The Breaking Point

Monday, August 11, 2008

Category: Business. Tags: , , , .

We hear it all the time – IT departments are under pressure but budgets and IT staff aren’t growing proportionately. Matters only get worse as disruptive technologies like SaaS, VoIP and virtualization begin to proliferate enterprise networks. Yet network administrators are forced to use highly fragmented, complex, and expensive management solutions that don’t provide good visibility. At what point does the network administrator hit the breaking point…go postal or gets fired because the VoIP system cuts out during prime work hours and the CEO can’t make his phone calls?

Network Management Has Become More Complex
Network management used to be an easier proposition – there were more people in a given IT department and each had his or her own set of duties. Back then, a lot could be done with homemade solutions. But with the advent of critical production applications, server and storage virtualization, and other new technologies, network management has become more complex. The steep learning curves involved with many of today’s monitoring and diagnostic solutions can be prohibitive and the speed at which technologies are changing make it difficult to stay current.

Companies Must Now Do More with Less
It is easy to say that organizations must be more current and comprehensive in all aspects of their information technology – network management, backup and other procedures. But most IT departments are stretched and cannot afford to devote the kind of resources necessary to operate the network at optimal levels. The reality is that most enterprises count on increased productivity using fewer resources and reward employees who can demonstrate they can do more with less.


If Variety is What You Want, Variety is What You’ve Got
For companies looking to improve their network management system, the good news is that there are an incredible number of options available to you that offer point solutions for specific network problems or tasks. These options encompass open source, commercial or a combination of the two. Some prefer Nagios for network monitoring but unless they are using a solution like PacketTrap’s pt360, which is a commercial software solution that integrates with most open source products, the IT administrator would then also require a TFTP diagnostic tool from Solarwinds and a PC inventory tool from a company like Spiceworks. And so-on-so-forth. Most recently, a host of hybrid companies like Hyperic are customizing open source tools and adding a support element to its business model. But that topic sparks significant debate in and of itself so it should be saved for another day. Of course, HPOpenview or IBM Tivoli are options as well…if you have a spare $100,000 laying around in your budget and a full-time employee or two to manage it.

The Problem with Today’s Network Management Products
In other words, few products can address all network management needs, dozens of point products are implemented. What this means for IT departments is a patched-together network that has too many parts to manage, no integration, little-to-no integration and support calls to different help desks. And while every network management vendor says its’ solution is “easy to use,” I think we all agree with eWeek’s networking editor Paula Musich when she says, “Vendor solutions are getting too long in the tooth.” In addition to the above, today’s products lack good network visibility, are expensive, and often have steep learning curves.

The Solution
Today’s IT departments need a straightforward, simplistic and comprehensive network solution that does what it says it does. Following is a list of recommended features and functions when evaluating a network management solution. The overall theme is “Easy,” as more fully described below.

• Time to Productivity – takes less than 15 minutes to implement. Quick implementation usually means the network management system should have network discovery feature, as well as switch port mapper, and fast configuration capabilities.

• Good visibility – a solution that includes a monitoring dashboard with charts or graphs that display the health of your network at-a-glance. Your solution should also include the ability to easily change your perspective from your network to a remote office network for troubleshooting and remediation purposes.

• Integrated – the most efficient and effective way to manage your network is to implement a solution that provides monitoring, diagnostic, troubleshooting, and remediation capabilities. In other words, your solution should give you the ability to monitor your network, alert you to a problem, diagnose it, and then drill-down further. For example, a solution that has a traffic-flow tool that allows you to find the traffic issue and then integrates other tools that allow you to shut down a port if unauthorized traffic is sucking up resources.

• Setting Baselines – IT managers are riddled with “false positive” alerts that take up time and effort. A solution that allows you to set baselines customized to your network is an important way to eliminate the “false positive” issue.

• Historical Reporting and Alerts – Of course many vendors highlight their alerting capabilities but the key is to receive the alert before anyone actually experiences a problem. Also, IT managers constantly need to battle for every dime of their budget so a network management system that includes database features that enable historical reporting allows users to present actual data about the issues relating to the network.

In short, organizations must look beyond the conventional approaches and toward network management systems that incorporate the best in component technologies. To do less will probably assure being an early casualty of the tremendous changes coming to the network. PacketTrap Networks’ network management solutions, pt360 and Perspective (available September 4) are good option to consider. The solutions are based on an integrated interface that includes all your essential network diagnostic, monitoring, troubleshooting, and discovery tools that you need. The interface is a productivity-enhancing, intuitive, easy-to-use design. The company offers both free and professional versions of pt360, as well as trials of Perspective, at www.PacketTrap.com.

Article submitted by Anna Yen .
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