MSPs make sense...probably

Network management is getting tougher all the time. The continuing explosion of Net-based business communications is driving more traffic of more different types over increasingly complex enterprise infrastructures. And, since that traffic is more critical to the bottom line than ever, network managers have some serious work cut out for them.

Unfortunately, network management budgets are not increasing at a rate that’s proportional to the increase in the size of the challenge. And even if money weren’t the problem, staffing would be. There simply aren’t enough skilled people out there to solve your network management problems by throwing more bodies at them.

Now, the good news. The Net isn’t just making things harder for network managers. It’s also providing some new solutions. In particular, a new breed of vendor—now commonly referred to as a management services provider or MSP—is emerging. MSPs offer a variety of network management services over the very same Internet that’s causing all the problems in the first place. And some of them offer a pretty attractive value proposition.

MSPs are an outgrowth of the ASP (application service provider) phenomenon. ASPs are gaining favor with IT department as an inexpensive and convenient way to deploy applications. With an ASP, you “rent” software that’s being run on the ASP’s server and is delivered to you via the Net. As a result, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on software licenses, buy and install a server to run the software on, and then maintain the whole thing over time. Because ASPs can aggregate multiple “instances” of the application on their server farms—and because they can also aggregate the expertise required to run the software properly—they can often offer attractive pricing.

MSPs do something similar for network managers. They can deliver a wide variety of applications—including network performance monitoring and firewall management—on a pay-as-you-go basis. Unlike typical outsourcers or managed network vendors, MSPs don’t take over your entire operation. Instead, they enable you to “out-task” selected pieces of the pie. This can be very appealing to managers who are uncomfortable with putting their company’s fate into the hands of an outside organization.

Using an MSP doesn’t just offer network managers the ability to reduce software costs and staffing requirements. Network management tools are notoriously difficult to use and configure. Leveraging an MSP’s expertise in a particular toolset can help reduce the training strain on your technical staff. Also, by getting more mileage out of a particular tool or tools, MSPs can help network management teams reduce the total number of tools in active use. That’s another key factor in reducing the overall cost of network management.

Unlike most ASPs, some MSPs actually install a management server somewhere on your network. This allows them to work behind the firewall and gather the data they need without sucking up a lot of Net bandwidth. It also keeps the management app up and running, even if there’s a problem on an ISP backbone.

As appealing as MSPs may be, network managers should shop carefully. One important distinction between MSPs is how much access they give you to the management data that they generate. Ideally, you should be able to get browser-based access to all application screens. You may not want to use that access, since the whole idea is to make life easier for yourself, but it should be part of the agreement. Additionally, the MSP should create simplified online reports that give you the information you need to know what’s going on without requiring you to cut through all the “noise” yourself.

Alarm notification is another issue. Your MSP should use a system that allows your staff to be paged when there is a problem. This is particularly important in the age of 24x7 e-business. You may not want to put a second or third shift on to watch things over night, but your MSP can do that for you—and then page your technicians if a problem does happen to occur at 2 a.m.

Also, keep in mind that integration between management apps can be very important. The applications that you still run in house and the applications that you’re out-tasking to an MSP (or MSPs) need to be able to talk to each other. Otherwise, you’ll end up having to maintain data that management applications need (such as your network map) in several different locations. That’s a hassle. Your MSP should offer some type of integration facilities—most likely XML, since that is becoming the industry standard.

The concept behind MSPs is really nothing new. Systems integrators and carriers have been trying to crack the remote services market for about a decade now. But only in recent years has Net connectivity gotten to the point where it’s easy to provision such services on demand. And the first wave of ASP implementations has helped to promote market acceptance of over-the-Net offerings. Take a look at what the new generation of MSPs can do. You might discover that—when it comes to management stress—the Net giveth and the Net can taketh away.