Put More Value into your Network Where it Matters Most…

Are you worried about budget cuts in the IT department? These days, budget concerns are fairly common and many IT professionals, including myself, are coming up with ways to show value to their organization. Think about it- beyond email and Internet access, few individuals in the company really understand the complexity of a network and the need to have high-caliber individuals proactively monitoring and managing it.

It’s our responsibility to make that value tangible and put forward a simplified method of displaying the network and quantifying its performance. People understand dashboards very well and the right network display can help them visualize the value of network management in a way that makes sense. I would suggest projecting your network display in your company’s IT or NOC area. This will give decision makers something to show for their investments in IT and make a compelling case that much will be lost if budget cuts occur.

For example, this display (below) shows the status and topology of key resources and additional metrics (total bandwidth in/out network, alarm history, and response time to company sales website) regarding the company website. The availability of the company website and its effect on revenue is always a great reminder of the importance of network management.




Other example maps that I’ve seen that communicate tremendous value are those displaying the entire network connectivity for a specific business process. For example, your HR executive may want to see how the payroll, timecard, and HR intranet website are connected and how much bandwidth is being used by these servers. Making a business process that is critical to successful business operations more transparent is sure to turn some heads.