Effective Network Management
The greatest challenge to configuration management is information management. Effective network management requires data from a wide variety of sources and the database technology to integrate this information into a single management system.
The ultimate objective of configuration management definition is achieving high inter-network availability. For many companies, outsourcing can prove to be the most effective means of network management. With sophisticated network management tools and procedures, a network management service can actively monitor network operations, proactively resolve network faults, take actions to optimize network performance, and guarantee continuous network availability. Companies can benefit from services that offer a cost-effective approach to maintaining complex networks and high levels of expertise in all aspects of network integration and management.
A number of excellent network management platforms and tools are available on the market today. However, tools are necessary, but not sufficient for maintaining a high level of network availability. In order to provide the network avail network administrator must have easy and transparent access to a wide range of information from a variety of sources. This can include the router management information base (MIB), wide-area service circuit ID, physical and virtual network maps, maintenance agreements, and LEC information.
A primary shortcoming of network management platforms is that they lack the global and contextual information on the network that typically is required to take preventative action and quickly resolve problems. For example, when an HP Open View network icon turns red, the network manager needs a wealth of information to track down and resolve the problem quickly. A standard network management platform simply is not capable of providing this information. While the network management system has access to in-depth information on the IP devices through each device's MIB, it does not have access to information outside that realm. To resolve a problem, a network manager may need information about the wide-area service itself, such as a circuit ID number, information on the service contract, and support contact information for the wide-area service provider. The network manager is forced to refer to multiple sources of information to gain a complete understanding of the problem. This not only affects the manager's ability to respond quickly, it often limits the manager's ability to solve the problem at all.
There have been many recommendations for ways to enhance the network management platform to provide more complete and useful information. One idea has been to include additional information in the MIBs of the various devices in the inter-network. In some cases this would provide the information the network manager requires, but it is not a long-term solution.
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