Spectracom and Bytefusion Expand Partnership for Network Time Management Software

Spectracom Corporation, a leader in the timing and frequency industry and Bytefusion Ltd., a leading provider of network time management and e-mail security software, are pleased to announce an expansion of their partnership.

The companies have long collaborated to ensure compatibility with each other’s products. Over the past year, Spectracom has been reselling a version of the PresenTense network time protocol (NTP) software package. “We are pleased to expand on the partnership by offering Bytefusion’s complete line of PresentTense NTP tools,” said Mr. Glenn Burdett, Spectracom New Business Development Manager.

Mark Robertson, Director of Sales for Bytefusion said, “Industry has for many years realized that the combination of Spectracom hardware and Bytefusion software provides the reliability needed in today's world. It is the customers who benefit by this closer collaboration and I feel confident we will exceed the expectations of existing and new customers as a result of this expanded partnership.”

Today’s IT managers face a number of new mission-critical implementations to secure, comply with and respond to a variety regulations, data forensics, and service level requirements. As such, time-based network synchronization is an essential element that enables time stamping of electronic transactions and records, network optimization, and troubleshooting.

Understanding that reliability, security, cost, and simplicity are key success factors for IT professionals, Spectracom is providing an end-to-end solution for its network customers by offering software that enhances the use of its NetClock® Time Server products.

“There are several important network administration advantages to using the PresenTense products,” Mr. Burdett said. “Network administrators can easily set up NTP on their servers and workstations. With greater timing accuracy and the ability to reference more time sources, PresenTense provides higher NTP resiliency than the Windows time service. Plus, the administrator can remotely monitor and manage the timing application, such as with remote configuration management and email alerts. The recent addition of syslog error messaging is just one example.”

In a typical application, NetClock products, locked to GPS satellite signals, provide a Stratum 1 NTP server role in a customer’s network. PresenTense Server, deployed on a Windows Domain Controller, serves as a Stratum 2 NTP server when synchronized to NetClock units. PresenTense Client, installed on workstations and application servers, serves as Stratum 3 clients. Lan Time Analyzer is an application that provides the network administrator with a real-time dashboard of client and server synchronization status and accuracy. A fourth application, NTP Auditor provides electronic and printed logs accounting for target system synchronization over long periods of time.

In addition to offering each application in the PresenTense suite, Spectracom is marketing two software bundles of the PrensenTense products. One for departments and small enterprises, such as 911 centers, for up to 20 seats. The other is for site license scenarios to support larger enterprises. In addition, Spectracom is offering solution packages containing NetClock units combined with PresenTense packages.

To provide network administrators with greater choice and diversity in their timing applications, Bytefusion is expanding its NTP Auditor program to reference enterprise NTP servers such as NetClock products. “In mission-critical applications where customers may need to track the timing accuracy of a given server or workstation, due to the critical nature of its data processing role in the enterprise, the customer can install the NTP Auditor program,” Burdett said. “If records are subpoenaed for a court case, the administrator can show an audit trail proving that, during the time in question, the system was synchronized within milliseconds to UTC and that it was verified at the time against an independent time source.”