Software Quarterly

Managing Distributed Information Networks

From A Simple Network Management Protocol Platform

by Sherri Leopard

Sherri Leopard is founder of Leopard Communications, a 25-person Boulder, Colo.-based marketing and communications firm specializing in computers and advanced technology. She has written extensively on technical and product issues for a variety of companies such as Xerox, US West, Ingersoll Rand, and Datasonix.


Putting the right information in the right hands -- at precisely the right time -- has become the defining quest of the Information Age. Whether it's information needed to spot a fleeting market opportunity or to respond to customer inquiries in real time, the ability to make a rapid decision based on up-to-the-minute information is critical in today's increasingly competitive business environment.

Unfortunately, as Heidi Dix of Forrester Research pointed out in a recent report, Underground Information: "The typical Fortune 1000 company has a big problem. It collects a lot of important business data that never gets used. And the people who could take data and turn it into competitive advantage can't get to the information they need."

Obviously, companies recognize this problem and have invested tremendous energy in trying to solve it. But the reality is that today's information repositories -- mainframes, minis, departmental servers, and desktops -- have become nearly impossible for the average user to navigate. As a result, there is tremendous pressure on information systems (IS) departments to build networks of systems that deliver key business data -- yet mask the underlying infrastructure.

And that infrastructure can be a dizzying array of hardware and operating systems; network protocols and physical links; middleware; server databases; client databases; multivendor database access tools; hubs, bridges, and routers; applications and graphical user interfaces; and much, much more. For better and worse, in most companies the distributed, multiplatform, multivendor network has replaced the centralized host and network of fixed-function terminals.

What Are The Limits?

With hardware, software, and network components coming from dozens of different vendors -- and with physical locations spread across campuses, countries, and even continents -- how does the IS or network manager keep things running while ensuring high-quality, responsive service to users?

"Customers can no longer allow any vendor's product limits to set the limits of their information networks," says John Donovan, a senior consultant at WorkGroup Technologies, Inc. "They must demand solutions that are open and built on industry standards. These solutions must embrace distributed systems management for all the predominant platforms in their environment -- at a minimum, Windows, OS/2, and Macintosh clients, as well as one or two flavors of UNIX workstations."

Defining a Network Management Solution

In today's environment, network management requires more than a random set of applications that do topology, discovery, statistical analysis, and network alerts. "To begin with, a network management solution must cover all the managed elements: network devices, computer hardware, and application software," says John McConnell of McConnell Consulting. "A high-quality solution will also ensure that individual tools integrate deeply with each other, that the system is driven by a powerful and easy-to-use interface, and that elements can be distributed.

"By choosing an open and well architected platform," Donovan adds, "customers can mix and match tools that manage hardware elements -- such as servers, hubs, and routers -- with more specialized tools for accounting, security, or remote monitoring. With tools that snap into a common platform and use a consistent graphical user interface, customers get maximum flexibility as well as productivity."

IBM is addressing an array of systems management challenges with its SystemView family of products. They are open management solutions that support accepted network management standards, multiple protocol suites, and heterogeneous network technologies. NetView for AIX and NetView for OS/2 provide platforms for a family of applications, both IBM and third party, that can help customers do everything from managing hubs and routers to tracing problems to managing an inventory of networked devices.

NetView for AIX applications fall into two categories:

These NetView applications share a common look and feel, which makes it extremely easy to manage multiple applications and multivendor environments. More importantly, the NetView Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and possible use of a common data repository insure interoperability between applications developed by IBM and other vendors.

NetView for AIX also can include the user's traditional Intel-based local area network (LAN) systems in its management repertoire. With LAN Management Utilities (LMU) for AIX and LAN Network Manager (LNM) for AIX working with their LAN NetView Utilities for OS/2 and LNM counterparts, administrators can manage both the UNIX- and Intel-based clients from one workstation. (LAN NetView provides the same look and feel as NetView for AIX, simplifying operator training and use.)

Providing Powerful Choices

To give users the richest set of choices in device and process management tools, IBM has actively promoted third-party licensing of and application development for NetView for AIX. In August 1993, Digital Equipment Corp. announced it would license NetView for AIX as its Enterprise Information Systems Management platform architecture for Alpha-based systems running OSF/1. According to McConnell, the move is welcomed by the industry. "NetView for AIX and its Digital POLYCENTER port have become the market-driven standards leader."

Less than two months after their initial announcement, IBM and Digital upped the ante by announcing that the NetView for AIX Association and the POLYCENTER Partners Program had been consolidated into the NetView Association. "The NetView Association was designed to make it easy and profitable for vendors to develop NetView applications, thus diversifying the number of network management applications customers can use," says Becky Overacre, manager of the NetView Association at IBM.

"The NetView collaboration between Digital and IBM has resulted in the industry's leading network management platform with the largest number of shipping third-party applications," says Nancy Strecker, a vice president with Digital Software Products.

Today, the NetView Association has more than 150-member companies that are delivering a wide variety of tools, services, MIB agents, and device management applications. By standardizing on a single, open technology which supports multiple operating systems, software vendors are seeing significantly lower development costs.

According to Russel Dietz, vice president of Systems Development for Technically Elite Concepts Inc., that savings gets passed on to the customer. "The NetView Association, with its common APIs and data repository, allows us to spread our development costs across the IBM NetView, HP OpenView, and Digital POLYCENTER platforms. As a result, the price of our Network Professor product dropped 40 percent -- from $5,000 to $3,000 -- in the last year."

An Integrated Family of Applications

Through the NetView Association, users have a diverse portfolio of integrated application choices that include traditional network management functions -- such as network analysis, configuration management, and help desk. Systems management functions, including software distribution, database management, capacity planning, operations management, and security -- are available as well.

Other areas of vendor solutions include LAN management, modem management, transmission management, voice/telephone management, management of networking protocols, vertical applications, consulting services, database management, capacity planning/simulation, software distribution management, data backup/recovery management, printer management, systems/network performance measurement, configuration and asset management, and problem management.

The growing variety of integrated solutions means "Customers can choose the specific application that best fits their needs," says Jill Huntington-Lee of Brandywine Network Associates. "IBM and Digital have seen the number of third-party applications almost triple in six months -- that's phenomenal."

In addition to its licensing agreement with Digital, IBM is working with a number of other vendors to extend its comprehensive systems management environment. They include SynOptics Communications Inc., as well as Microsoft for its Windows NT platforms and Hermes systems management environment. Last October, IBM released Systems Monitor for HP-UX, and NetView for AIX Version 2 has been ported to Sun's Solaris 2.2 operating system.

For users, IBM's NetView for AIX platform means being able to snap together the off-the-shelf applications that most closely meet their requirements. For example, according to Elizabeth Nichols, executive vice president of Digital Analysis Corp., "One multinational financial institution using NetView for AIX to manage its wide and local area networks and branch banking applications is looking at adding our Domain Manager and Resource Management Agents to simplify remote management. In addition, they plan to use Legent's Paradigm for problem management and Accugraph's MountainView for physical asset management. This flexibility is critical, and a major benefit for NetView for AIX customers."

"The NetView Association is living proof of IBM's commitment to openness and industry standards," says the NetView Association's Overacre.

"More important, it provides customers with the broadest possible range of network-management choices, and a reliable and stable platform for them to run on."

See also:





[SQ] [tell SQ] [get SQ] ["software"]

[ IBM home page | Order | Search | Contact IBM | Help | (C) | (TM) ]