Secure, monitor and manage

With the closer integration of applications and networks, a new breed of application delivery focussed network management solutions has emerged, writes Faiz Askari.

Monitoring and managing local networks is an increasingly important task as end-users seek ways to maximise the investment in their current networks. Software, tools and other IT-run applications are available that can monitor and manage traditional and next-generation corporate networks and services from a single consolidated console.

Some major areas of discussion between CIOs and networking vendors are to help companies run some mission-critical applications, locate and reconcile IT inventory, manage surveillance and fault detection, and assure improved performance. These factors are driving the major networking vendors to deliver better and more.

Says Sunil Kapoor, CIO of Fortis Healthcare, “Since the technology is undoubtedly taking us to new dimensions, IT applications have become a significant tool to deliver value-added things in the business. Also, it has been leveraged into the core businesses activity. Now these are getting connected to other parts of the business operations. In the healthcare sector, one can stay connected with all the cities where specialist doctors are sitting. We have seen many examples of this. But as a backbone for the entire organisation, networks are required to be up and running. In our case we cannot afford any network downtime. Security of the data is another vital factor for us. No hospital would like to or can even afford to lose or misplace critical data of the patient.”

Honda Siel Cars India finds inventory management to be a core focus of IT applications. Comments the company’s Hilal Isar Khan, “We are now looking at leveraging the technology to enable real-time inventory management. RFID tags can be put on parts which are used inside cars. The application is targeted at helping in efficiently managing inventory levels in terms of the quantity required, number of spares, etc. It can further help in inventory valuation, better management of inventory obsolescence, and work-in-progress inventory. Using RFID the company can execute a more efficient allocation of material for various shops. In this way we can give more strength to our networks, keep track of our production, and also manage this entire network.”

Adds M V Sarma, Assistant Vice-president, Global Infrastructure Services, CSC India, “Earlier, network management primarily focussed on bandwidth availability and management of the network infrastructure. Today there is a shift in translating the network resource management. The network management arena has seen a manifold expansion in the Indian corporate space.”

Shifting focus

Highlighting the importance of network management, Sarma continues, “All organisations, irrespective of their size, and having any kind of IT services, are going in for network management solutions. With increased demand for secured, reliable and high-performance networks, network management is a critical part of any IT-enabled business. Large organisations like CSC have the advantage because they have the required technical expertise, skill-sets and experience to produce the desired business results.”

For a company to deploy a network management solution, the basic requirement is the availability of bandwidth, and if a company cannot provide that itself, it can outsource it to solution providers as these providers specialise in managing networks for others. Bandwidth can also be taken on a rental basis. Not only bandwidth, the entire network management activity can be outsourced. Companies in India have already started doing these things. Above all, there should be a high level of importance and criticality of network for the business process.

From fault management the focus is shifting to performance management as companies mature enough to analyse their service management. It’s the bigger corporates that come forward for such network management solutions because as they grow and their networks expand they anticipate the problems they are likely to face in some time. But smaller organisations are definitely following. As they too rapidly grow and evaluate their environment, they have also become part of the trend today.

Outsourcing network management

Every industry and its niche segments have their own issues, and these can be addressed only by them. Discussing such issues with respect to the network management arena, Kapoor remarks, “The relation between us and any IT vendor or solution provider or system integrator is very sensitive, so it is critical. To get a good output of any project we need prompt support from these parties. In some cases it gets a good result whereas in a few cases this becomes a problematic situation. In the case of managing the network one needs to have great support from its vendor, SI and solution provider. The network has truly become an integral part of mission-critical applications.”

As a suggestion he adds, “We enjoy very good business relations with our partners. This is because I strongly believe that in many cases things move more on personal push than by following an official protocol. We have a working environment in which our team develops very healthy relations with the vendors. In this scenario whenever any problem occurs in the network it gets sorted out easily.”

While having an entirely different kind of exposure, the banking and finance sector spends a really big chunk of its IT investment in expanding its network and then maintaining it. Highlighting another important issue, Rajesh Vaish, AGM, IT Systems, State Bank of India informs, “In the BFSI segment, networks run on a mission-critical basis. We have a very critical factor of delivering zero-downtime of the networks. In our business we require 100 percent network uptime, which is a challenge in itself although we normally have a leased line which has delivered good results for us.”

The major driver is the service, the uptime of service. If you lease bandwidth you want it to be available to you all the time, hence service becomes a key issue when you talk of factors affecting network management. Security is an issue but service is a greater factor. One doesn’t want 90 percent service; the service has to be 100 percent. Network management cannot suffice with inefficient service.

There are many factors which affect and drive the network management market. Today’s need is reliability. All organisations look for that, a smoothly-managed secure network is something that all companies desire. Companies want network uptime and safe communication 24/7. If there is deterioration in service, companies move on from one vendor to another. Network damage is too serious a risk, hence the major driving force is reliability, and companies today are ready to put their money on the table for better services.

The future of network management is bright due to the global trend of remote infrastructure management. However, if we are to sustain this growth and avoid pitfalls, long-term objectives need to be the focus. Aligning technology enhancement with business growth should be the mantra.