NM Issues for the Enterprise

In an age where communication is the lifeblood of any business, it is perhaps
inevitable that your company increasingly relies on the network. With this
reliance come a host of related issues, not all of them technical. With
advancing technologies and the demands made on these technologies, your network
is becoming more complex than ever before, with no sign of respite. Further,
because of its importance to business success, your network is more visible than
ever before. And to keep the network going, you need good people, but you can’t
hire and keep enough of them.

The situation, of course, is not static–the business environment changes
all the time, and with it comes the challenge of not just keeping up with the
change but being able to anticipate and exploit the same. Hence, the network has
to be viewed as not just some fancy plumbing, but an ongoing strategic
investment that is critical to future corporate success.

The challenges are great. As a CIO, the company relies on you to address
these myriad issues, and in the final analysis, looks to you to help beat the
competition and contribute to the company’s bottom line. Once you have a
network in place, it is imperative that you examine ways of exploiting it to the
maximum possible limit. Not doing so would mean wasting time and money in
equipment and man-hours, something that you cannot afford. This is where network
management comes in.

Network management

Network management entails much more than network maintenance. Network
management is keeping a network up and running to maximum efficiency while
effectively managing its growth. It is about gaining control of the various
elements that comprise the network. Network management is also taking control of
a complex environment and delivering the highest level of availability to the
end user.

As more and more devices have been connected to the network, it has become
apparent that there were more and more opportunities for miscommunication to
occur between connections; for a router to be improperly configured; or for
packets of information to be overloading the system. These complexities have
spurred demand for a sophisticated means to:

• Manage the network proactively, identify potential network problems and
  avoid costly downtime;

• Maximize efficiency and productivity to minimize
  bottlenecks; and

• Capture meaningful and useful network performance data.

Value of network management

What can network management do and how can you receive value
from it? In some cases, direct dollar value can be assigned to the activity,
such as:

• Predictive capacity planning;

• Reduced downtime;

• Fewer symptomatic repairs;

• Lower hardware/software costs;

• Enhanced fiscal management;

• Reduced staffing and skill level; and

• Reduction in network "turmoil/churn".

In other cases, indirect value is important as network
management provides:

• Greater efficiency;

• More work time available to users;

• Less time to perform a given task;

• Improved morale, no work hassle; and

• Reduced "risk" to the network.

All this adds up to a very high return on investment (RoI).
If you are still not convinced of the value of network management, ask yourself
a different question. Instead of asking "Should I invest in Network
Management?", ask the opposite–"What will it cost my company if I DO
NOT invest in network management?"

The author is manager, product marketing, Cisco Systems India