NetW420: Enterprise Network Management
August 24, 2012
In order to understand network management effectiveness, factors called metrics have to be put into place that will impact the management bottom line. These metrics have been put into place in order to further gauge, not only the network effectiveness, but also the efficiency of the network. This paper will attempt to address some of these various metrics that are used to gauge network effectiveness and efficiency in meeting organizational goals.
According to the dictionary, effectiveness refers to the levels at which any organization realizes its goals through managing to accomplish set tasks, while efficiency is highly related to the magnitude of resources …show more content…
This metric is more than about measuring how much income the business brings in, it also measures other factors. These factors are important to the efficiency of the network due to the nature that poor management can lead to service level dissatisfaction, which is one of the primary causes of loss of customers. Other factors measured are the time it takes to fill a service order from the moment it was called in, causing services to be cancelled and, hence, revenue lost from customers canceling services before they were activated. There is also the issue with total penalties for service level agreement violations, reflecting total lost revenue are measureable metrics that affect the revenue the company brings in, (Clemm, 2007). These are but a few of the measureable administrative metrics, being covered next are the actual physical device management …show more content…
(Network Protection, 2010). These metrics cover a broad range of key factors to the survivability, reliability and availability of the network. Factors such as the percentage of time a network and its services are up are important factors to not only the reliability of the network, but also the availability. Availability is affected by two aspects, these aspects being Mean time between failures (MTBF) and Mean time to repair (MTTR). As shown by the graphic below, availability is affected by MTBF distinctively.
(Photo courtesy of Network Management Fundamentals Edition 1)
Metrics such as benchmarks are key as well, as they assist in the adjustment or modification of devices so that the actual management of devices can take less time, in turn, making the manager more productive. These metrics for complexity including measuring execution complexity, or the time it takes to do something; parameter complexity, the actual number of steps it takes to complete a task, and memory complexity, how much memory it requires to perform a task. All these are measureable metrics and can assist in determining ways to cut man hours on a project so that the manager is available for