At iTrinegy we used to build Network Emulators, and we still do. But that sounds like something that a boffin scientist might use, not a regular IT person. So it’s worth taking a step back…
… with the Network now being an integral part of almost every app(lication) – btw somehow we’ve got into saying “app” on mobiles and tablets and “application” on everything else, so I’m going to use “app(lication)” for both/either – what people need is a way of make sure (sometimes called testing!) their app(lication) works in the final network.
And, that’s not just for today’s applications: IoT devices, connected cars and smart metering are all going to depend on the network.
So what we need, to make sure it’s all going to work properly when we put it “out there”, is a network that behaves like the real network, but that you can control.
Why not just use the real network itself? Because it’s like the weather, it can be fine, cloudy, rainy, stormy, and you simply have no control over it. It is what it is, as they say. And that’s even assuming your organization is going to let you introduce an untested application into the real network!
What you want is a network that can be “stormy” when you want, so you can make sure your app(lication) works even when the environment is being difficult. What you want is a Virtual Test Network.
Now, the problem with most “test equipment” is that it lives in a lab. You have to “go there” to use it. That’s not much use to developers, operations people, network specialists and more. What you need is an “extension” of your current, probably benign, network that behaves like a potentially unfriendly real world one. That means you can sit where you are, develop, test, do trial deployments, whatever, accessing current or proposed infrastructure through our Virtual Test Network extension of your network. And, that’s what we’ve been busy creating in our latest Version 8, which takes us from dedicated Network Emulators to ubiquitous Virtual Test Networks. The icing on the cake is that individuals can control the characteristics of their own bit of the virtual test network without trampling on somebody else’s settings.
A Virtual Test Network is not just for special occasions like final pre-deployment testing- it’s for everyday and everyone who shares responsibility to designing, developing and deploying applications. And I am proud to say that iTrinegy has made virtual test networks a reality for everyone.