In eleven pages this paper examines 6 network management products' test results that determined in terms of price and function InfraTools Network Discovery scored the highest. Eight sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: CC6_KSnetMgmt.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
the point that even IBM and the former Northern Telecom announced they would be focusing exclusively on Internet and networking applications and hardware, promises of automated network management abounded.
They were greatly numerous in the last half of the 1990s, and nearly all were overwhelmingly disappointing. Boardman (2001) says those older tools were so useful that today, "Mention
network-management platforms to seasoned administrators, and theyre apt to look at you funny and say, Been there, done that, so dont waste my time" (p. 115).
Problems with those former products included not possibly being able to deliver what was promised. Todays vendors may also promise total control from a single console,
but the promise seems to be a matter of habit rather than a reflection on anyones part that it could be fact. The difference today is that some of
these products have come to be quite useful and network administrators are beginning to be willing to look at them once more.
New Perspective Boardman (2001) reports that the network management products of the past were "bottomless money pits, and enterprises stayed away in droves.
Well, guess what? Times have changed. New players, new products and new approaches are making a difference. The question is, is it too little too late, or can one of
these products actually help run your network?" (p. 115). To answer that question, Network Computing evaluated six such products, determining that some of
them could be quite useful some of the time. As a class, these tools still are rather disappointing but do at least offer promise now that was not present