Network Design

Network Administration

In today's world, where all the computing revolves around the concept of networking, the work for system administrators has become more and more overwhelming. It is the mission of maintaining the availability of resources such as routers, hubs, servers and every critical device in the network.

There are many reasons managers would like to monitor network devices: bandwidth utilization, operational state of links, bottlenecks, problems with the cabling or routing information distributed between its devices, etc. Monitoring network activity is also a good starting point for discovering security problems and misbehaviors.

In many cases, the network of an organization includes expensive links to remote networks (WAN) or the Internet, whose costs may be based on traffic volume. It's very important to maintain statistics of traffic going through these links.

Other types of links, like Point to Point or Frame Relay, are usually charged on a flat rate. In these, the telco ensures a bandwidth that is important to monitor.

The standards and practices described here are the standarized tooling needed for mass customization within IT. This tooling enables:

• Scalable, flexible, and rapid deployments and changes


• Cost effective, timely return on IT investment


• Low labor headcount


• Secure, trustworthy computing environments


• Reliable enterprise infrastructures

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