Extract from a white paper prepared for Statseeker (Capturing and
Managing the Details) by Enterprise Management Associates Inc.
The nature of network management creates a number of challenges and demands
on the infrastructure. From the extreme volume of data made available by
network elements, the challenges of moving that data to a central location,
to the difficulty of sifting through the sheer number of measurements
gathered, the complexity of today's network and the components that comprise
it introduce significant challenges to the process of monitoring, managing,
and operating the network infrastructure.
These challenges beg for either some combination of centralized focus with
selective metrics or a distributed solution to the distributed problems.
Those solutions may be a selection of distributed data collection, distributed
filtering and correlation, or distributed analytics. All of these approaches
provide some level of relief for the challenges of the data issues. In
addition, these distributed approaches can also enable some locality of
reference for setting thresholds, allowing for those thresholds to have
greater applicability.
Using baselines for tracking trends and setting thresholds will continue to
gather steam as organizations realize that current techniques fall short of
expectations. The ability to correlate metrics across multiple elements and
interfaces in the network will also continue to expand the capabilities of
analytical platforms. This combination of intelligent baselining with
well-focused data gathering and analysis, will help provide network operations
with the ability to see the entire forest first when looking for problems,
and to then quickly focus in on the trees - and the paths between them -
to understand the implications and necessary actions as a result.
Statseeker has developed an effective answer to the requirements for managing
and troubleshooting large, complex network infrastructures by focusing
data collection on a small set of well-understood metrics, developing
detailed analytics around those metrics, and providing effective
visualization tools to network operations and administration staff.
In addition to Statseeker's focus on effective data collection and
visualization for networks extended to very high numbers of network devices,
Statseeker has also created a system that can collect data from every port
in these extensive networks, providing visibility into problems and
potential issues that would normally not be seen. Interestingly, the
typical focus of network monitoring has been to avoid monitoring all ports,
since this creates a high volume of data without clear value. The question
has been, "Why would I monitor all of the ports?" The response of Statseeker
and its customers is, "Why wouldn't you?"
