The lure of open source is strong, and it's starting to be felt by the traditional network monitoring and analysis companies - but they are finding ways to fight back, according to Janice Spampinato, VP international at WildPackets. "Packet analysis tools are very much a commodity now," she says. "Ethereal and the like has taken the legs off the portable market, so thank goodness we decided to go for the distributed market."

In her view, companies such as WildPackets still have an important edge, not least because they have R&D money to invest: "The free tool expands the network analysis market, and it keeps us honest. They now do voice too, so it keeps us developing the right things that people want to see in our products.

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