Gambit Communications says its MIMIC Virtual Lab software can help resolve the cheating on Cisco certification tests
By Jim Duffy , Network World , 07/30/2008
A Nashua, N.H., maker of Cisco network simulators says its software can help enterprises make sure they are hiring legitimate Cisco-certified engineers to run their networks.
Gambit Communications says its MIMIC Virtual Lab software, which has been on the market for about four years, can help resolve the recent spate of cheating on Cisco certification tests by enabling enterprises to run network operations candidates through sample scenarios before hiring them. This allows enterprises to screen candidates to ensure they are not hiring fraudulent network operators at handsome salaries.
Cisco recently moved to thwart cheating on certification tests by employing photo identification requirements and a data forensics program. According to Cisco, pilot programs using the new detection methods have already uncovered 1,400 suspected cheaters who hired proxies to take the exams for them.
But Gambit claims the photo and forensics programs only go so far: what about the many unqualified candidates already hired by enterprises prior to the new Cisco enforcement programs?
Sit 'em down and run them through a simulated lab environment, Gambit says.
Gambit's CCNA Virtual LAB software starts at $99 and can be downloaded to a laptop or PC. It creates a simulated environment with seven Cisco devices – Catalyst 2950, 3550 and 6500 switches and 2620, 3640 and 7206 series routers -- and users can type in IOS and SNMP commands to configure devices and protocols.
Test conductors and "students" can replace and establish LAN, WAN, ISDN and serial links, change IP addresses and create virtual LANs with the program, but cannot change the devices themselves. Also, the program is not certified by Cisco but is resold by a Cisco – certified training partner, Tech 2000. Cisco also uses the CCNA Virtual Lab's predecessor, the MIMIC Simulator Suite for IOS, Gambit says.
Gambit says it has 1,000 customers for CCNA Virtual Lab since it was introduced in 2002, including AT&T, IBM, the U.S. Army and several financial firms.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Gambit's MIMIC® Enables Xirrus for Superior Testing
Scaleable and highly functional Wi-Fi management applications are vital in today’s growing mobile network environments. They provide essential functions to ensure that the wireless network’s health, performance and availability meet the rigorous demands of business.
Xirrus sells the enterprise-grade Wi-Fi Array that embeds multiple radios, a Wi-Fi controller, antennas, and threat sensors into a single device. The Xirrus Management System (XMS) centrally manages networks of Wi-Fi Arrays. The company chose Gambit Communications’ MIMIC Simulator to ensure that the XMS software not only scales and manages hundreds of devices with real-time performance, but also correctly tracks faulty conditions of the devices.
Xirrus
Xirrus is the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi™. It designs and manufactures the patented Wi-Fi Array. The Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, or 16 radios and high-gain directional antennas into a single device along with an onboard Gigabit Switch, Wi-Fi Controller, Firewall, and dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor, providing the performance and security to replace traditional workgroup switches with Wi-Fi technology.
Xirrus’ XMS network management system manages up to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays from a central location. It centralizes the monitoring, reporting, and configuration management for up to 500 Arrays from anywhere in the network. It is available on a stand-alone dedicated network appliance (XM-3300), or as a software-only application (XA-3300) that can be loaded on an existing server.
The XMS provides a flexible, scalable solution that can be leveraged as the organization’s Wi-Fi network grows. It carries out automatic discovery and configuration of Arrays, policy-based management and aggregates alerts and alarms for monitoring. It uses SNMPv1/v2c with support for multiple public and private MIBs.
The Challenge
The Xirrus Management System manages large networks with up to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays with thousands of Wi-Fi clients. Xirrus has 40 physical Arrays in their XMS lab which are used for testing. It was budget prohibitive to grow that to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays along with the required networking gear. It was a challenge to test the XMS software with that size of a network.
The QA Assurance team continuously needs to verify the XMS’ performance and scalability in large networks. The tests need to cover the product features and all possible operational conditions. An affordable solution was sought to make the test lab more scalable and flexible.
The Solution – MIMIC Simulator
Xirrus purchased the MIMIC Simulator Suite, Campus edition, which supports simulation of up to 500 agents simultaneously. Each of the agents can represent any type of SNMP-manageable device.
Xirrus recorded the management information from one of their Arrays with the MIMIC Recorder, creating a simulation which was then cloned to 400 unique simulated devices with a total of 6000 clients connected to those arrays. Along with the simulated Array devices, they simulated traffic load between devices and clients. They could run their XMS against the simulated lab and test different features, along with performance measurements and negative/positive conditions.
The Benefits
With the use of MIMIC, Xirrus reduced the lab budget requirement to one tenth of what was initially needed. Furthermore, MIMIC made it a lot easier to test their XMS software. They were able to perform many tests effortlessly with MIMIC, which are very hard to setup with the real devices. They could now do more complete testing, and confidently release their new software to their customers.
Additionally, with MIMIC they can now save those negative/positive scenarios, add more tests, and reuse them for regression tests during every test cycle.
The Technology – MIMIC Simulator
MIMIC Simulator can simulate 20,000 SNMP, Cisco IOS, IPMI, Telnet, TFTP and DHCP-based devices on one workstation.
MIMIC appears to management applications as if they are connected to a real network. It allows simulation of any type of SNMP-based devices (Routers, Switches, Arrays, Hubs), and combine them in the creation of many different scenarios.
MIMIC ships with 1800+ MIBs and many out-of-the-box network, device and scenario script libraries, which make it very easy to simulate a variety of networks from different manufacturers. It includes a MIB compiler, recorder, network discovery wizard and topology editor to further extend the simulation capability.
The simulator allows real-time changes of device parameters to add interfaces, change traffic patterns and error conditions.
Testimonial
Ali Fatollahi, Sr. QA Engineer, said, “We needed to test our XMS software and verify its performance and scalability in large networks. Selecting MIMIC made it easy and cost effective for us to do that. With MIMIC, it is as close as you can get virtually to have a physical local network with such a scale.
MIMIC technical support is competent and prompt. They were always there and helped so effectively that now we use MIMIC daily for our XMS development and testing.
MIMIC is a great product (ease of use and phenomenal tech support) and has saved us time and money. We strongly recommend it.”
--------------
© 2008 Gambit Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MIMIC is a registered trademark of Gambit Communications, Inc.
All other trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Xirrus sells the enterprise-grade Wi-Fi Array that embeds multiple radios, a Wi-Fi controller, antennas, and threat sensors into a single device. The Xirrus Management System (XMS) centrally manages networks of Wi-Fi Arrays. The company chose Gambit Communications’ MIMIC Simulator to ensure that the XMS software not only scales and manages hundreds of devices with real-time performance, but also correctly tracks faulty conditions of the devices.
Xirrus
Xirrus is the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi™. It designs and manufactures the patented Wi-Fi Array. The Wi-Fi Array integrates 4, 8, or 16 radios and high-gain directional antennas into a single device along with an onboard Gigabit Switch, Wi-Fi Controller, Firewall, and dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor, providing the performance and security to replace traditional workgroup switches with Wi-Fi technology.
Xirrus’ XMS network management system manages up to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays from a central location. It centralizes the monitoring, reporting, and configuration management for up to 500 Arrays from anywhere in the network. It is available on a stand-alone dedicated network appliance (XM-3300), or as a software-only application (XA-3300) that can be loaded on an existing server.
The XMS provides a flexible, scalable solution that can be leveraged as the organization’s Wi-Fi network grows. It carries out automatic discovery and configuration of Arrays, policy-based management and aggregates alerts and alarms for monitoring. It uses SNMPv1/v2c with support for multiple public and private MIBs.
The Challenge
The Xirrus Management System manages large networks with up to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays with thousands of Wi-Fi clients. Xirrus has 40 physical Arrays in their XMS lab which are used for testing. It was budget prohibitive to grow that to 500 Wi-Fi Arrays along with the required networking gear. It was a challenge to test the XMS software with that size of a network.
The QA Assurance team continuously needs to verify the XMS’ performance and scalability in large networks. The tests need to cover the product features and all possible operational conditions. An affordable solution was sought to make the test lab more scalable and flexible.
The Solution – MIMIC Simulator
Xirrus purchased the MIMIC Simulator Suite, Campus edition, which supports simulation of up to 500 agents simultaneously. Each of the agents can represent any type of SNMP-manageable device.
Xirrus recorded the management information from one of their Arrays with the MIMIC Recorder, creating a simulation which was then cloned to 400 unique simulated devices with a total of 6000 clients connected to those arrays. Along with the simulated Array devices, they simulated traffic load between devices and clients. They could run their XMS against the simulated lab and test different features, along with performance measurements and negative/positive conditions.
The Benefits
With the use of MIMIC, Xirrus reduced the lab budget requirement to one tenth of what was initially needed. Furthermore, MIMIC made it a lot easier to test their XMS software. They were able to perform many tests effortlessly with MIMIC, which are very hard to setup with the real devices. They could now do more complete testing, and confidently release their new software to their customers.
Additionally, with MIMIC they can now save those negative/positive scenarios, add more tests, and reuse them for regression tests during every test cycle.
The Technology – MIMIC Simulator
MIMIC Simulator can simulate 20,000 SNMP, Cisco IOS, IPMI, Telnet, TFTP and DHCP-based devices on one workstation.
MIMIC appears to management applications as if they are connected to a real network. It allows simulation of any type of SNMP-based devices (Routers, Switches, Arrays, Hubs), and combine them in the creation of many different scenarios.
MIMIC ships with 1800+ MIBs and many out-of-the-box network, device and scenario script libraries, which make it very easy to simulate a variety of networks from different manufacturers. It includes a MIB compiler, recorder, network discovery wizard and topology editor to further extend the simulation capability.
The simulator allows real-time changes of device parameters to add interfaces, change traffic patterns and error conditions.
Testimonial
Ali Fatollahi, Sr. QA Engineer, said, “We needed to test our XMS software and verify its performance and scalability in large networks. Selecting MIMIC made it easy and cost effective for us to do that. With MIMIC, it is as close as you can get virtually to have a physical local network with such a scale.
MIMIC technical support is competent and prompt. They were always there and helped so effectively that now we use MIMIC daily for our XMS development and testing.
MIMIC is a great product (ease of use and phenomenal tech support) and has saved us time and money. We strongly recommend it.”
--------------
© 2008 Gambit Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
MIMIC is a registered trademark of Gambit Communications, Inc.
All other trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
MIMIC FAQ: What is the fastest SNMP simulation I can run? Why is it not the default?
Q. What is the fastest SNMP simulation I can run? Why is it not the default?
A. By default, MIMIC runs the most useful basic simulation clause for a wide variety of applications: a close snapshot of a device SNMP agent, with static objects taking on the values that were observed, and Counter objects taking on a rate that was interpolated from observed values, both entirely configurable at run-time. For details, see the QuickStart tutorial.
This default basic simulation is more expensive than faster, simpler simulations. The simplest simulation is to just return a constant value for all object instances. If the management application does not care about values retrieved, then you can use this simulation.
The sample simulation clauses that were compared in a performance experiment were (for more details, see the SIMULATE clause section in the Compiler Guide):
* INDEX
* SIMULATE{ 1 }
* SIMULATE{ constant(1) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform(1) }
* SIMULATE{ constant_per_tu(1, 60) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu(1, 60) }
* SIMULATE{ constant(lookup("r")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform(lookup("r")) }
* SIMULATE{ constant_per_tu(lookup("r"), lookup("tu")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu(lookup("r"), lookup("tu")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu ( (lookup ("r") == 0 ? 1 : lookup ("r")), lookup ("tu")) }
Here is a chart comparing the performance of different simulation clauses for objects. When requests are performed with only one variable per PDU, the difference in performance between the fastest and default simulations is approximately 50%. But, the more variables that are packed into a PDU, the larger the computation part becomes (compared to network overhead, etc), and for 100 variables per PDU, the difference between the fastest and default simulations is a factor of more than 5.
A. By default, MIMIC runs the most useful basic simulation clause for a wide variety of applications: a close snapshot of a device SNMP agent, with static objects taking on the values that were observed, and Counter objects taking on a rate that was interpolated from observed values, both entirely configurable at run-time. For details, see the QuickStart tutorial.
This default basic simulation is more expensive than faster, simpler simulations. The simplest simulation is to just return a constant value for all object instances. If the management application does not care about values retrieved, then you can use this simulation.
The sample simulation clauses that were compared in a performance experiment were (for more details, see the SIMULATE clause section in the Compiler Guide):
* INDEX
* SIMULATE{ 1 }
* SIMULATE{ constant(1) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform(1) }
* SIMULATE{ constant_per_tu(1, 60) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu(1, 60) }
* SIMULATE{ constant(lookup("r")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform(lookup("r")) }
* SIMULATE{ constant_per_tu(lookup("r"), lookup("tu")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu(lookup("r"), lookup("tu")) }
* SIMULATE{ uniform_per_tu ( (lookup ("r") == 0 ? 1 : lookup ("r")), lookup ("tu")) }
Here is a chart comparing the performance of different simulation clauses for objects. When requests are performed with only one variable per PDU, the difference in performance between the fastest and default simulations is approximately 50%. But, the more variables that are packed into a PDU, the larger the computation part becomes (compared to network overhead, etc), and for 100 variables per PDU, the difference between the fastest and default simulations is a factor of more than 5.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Network Computing Magazine: "Gambit to Scale India Operations "
Gambit Communications, Inc., leader in SNMP simulation
software, will scale operations in India, according to this article.
Excerpt:
Gambit Communications, one of the providers in network and SNMP simulation tools that enhance the productivity of management software developers and enterprise users is scaling up India presence.
software, will scale operations in India, according to this article.
Excerpt:
Gambit Communications, one of the providers in network and SNMP simulation tools that enhance the productivity of management software developers and enterprise users is scaling up India presence.
Silicon India: How to MIMIC your complex Network
Gambit Communications, Inc., leader in SNMP simulation,
was named company of the month in the December issue of Silicon India
magazine.
Excerpt:
MIMIC Simulator, an innovation by Gambit Communications offers a virtual lab environment for enterprises and cuts down the time and money for testing.
was named company of the month in the December issue of Silicon India
magazine.
Excerpt:
MIMIC Simulator, an innovation by Gambit Communications offers a virtual lab environment for enterprises and cuts down the time and money for testing.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Gambit Communications among SiliconIndia 100
Gambit Communications makes it in to si100.
"si100 is an annual listing of the top 100 technology companies founded and managed by Indians in the U.S. The si100 not only represents the continuing rise and glory of Indian entrepreneurship in high-tech but also recognizes companies impacting the market place.
A distinguished panel comprising accomplished Indian CEO's & CIO's of public companies, VC's, analysts, founders of other VC funded companies including siliconindia editorial board decided on the top 100 companies listed..."
See this article.
"si100 is an annual listing of the top 100 technology companies founded and managed by Indians in the U.S. The si100 not only represents the continuing rise and glory of Indian entrepreneurship in high-tech but also recognizes companies impacting the market place.
A distinguished panel comprising accomplished Indian CEO's & CIO's of public companies, VC's, analysts, founders of other VC funded companies including siliconindia editorial board decided on the top 100 companies listed..."
See this article.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
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