MANAGEMENT PUSHES AHEAD, Clear uses new technology to speed network information to managers

A pair of new network management software suites will use Internet-based "push" technology to deliver network status reports to managers, a development that could dramatically hasten responses and improve network availability.

The suites, ClearMarbles and ClearCast from Clear Communications, will let carriers pull real-time information about their T-1, T-3 and Sonet-based fiber-optic links, and then broadcast customized network status reports to the desktops of managers and end users.

"These two products will give carriers the ability to compete more effectively by delivering an unprecedented level of customer service," said Bob Copithorne, president and chief executive officer of Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Clear. "They're going to provide a new way to respond quickly to head off network problems and live up to the terms of their service-level agreements.

The system's components work hand-in-hand to deliver information.

ClearMarbles is a software plug-in for standard Microsoft or Netscape browsers that lets network managers and customers access data on network performance from carriers' World Wide Web pages. Through the plug-in, the carrier's Web site recognizes the user's account and partitions the network data to display only the information pertinent to that user.

The ClearCast software allows carriers to push data from their Web pages to the customers and managers, effectively "broadcasting" a stream of real-time data that the user can customize.

The ability to channel information on potential problem sources and network alarms to network managers will change their jobs from detectives to their proper roles as technicians, some analysts say.

"The way things are today, with the complexity of networks, actively searching for problems is not something that's practical to do," said Dan Taylor, a senior analyst at the Boston-based Aberdeen Group. "The only other alternative is to wait for something to go wrong, and that's a less viable option as competition increases. With this system, managers identify what they want to look for, and the system steers them toward those problems before they happen.

While many other network management vendors offer Web interfaces, "managers and customers are still looking for a needle in a haystack" when it comes to finding problems, said Taylor. "We're also at a stage where the [Bell companies] are going to interconnect with each other and other networks, creating an order of magnitude increase in complexity. You need to bring a degree of automation to the task of managing this kind of a network environment.

By allowing users to set parameters, the system will also help carriers better focus on their customers' business cases. "The telephone companies are used to measuring everything and burying people under mountains of numbers," said Bart Stuck, president of Business Strategies, a Westport, Conn.-based market research firm.

ClearMarbles and ClearCast are "coming at a time when it's going to be critical that the carriers start listening to their customers and being proactive about management," he said.

The ability to provide customers with a customized view of the network will also help build business relationships, Taylor said.

"Instead of dropping reams of paper on someone's desk to prove that you've satisfied a service-level agreement, this software will allow you to show them that you're giving them what they paid for right now," he said.

The software suites will work to complement the Clearview Network Window family of management products, a family of surveillance software modules. The first three ClearMarbles software plug-ins will be demonstrated at Supercomm '97 in June.