network inventory and monitoring program

Although research firms such as Gartner Inc. and Forrester Research may conduct research on network inventory and monitoring program, their reports are generally focused on large corporations. For example, Forrester Research Inc. reported a study conducted with 430 senior information technology (IT) executives from large companies in the US and Europe. The study found that IT departments used management tools for specific areas (such as database management, network management, and server management), and the use of these tools created silos of information that made it difficult for the IT departments to cope with end-to-end network inventory and monitoring program. The study also found that 50 percent of IT problems related to application issues, such as poor performance, misconfiguration, and unpatched software (Saran, 2004). Although the findings of this study suggest common problem areas that network administrators should examine and analyze, the findings may not be applicable to medium to small businesses. In addition, the detail reports are usually beyond the reach of medium to small businesses due to their high costs. Gartner’s Network Management Model. Gartner, Inc. had developed a Gartner's Networking Maturity Model to enable network teams to identify shortcomings, to establish priorities, and to set goals for improvement (Pultz, 2005). This network maturity model describes network maturity in five phases: Chaotic, Reactive, Proactive, Managed, and Optimal as illustrated in Figure 1. In the initial, Chaotic phase, the network is undocumented. There is no procedure in place to guide employees’ actions when problems arise; only ad hoc approaches that are applied on an individual or case-by-case basis. The overall approach to management is disorganized. In the Reactive phase, processes have been developed to the stage where similar procedures are followed by different people undertaking the same task. There is no formal training or communication of standard procedures, and responsibility is left to the individual. Network administrators deal with networking problems after they had occurred. In the Proactive phase, procedures have been standardized, documented, and communicated through training. Network personnel sets thresholds on various parameters for the network management tools to send warnings to alert the personnel before network problems arise. In addition, network administrators record trends of network usage and proactively management the utilization.