Network management and systems integration company, AccessTel, will showcase solutions for the total management of converged network environments at GSM Africa 2005. The event takes place at the Cape Town Convention Centre from 30 November to 1 December.
AccessTel Managing Director, Harry Lombard, says the effective management of a converged infrastructure can alleviate much of the pressure on organisations to make better use of their existing resources while growing and improving services and keeping costs in check.
"Organisations constantly have to expand their networks, but also have to ensure continued business growth and still meet customer expectation for improved quality of service. But, they have to do more with fewer resources to minimise the impact on the bottom line."
Lombard says that in the past, organisations tended to roll-out different solutions to manage the various components of their infrastructure, such as for access control, power, facilities management, security and servers. AccessTel will highlight the Applied Innovation product set at GSM 2005, which addresses the requirement for full remote site visibility and management of all components of an organisation`s network infrastructure from a single, cost-effective, IP-based platform.
The system enables intelligent mediation of alarms and their correlation, and ensures consolidated information can be transported to the management platform of an organisation`s choosing.
"Successful remote management and maintenance of the total infrastructure is a determining factor in the number and cost of available resources," says Lombard.
The requirement for converged network management solutions in the GSM environment is also growing significantly, with different pillars in the organisation becoming more directly involved, Lombard says. "Convergence not only introduces the need for managing technology complexity, but also for complete visibility into cost and operations, such as customer service level issues, for example.
"Typically, GSM networks are large and widely dispersed. Simply keeping the network alive is a challenge in itself, with a multitude of components, such as power sources, stand-by batteries and air conditioning responsible for uninterrupted operation. Remote site visibility of all these components will ensure you don`t find out the network is down only when your customers complain," he says. This is particularly significant in Africa, where skilled resources are scarce and distances between branch offices can be vast.
As part of its focus at GSM 2005, AccessTel will also highlight the critical role security plays in the effective remote management of converged infrastructures.
"Knowing who is in your site, and what they are doing on your network is not only vital to operations, but also critical to ensure overall information security," Lombard says.
TCAM, an IP address management tool by Parabola IP, a Canadian company represented by AccessTel, will also be on display. With the explosion in the number of IP addresses, particularly as 3G and similar services start making an impact on converged networks, Lombard says IP address management can become a cumbersome process.
"Many companies are using spreadsheets or an Access database, which is not ideal when this calls for skilled data network planners. TCAM circumvents this process by making IP address planning manageable by the core systems administration team."
The company`s full product and solutions portfolio will be presented at GSM 2005. Visit AccessTel at stand C13.
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