In DPI Market, Procera Seems to Have an Edge over Allot, Sandvine, etc.

Implications: 1.      A key success factor for Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) vendors is the level of visibility that can be given to the service provider. 2.      Procera Networks appears to offer an impressive means of managing and presenting data. 3.      The solution from Arbor Networks, which acquired Ellacoya, seems to have not adequately kept up technologically, and is apparently, falling behind in the DPI space.

Analysis:  With a slick interface, it is possible that Procera’s DPI product is best of breed at this point in the reporting capabilities for platform managers.  Technicians that have evaluated it have concluded that it certainly presents the data in a very rational manner.  Carriers have still found that in going from PowerPoint presentations to real life circumstances, there are the inevitable issues that need to be resolved with the Procera box in the field.  

Arbor has been losing market share to Allot Communications and Sandvine.  While the Arbor offering works perfectly fine, evidently, some customers that are outgrowing its processing capacity are finding that it is cheaper to pull the platform out and go with an alternative vendor.   

The degree to which DPI products are used in a network is often gauged by how much bandwidth is going into the Internet cloud.  It takes a lot of processing capacity to perform the deep packet inspection – in that it has to be done on every packet.  It is a real challenge in throwing eight to 10 gigabits per second in and out of the network.  So, it comes down to just raw processing power – and thus, service providers can readily run into a ceiling on their current DPI equipment – potentially opening up the door to other competitors.