InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
November 10, 1997
Cabletron Readies Spectrum Warehouse
Add-on aimed at helping users reduce network problems, monitor service levels
The data warehouse is expected to ship early next year and will be an add-on to Cabletron's Spectrum enterprise-management software. The warehouse will provide a place for users to collect and analyze raw management information from diverse sources, including systems-management tools from other vendors, WAN links, and SNMP-based network devices.
The announcement will also include data mining tools from Cabletron and other vendors that will sift through data in the warehouse to identify cause-and-effect links between network events and problems. Users will also be able to analyze the historical i
nformation to perform network modeling and capacity planning.
Big Step
Bryan Ruhf, manager of the consolidated network operations center for the state of Michigan, says he's interested in the technology. "Cabletron is taking the data, making it available, and saving it in one place," he says. "With this type of technology, I can hire a rookie."
Cabletron will be joined in the announcement by network-management tool vendors such as Optimal Networks, as well as by providers of specialized data mining tools, including GK Intelligent Systems, Syllogic, and Thinking Machines. By collecting and analyzing a b
road range of management information, the data warehouse and tools will help customers set up and maintain service-level agreements, and set up business process models of the enterprise, Cabletron says.
Though analysts say Cabletron is offering something genuinely new, not everyone believes the products will deliver big benefits. "The onus is still right back on the user to figure out what to do with all the information in the warehouse," says Jim Metzler, VP of consulting services at Strategic Networks in Boston. "This could be technology for technology's sake."
abletron Systems Inc. will unveil an enterprise-management data warehouse and data mining tools next week aimed at helping users reduce network problems, perform capacity planning, and monitor service levels.
Analysts say Cabletron's new products are a step forward in enterprise management, providing capabilities that even bigger rivals such as Computer Associates and IBM's Tivoli Systems unit haven't delivered. "This is a significant announcement," says Richard Sturm, principal at the Enterprise Management Institute Inc. in Boulder, Colo. "Nobody else is doing anything this comprehensive."
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