Management must ensure that adequate resources are available to plan and operate Local Area Networks, Wide-Area Networks, Internet connectivity and telephone service. At the same time, management must take advantage of any opportunities to reduce network labor costs without negatively affecting performance and redeploy savings elsewhere. This note provides a framework for Network Managers to assess whether they have deployed the right number and type of resources to support network operations and administration. Topics include:
- The importance of service targets as a basis for assessing the quality of service delivery
- Staff allocation to network management in typical enterprises
- Aligning the skills and capacity to actual performance gaps
- Leveraging data center operators for network monitoring
- Use of outsourcing to extend capability at lower cost than in-house
- How to reduce the costs of 24-7 network operations
The note also describes how managers can improve the effectiveness of their group within the budget allocated.