Cisco Cisco Prime Infrastructure 1.3 White Paper
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Managing Networks Today:
Network Management Megatrends 2014 Research Highlights
Finding: Too Many Tools
How can you be effective at network management if you don’t know which tools to use or trust? EMA
investigated just how many tools are being actively used for network monitoring and troubleshooting.
Our results indicate that the majority of smaller shops (250 to 999 employees) use three to five
tools while the majority of medium organizations (1000 to 4999) use four to 10 tools. In large
organizations (5000+ employees), the majority use six or more, but a full quarter are using 16 or more
tools and 10% report more than 25 tools in use! More tools mean process inefficiencies since most
function independently and don’t share data directly. Also, each tool must be individually installed,
configured, and maintained. EMA recommends working toward tool consolidation and greater
integration wherever possible in order to reduce the time spent maintaining the tools and leave more
time for managing the network.
Finding: Look to Existing Tools to Manage SDN
Though software-defined networking (SDN) solutions are still evolving, the appeal of automated,
policy-compliant provisioning of network resources is a powerful draw, and EMA research confirms
very strong interest in the technology. While our research indicated that few organizations (<20%)
had reached actual deployment stage at the time of the study, over 50% of those surveyed were
either researching or evaluating SDN technologies, with the greatest portion of that group in the
evaluation stage. In short, SDN is rapidly maturing, finding initial successful uses, and on almost every
organization’s radar screen.
But how will these new technologies be monitored and managed? Our study results revealed that while
policy-compliant provisioning of network resources is a powerful draw, and EMA research confirms
very strong interest in the technology. While our research indicated that few organizations (<20%)
had reached actual deployment stage at the time of the study, over 50% of those surveyed were
either researching or evaluating SDN technologies, with the greatest portion of that group in the
evaluation stage. In short, SDN is rapidly maturing, finding initial successful uses, and on almost every
organization’s radar screen.
But how will these new technologies be monitored and managed? Our study results revealed that while
organizations as a whole (all stages of SDN adoption) were not certain if existing tools could do the job
or new tools would be needed, those with actual deployment experience (in pilot or production stage)
lean heavily towards existing management tools as the way to go. In some cases, existing tools will need
additional enhancements or modules that may or may not be fully available today, but in general this
sentiment indicates the desire and intent to prevent SDN from becoming yet another silo requiring its
own independent management tools stack. EMA recommends that networking pros make sure existing
network management tools are ready when/if SDN becomes part of their operating infrastructure.