At the time when Ethernet was invented by Bob Metcalfe, computer chips were being produced by Intel. These chips provided almost unlimited capability of processing and transmission for servers and networks. At the same time, software, developed by Microsoft, were gulping down all available processing power. Network management is the key task in maintaining a balance between the hardware capability and software consumption.
Managing network varies with the application. There is no unique way that is applicable to every environment. However, there are some common elements which are applicable to almost all network applications. The definition of network management says "It is a process to maximise the reliability and utilisation of network components in order to optimise network availability and responsiveness". There are six key decisions that are required to be made, which influence the strategy of a high-level network management process. There are six questions that need to be answered, and once answered; they will be used to formulate the definition of the scope of responsibility and functional areas of the network management environment. These six key questions are:
- What will be managed by this process?
- Who will manage it?
- How much authority will be given?
- What types of tools and support will be provided?
- To what extent will other processes be integrated with this process?
- What levels of service and quality will be expected?
The question comes up, what will be managed by this process? The answer is, it is the network. But this answer is found to be too vague. It does not answer as to who is responsible for which aspects of the network. This becomes essential in large complex environments, where networks, spanning the world, would vary in terms of topology, platform, protocols, security, and suppliers.
There could be some infrastructures that are made responsible for both classified and unclassified networks, having a wide variety of security requirements, supplier involvements, and government regulations. This should be an early decision, as far as network management is concerned. It is imperative to decide which elements of the management task would be managed by which department. For instance, the responsibility to manage encryption could be given to a government agency, and the in-house security department of the organisation could be made responsible to manage network security, while the help desk facility is managed by the computer operations department, who would be administering network password and other allied tasks.
There are other decisions to make. Each of the network environments vary in terms of its priorities, directions, costs, and schedule. Major networking infrastructure hardly remains static, as far as its importance is concerned, popularity, and funding. There are constant changes that require the network management team to modify the management process. In this kind of a situation, early decisions need to be taken, and it is very much required that these decisions, regarding the management changes or amendments done, over the previous planning strategies, are communicated to all concerned parties.
Once the decision is taken on what will be managed, the next thing that comes up is who is going to manage. This is a decision which will determine the departments responsible for the respective management tasks, such as, design, implementation, and ongoing management of the process. Once the department is located, a person would have to be identified who will be assigned with the tasks. This person would be having the overall responsibility of the project assigned to him. The person identified will own the network management process, having the capability of a team leader, with skills to manage people. He should obviously be having network management skills, network resources, and skills to manage projects. As far as people management is concerned, the person responsible would need to involve himself working with developers on application profiles, transaction mix and arrival patterns, and planned increases in workloads, working close and effectively with users about desktop requirements, connectivity, and security.
The owner of the network management process should be well versed in network operating systems, utility programs, support software, and key hardware components, such as routers switchers, hubs, and repeaters. The person responsible should be target oriented, and have excellent skill in planning. It is desirable that the owner should have in-depth knowledge of infrastructure software and hardware and the ability to analyze metrics.
There are certain measures which provide the information about how effective the network management is performing. The effectiveness of the network could be seen from its service matrix, such as, network availability, network response times, and elapsed time to log on. The process efficiency could be measured by the network's process matrix, such as, outages caused by network design, maintenance, carriers testing, nonstandard devices, lack of training, and negligence.
Network management is completely a team work, with people who should be ideally being having the necessary certification in network management. There are several of these certification courses being offered, and one could get to enhance his skill in the field of specialty that he is in.
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Over twenty two years experience in Oracle. Significant development & Management skills viz.,technical writing, project planning and execution, project management, Oracle sql, pl/sql, data flow design, database design, datawarehousing, Oracle applications viz., manufacturing, scm, crm, financials, hrms,workflow, Oracle discoverer, forms, reports, etc., having expertise in Business Analysis. Presently a Sr. Program Manager with a Large IT organisation in London, looking after 10 Oracle applications project in Europe, and managing offshore development partners.
Education:
1. Fellow - Institute of Electronics & Communication Engineers.
2. MSc. Eng (Computer Science), University of London.
3. BSc. Eng (Electronics), University of London.
Hobby: Writing
prabirsenuk@yahoo.co.uk
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