InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

Some IT managers who are using non-Web frame relay monitoring services, which range from about $15 to $35 a month per circuit, say the tools are useful.

One large manufacturer of medical instruments, which asked not to be named, has been using AT&T's Frame Relay Plus service for about a year to keep tabs on a 15-site North American frame relay network. Using Frame Relay Plus, the company is able to measure throughput and delay on its permanent virtual circuits. The service, which provides real-time information that's updated every 15 seconds and historical performance data, also lets the company look at bandwidth utilization and access-line quality.

"I use the service to verify my SLAs," says a network manager for the manufacturer. "It's very helpful for that purpose." He adds that he likes the fact that he's not the only person keeping an eye on his network. "AT&T has a network operations center that monitors my circuits too, so I get notification from them when a circuit is down," he says. "I won't say they're as accurate as I am when I'm watching my screen, but they do notify me of problems in a timely manner."

But even though the company is generally pleased with the AT&T monitoring service (which uses Visual Networks' software), it doesn't rely solely on the service. It also uses its own monitoring tools from NetScout Systems Inc. as a backup to the

AT&T-Visual offering. "If your network is vital to your business--and ours is--you need as many eyes watching it as you can get," he says.

Although the advantages of Web-based customer network monitoring are obvious, there are also some drawbacks. Web services aren't as secure as a solution as Visual UpTime.

"Any time you open any system to the Web, you're running a significant security risk," says Shannon Lake, founder of Omnivergent Communications Inc., a startup that aims to help service providers bring their operations support systems and network-management systems to the Web. "There's always a chance someone could get in through the front end and destroy the back end."

That's less of a concern with Visual UpTime because the network is closed. A special client, installed on a network manager's workstation, accesses performance data from a server inside the service provider's network operations center through a low-speed circuit paid for by the service provider. That server collects data from the Visual Networks' channel service units/data service units on the customer's site. "We use a closed-network approach because we're concerned about security," says Rebecca Lewis, manager of service management at MCI WorldCom.

MCI WorldCom solved the security dilemma for its Interact service by using Secure Sockets Layer encryption to encrypt the data traveling between the MCI WorldCom server and the customer. A firewall protects the MCI WorldCom server, and every user is required to enter a user ID and password for authentication. US West handles security for its Web portal in much the same way.

Broadwing Communications Inc., which plans to launch a customer-care portal this summer, is in the process of setting up firewalls and mirrored server sites where it can host duplicated customer network data.

"I don't mind pushing reports on a static basis to a Web server and giving customers access to it," says Jamey Heinze, director of ATM and frame relay product development at Broadwing. "But I'm reluctant to let customers hit my production server. It's just too scary these days."

Once Visual Networks ports its solution to a Web environment, MCI WorldCom will integrate CircuitView with Interact, Lewis says. But it's unclear when that will happen. Visual Networks won't say when it will be ready with an online version of the Visual UpTime solution.

"We have an active project underway to migrate to a browser-based solution," says Peter Luff, director of product marketing for Visual Networks. But preserving all of Visual UpTime's feature richness and maintaining security while porting the system to a Web environment is a difficult and time-consuming process, he says.

Ultimately, service providers know they'll have to find ways to give all of their customers online access to their networks and accounts. It's what customers want, so service providers will have to deliver or risk losing business. "Finally everything will have to be Web-based--including your toaster," Heinze says. "We know that's what customers want and expect."

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