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.