Network and Systems Management – serie

It is important to understand what came before and how to meld new products with legacy systems. Network managers need to understand the context and origins of the systems they are using. Programmers need an understanding of the reasons behind the interfaces they must satisfy and the relationship of the software they build to the whole network. And finally, sales representatives need to see the context into which their products must fit.

Enterprises all over the world are experiencing a rapid development of networked computing for applications that are required for the daily survival of an organization. Client-server computing offers great potential for cost-effective networked computing. However, many organizations have now learned that the cost of maintenance and support of these networked distributed systems far exceeds the cost of buying them. Computer supported creative work (CSCW) is the evolving area that promotes the understanding of business processes and relevant communication technologies. This guide uses CSCW as the medium for conveying ideas on the integration of business processes with network and systems management.I t should be useful for systems management professionals wishing to know about business process integration, business managers wishing to integrate their tasks with network/systems management, software system developers wishing to adopt participatory design practices, and students and researchers.

This book is about problems and methods in managing communication networks. The kinds of networks under consideration include enterprise networks (i.e. those that are typically owned and managed by businesses) and service networks (i.e. those that are owned by service providers but leased to businesses). Given the increasing dependence of human activities and business on networking, the topics of managing them and keeping them healthy are especially important. The book is divided into three parts. The first part describes the special characteristics of business and service networks, standards and common practices in managing networks, architectures of network management systems, and a close look at one popular network management system. The second part consists of three case studies: managing a micro city network, managing a service provider network, and managing an Internet2 GigaPoP network. The third part discusses future directions of network management. It looks at current research activities in network management, current practices in the field, the problem of combining research and practice, and finally discusses directions towards a comprehensive network management system.

Active networking is a new paradigm in digital networking that has the potential to revolutionize the manner in which communication takes place. It is an emerging technology, one in which new ideas are constantly being formulated and new topics of research are springing up even as this book was being written. This technology is very likely to appeal to a broad spectrum of users from academia and industry. Therefore, this book was written in a way that enables all these groups to understand the impact of active networking in their sphere of interest. Information services managers, network administrators, and e-commerce developers would like to know the potential benefits of the new technology to their businesses, networks, and applications. The book introduces the basic active networking paradigm and its potential impacts on the future of information handling in general and on communications in particular. This is useful for forward-looking businesses that wish to actively participate in the development of active networks and ensure a head start in the integration of the technology in their future products, be they applications or networks.Areas in which active networking are likely to make significant impact are identified, and the reader is pointed to any related ongoing research efforts in the area. The book also provides a deeper insight into the active networking model for students and researchers, who seek challenging topics that define or extend frontiers of the technology. It describes basic components of the model, explains some of the terms used by the active networking community, and provides the reader with taxonomy of the research being conducted at the time this book was written. Current efforts are classified based on typical research areas such as mobility, security, and management. The intent is to introduce the serious reader to the background regarding some of the models adopted by the community, to outline outstanding issues concerning active networking, and to provide a snapshot of the fast-changing landscape in active networking research. Management is a very important issue in active networks because of its open nature.The latter half of the book explains the architectural concepts of a model for managing active networks and the motivation for a reference model that addresses limitations of current network management framework by leveraging the powerful features of active networking to develop an integrated framework. It also describes a novel application enabled by active network technology called the Active Virtual Network Management Prediction (AVNMP) algorithm. AVNMP is a pro-active management system; in other words, it provides the ability to solve a potential problem before it impacts the system by modeling network devices within the network itself and running that model ahead of real time.

E-business covers a broad spectrum of businesses based on the Internet, including e-commerce, e-healthcare, e-government and e tailing. While substantial attention is given to the planning and development of e-business applications, the efficiency and effectiveness of e-business systems will largely depend on management solutions. These management solutions demand a good grasp of both the technical and business perspectives of an e-business service. Addressing the problem of managing e-business as a set of networked services, this text links enterprise management with network and systems management. It provides an overview of the emerging techniques for IT service management from a business perspective with case studies from telecommunication and healthcare sectors. It integrates the business perspective with relevant technical standards, such as SNMP, WBEM and DMI. This book presents some concepts and methodologies that enable the development of effective and efficient management systems for networked services.The book is intended to familiarize practicing managers, engineers and graduate level students with networked service management concepts, architectures and methodologies with reference to evolving standards. It should be useful in a number of disciplines, such as business management, information systems, computers and networking and telecommunications.

Enterprise IT infrastructure is getting increasingly complex. With the increase in complexity has arisen the need to manage it. Management in general can be seen as the process of assuring that a managed entity meets its expectations in a controlled and predictable manner. Examples of managed entities are not only components, entire systems, processes, but also people such as employees, developers, or operators, and entire organizations. Traditional management has addressed some of these issues in varied manner. The emergence of Web services has added a new complexity to the management problem and poses a new set of problems. But it also adds to the mix a set of technologies that will make the task of management simpler. Management of Web services will be critical as businesses come to rely on them as a substantial source of their revenue. The book tries to cover the broad area of web services, the concepts, implications for the enterprise, issues involved in their management and how they are being used for management themselves. The book is intended as a reference for current practice and future directions for web services and their management. The book is directed at: • Computing professionals, academicians and students to learn about the important concepts behind the web services paradigm and how it impacts the enterprise in general and how it affects traditional application, network and system management.

The emergence of Web services is transforming traditional enterprises. However, the industry hype surrounding these technologies obscures the understanding of their impact and implications to enterprises. Here the authors take the "big picture" perspective, offering a thorough understanding of the concepts behind Web service technologies: the challenges and opportunities they present, how they fit into the enterprise stack, how they relate to the business and IT layers of the enterprise, as well as the existing and emerging standards and their relevance. This professional reference is a guide for computing professionals, academics, students and researchers, helping them learn about the important concepts behind the Web services paradigm and its impact on the enterprise. In addition, the text instructs professionals, business managers and analysts on how to use Web services in the context of traditional application, system and network management.

E-Business covers a broad spectrum of businesses based on the Internet, including e-commerce, e-healthcare, e-government and e tailing. While substantial attention is being given to the planning and development of e-business applications, the efficiency and effectiveness of e-business systems will largely depend on management solutions. These management solutions demand a good grasp of both the technical and business perspectives of an e-business service. There have been many books on the Internet based on e-commerce, Internet protocols, distributed components etc. However, none of these books address the problem of managing e business as a set of networked services. They do not link enterprise management with network and systems management. This book provides an overview of the emerging techniques for IT service management from a business perspective with case studies from telecommunication and healthcare sectors. It integrates the business perspective with relevant technical standards, such as SNMP, WBEM and DMI. This book presents some concepts and methodologies that enable the development of effective and efficient management systems for networked services. The book is intended to familiarize practicing managers, engineers, and graduate level students with networked service management concepts, architectures and methodologies with reference to evolving standards. It should be useful in a number of disciplines, such as business management, information systems, computers and networking, and telecommunications. Appendix 2 is based on TeleManagement (TM) Forum's documents on TOM (GB921,GB910 and GB908). While this appendix has explained the basic management concept of an e-telco, TMForum now recommends the use of eTOM as explained in www.tmforum.com. An overview of eTOM is available in the report The TeleManagement Forum's enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) by Michael Kelly appearing in the Journal of Network and Systems Management in March 2003.

It is important to understand what came before and how to meld new products with legacy systems. Network managers need to understand the context and origins of the systems they are using. Programmers need an understanding of the reasons behind the interfaces they must satisfy and the relationship of the software they build to the whole network. And finally, sales representatives need to see the context into which their products must fit.

Active networking is an exciting new paradigm in digital networking that has the potential to revolutionize the manner in which communication takes place. It is an emerging technology, one in which new ideas are constantly being formulated and new topics of research are springing up even as this book is being written. This technology is very likely to appeal to a broad spectrum of users from academia and industry. Therefore, this book was written in a way that enables all these groups to understand the impact of active networking in their sphere of interest. Information services managers, network administrators, and e-commerce developers would like to know the potential benefits of the new technology to their businesses, networks, and applications. The book introduces the basic active networking paradigm and its potential impacts on the future of information handling in general and on communications in particular. This is useful for forward-looking businesses that wish to actively participate in the development of active networks and ensure a head start in the integration of the technology in their future products, be they applications or networks. Areas in which active networking is likely to make significant impact are identified, and the reader is pointed to any related ongoing research efforts in the area. The book also provides a deeper insight into the active networking model for students and researchers, who seek challenging topics that define or extend frontiers of the technology. It describes basic components of the model, explains some of the terms used by the active networking community, and provides the reader with taxonomy of the research being conducted at the time this book was written. Current efforts are classified based on typical research areas such as mobility, security, and management. The intent is to introduce the serious reader to the background regarding some of the models adopted by the community, to outline outstanding issues concerning active networking, and to provide a snapshot of the fast-changing landscape in active networking research. Management is a very important issue in active networks because of its open nature. The latter half of the book explains the architectural concepts of a model for managing active networks and the motivation for a reference model that addresses limitations of the current network management framework by leveraging the powerful features of active networking to develop an integrated framework. It also describes a novel application enabled by active network technology called the Active Virtual Network Management Prediction (AVNMP) algorithm. AVNMP is a pro-active management system; in other words, it provides the ability to solve a potential problem before it impacts the system by modeling network devices within the network itself and running that model ahead of real time.

Most everything in our experience requires management in some form or other: our gardens, our automobiles, our minds, our bodies, our love lives, our businesses, our forests, our countries, etc. Sometimes we don’t call it “management” per se. We seldom talk about managing our minds or automobiles. But if we think of management in terms of monitoring, maintaining, and cultivating with respect to some goal, then it makes sense. We certainly monitor an automobile, albeit unconsciously, to make sure that it doesn’t exhibit signs of trouble. And we certainly try to cultivate our minds. This book is about managing networks. That itself is not a new concept. We’ve been managing the networks that support our telephones for about 100 years, and we’ve been managing the networks that support our computers for about 20 years. What is new (and what motivated me to write this book) is the following: (i) the enormous advancements in networking technology as we transition th st from the 20 century to the 21 century, (ii) the increasing dependence of human activities on networking technology, and (iii) the commercialization of services that depend on networking technology (e.g., email and electronic commerce).