E-tailers prepare for Xmas bonanza

Spirent is looking to cash in on IT managers' fears about the ability of their web infrastructure to fend off attacks and cope with user demand.

The firm has launched Avalanche and Reflector, crash test simulator tools that can be used in test or production environments to handle the transfer of large amounts of traffic over the internet.

Both are designed to test the network and application infrastructure simultaneously, in order to give a more realistic picture of the effects heavy traffic will have on a system or the threat posed by denial of service (DoS) attacks or email viruses.

"Our products can be used to benchmark a network," said David Hill, EMEA vice president of Spirent's performance analysis organisation.

"They can identify where problems due to user capacity are going to start and test it to destruction."

Alan Newman, marketing director at Spirent, explained that Avalanche is designed to simulate an unlimited number of users, while Reflector tests devices that filter traffic, such as firewalls.

"We address emerging trends in web services regardless of standards," he said.

"You can custom build DoS attacks and test multiple products using your own capacity and mix of traffic, including email and web use."

The network technology company has traditionally sold its simulator products to OEM vendors like Cisco and Lucent, but is now targeting enterprises.

Spirent also offers integration with Mercury Interactive's Loadrunner load-testing tool, and Network Associates' Netasyst sniffer technology to help make the most of its test results.