Drive to e-business services highlights need for network management

In the e-business era, many organisations are re-engineering to offer revenue-producing services for customers. With this external focus, monitoring and evaluating network performance is critical.

"Whatever the focus and scale of the e-business, critical applications must always be available to provide 24x7 service," says Fred Engel, executive vice president of Concord Communications. The US-based company, represented locally by Dimension Data, provides solutions to maximise the performance and availability of the e-business infrastructure.

And, in line with its policy of using only best-of-breed products in its own service offerings, Dimension Data is also a Concord customer. The Group has standardised on Concord`s eHealth management solutions in all its GSOA-based operations centres. The sophisticated centres, which provide Dimension Data customers with 24x7x365 online services, are strategically located around the world.

"As businesses consume more networking equipment, using it not only to move traffic but also to offer services, revenues become more reliant on quality functioning of the network," says Engel, who visited South Africa recently as a guest of Dimension Data. "Businesses need tools to manage this new environment."

It is often only after the initial equipment investment that companies realise the need for applications to assist in managing the complexity.

"The demand for performance management tools tend to lag behind that for networking equipment," says Engel.

"However, we see a really robust market globally for the network management industry as businesses realise the requirement for performance management and reporting. Even though there are ebbs and flows - for example, in the US, the telecommunications companies are currently considering mergers and alliances and there has been a procurement freeze - this will change as the need to deliver measurable services increases."

Dimension Data has seen significant growth in the network management area and has been a top international Concord reseller through its acquisition of SNS, now part of Dimension Data Network Services.

Engel, here recently for the Concord Health SA User Group Conference, believes South Africa can be proud of its high level of technical skills and competency in the networking arena.

"I am very impressed by the level of skills," he says. "The networking people themselves attribute this to having had to cope on their own for many years because of their distance from the US, and the years of isolation. This certainly seems to have stood them in good stead. They are making excellent use of our products in South Africa."

Concord`s eHealth Suite offers an integrated solution combining real-time management with historical context across applications, systems and networks.

"Only by successfully detecting faults and managing performance and availability across all of these key areas can organisations truly ensure effective e-business," says Engel.

It is in this market space that Concord has made its mark world-wide. Last year, it boasted a 64 percent rise in revenue, which Engel attributes to the company`s customer-centric approach.

"We really listen to our customers," he says. "They are expanding their networks to cater for more systems and applications, and need tools to make management simpler. We will continue to grow by helping customers manage the complexity."

Concord recently acquired Empire, another product used within GSOA. According to Mike Maree, South African head of Dimension Data Global Services Empire is also being integrated into the GSOA to reside comfortably with other elements of the architecture, including MicroMuse, Netcool and Siebel. "We have now successfully rolled the application out in Frankfurt, Boston and Australia," says Maree. "South Africa will be next, followed by Singapore, New York and Sao Paulo."