ICSA Labs.  "Accurately recreating real application traffic mixes that reflect what is seen on production networks is critical to achieving meaningful test results of today's application-aware networks."

"Identifying and validating applications just as they are deployed on the network has become a necessity for service providers in the new application-aware network environment," said Peter Jarich, Service Director, Current Analysis.  "Proactively testing application policies for how they govern security, scalability and functionality gives service providers the information they need to ensure their networks are performing at the levels required to keep end users satisfied."

Without the ability to quickly and accurately test the policies governing their networks, service providers risk poor performance, security breaches and ultimately customer churn based on a poor quality of experience.  However, testing today's complex policies has become a significant challenge.  With hundreds of thousands of Web and mobile applications including P2P (such as BitTorrent), streaming video (such as Netflix and Hulu),social media (such as Facebook and Twitter), games (such as Farmville and Mafia Wars), and instant messaging (such as Skype and Google Chat), service providers are struggling to manage their networks effectively.  In addition, rules around Net Neutrality provide guidelines on how service providers can manage and create application-specific policies.  In response to this, many service providers and their equipment vendors are incorporating "application awareness" into their products and services to enable a far more granular classification and control of application traffic.

These app-aware products and services help detect and classify applications for a number of functions including deep packet inspection (DPI), lawful intercept, traffic shaping and prioritization across the network.  Testing the policy engines built into these functions with legacy test tools that use synthetic traffic with meaningless application payloads has, at best, been inaccurate.  On top of being inaccurate, service providers often have to wait months or more for the legacy test tool vendor to custom-develop support for each individual application.

Mu's unique solution gives service providers and equipment vendors the ability to immediately recreate and accurately test network policies using real application flows.  More importantly, Mu enables these companies to start testing immediately, instead of months later.  Mu has also added a multi-track capability allowing different application mixes to be run concurrently to emulate the production environment.

"With the continued growth in the number of new applications, and the constant shift in the production mix based on popularity, today's networks are becoming more intelligent and capable of distinguishing applications," said Dave Kresse, CEO, Mu Dynamics.  "Service providers are using this visibility to implement finer-grain policies around security and quality of service than were previously possible.  Mu gives customers a quick and simple way to test their network policies by recreating in real time their ever-changing application mix.  The results for our customers have been consistent -dramatically accelerated testing cycles, increased testing accuracy and the ability to test any application at any time."

The Mu solution for testing application-aware networks and Mu TestCloud are available now.  For more information visit http://www.mudynamics.com/.

About Mu Dynamics:

Mu Dynamics is the leader and pioneer in testing and validating application-aware networks.  Our innovative solutions enable customers to rapidly recreate applications and determine the impact to their network.  Hundreds of service providers, enterprises, government agencies and network equipment manufacturers use Mu to ensure that their networks are functional, scalable and secure.  Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, more information on Mu Dynamics can be found at http://www.mudynamics.com.

SOURCE Mu Dynamics, Inc.