Information overload

IP networks have forced carriers to pursue new packaged network reporting tools. Until recently, these products were viewed as appropriate for enterprises, but carriers rarely deemed them ready - or necessary - for prime time. Slowly, these tools are crossing over into ISPs and into data competitive local exchange carriers because their customers are requesting useful performance reports.

Opticom is one of the new entrants in this field that has hopes to move up to carrier class. Founded in 1997, the company is releasing the second version of its Executive Information System, which provides network operators with automated, business-oriented, network reporting tools. EIS gives network operators five views of the network: ServiceView, CapacityView, AvailabilityView, AssetView and Y2KView.

ServiceView provides reports that reveal service metrics such as whether the carrier it meeting its service level agreements (SLAs) and the number of users who will be affected by a network event. Reports within CapacityView show different levels of bandwidth used by individual ports or in total. The third set of reports, AvailabilityView, reveals how a carrier's wholesale provider is performing and can be used to test SLAs. AssetView, the fourth set, keeps an accurate log of the equipment on the network. When equipment needs to be upgraded, AssetView provides alerts. The last network view, Y2KView, provides Y2K compliance requirements and non-compliant devices. These reports show which devices on the network must be upgraded or replaced because of problems involving Y2K.

"The suite is designed to be one cohesive, correlated system that ties all the information together rather than requiring a service provider to use six different products," said Peter Cruz, EIS product manager at Opticom. "We have an architecture that can roll up data from a number of different systems, consolidate it and provide multiple reports."

Opticom has built EIS with an open architecture that has multiple application programming interfaces, which gather data from existing management products. "One of the key demands from our installed base was that they wanted to build on their existing infrastructure," said Anne Brazao, vice president of marketing at Opticom. "Unlike point products that recollect data, we don't poll the network. We massage and roll the raw data up into meaningful reports."

Four-year-old Vitts Networks is an early adopter of EIS. The Manchester, N.H.-based data CLEC provides managed services for hospitals, schools, law firms and other small businesses in New England, New York and New Jersey. Vitts uses Cabletron Systems' Spectrum to track and manage its network. Spectrum gathers data from the Vitts network and pours it into EIS, which then reformats it into useful data for management and technical teams that need an overall view of network performance.

"Before EIS, the technical team gathered the data, then had to translate it for the less technical people," said Chris Oliver, chairman and CEO of Vitts. "Now, the information is readily available, and we can look at it on a historical basis or for predictive analysis. It gives us an easy way to gather service capabilities based on a technology segment or a geographic segment."

The two main features that Oliver and his team use are the service level monitoring and customer usage reporting. Reports within the ServiceView help Vitts maintain its SLA commitments to its customers. Vitts uses CapacityView reports to analyze current customer usage, which then is used to make network growth predictions.

"We're growing rapidly, as is our customer connection rate," Oliver said. "We want to always be able to meet our customers' bandwidth needs. We don't have to probe the system constantly, and it proactively reports what you will need to meet future growth. This analysis is critical to maintaining our aggressive growth schedule."