Proactively Manage your Network

Steve Goodman
DVP & GM, Network Management Group Quest Software

Michael Osterman
Principal and Founder Osterman Research, Inc.

About Osterman Research

Focused on the messaging, Web and collaboration industries

Practice areas include archiving, security, encryption, content management, etc.

Strong emphasis on primary research conducted with decision makers and influencers Founded in 2001

Based near Seattle

About the Speaker

Steve Goodman DVP & GM, Network Management Group Quest Software Entrepreneur
Founder, PacketTrap Networks (Acquired Quest Software) Founder, Lasso Logic (acquired by SonicWALL ) Founder, Learning Productions (Acquired by SkillSoft) IT Implementation Manager: Andersen Consulting (now Accenture)

Networks Must Perform Well

Duh!

Networks are the foundation upon which applications, services and users depend
The network must provide:
Sufficient and flexible bandwidth 24x7 operation Rapid response Robust security The appropriate balance of capabilities between multiple apps

Good network management is essential

What Could Go Wrong?

Hardware failures
Routers, switches, etc. can fail or broadcast junk Network elements can be configured improperly

Applications failures
Applications can break or suck up bandwidth Patches and upgrades dont work as planned Incompatibilities between network elements

Security failures

Poor change management procedures

Consequences
Loss of revenue
Employee productivity suffers Transactions stop Critical business content is lost Customers go away

Loss of corporate reputation

Prospects and customers will not be impressed Brand damage

Higher IT costs
Unplanned remediation time Delays in other work

Consequences (contd.)
Users will employ alternate systems
Mobile phones Personal Webmail Ad hoc file transfer systems

This can lead to security, compliance and other problems

Key Elements of Network Management

Goal: track performance over time with the goal of predicting when network elements will fail, and to plan for capacity upgrades or changes over time

Track the Network Over Time

Monitor Performance

Goal: track network performance in real time so that errant applications, services, hardware or user behavior is discovered ASAP

Goal: assist IT staff in locating and addressing the problems that arise for the purpose of bringing the network back online or optimizing its performance

Help IT to Address Problems

Provide RealTime Alerts

Goal: inform IT staff as quickly as possible about problems so that they can be solved with minimal impacts on users, processes and revenue

Summary
Monitor every element of your network closely to determine problems before they happen Focus on long-term trends to perform predictive analytics on your network with a goal of addressing problems before they occur

Be proactive ensure that you will react to problems as seldom as possible

Examples
Clock-related communications traffic in a hospital caused traffic overload and bedside monitors stopped monitoring patients.

Because of some VPN problems, a new firewall was installed. However, switching over to the new firewall caused the entire network to go down, disabling access to the email server, FTP server and a critical application.
A hospital network that supported a telemetry system for 170 patient monitors failed due to the trip of a circuit breaker. The unmonitored UPS ran for 30 minutes and then ran out of power. The network was down for 45 minutes. So the network went down today at work, so while I was waiting for IT to figure out the problem I started reading an article titled. Close to afternoon we then got into trouble, as the network went down. The reason was that all the bandwidth was occupied by a video conference held in another room beside our multimedia facility. So the afternoon was a small disaster, and instead of doing the practical issues I had planned for us to do it was more like just lecturing.

About ScriptLogic

Pandora & Network Management

Q: How Can Pandora Impact the Network Management Industry?

Rich Media on the Network

Adds pressure to infrastructure Vertical vs Horizontal Monitoring Types of Rich Media
VoIP Video Audio

Vertical Traffic

Horizontal Traffic

Hardware Failures
You must be able to proactively monitor devices:
Virtualization Network Devices Servers VoIP Wireless Network Traffic

Proactive Management

Application Failures
Monitor & manage to prevent failures:
Processes & services Bandwidth usage Maintenance tasks Automated remediation

Apps: Salesforce.com

Change Management
Poor change management could lead to:
Firewall issues Broken router configs Security holes

Prevent by implementing:
Alerts Config Backups Config restore

Configuration Change Mgmt.

Pandora = Self Learning

PacketTrap IT is Proactive
Monitor
Device & appl availability and utilization Config file changes

Alert
Intelligent alerts from monitors Baseline normal network performance

Remediate
Automatically fix common problems Custom & included scripts Remote access to devices

Report
Continually monitor the network Find out of there are trends in failures

More Information
www.scriptlogic.com/packettrap
Free 21-day Evaluation

www.scriptlogic.com/sl360
Just provide an email address

For More Information

Osterman Research, Inc. +1 253 630 5839 info@ostermanresearch.com www.ostermanresearch.com www.ostermanresearch.com/blog Twitter: @mosterman