Ipswitch, Inc. Network Management Division Launches 2010 FIFA World Cup Network Traffic Calculator

May 28, 2010 - PRLog -- Lexington, Mass. − May, 2010 − Ipswitch Inc.’s Network Management Division, developer of the WhatsUp Gold suite of innovative IT management solutions, today unveiled its World Cup Network Traffic Calculator. This unique tool allows IT managers to predict and plan for the expected surge in non-work Internet traffic in the workplace brought about by next month’s 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ soccer tournament, which runs from June 11th to July 11th, and is expected to be the most viewed soccer tournament in sporting history.
   
The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ will be the first event where every game is streamed online live in high definition. As a result, service providers and employers are bracing for potential network disruption and pressure on Internet connectivity as viewers turn to streaming video as a way to keep tabs on the games. According to a recent survey from IDC, the average organization loses between 30 percent and 40 percent of its network bandwidth to non-work related online activities.

Using the World Cup Network Traffic Calculator, IT managers can plot the likely impact on network resources based on number of users, speed of Internet connection, normal bandwidth use and country of origin. In addition, users that agree to share their email addresses will receive anonymous peer comparison results.

“Employees making use of video streaming services can put a considerable strain on companies' networks, resulting in bandwidth chokes and even outages, in addition to exposing them to security threats,” said Kevin Gillis, director of product management, Ipswitch Inc.’s Network Management Division. “Highly publicized events such as the 2010 World Cup can cost a significant amount of money,” Gillis said.

The precedent for online streaming of major sporting events was set with the 2008 Olympic Games. NBC opted to concentrate its live coverage online due to time zone constraints. As a result, NBCOlympics.com served up more than 1.2 billion pages and 72 million video streams during the 2008 Summer Games**, more than doubling the combined traffic to its site during the 2004 Summer Games in Athens and the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. Traffic to NBCOlympics.com peaked each day around Noon, as office workers checked in during the lunch hour.

While service providers struggle to maintain adequate access for all their customers, organizations face multiple problems during these artificial demand peaks within the LAN such as constrained WAN connectivity and heightened security risks created by users venturing to untrusted and unknown sites in search of video content not available from official broadcast streams.

Download the World Cup Network Traffic Calculator at: http://www.whatsupgold.com/calculators/world-cup-network-...

About the Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc.   
The Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc. is the developer of the WhatsUp Gold suite of innovative IT management software. WhatsUp Gold delivers comprehensive network, system, application and event log monitoring and management solutions for small and medium businesses and enterprises. Built on a modular, yet integrated  architecture, the affordable and easy-to-use solutions scale with the size and complexity of any physical or virtual IT infrastructure. From a single console, WhatsUp Gold supports standard IT management tasks including automated discovery, mapping, real-time monitoring, alerting, troubleshooting and reporting. More than 100,000 networks worldwide use WhatsUp Gold solutions to assure the availability, health and security of their critical business infrastructure today.
Ipswitch, Inc.’s Network Management Division recently added to its product line complete, easy-to-use solutions for Windows Security Event Management (SEM) and Log Management for small businesses and enterprise-level organizations suite with the acquisition of Dorian Software Creations, Inc. WhatsUp Gold was named Network Management Product of 2010 by Network Computing Magazine and earned the Network Products Guide 2010 Product Innovation Award in Network Management. To learn more about WhatsUp Gold – the best value in IT Management software, download a free trial or to make a purchase, please visit: http://www.whatsupgold.com/products/download/.

*All mentioned trademarks, product and company names cited herein are the property of their respective owners.*

(** = Source: Nielsen Online)
Press Contact:
Jennifer MacPherson
Kirk Communications
jenniferm@kirkcommunications.com
(603) 766-4945