A variety of Network Management System (NMS) solutions are installed in network operation centers (NOCs) throughout the world. Their primary role is to ensure the ongoing, reliable delivery and performance of enterprise business applications. Some environments are considered good, some are bad, and some are just plain ugly. The objective of this research note is to help IT and C-level executives to classify and validate the performance of their NMS environment. In addition, the following areas are discussed:
- The results of an informal survey to a group of eighty mid-sized enterprises spending between $200K and $250K annually on their NMS environment.
- A criterion to identify the good, the bad, and the ugly NMS environments.
- Recommendations for IT and C-level executives to evaluate NMS environments.
- Examples of some easy-to-use tools that classify and measure NMS effectiveness.
IT and C-level executives must make the performance level of their NMS environment a priority and spend money wisely to maintain NMS reliability and ensure user satisfaction.