Cost-effective Network Management: The Advantages And Benefits

Automation entered our lives with the entry of Information Technology. The ambit of automation was not enclosed to a single entity or realm but encompassed realms outside the immediate vicinity of the base or formulating entity. Networks came to be in this manner. With distanced and disparate networks all in the hierarchy of one single project, managing the network became essential. With cost factor being a key factor for any process worth its mention a Cost-effective Network Management System was the demand for the day. A complete network is made up of two components. They are the hardware component and the software component. One has to only see it to believe it so far as the number of individual components that comprise a complete network.

When called upon with a problem being experienced by a customer at some remote location the first necessity that the network manager requires is the visual picture of the complete network.

Given the ever changing scenario of any business house which goes with the current volatile market factors, the individual networks that run the business house proceedings are equally altering. A pencil drawn map of the network one day would never match the same drawn on a subsequent day.

A tool that would continuously check the network and be able to report the current status of the network along with its breakdown components becomes mandatory for a network manager for his or her functioning. The network manager also uses this tool to manage the components from the remote location..

One such class of software which provides the various programs that are running across a network as well as the networks hierarchical view is called Managed Services Provider programs (MSP). There are some MSP which do not need any user intervention and called fully automated MSP and there are others which need human intervention at each step. There are MSP which are a mix of these two also. The Network manager's availability and capability would decide which MSP be best suited for a client. The software solution for managing networks accrues high cost saving to the business house. Instead of separate network managers managing every individual network, it could be substituted by just one network manager sitting at one location with this tool to manage the entire network. To judge the ability of an MSP solution, two major issues are taken into consideration. How deep and wide does the software present the network hierarchy to the network administrator and how strong is its reporting process. Individual companies creating the MSP however add different features in their advertisement campaigns. The ease with which the software can be deployed across the entire network, how much system resources does the software demand, these and many other similar features are used by individual MSP makers in their marketing strategy. For increased profit margins a cost-effective network management system is a deciding issue to any business house. This is especially so given the 'e' factor that has attached itself in every facet of a business in today's world. A Managed Service Provider is capable of bringing down price incurred by the business house in network management, in turn assuring increased profit margin to the business house. It could therefore be concluded that MSP is a cost-effective tool.