OPINION: Service level management can provide real, quantifiable metrics for identifying problem areas before they result in loss of performance.
The up-front cost of a network is typically a small fraction of the real cost-hardware acquisition costs can make up as little as 20 percent of the total cost over a network's lifetime.
These figures drive numerous total cost of ownership (TCO) models, which seek to quantify and compare vendors and strategies in terms of acquisition, maintenance, management, and other ongoing costs. One useful tool in lowering network TCO is network management.
At its simplest, a network management system monitors the status of network devices, from one to thousands of sites. This may be restricted to core devices, such as routers, but almost any IP device (and many non-IP devices) can be monitored using commercial tools.
The real (business) gains are made when the infrastructure is extended from monitoring to management. For example, a core router with CPU or memory utilisation exceeding a pre-set threshold can be diagnosed before it fails. Similarly, telco links can be monitored and proactively adjusted as traffic patterns change over the life of a network.
The next level of network management focuses on delivering service level management, which Gartner defines as "the ability to measure and monitor network service performance". This provides an IT manager with an effective benchmark of end-to-end network performance.
The value of providing this level of management and reporting is that it provides real, quantifiable metrics for identifying problem areas before they result in performance degradation.
It also enables IT managers to allocate resources correctly (such as provisioning the appropriate level of bandwidth or apportioning costs to different departments) and determine the impact of any changes to the IT infrastructure (such as the overhead of a new application or growth in employee numbers).
The convergence of IP networks, which is fast becoming a reality as telephony is carried over LANs and WANs, places more pressure on the IT manager to deliver consistently reliable performance from the network.
Some form of service level management, combined with Quality of Service tools, are a necessity in order to troubleshoot any problems, and measure the ability of the network to manage IP traffic.
Having accepted the importance of some form of network management, the next big question is whether to build the system in-house or outsource. (This is a flagrant simplification of the process, which of course includes many other intermediary steps such as defining business benefits, benchmarking current operations, determining what level of management is required, etc).
There has been a significant shift to outsourcing in the past 6-12 months, driven largely by organisations seeing this as a way of transferring assets, forgoing capital expenditures, and reducing costs. However, there are a number of sound business reasons for outsourcing, such as critical function:
- No single point product will perform all network management needs, which means integrating multiple vendors' products to get the desired results.
- Purchasing a network management "framework" often involves re-engineering the organisation--the complexity resulting in as many as 70 percent of such installations failing to meet user needs (Gartner).
- Ongoing development costs and enough staff to cover 24x7 management needs to be factored into the ROI calculations.
- As well as reducing costs and risks, an outsourced solution will often provide a better outcome by offering service level management and contract structures that ensure delivery of the intended business outcomes.
- What is the current level of network up-time?
- Can you estimate the cost of network down-time (in business hours and outside)?
- Are there specific applications that are sensitive to network latency?
- Do you need to manage devices with different skill-sets (eg. security, WAN, voice)?
- Do you have the skill internally to resolve any problems that are proactively diagnosed?
- What coverage do you need (24x7 or business hours)?
- Can you assign different levels of importance or "criticality" to each device?
Oliver Descoeudres is marketing manager at network IP/Internet network infrastructure builder and solutions provider NetStar Australia. He can be contacted at marketing@netstarnetworks.com or on 02 9805 9759.
