Untangle the network

Network management has become more than just pinging routers and checking for device availability.

The explosive growth of IT infrastructures has resulted in complex distributed systems and applications whose timely management is rapidly exceeding human ability.

It is no longer about ensuring the provision of ample bandwidth throughout the organisation and guaranteeing that adequate service level agreements (SLAs) are in place. Today’s network managers are expected to ensure secure, reliable service delivery across large distributed systems. Protocols such as token ring and frame relay are fast becoming just memories as networks converge and standardise into an IP-centric environment.

Mark Charlesworth, head of IT at Sheffield Hallam University, says the different types of network technology and protocols have been steadily decreasing over the past few years, but the changes have been offset by the many new types of network device that have appeared.

“Today we are supporting and managing firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, virtual private networks (VPNs), load balancers, traffic shapers and content management systems, to name a few, and the proliferation has made it difficult for even suppliers with hundreds of support engineers to keep on top of all developments,” he says.

“It is my fondest hope that management tools will develop so that networks will be managed by policies and the tools will take responsibility for the detailed configuration of the network in line with the policies. Only if such a change occurs can the management of the network be constrained in the limited resources available to most companies.”

Network management challenges are resulting from the size, architectural complexity and distributed nature of networks, together with multivendor systems and the variety of workloads serving large numbers of users with complex and diverse services. Richard Mahony, enterprise practice leader at analyst Ovum, says today’s network manager has to deal with broader concerns than ensuring the network is available and reliable.

“The onset of convergence has brought more complex management functions because voice and video in particular have to be treated in a more sensitive fashion to guarantee higher levels of service,” he says.

“Convergence in the network means greater co-operation with your suppliers as both parties have to take a wider perspective to manage the end-to-end delivery of the service. Service delivery is now a network management issue.”

Current IT management technologies are still costly, ineffective and labour intensive ­ and the era of element-based network management is over, according to Evelyn Hubbert, senior analyst at Forrester Research. “The definition of the network has evolved over the past few years, from including technologies used to transport data to embracing the elements connected to the network together with servers and storage,” she says.

“Today, network management teams need to manage and understand network-related issues across servers, storage, security, databases and applications. They need to administer complex and dynamic IP networks that connect suppliers, vendors and employees.”

Firms are also beginning to realise the advantages of freeing up the time of the network specialists and using systems for more strategic work that will further the goals of the business, such as the design and provisioning of services or the development of next-generation networks. It is partly such forward thinking that has led to the trend of outsourcing network management to specialist third-party providers.

“The complexity of managing the network is growing,” says Hubbert. “As companies plan to add voice over IP (VoIP), wireless, streaming video, collaboration and other demanding applications onto their networks, they require different skills and tools. Faced with the blurring lines of local and wide area networks, organisations are rethinking their network management strategies and beginning to outsource network management to service providers.”

Patrick Walker, head of management information systems at high-street jeweller Beaverbrooks, says deploying a managed network service from Vodat has placed the emphasis back on developing technology that supports the business.

“We used to manage the network ourselves including the dial-up and ISDN links between the 61 retail stores and our head office. With so many branches and limited technical staff, this was difficult,” he says.

“Changing to a managed multi-protocol label switching network has lifted a burden ­ now we can get on with our real job of supporting the branches and developing the business applications.”

And the way organisations view the network has also changed, says Ovum’s Mahony. “No longer is the network the remit of the sandal wearers. How an organisation interacts with its customers and suppliers is now a boardroom topic,” he says.

Executives and board members in firms of all sizes are now taking a much keener interest in the corporate network. Paul Huxman, information and communications systems manager at south-west England law firm Foot Anstey, says his board pay close and supportive attention to developments within the corporate infrastructure.

“Once it is recognised exactly how much downtime and loss of business can occur with a network problem, having your network managed efficiently is like a good insurance policy,” he says.

“With five offices around the south-west peninsular and limited expertise in-house, persuading the board to implement a managed VPN from Telewest was easy, despite the significant initial investment required.”

Organisations have traditionally used reactive network management tools such as HP OpenView, CiscoWorks and Tivoli for taking control of their network infrastructure. However, these tools will not be sufficient for the next generation of real-time networks, with increased intelligence and software in the heart of the network.

Proactive, policy-based and automated management tools will be required to meet the demands of high performance, while reducing vulnerability and guaranteeing regulatory compliance.

Such tools will bring together areas as diverse as artificial intelligence, self-organisationing behaviour and distributed computing, with control, statistics, security, software engineering and autonomic computing ­ and may help address the requirements for performance, reliability, security and availability in networks.

But network management today is no longer just about technology.

“A key to getting useful and reliable data out of any management tool is to ensure that the tools’ knowledge of your infrastructure matches what is actually there,” says Sheffield Hallam University’s Charlesworth. “It is therefore important that the IT division and network managers are aware of new installations, building maintenance and refits as well as estates changes.”

The advent of next-generation, IP-centric networks from the telecommunications operators will join new capabilities with enhanced network services. Such services will promise rapid deployment and a reduction in service management cost, as well as the capability to support multimedia services.

The next range of networking services will encourage the trend to further outsourcing of network provision and its management.

Next week: the second part of our definitive guide to network management looks at users.

Watch our video guide to network management www.computing.co.uk/tv

Five network management technologies for the future

Next-generation networks
Integrate Ethernet with multi-protocol label switching and you get an IP-centric carrier-class network that can deliver rich multiple services such as VoIP, unified messaging and personal communications services. Whether the traffic flows over fixed copper, fibre or a mobile infrastructure will no longer be of concern to the user or the administrator. Next-generation networks will be more intelligent and offer new features through software residing in the system.

Virtual managed services
The scope of remotely-delivered managed services is set to grow as the technology improves and acceptance of the concept of virtual managed services increases. The management, and even the provision, of enterprise infrastructures, could be absorbed into next-generation networks being implemented by telecoms companies. Virtualising services – such as telephone provision, contact centres as well as conferencing, email and office applications – means that provision could be delivered and managed from the core of the network, rather than from in the enterprise.

Autonomic computing
Self-diagnosing and self-healing network systems may seem like science fiction, but with the increasing complexity and distribution of infrastructure, autonomic computing has the potential to address some of the management challenges facing business. Viewing IT infrastructures and their services as closed-loop control systems, autonomics implements the corrective actions that return the system to its normal state.

Network management portals
The proliferation of modern network management tools, together with changes and advances in additional functionality and service delivery, means that running and monitoring multiple network management applications is no longer workable. Portals will be used to provide the window into the network management world, in the same way that the systems provide an integrated desktop or dashboard for business applications. As remote network management becomes the norm, your network management portal may soon be appearing on a desktop or mobile device near you.

Policy-based management
Taking a manual approach to network management is unrealistic in the long-term: what is needed is a holistic and comprehensive method that supports business requirements. Networks need to be directed and managed according to policies and procedures and we are starting to see policy-based network management tools appearing in the market. Regulatory compliance seems to be the current driver, but expect to see new tools appearing that offer a wider, comprehensive methodology for total network
management.

Five companies that could change network management

Nagios
This is an open source network monitoring system designed to inform managers of employees about problems before clients or users. With the increasing use of open source technologies to modernise IT environments, projects such as Nagios will start to gain popularity. Designed to run on most versions of Unix, the system is fast and flexible with the built-in ability to contact administrators using email or text messaging.
www.nagios.org

Solidcore
Many network failures and downtime issues are caused by human error – changes are made that are mistimed, inappropriate or completed without the appropriate workflow procedures. Solidcore S3 Control provides real-time, continuous change tracking across an entire infrastructure to ensure that all alterations conform to policies and processes, preventing unauthorised transformations to a network.
www.solidcore.com

Reductive Labs
Watch out for developments of Puppet, described as a system administrative engine for the whole network. Yet another open source product, Puppet is a language for automating system administration tasks that works on most varieties of the Unix operating system. Claiming to help reduce overheads and keep the everyday management of the network under control, Puppet could save administrators hours of frustration.
www.reductive labs.com

Netcordia
Using built-in expert rules to assess, audit and proactively detect hidden and harmful problems through a multi-vendor infrastructure, Netcordia’s NetMRI solution claims to maximise network effectiveness and ensure compliance. Taking an integrated network management approach, the system provides one of a new generation of proactive tools providing expertise in problem analysis.
www.netcordia.com

InfoVista
Service-centric performance management software to guarantee service levels in even the largest converged corporate network. With a variety of end-to-end performance measurement techniques designed to proactively ensure reliable delivery of services between users and applications, VistaInsight for Networks provides an integrated view of the network and its services. Auto-discovery of infrastructure resources and automated report provisioning, together with out-of-the-box key performance indicator-driven analysis, makes the system an appealing example of management for the new breed of converged, service-driven networks.
www.infovista.com

Top tips for network management

Network management projects are all too often undertaken as an afterthought. A new infrastructure
layer is implemented, such as multiprotocol layer switching, or a new service is introduced across the infrastructure, such as internet-based television.

Attention only turns to issues of the modified infrastructure’s health or the new service’s quality after the network is up and running.

Given the high cost of implementing network management software, and the degree to which resource-hungry systems can burden the technologies they are meant to support, network management projects should be planned early.

Gartner suggests that there are five key points to consider when planning a complex network management implementation:

* The process that the network management system is intended to support should be designed before the technology selection is undertaken. Network management tools, by and large, favour certain types of workflow or process structure, and the project team must choose technologies that easily support the kinds of processes that are optimal for the business.

* Network management software licence costs typically run to about a third of the total cost of implementing a system – and IT organisations frequently underestimate implementation costs.

* Network management systems can consume a significant quantity of computing resources. It is critical to factor such an added impact into an IT organisation’s capacity planning exercises.

* Network management systems need to be co-ordinated with the monitoring and control functionality targeted at other parts of the overall IT infrastructure. Even if an organisation buys its network management software from the same vendor that supplies its server and application management software, the degree to which such capabilities can be integrated should not be overestimated. Integration usually takes a large amount of manual effort to construct a holistic view of the IT network’s health.

* Monitoring and management functionality typically appears on the market between 12 and 36 months after a new network technology first achieves broad commercial acceptance. If an IT organisation is an early adopter, it could discover available monitoring and management solutions are immature.

Even these five points are factored into network management project planning, significant risks remain.

Vendors of systems management software, network equipment manufacturers and storage technology suppliers increasingly believe that network management software can add an important and different aspect to their respective product portfolios.

Unless an organisation is willing to restrict its product choices to systems offered by established vendors, the software will more than likely come under new ownership within one or two years of its implementation.

When buying from larger vendors, on the other hand, there is a large possibility that the acquired technologies will often undergo radical transformations as they are integrated into pre-existing portfolios.

Will Cappelli, research vice president, Gartner