When one of the leading publications in the IP communications industry says that accurate and synchronized timing is essential to improving the efficiency, performance, availability and security of our networks, IT departments pay attention. In a recent review of the SyncServer S350, IPCOMMUNICATIONS.COM provides an excellent review about the SyncServer, and also discusses the critical role that synchronized time plays in a network.

The review begins with the question “Can you trace your network time to an accurate and synchronized time source or authority?” It gives examples of synchronization issues in video systems for enterprise security surveillance, VoIP, and government or regulatory compliance. It also addresses the issues of getting time from free NTP based public time servers on the Internet - how we can’t verify the accuracy of these sources and how access to these time servers require the opening of our network firewall ports.

The formal part of the review begins with “Deploying a 1U rack mounted network time server such as Symmetricom’s SyncServer S350 seems to be a very reasonable approach towards achieving accurate synchronized traceable time seamlessly and effortlessly. It stays within our secured premises, references the GPS satellites, you do not have to poke holes through our network firewall to access a reliable time source and you can point it to multiple time references.”

This is a very detailed review and almost every aspect of the SyncServer S350 is covered, such as the intuitive front panel and the Gigabit Ethernet port plus 3 additional Independent 10/100Base-T Ports. “Symmetricom’s expertise and experience with NTP time servers is very much evident in the latest iteration of its time servers especially the SyncServer S350.”

The last half is the operational testing section of the review.
The conclusion reached was “With features such as redundant Ethernet ports, independent multiple references etc. the SyncServer S350 represents a serious shift in the network time server appliance landscape with far more emphasis on security, redundancy and versatility coupled with ease-of-use and high availability.”