Application Characterisation Services (ACS)

VEGA's Application Characterisation Services (ACS) offer our Defence clients best practice COTS solutions that help them understand the full impact technology insertion has on their operations.

The success of our armed forces in current and future theatres of operations is dependent on the seamless delivery of Network Enabled Capability (NEC). It is therefore critical that the impact of any application designed to work across UK Ministry Of Defence (MOD) networks is properly understood, to ensure that it and other applications are able to operate at optimum capacity. VEGA provides an Application Characterisation Service (ACS), available through the MOD ICS Catalogue, to determine whether any new or updated application hinders the performance of legacy applications, and can deliver the operational benefit for which it was intended.

Market Demands for Application Characterisation Services

Networked applications are crucial enablers of the aspirations of Network Enabled Capability (NEC). However, deploying a new or updated application over an already heavily utilised network can have extremely detrimental effects. The user response time can be extremely slow, rendering the application unusable, or worse, the application could generate so much data that other services are adversely affected.

The impact of each new or updated application, therefore, must be determined in advance, so that the increased demand on a network is understood, and any specific implementation or configuration recommendations are identified.

JSP 604 “Network Joining Rules”

This need has become even more important with the introduction of the MOD’s Joint Service Publication (JSP) 604. It has further strengthened the MOD’s Networking Joining Rules by defining the “irreducible minimum set of rules” that are to be applied to all systems interacting with the MOD’s current and planned Communication and Information Systems (CIS).

In defining rules for acceptable conduct on MOD networks, JSP 604 mandates that any programme or project that constitutes or interacts with current or programmed MOD CIS, must provide evidence of compliance to the Defence Chief Information Officer. This is further directed in JSP602 leaflet 1030.

In order to provide proof of compliance for JSP 604, the VEGA ACS have been extended and are available via the MOD ICS Catalogue. We are the only ICS supplier to offer this capability to characterise, regardless of delivery.

How VEGA can help with Application Characterisation Services

VEGA’s ACS are based on best practice COTS solutions from leading suppliers of Application Characterisation and Network Monitoring tools.

This service is delivered in conjunction with our partner Net Consulting, which offers specialist Network and Application Consulting capabilities. VEGA and Net Consulting’s services combine application analysis with a predictive element, allowing estimation of traffic loads, bandwidth requirements and user response times over a range of different network conditions.

Benefits to Your Organisation

VEGA is a trusted client-side advisor. We work alongside the MOD in an open and honest engagement to define and develop the most appropriate solution. The key benefits of our ACS approach include the:

Ability to characterise applications regardless of delivery mechanism (Web, Terminal Services or Citrix)
Non-intrusive data capture from a test environment
Determination of network traffic loads and bandwidth requirements for varying numbers of users
Estimation of application performance for varying network characteristics such as bandwidth size and latency
Analysis of issues that would affect application deployment over WANs, such as overly large or inefficient data transfer
Provision of empirical evidence to support application release assurance initiatives (JSP604 & JSP602)
Provision of application network traffic data for importing into other modelling tools as required

VEGA is an approved MOD supplier of specialist IS consultancy services through the MOD ICS Catalogue. Our Application Characterisation Services are available through the Total Solutions Consultancy and Support Services category, thereby providing our clients with the highest level of quality and cost-effectiveness as demanded by the Catalogue.