But relinquishing some responsibilities doesn't mean that network managers are willing to give up total control of their networks. They still want service providers to deliver Web-based tools that can help them at least monitor performance in real time. "To be able to go anywhere and find out the status of my network via the Internet would be ideal," says one AT&T customer.

Service providers, though, are moving slowly in offering online monitoring tools. Companies such as AT&T, GTE, MCI WorldCom, Qwest LCI, and Sprint offer standard service-level agreements for nearly all of their data services. But they provide end-to-end customer network-monitoring services only for frame relay--and those services are only partially Web-based. AT&T, MCI WorldCom, and Sprint use the same Visual Networks Inc. solution to provide their frame relay monitoring services. And though the carriers claim to have dozens, if not hundreds, of satisfied customers of their frame relay monitoring services, only AT&T was able to name a reference customer.

The reality is that service providers, for the most part, haven't been proactive in developing monitoring services. Their customers have had to push them. In the mid-1990s before Visual Networks started partnering with service providers, the company sold its Visual UpTime system to enterprises as a way for them to keep tabs on service providers and make sure SLAs were being met. Sprint was the first of the Big Three carriers to start bundling the Visual UpTime solution with its frame relay service.

"Service providers are willing to write service-level agreements, but they don't want to have to make monitoring information instantly available to their customers," says Rich Ptak, a senior VP at Hurwitz Group "They don't want to give out real-time performance information because they want to have a chance to fix problems before notifying the customer."

Service providers deny the allegation that they don't want to share real-time data and say they're developing services to do so. So far, only a few offerings are available on the Web.

MCI WorldCom has developed a Web interface to its network-management systems. The interface, called Interact, is a free Web portal that lets voice and data customers order services and receive bills online. It also gives users a view of what's happening on their networks. The catch is that Interact doesn't monitor end to end--it shows only what's happening to a customer's traffic as it travels across MCI WorldCom's backbone. Eventually, MCI WorldCom will integrate Interact with software that will give customers an end-to-end view.

For companies looking to outsource development, implementation, and management of their data networks, a few service providers have been aggressive when it comes to Web-based tools. AT&T Solutions, GTE Network Services, and US West Interprise Networking Services all provide managed data services that are carrier-agnostic.

US West offers an online management service called PushCaster, which pulls together data from disparate network management systems in the users' WANs for a single, end-to-end view of a customer's network.

GTE Network Services, a division of GTE Corp., turned to Lucent Technologies' My Vital portal to give customers the ability to view what's happening on their networks via the Web.

BF Goodrich Aerospace, a user of GTE Network Services' managed services, is using My Vital to get a Web-based view of its private ATM network. "We needed 24-by-7 monitoring of our network, so we went with a managed service," says Bob Blankenship, manager of technology services for the aircraft tire supplier. BFGoodrich Aerospace handles aircraft maintenance at its facilities in Everett, Wash. The company runs an asynchronous transfer mode network linking three hangars and one office building. Because of Federal Aviation Administration requirements that maintenance and repair manuals be accessible at all times, BFGoodrich decided to look for a service provider that could proactively monitor its network and provide real-time views.

GTE Network Services supplied BFGoodrich with VitalSuite software as part of its service. The My Vital portal provides data collected mostly from network elements using the VitalSuite software, but it provides links to other management systems through the portal. To get access to the portal, BFGoodrich users simply log on and enter a user ID and password. "The fact that this is Web-based is a big advantage for us," Blankenship says. "It gives our technicians the ability to work from home at night."

Customers such as Blankenship are getting what they want from service providers, but many others aren't. They're limited to non-Web solutions that aren't accessible from anywhere. Service providers are not the only ones to blame for the lack of Web-based customer monitoring. Vendors aren't delivering the tools needed.

"A lot of the tools are junk, so the carriers are hamstrung," says Deb Mielke, president of Treillage Network Strategies. She points to the fact that AT&T, MCI WorldCom, and Sprint all use the Visual Networks solution for frame relay monitoring.

continued...page 2