Benefits And Advantages Of Cost-effective Network Management

Information Technology could be called the precursor to business automation. The automation extended outwards and included other linked sphere of operations related to the central business venture. Synchronisation of these disparate operations in order to be able to achieve one singular end result gave rise to networks. Managing these networks was a costly affair. In order to ensure profit margins Cost-effective network management systems became an object in demand. Individual objects make up the network in totality. These objects are both hardware and software components. It needs practical experience to be able to appreciate the large number of objects and their variety that form a network. Uncanny problems are faced by the Network administrator in his day to day work that makes his job extremely demanding. 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.

The task of the network manager becomes even more difficult due to the fact that the network map is never the same even on successive days at some instance. This occurs as every business house has to continuously adapt to the changes in the market and thereby effect changes in the procedures that he conducts his business.

A tool which is capable of providing a continuously updated view of the network and its functioning is the need of the day. This software should also have the capability to permit the network manager remotely manage the various components that make up the network.. 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.

Cost saving factor of such software requires no amplification. Rather than having individual network manager at each individual physical location trying to talk with each other, one network manager sitting remotely is able to monitor and provide solutions to the individual network system.

How well and detailed does the MSP software report the network statistics and status and how wide and deep can the software report decide the power and strength of the software.

However there are various other factors and features that each individual company would indicate in their product manifesto. Features like ease of deploying the MSP software itself across the entire network. The demand for system resources that the software be inherent with. 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.