FINALLY A RETURN ON INVESTMENT

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1 FINALLY A RETURN ON INVESTMENT Add The Elusive 9 To 99.99x% Uptime A Computone Corporation Discussion Paper

2 THE NEED FOR CONSOLE MANAGEMENT SERVERS As the Internet economy continues to raise expectations and requirements for computing services, information technology is being transformed from enabling technology to a strategic component of the business process. As a result, IT resources have become essential to business goals, driving companies to operate and manage with a focus on availability and uptime. At the same time, the growing gap between demand and supply of skilled IT staff, the addition of distributed servers, and the increase in standards and compatibility issues, all create a formidable challenge for the administrative staff who are responsible for system operations. Even at a basic level, monitoring and repairing the most common system problems have become too time-consuming, complex and costly for most IT departments to manage. While maintaining optimal availability is the system administrator s primary mission, most administrators do not get the kind of assistance they need from management tools to effectively prevent or respond to availability lapses. It is often the case where management has spent the money for tools, but the tools did not totally solve the problems. A plethora of management tools have been created to address the issues associated with availability. Millions have been spent in acquiring the latest tools in pursuit of the extra 9 in 99.99x% uptime. For a variety of reasons, these expensive tools have failed to deliver on their promise. It may not be the tool, but rather the additional expense of implementation that causes the problem. Executive surveys have consistently shown that systems and network management has been among the top five concerns for the past four or five years, said Ray Paquet of Gartner Group. While executives can be convinced to pay top dollar for management software, they usually are not as accommodating when it comes to funding the planning and implementation stages. The first elements for implementation of network infrastructure management software are monitoring and reporting to a network operating center (NOC). The installation of agents to proficiently administer the network infrastructure is one of the final elements of installation that rarely gets accomplished. Available tools are from many disciplines such as network management, systems management, storage management or device management. The tools do a good job of reporting issues, but do little to actually correct the problems because either the tools are difficult to use or implementation is not fully funded (refer to Diagram 1). The hard to find skilled technician must still relocate to a device to troubleshoot and correct the problem. The result is added direct cost, plus loss of critical productivity and added downtime. 2

3 DIAGRAM 1 NETWORK CONNECTION USING MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE THE STAKES ARE HIGH Infonetics Research recently reported in a study of Fortune 500 companies that network downtime for the average company with a well-run network infrastructure caused a loss of 3.9 million dollars in revenue and productivity loss. For financial or brokerage firms, the cost would be ten times that figure (refer to Diagram 2). From a Forrester report on Nonstop ecommerce additional nines cost millions of dollars. Many companies are playing catch up just to reach an acceptable level of availability. Highly structured production environments with multiple tiers, several geographic locations, and hundreds of servers uncover staffing issues as firms try to find the skilled people to build, operate and maintain these sites. For those companies without efficient network infrastructure, the cost of downtime is astronomical. Today, employees cannot function without access to verbal communications and electronic availability of information. Scott McNealy from Sun Microsystems calls the requirement for reliable access to electronic information web tone, which is the availability of the information assets of the company. 3

4 DIAGRAM 2 - THE PROHIBITIVE COST OF DOWNTIME INDUSTRY ACTIVITY AVG. COST PER HOUR Finance Brokerage Operations $6,450,000 Credit Card Sales Authorization $2,600,000 ATM fees $ 14,500 Media Pay Per View $ 150,000 Retail Home Shopping Catalog Sales $ 113,000 Communications Internet Service Provider (ISP) $ 90,000 Transportation Airline Reservations $ 89,500 Media Telephone Ticket Sales $ 69,500 Transportation Package Shipping (Courier) $ 28,000 Source: Computer Economics of Carlsbad, CA. THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT What if there was a way to augment current management tools with the ability to take action on problem information displayed without putting an agent on each device? What if there was a way to troubleshoot and administer devices as the console of the device from anywhere inside or outside the network infrastructure? This missing piece of the management puzzle is Console Management servers with remote and out-of-band capabilities. Deployment of this technology will both augment the reporting functions of existing management solutions, as well as provide the remote access to the console of devices needed to perform administrative actions. The console port is a stable means to manage a device under any circumstances, but requiring proximity to the device. The alarm sounds in a data center and the crash cart is dispatched to a device to plug into the console port. From this connection to the console port the network manager is provided access to those commands that completely control the device (refer to Diagram 3). From this connection to the console port, virtually any diagnostic routine can be initiated. Through the console port connection, diagnostics such as error messages and a history of the last actions and their results can be obtained. Actions can also be initiated from the console port connection such as the repartitioning of a system disk, reconfiguring the system kernel, adding functions to a router, or simply resetting the device to take advantage of changed settings. Accessing a device s console port by an out-of-band dial up connection ensures that the network manager can manage that device remotely under any conditions. This fact is very important when one considers the impact of a router or a switch losing connectivity when such a failure can result in the entire failure of network segments. A trip to a remote site to reset a router can be quite costly. 4

5 DIAGRAM 3 NETWORK CONNECTION USING CONSOLE MANAGEMENT HOW CONSOLE MANAGEMENT WORKS Providing individual remote dial-in access to the console port of each device in the network infrastructure including servers, storage, switches, routers, power supplies, etc., is both cost prohibited as well as a security risk. The best alternative is the use of a console management server with remote and out-of-band capabilities. This server is a device that allows many serial console ports to be connected to a single server device. When the server is attached to the network, administrators have the added benefit of a console port for dial-in access while the network is not available. When the network is available (in-band), the console management server allows simple connections via telnet or secure shell (ssh ) direct to the console port of a device, providing the network manager with a direct interface to that device. When the failing device is perhaps a switch or a router and network access to the console management server is not possible, the console management server provides dial-in connectivity to the multiple consoles providing for reconfiguring or simply rebooting devices to return to operation. With the console management server, virtually any condition that occurs can be diagnosed and potentially resolved from a remote connection either through the network (in-band) or via dial-in (out-of-band). There is more to the console management server. There is an additional set of network management aides to help simplify the diagnosis of problems with the network infrastructure as well as aid in the rapid correction of the problem insuring maximum uptime. Non-connect port buffering is a feature that allows the message traffic to and from a devices console port is trapped and stored for later access. Even while the network manager is not connected to the port this history is still maintained. If a device 5

6 then reports a problem, the console messages surrounding the situation can then be viewed and used in the troubleshooting efforts. At the most basic level, menu guide use of command lines provides the experienced network manager with help, but little interference. At the higher level, a fully interactive graphical user interface can guide the actions as well as showing status of all of the console management devices available through the network. Security is a primary concern especially for devices that allow access to console ports. In addition to controls and encryption methods, there are a variety of security choices for authentication to console management devices that can be invoked. The console messages can be redirected to a syslog to be later captured by a network management agent or can be filtered through a series of traps and triggers for select communication with other management applications. A VIABLE CONSOLE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION By managing devices directly through the consoles, the console management server provides a cost effective means of managing network infrastructure. There is no need to purchase vendor specific software for managing devices. Money can be spent for best of breed solutions rather than be allocated for a vendor specific solution. There is not a major learning curve associated with Console Management. Bringing the network manager directly to the console of the device requires only the knowledge of the connected device and not anther interface. With a console management server, all diagnostics happen remotely from the device so the best expert on the device can be used without expensive travel and wasted time. For some areas of network infrastructure, the Console Management Server is the total solution. For other areas of network infrastructure or data centers in large organizations, it is a simple and cost effective add-on to the existing management tools that is effortless to implement and makes the other tools more successful. The ability to troubleshoot and administer devices directly through their console port from anywhere adds capabilities to network managers making them more effective and efficient. This combination adds 9 s to up time without millions of dollars in investment and makes the management tools payoff with actions and results. With the addition of Console Management Servers, there is finally a return on investment to company executives. For more information on the Computone Console Management Solution, visit our web site at Windward Ridge Parkway Suite 100 Alpharetta, GA Phone: (800) or (770) Fax: (770) sales@computone.com URL: 6