Are you managing your network like a BUSINESS?
Are you managing your network like a BUSINESS? ...6 questions
that Senior Managers need to ask
By Scott Odette www.thefreepchelpsite.com
Managing your data network is no longer a job for a "geek".
While it is absolutely necessary that the network manager is
qualified to make technology decisions regarding the shape and
function of your enterprise infrastructure, it is equally
critical that those decisions are made within the context of
your company's business plan.
This article will touch upon six elements of network management
that may escape many executives' and senior managers' attention.
Read through the list and ask yourself, "Do we have these bases
covered?"
Do you maintain an accurate inventory?
Do you know how much you paid for your network? Do you
depreciate the capital value of the hardware over 3 years or 5
years? Construction and deployment related labor can be
capitalized in many cases...in fact, MUST be capitalized in many
cases. How did your Finance department treat your last network
project? An accurate asset inventory makes it a lot easier to
supply these answers. Consider too, in a business world driven
by so many new pressures, that Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is an
incentive to establish an inventory process that tells you
exactly what you own and substantiates that everything is
properly licensed. Conventional asset tracking aside, consider
some other advantages that can be gained by understanding your
network inventory. Network topology maps provide a "snapshot" of
your network, and can be very useful to a facility manager in
planning departmental moves by showing switch capacity in any
given area of a building. Does your company subscribe to a
network maintenance plan or have you elected to "self-insure"
with an onsite sparing strategy? Either way, your inventory
management practices impact the mitigation of any equipment
failure. In case one, most maintenance subscriptions require the
covered equipment to be described explicitly by serial number
and will in fact, deny service if that information isn't
included in the service submission. In case two, a sparing
strategy necessitates the ability to know exactly which
equipment is available at any moment in time, very important to
a large enterprise experiencing multiple failures within
relatively short periods of time.
How secure is your network?
So much has been said about network security, that maybe the
easiest way to consider its impact on your business is to look
at the basics. Physical security refers to the methods used to
protect all information and computing assets from any
unauthorized physical access by an individual or individuals who
would pose a threat. Equipment theft or damage, physical
break-ins and employee sabotage are all examples of those kinds
of threats. Countermeasures might include placing network
devices (and most of your other IT assets) in locked secure
areas, and making them accessible only by the IT staff. Logical
security refers to the protection against unauthorized
disclosure or communication of intellectual property, ideas or
concepts that would damage your company's competitive advantage.
Examples of appropriate countermeasures would include requiring
signed and validated non-disclosure agreements from all network
personnel and assignment of secure access to sensitive areas of
information on your network. With the recent proliferation of
more and more wireless devices, its also a good time to consider
your company's security policies regarding the use and
management of WLAN capable PCs and PDAs. Do you have a
comprehensive WLAN security policy in place that employs
adequate authentication measures and access controls? The proper
employment of SSIDs (Service Set Identifiers), encryption, and
access control lists are important to your wireless security.
Many companies employ an EAP (Extensible Authentication
Protocol) based algorithm to ensure that the devices accessing
their network are in fact, friendly and not being used by
outsiders to illegally gain access. At the very least, an
explicit statement of security policy and its accurate
communication to your workforce is a necessity.
Do you have an technology roadmap?
Does your network staff stay abreast of the technologies that
will help maintain your company's competitiveness five years in
the future? Of course they do, right? They love all of that
technical stuff. But do you have a roadmap that documents the
steps required to implement those technologies or at least to
position for their potential deployment? That plan should take
into account the useful life of your existing infrastructure,
the current state of technology that might significantly
influence your business success and many other factors specific
to your company's current state. The estimates that the plan
makes regarding the timing of certain technology investments
could be very helpful in your strategic budgeting as well as
your month to month spending forecast. It represents the
adoption and treatment of technology costs as business critical
factors that are just as important as utilities and rent.
Do you adhere to Standards?
When I travel, I try to fly Southwest Airlines. Their flights
are usually cheaper and I experience a minimum of travel-related
hassle. Interestingly, they only fly Boeing 737's.
Standards...they are a good thing. In the case of the decision
to fly only one type of plane the airline directors help
illustrate the long term benefit of standards adoption.
Equipment purchased in larger lots cost less. Training is
required only for that equipment. Spare parts are inventoried
for only that equipment and are interchangeable between ground
crews. Efficiency is the outcome. The same is true for network
equipment. It does not pay to have every type and model of
network device in your inventory. They each have some level of
nuance that is device and/or vendor specific, and one
operational necessity in network management is that the entire
technical staff is capable of identifying and resolving issues
with every device in the network. The result in most cases is a
higher cost staff or a staff incapable of providing
comprehensive support. Make it easy on your business by
standardizing on a vendor and family of products. Then make
certain that the entire network support team is fully trained in
the operation of that much smaller group of products. It's an
efficient way to operate and it will improve your bottom line.
Do you have a Disaster Recovery Plan?
Does your company publish a business continuity policy?
Interruptions of business can range from short term power
outages to major disasters caused by hurricanes, floods, fire
and armed conflict. The execution of a Disaster Recovery Plan
usually spells out all of the people involved and documents the
steps required to resume the business in incremental steps,
prioritizing those pieces of the business that need to come back
first. Usually that first piece is communication, both voice and
data. A network's DRP will take into account all of the
alternatives that might be available depending on the varying
degrees of service outage. This might involve offsite storage of
spare equipment, pre-planned emergency vendor service or in the
case of some very large companies, fully functional alternative
"hot sites" to which employees travel and operate as normal.
Make certain that you know who your network contacts are and how
to reach them in the event of trouble. Cost and risk management
are the factors that determine the extent of alternative
coverage, but a contingency management plan for the coverage
should be in place. If you operated a business in the southern
U.S. during the 2005 hurricane season, you and thousands of
business like yours experienced the need for forward planning
firsthand.
How strong are your vendor relationships?
Network product vendors operate in the same type of competitive
marketplace as your business. They are, or at least should be,
viewing their relationship with your business as an chance to
add more value and service than their competition can. Today's
network manager has to recognize the resources that are
available to him from those vendors in terms of technical
assistance, product currency, emerging technology awareness,
seminars and training, and use those resources to the advantage
of your business. The image of the "network geek" hiding behind
a locked data center door, solving unsolvable problems at 4 in
the morning, surrounded by half empty pizza boxes is a popular
stereotype. In today's world, the business demands that the
network manager remains available and proactive with all of the
vendors that touch the network space. Technology, security and
functional developments are happening so fast that awareness
pays in real dollars.
Most companies operate some sort of network today, from a few
simple internet links to global, enterprise-wide super-networks
and in every case, someone has the role of managing that
activity. That person can play a significant role in the
success...or failure, of your business. Its not all about the
technology anymore...the successful network manager in today's
competitive market is making a difference in the bottom line, by
harnessing the energy of technology within the context of the
business and making it work efficiently.