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| Netcordia’s NetMRI 3.0 Introduces Impact Analysis to NCCM Netcordia's new flagship software solves the number-one challenge that undermines network performance and policy compliance – internal changes to the network, whether malicious or inadvertent – by giving network administrators a crystal-clear picture of every modification, and a 'hot' list of likely network problems they cause. Available now, NetMRI 3.0 answers the three critical questions that short-staffed IT departments worry about: • What is the impact of this change to our network? • Is our network compliant with policies and 'gold standards', and can we prove it? • Can we operate to our full potential with a limited head count? Netcordia's NetMRI 3.0 takes Network Configuration and Change Management (NCCM) capabilities one step further by providing multiple views of the network and every device connected to it, and then showing the impact of changes on interdependent network initiatives. New diagnostic capabilities outpace anything else on the market, highlighting the potential impact of even the smallest changes, which can wreak havoc in unexpected ways. Interconnected problems: economic climate adds to the mix Sixty-four per cent of network administrators identify internal causes for the greatest threats to network availability, according to a Netcordia survey of nearly 450 network professionals. Half of the group cited inadvertent changes as their biggest worry. The current economic climate only magnifies the anxiety; bare-bones IT teams are hard-pressed to manage the sprawl. Netcordia's survey also reveals how administrators plan to cope: more than half admitted they plan to work longer hours, focus on only mission-critical work and step up automation efforts. Mergers and acquisitions add to the challenge, with pressure for rapid integration, peak performance and fail-safe standardisation. At the same time, there are thousands of new devices to manage from many new vendors. Every device indirectly touches hundreds of other devices on the network. Configuration parameters by themselves may seem fine, until they are assessed in the context of the network and the configurations of their neighbours. The smallest conflict can cause distant devices to slow down, or go dark, sometimes weeks after the change is made. NetMRI specialises in proactively finding these problems before they escalate into crises. NetMRI 3.0 distils complex data into easy-to-interpret images and topology views. Each data point can be viewed in rich detail, set in context and analysed in three ways: • Timeline dashboard – to show changes over time and visually correlate network health and policy adherence, for faster root cause analysis. • Topology status views – to see exactly where in the network a change occurred, overlaying both health and policy compliance status, to correlate by topology location and dependence. • Network Explorer – providing ad-hoc analysis to identify common threads by device attributes, through a rich graphical interface. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Computing News :: home page |